As the 119th U.S. Congress begins its term Friday, the country finds itself on the brink of historical, positive change — if the Republicans voted into leadership can uphold their campaign promises. They were elected to eradicate the bureaucratic failures of the last four years, govern, and put the people first. It is now up to them to do so, and it starts with Friday’s vote for speaker of the House.

“Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger,” former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously once said. “The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedience of delays, is coming to its close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences. We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now.”