In the mind-boggling aftermath of Friday’s failed health care legislation, National Review’s Charles Cooke makes an interesting observation by juxtaposing Republicans at the state level to those on Capitol Hill:

> At the state level, the GOP has been remarkably effective at ushering in reform over the last seven years; at the federal level, by contrast, it has been able only to hold the line. This, of course, is partly because the GOP has only just got full control of the federal government, whereas it has been running most of the states for half a decade now. But one can’t help but notice the difference in ambition. At the state level, Republicans have ruthlessly passed right to work legislation, even in unlikely places such as Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin; they have expanded charter schools; they have done yeoman’s work restoring the Second Amendment; they have cut taxes and regulation; and they have enacted as many pro-life measures as the courts have allowed. They have, in other words, lived up to their billing. At the federal level, meanwhile, they have narrowed their intentions from the get-go.

Conservatives peg this paradox on any numbers of reasons, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. If congressional Republicans are hoping to change the status quo, their teamwork ability has to change. And that means putting aside fracticidal infighting and finding common ground — which is what Speaker Paul Ryan ultimately failed to do. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.

What’s even stranger is that Republicans had ample time to prepare their agenda, which only adds to the alarm over how woefully unprepared they ended up being. As Glenn Reynolds writes in USA Today, “Talking to a friend at lunch not long ago, he expressed his amazement that the House and Senate leadership didn’t have bills ‘lined up like airplanes on a runway’ ready to take off in the new year. I was surprised, too.”

Perhaps Republicans, who unexpectedly find themselves in control, are nervously falling victim to Democrat pressure groups and the rhetorical anarchists on the Left. They could learn from Republicans at the state level: rally around a solution first, then craft the bill, run with it and don’t look back. It’s really not that hard. And as red states prove, it works. It’s amazing how federalism always shows us the way forward.