Orange County Voices : SUGGESTIONS FROM THE DEMOCRATS : The GOP Must Change Its Politics : It faces the challenge of reinvigorating and restoring legitimacy to institution they’ve spent decades denigrating.

When Bill Clinton’s election victory ended 12 years of Republican control of the White House in 1992, The Times ran columns from Orange County Republicans offering advice to the new President. Turnabout is fair play. Now that Republicans have won a majority in Congress for the first time in 40 years, some Orange County Democrats offer their advice.

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For Republicans willing to listen, here’s some advice for the party now responsible for governing the nation.

1) Republicans must quickly learn the difference between the politics of opposition and the politics of coalition-building. After decades as the minority party, Republicans naturally developed a legislative style which eschews compromise, emphasizes obstruction, and encourages rhetorical bombast. Indeed, they’re far more adept at hurling rhetorical bombs than at building legislative bridges. Yet coalition-building, even within the new Republican majority, is essential to legislative accomplishment. It’s a skill to be nurtured, not dismissed as signifying a lack of ideological commitment. Becoming the majority might turn out to be easier for many Republicans than behaving as the majority.

2) Performance must take priority over pontification. Americans were promised action and results from the new Republican Congress, not heightened levels of ideological rancor. They rightfully expect no less. This is the unstated underpinning of the “Contract With America.” However, floor votes alone on welfare reform, tax cuts, a line-item veto and congressional term limits will not satisfy public expectations for fulfillment of the contract.

Americans expect Republicans to vote on as well as for the promises made in the contract. Yet, in the first 100 days of the new Congress, voters may discover that Republicans are no more in agreement on the more contentious issues than were the Democrats.

3) Concentrate on the issues most consequential to the majority of Americans. Americans want effective solutions to real problems, such as unemployment, business flight, crime, the deficit, access to health care, poverty, and a decline in educational achievement to name a few. If what they get instead is drawn out debate on social issues such as school prayer, abortion rights, family values, or private morality, the public will soon lose faith in Republicans as agents of substantive change.

4) Avoid the temptation to settle old political scores. No Republican in the House or Senate has ever served when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress. Consequently, pay-back may be on the minds of many Republicans, long subjugated to careers spent as marginalized members of the minority. But Americans didn’t elect Republicans to unleash witch hunts against Democrats, be they in Congress or the White House. The GOP leadership should hesitate to devote much time and energy revisiting old investigations or kindling new ones.

5) Do not aggrandize the results of this election. Republicans won a historic victory, winning more House seats in a midterm election than either party since 1938. However, Republican puffery aside, voter turnout was low at only 38% of the eligible electorate; many Republican victories were close, with the winner receiving less than 50% of the vote; and, according to a CNN/Time poll conducted after the election, only 12% of the voters attribute the sea of change in Congress to support for Republican programs. These electoral findings do not validate GOP claims that their victory constitutes a sweeping mandate for conservative policies.

Nevertheless, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Republicans are entitled to a period of gloating, boasting, and rhetorical posturing.

Democrats should neither resent this celebration, nor take offense from it. Once the 104th Congress convenes in January, Republicans will face the challenge of reinvigorating and restoring legitimacy to an institution they’ve spent decades denigrating. An awesome responsibility.

If they succeed, representative democracy will be healthier.

But if they fail, an impatient public may well send Republicans back into the wilderness.