It was a historic election. The public rallied and came out to replace the man the public felt had betrayed them.

Here came a candidate promising real hope. The candidate promised real change. The candidate promised that he would not make the mistakes of the past. He’d be no George W. Bush. He’d be honest. He’d fight for what was right. He’d put the middle class ahead of powerful special interests.

He promised to roll back the clock on a Washington that had grown too out of touch and too corrupt to unite the land and stimulate the economy.

So the voters went into the ballot box in 2010 and elected that candidate. In 2012, the voters went back to the polls and voted for him again. Of course I’m not talking about Barack Obama. I’m talking about your local “tea party” Republican.

He is in Washington now, on his second term. He told you all along he was going to roll back Obamacare. He would do what it took. He understood that the Democrats were willing to risk their majority to pass Obamacare so Republicans must be willing to risk their majority to repeal Obamacare. They must go to the mat. They must pull out all the stops. They must do anything and everything to stop Obamacare.

Now, on the eve of the exchanges, Republicans in Washington refuse to fight. They want another symbolic vote. They want to hug it out. They want you to know how very much they oppose Obamacare, but by God please don’t make them fight it. The government might shut down. They would get the blame.

Of course they will always get the blame. They don’t realize what is going on. The media is solidly lined up against them. The media is always lined up against them. It is the voters that matter. And the voters like winners. So they must win. They must, even in the face of a shutdown, hold the line and defund Obamacare.

Unless they do this — unless they are willing to fall into the abyss and stay there until the other side folds — we lose. The nation loses. Obamacare begins.

The candidate disappoints. He may be inspiring a third party and not even know it. The odds are that he is. And for toying with his voters, for telling them what they want to hear and not telling them how attached he is now to title and position and his fear of losing it at the ballot box, he will deserve defeat — even by the Democrats. At least they’re honest about their end game.

We should not want Democrats to beat Republicans. But then we should not want our Republican leaders to lie to us either and work against us behind closed doors.