A mandate: You work for us

As giddy as the Republican were a week ago after taking the U.S. Senate and adding seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Grand Old Party must take a long breath, sit down in the rocking chair and reflect exactly what voters said with their ballots.

Yes, many voters indicated they wanted change and grew tired of Hope and Change from the present administration. The next Hope and Change mantra is for both the Senate and House to end gridlock and pass legislation that will benefit Americans. Too many bills passed by the House, for example, were left in a vacuum while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada kept them away from his fellow senators.

If Reid can learn anything from this election, the party in power can easily be voted out if it pushes an agenda the American people don’t like.

Hopefully, the Republicans learned their lesson from 2006 when the Democrats took both the Senate and House after the electorate showed disapproval with the Bush White House.

We have heard, however, the same after-election talk of bipartisanship. It never happens, though.

We expect lawmakers to begin seeking common ground and work toward passing legislation. Voters are tired of the political grandstanding of politicians, who continue to make a bigger name for themselves to lay the groundwork for a presidential run than putting the country above their own interests.

A majority of Americans are tired of a president who is reluctant to work across the aisle and sticks his head in the ground like an ostrich. It may be time for President Obama to rip a page out of the Bill Clinton playbook that dealt with working with the other party after the Democrats suffered setbacks in the 1990s.

Another strong repudiation of the Democrats occurred in Silver State whereby Nevadans voted for Republicans to occupy every state constitutional office and to have the majority in both the Assembly and Senate.

Change that may be good for Washington may also be good for Nevada.

As President Kennedy said: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

Let’s see how the minority in government is supposed to behave, and let us honor the votes of the people.

Editorials written by the LVN Editorial Board appear on Wednesdays.