Christian Schneider

Mere days after Donald Trump’s improbable ascension to the position of commander-in-chief-in-waiting, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway declared the new president-elect had a "mandate."

"This election was not close. It was not a squeaker," Conway told Fox News. "There is a mandate there, and there is a mandate for his 100-day agenda, as well."

Of course, it is common for a presidential victor to allege a public thirst for the lemonade they sold voters during the campaign. Back in 2008, Barack Obama’s aides claimed a mandate for what would eventually become Obamacare — a piece of legislation that led to Republican landslides in three of the next four national elections.

And it is true that a majority of Americans support a good number of Republican positions; in fact, Senate Republicans ran ahead of Trump in most states with competitive Senate elections.

But there’s another reason that Republicans win that has little to do with the GOP candidates themselves. Conservatives often win elections because of the hysterical, overblown reaction their common-sense plans receive from the left. While voters may not totally be on board with, say, private Social Security savings accounts, they recognize that the theatrical flop taken by Democrats over the issue is a histrionic charade.

During the campaign, Trump promised a tightening of the federal government workforce; reportedly, his allies are working on plans to freeze hiring, end automatic raises, make it easier to fire incompetent workers, and convert federal retirement benefits to resemble more of a private sector, 401(k)-style plan.

Trump is keeping too much of Obamacare: Christian Schneider

According to The Washington Post, Trump will likely seek counsel from Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who famously angered public sector unions in 2011 when he ended mandatory union dues, required public employees to begin paying a portion of their health and retirement benefits, and all but eliminated collective bargaining for government employees.

The invocation of Walker’s name by the Trump administration is particularly interesting, given that Walker is the gold standard of what happens when the left overreaches in opposition to a modest change in policy.

Shortly after Walker announced his reforms in February of 2011, the Wisconsin Capitol building was besieged by tens of thousands of pro-union protesters, chanting and holding signs. In order to prevent a vote on the proposal, Democratic senators fled the state to undisclosed locations in Illinois. College students pitched tents under the Capitol dome, setting up colonies in the statehouse, complete with lactating areas for nursing mothers. (A sign outside the Capitol listed items that could not be brought into the building: snakes, crockpots, massage chairs, mattresses, and balloons.)

During the process, lawmakers regularly had protesters collected outside their private homes. One Assembly member had an aggressive demonstrator pour a beer on his head. Republican Rep. Joel Kleefisch was told his wife, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, was a "f----ing whore" by a screaming union loyalist.

On the issue of collective bargaining itself, the Wisconsin public was decidedly split. A poll in March of 2011 showed the public opposed Walker’s changes by a 51% to 46% margin. And during the protests, Walker’s approval rating sank into the low 40’s. Yet in June of 2012, Walker won a decisive victory in a recall election called by the left. Walker then won again in 2014, having won an unprecedented three elections in the span of four years.

Democrats tone deaf on jobs: Kirsten Powers

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

What likely turned voters in Walker’s favor was the unhinged reaction to his reforms, which horrified the state’s polite Midwesterners. Walker offered Democrats a rope, and they tied it into a noose.

If Trump were to dig in and make significant reforms to federal employee work conditions, one can expect a similar overreaction. Demonstrations will be held. Hitler comparisons will be cast at Republicans. Violent verbs will be used to describe the GOP’s "attack" on federal employees. (Even The Washington Post's recent account of Walker’s reforms said the governor “stripped” unions of their “rights,” as if Walker were acting out a Trump directive from the back of an Access Hollywood bus.)

And these concerns will fall on deaf ears of average Americans who have to save for retirement, pay for their own health care, and have few job protections.

But this is how Trump’s gambit has worked to date; he routinely dangles the hook in front of his opponents (including me), then basks when the "elites" crank the outrage meter up to 11.

And this is how change will come to American government; not through consensus, but through provocation. If Democrats don’t learn to be led by their head and not their heart, Trump will have succeeded in building a beautiful wall around Congress to keep them out of power.

Christian Schneider is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow him on Twitter @schneider_cm.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To submit a letter, comment or column, check our submission guidelines.