The American experiment began two and a half centuries ago with the adamant claim that no man has the inherent right to occupy any given political office. As Thomas Jefferson asserted in The Declaration of Independence, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
When officials throughout American history have lost that consent, the governed have indeed let them know.
Here are four politicians who betrayed their voters — and paid dearly for it.
George H.W. Bush — No New Taxes
In his keynote address at the 1988 Republican National Convention, George H. W. Bush vowed that the American people would not need to fork over more of their hard-earned savings to fund the federal government. That promise would come back to haunt Bush as he sought reelection four years later.
“And I’m the one who will not raise taxes,” As Bush declared in 1988.
“My opponent now says he’ll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that’s one resort he’ll be checking into. My opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again.”
Then, the famous last words. “Read my lips: No new taxes.”
Though the promise brought Bush a resounding victory over Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis — who the Republicans painted as a tax-and-spend liberal — Bush was forced to handle massive budget deficits by compromising with the Democrat-controlled Congress to increase taxes in 1990.
The “no new taxes” line contributed to President Bill Clinton’s victory in the election of 1992 — and forever changed the direction of Republican politics.
Newt Gingrich, a congressman who led an unsuccessful revolt against Bush’s budget deal, ascended to Speaker of the House in 1994. In fear of repeating Bush’s mistake, Republicans rushed to sign Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge opposing increases in marginal tax rates. Republicans triggered multiple government shutdowns in the 1990s rather than increasing taxes, and President George W. Bush sought to cut taxes despite launching two new foreign wars. Nearly three decades later, President Donald Trump made tax cuts the keystone of his legislative agenda.
Jeff Flake — No Man’s Land
Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake lost nearly all support from Republicans after he doubled down on his Never Trumpism.
After Trump entered the White House in January 2017, Flake made repeated overtures to decorum and democratic norms — a zeitgeist we would call “No Mean Tweets” in the Biden era.
“So, where should Republicans go from here? First, we shouldn’t hesitate to speak out if the president ‘plays to the base’ in ways that damage the Republican Party’s ability to grow and speak to a larger audience,” Flake wrote in his 2017 book. “Second, Republicans need to take the long view when it comes to issues like free trade: Populist and protectionist policies might play well in the short term, but they handicap the country in the long term. Third, Republicans need to stand up for institutions and prerogatives, like the Senate filibuster, that have served us well for more than two centuries.”
By August 2017 — months before his reelection campaign was slated to begin — Flake had an abysmal 18% approval rating in one poll. Although he lost Republican support, he would by no means win the favor of Democrats unless he began voting for progressive policies. In October 2017, Flake declared that he would no longer seek reelection — because “There may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party.”
“Here’s the bottom line: The path that I would have to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I’m not willing to take, and that I can’t in good conscience take,” Flake said. “It would require me to believe in positions I don’t hold on such issues as trade and immigration and it would require me to condone behavior that I cannot condone.”
Flake, however, did not stick to his allegedly principled conservatism in the subsequent years. During the election of 2020, Flake endorsed Biden — who promised to be “the most progressive president in history” — in his contest for the White House.
“So I think if you look at his record, and what he’s been all about for so many years, he’s a creature of the Senate. He knows how to compromise. He knows how to work across the aisle, and I’m confident he’ll do that in the future,” Flake erroneously predicted.
Blanche Lincoln — Healthcare Arrogance
Former Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat, betrayed her conservative state by backing key portions of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.
In July 2009, Lincoln endorsed the “public option” — an aspect of Obamacare that would have established a government-run health insurance company to compete with private insurers. The provision, which Lincoln later qualified her position on, was pulled from the final Obamacare package — but not before it would decimate Arkansas Democrats’ congressional delegation.
“Emerging from behind closed doors, members of Congress parachuted into their home states and expected to be applauded for their bold vision and sweeping reform, and that their constituents would understand that they knew what was good for them and would be grateful — once it had all been properly explained,” Chris Battle described in a 2010 opinion piece. “Instead they were heckled. They were met with angry protest. Their constituents asked rude questions in town hall meetings. And they reacted with a party-wide nervous breakdown.”
Lincoln — who had served in Congress since 1993 — was sent home by voters in 2010. Dozens of other Democrats across America suffered the same fate.
Joe Biden — A Bad Dude
President Joe Biden has not yet concluded his first term in office. Voters picked him to be a boring, uneventful leader — yet his failed leftist agenda has caused many Americans to reject him wholeheartedly.
Voters appeared to elect Biden and send him to Washington with a functionally divided Congress in the hopes that the two parties would pursue compromise rather than radicalism. Nevertheless, Biden’s policies — including multitrillion-dollar stimulus packages, support of abortion and LGBTQ ideology, vaccine mandates, willingness to demonize parents pursuing educational alternatives for their children, and botched attempts to launch a “Disinformation Governance Board” — prove that Biden is far from a benevolent compromiser.
Americans, it seems, have reacted accordingly.
During Biden’s fifth quarter in office, an abysmally low 41.3% of American adults “approved of the job he was doing as president,” according to Gallup. “The latest average is essentially unchanged from the 41.7% in his fourth quarter but significantly lower than his first three quarterly averages.”
Gallup noted that the dismal polling in recent months followed “a trying late summer and early fall 2021” — especially the botched Afghanistan withdrawal and surging inflation. With the exception of President Donald Trump, no former commander-in-chief in modern history has performed worse in the fifth quarter of his administration than Biden.
In the 2022 midterms — and the 2024 election — Biden may be poised to reap what he sowed.