What do you get when you take a 24-year incumbent as House speaker leading a band of politicians more worried about their number of Twitter followers and media appearances than standing on principle, and add a vocal, empowered electorate? The 114th Congress.

On Nov. 4, 2014, American voters from East Coast to West soundly rejected the policies of a dysfunctional Barack Obama and the concrete wall of the Democrat Senate.

The calendar then flipped to December when lame-duck lawmakers passed the “CRominbus” spending bill (part continuing resolution, part omnibus), which funded ObamaCare and gave limited funding to Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty.

While voters demanded stronger opposition to both ObamaCare and amnesty, politicians only made more promises to fix things in the upcoming session of Congress.

Then, on Jan. 4, John Boehner won his third term as speaker, though just barely, as 25 Republican dissenters cast their ballots against him. The GOP then spent the ensuing days having a “family discussion” about the party’s future.

Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee, vented his irritation with conservatives fed up with the empty promises made to the base of the Republican Party: “The onslaught … has taken a number of members by storm. Their district offices, their Capitol Hill offices have been inundated by people who seemingly drew conclusions that we didn’t even have time to go home and defend.” Imagine that declared with a furrowed brow and a stern voice.

Well, cry us a river.

For the last four years, Republicans from the moderates to the right-wingers have campaigned on the undoing of ObamaCare. Millions of dollars have been spent on advertisements pledging that a smaller, more accountable government is best and the only ones that can possibly ever make that happen are, you guessed it, incumbent Republicans.

Memo to Republicans: It’s time to articulate and work to develop a plan to animate the principles of Essential Liberty that should guide the party.

Those who are elected, appointed or in some other manner selected to lead, need to be completely honest, trustworthy and dependable with their words and deeds. Many who’ve loyally supported candidates, worked in campaigns on the grassroots level, and given their most valuable treasure – their time and talent – are palpably fed up with those who fail this test.

As the adage goes, “Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer give a damn.” The elected officials who run as Republicans had best be figuring out how to govern as Republicans or they can look forward to emptying out their offices after the next elections.