As 2013 heads for the exits, it is clear the Obamacare debacle has shattered the rose-colored lenses through which many Americans have viewed President Obama ever since his dramatic address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The vaunted Obama charm can no longer obscure the fact that the president mislead the nation by promising people that Obamacare would let them keep the insurance plans and doctors they like and save thousands of dollars on health care costs.

As a result, a growing number of opinion surveys point to the emergence of a new public consensus that Washington spends too much, tries to control too many things that are better left to state and local authorities or to the private sector and, most important, that it’s time for a renewal of respect for individual freedom, initiative and responsibility.