For Six years Republicans have greatly exaggerated President Obama's unwillingness to work with Congressional Republicans. This is one of the ways they have deflected criticism of their own obstructionist tactics. According to Kevin Drum over at MotherJones, in the wake of the Republican takeover of both houses of congress, President Obama has decided to live up to their billing.

Drum writes: "This is all part of the new Obama we've seen since the midterm election, which seems to have had an oddly liberating effect on him. Over the course of just a few weeks he's been throwing sand in Republican faces will gleeful abandon: cutting climate change deals with the Chinese; demanding full net neutrality regulations from the FCC; issuing an executive order on immigration; and now threatening to veto a Republican-crafted bill unless they include expanded EITC and child tax credits. It's as though he's tired of their endless threats to go nuclear over every little thing and just doesn't care anymore. Go ahead, he's telling them. Make my day."

Actually, some might argue that it's like the President suddenly does care, and he's ready to take a stand. At this point, the President is clearly in a good position to take bold stands on policy. The 2014 elections may have produced a Republican Senate and a larger Republican House majority, but it did not signal anything like a wave of opposition to Democratic policy positions, many of which were endorsed by voters who nonetheless pulled the lever for Republican candidates.

For years Republicans have obscured the details of their policy preferences and highlighted their "principles" in juxtaposition to the president's. Without the ability to actually pass legislation, thanks to a Democratic majority in the Senate, Republicans have had the political luxury of principled complaining without having the burden of offering their own policy solutions. Obamacare was "a train wreck" that required "repeal and replace" but the replace part never had to leave the station. With Republican majorities in both houses, it's put up or shut up time for the GOP.

The latest effort to keep the blame for inaction on the president by claiming that his "go it alone" approach is "poisoning the well" will be MUCH harder to sell with Republicans in control of Congress. The President can simply respond with three little words..."pass a bill." If Republicans claim that they cannot do so because the president would veto their bills, the White House should remind voters that the Republican House passed 54 bills to repeal (but not replace) the Affordable Care Act. The President now has the political upper hand, which he appears ready to exploit. He should proceed boldly (with the strategic cooperation of Senate Democrats) in an explicit effort to force Republicans to take responsibility for the details of their policy preferences, many of which are broadly unpopular in the country.

Republicans have deployed a scorched earth campaign to discredit a party and a president in order to win control of government without ever explaining the details behind their vague values-based rhetoric, and without discrediting the policy preferences of Democrats. Unfortunately for Republicans their timing was a bit off. Had they wrested control of both houses of Congress in the same election as they recaptured the White House, they would have had a much easier time enacting their policy preferences without having to defend the details. As it is, Republican dogma and dog whistles won't be enough to save Republicans from a decisive electoral setback in 2016 if President Obama uses his new found leverage boldly.

At the end of the day, while they have succeeded in lowering the President's public approval numbers and increasing Americans' distrust of government, Republicans haven't put a dent in something political scientists have long understood about Americans. The average American is attracted to conservative symbols and rhetoric, but they are also attracted to liberal public policy solutions. Having a better marketing strategy is great in the short run, but in the long run having the better product is more important to creating customer (or voter) loyalty.Being on the receiving end of “put up or shut up,” without sufficient political cover, could be catastrophic for a conservative policy agenda.