Daniel Horowitz tweets nine "top excuses" the GOP uses "when they have to pretend to do something the base and American people want, while not actually doing it because it would upset their donors and friends."

The following paragraphs contain the truncated portion of Horowitz's tweet.

3. "We don't have the votes"

4. "Be patient, we are working on it for next (session, year, term)."

5. "Optics"

6. "Mission Accomplished" (we already solved the problem, stop complaining)

7. We can't risk a government shutdown

8. We can't risk default

9. "We'll fight the next time.  You'll see."

When Republicans talk a good campaign, and then do not work toward the principles outlined in the campaigning, the conclusion that can be drawn is that the campaign rhetoric was not serious.

There is a threefold result when Republicans who run for office fail to follow through on governing toward the principles on which they campaigned. First, it renders less valuable the electoral choice of voters who elected them. Second, it diminishes the Republican Party as a whole because there becomes less overall credibility to Republicans doing what they campaigned on doing. Third, and perhaps most practically, it allows problems, things voters send Republicans to Washington, D.C. to work toward fixing, to continue, furthering, in some cases, already out-of-control situations.

Campaign pledges are, in most cases, not going to be accomplished all the way down to the letter detail, a truth that reasonable people understand. But there are things that can be done to actually and effectively move in the right direction on major issues. That is where there can and must be scrutiny of what such officeholders have done.