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WASHINGTON Ebullient Republicans celebrating Donald Trump's inauguration today see so much opportunity: Rid America of the Obamacare scourge, slash stifling government regulations and taxes, overhaul the tax system, reassert America's authority on the world stage and finally push the teachers union out of the way of school accountability.

"We'll employ more people and get people back to work, bring more businesses back to our country and help our inner cities," gushed Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, an early Trump supporter. "And being chief legal officer of the state of Florida, I'm thrilled we'll have a new Supreme Court justice who will follow the rule of law."

The moment is indeed historic, at long last near free reign for Republicans to put their ideals into practice and show Americans what conservative governing can mean to their day-to-day lives. With the Supreme Court tilting to GOP control, as well, they stand to shape America for generations to come.

Since World War II, Republicans have controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress for only six years four during the George W. Bush administration and two during Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration.

So among the Floridians in tuxedoes and ball gowns streaming into the gilded Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Wednesday night for an inauguration ball, we heard appropriate hints of anxiety.

"We have the biggest opportunity in the world. It's like catching a unicorn and we just cannot screw it up," said U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee. "We've got to make sure we're working together because we can do some good things. I've been waiting for eight years to do some of the things we've talked about."

The GOP has been formidable and effective as the opposition party. Now, it's the governing party.

The last time Republicans held the trifecta of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, they sent the national debt soaring and helped birth the tea party rebellion against a party widely seen as having lost sight of its core principles. George W. Bush left office with an approval rating of 22 percent, while Barack Obama leaves with 60 percent approval.

"We have to avoid falling back to what got us in trouble in the first place, which is not listening to what people want. As much as I love George W. Bush, that was an era of big spending that we can't fall back into," Florida Republican Party Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said.

"Our opportunity here is to show the people we are the antithesis of what happened in 2008, when the Democrats had all three and we got the disaster that is Obamacare and Dodd-Frank," said Ingoglia, a state representative from Spring Hill. "We sat around for eight years complaining about everything, and now we have a chance to show it wasn't just complaining for the sake of complaining. If we can show people tangible results in their daily lives, then we can control the narrative for a generation."

What we don't know yet is whether America is about to see a period of virtual one-party government or a de facto coalition government made up of Democrats, Republicans and Donald Trump, the populist/nationalist with no clear ideology.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott rode into office on the no-compromise tea party wave of 2010 (and more than $70 million of his own money). He hosted the Florida inauguration ball in Washington on Wednesday night, and many of his guests sounded just fine with the prospect of Trump serving as a check on bad instincts of Republican lawmakers.

"You have to be willing to make some compromise to get things done. It requires sometimes not being completely true to your principles," said Miami lawyer Guillermo Fernandez.

St. Petersburg retirees John and Vicki Majors said they trust Trump's instincts more than the Washington crowd. Businesspeople focus on how to get things done, she said, while members of Congress too often focus on how best to raise campaign donations.

"I don't believe he is 100 percent committed to either party, so he'll call out Republicans if he has to as quickly as he'll call out Democrats. That's what we like about him," she said.

Majors pointed to Trump's response when Republican House members this month moved to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics.

"Trump said, 'What are you doing?' and they backed off. I think if we don't see progress and moving in the right direction, he'll call them out," he said.

Entering office with the lowest approval ratings of any president-elect in the history of polling, Trump may find Republican leaders more willing to challenge him than they would if he enjoyed wide support.

"He's going to be given a lot shorter honeymoon than most presidents have been given," said former Florida Republican Party Chairman Al Cardenas. "You go in with 40 percent approval rating, the runway gets a lot shorter. He's going to have to do well and do well early."

Trump probably will score early points with the conservative base when he chooses someone to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, but he also is promoting potentially budget-busting initiatives, including a massive infrastructure program, replacing the Affordable Care Act and a large military buildup.

He has no interest in reforming entitlement programs, long a top priority of House Speaker Paul Ryan.

"If we don't seize this moment to enact bold conservative reform, shame on us," said newly elected U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach, who serves on the House Budget Committee. "Paul Ryan understands this nation's structural financial challenges as well as anyone in the county, and I think you're going to see a fiscal discipline under his leadership that you did not see under John Boehner."

Democrats, even after winning the popular vote in six of the past seven presidential elections, are in disarray and in little mood to cooperate with the GOP majority that spent eight years opposing virtually everything Obama wanted.

In Washington, Republicans control the executive branch and legislative branch, and Trump could appoint as many as four Supreme Court justices. Outside of Washington, they control more than two-thirds of the partisan state legislators, 33 governorships, and in Florida and 24 other states hold both the legislature and governor's mansion.

Welcome to the Republican era.

"It's exciting and a little bit scary, because it's now fair for voters to say, 'Okay, you guys control the government. It's time for you to deliver. If you don't, we're going to hold you responsible,' " said Orange County Republican Chairman Lew Oliver. "Democrats have done a lot of damage over the last eight years, and it will take a little bit of time to fix it. It can't happen overnight. But if we don't deliver, I'll be mad at us, too."

Times Washington bureau chief Alex Leary contributed to this report. Contact Adam C. Smith at asmith@tampabay.com. Follow @adamsmithtimes.

Donald Trump presidency gives Republicans free rein at last: Time to deliver 01/20/17 [Last modified: Friday, January 20, 2017 10:34am] Photo reprints | Article reprints

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