( CNN ) -- President Obama seems determined to launch a two-front war with the new Republican Congress . The bigger news has been about his threatened executive order on immigration . The White House , however , has also indicated a determination to greet the new Senate majority leader from coal country with a series of very expensive environmental regulations necessitated by the climate agreement he announced with China . Before he takes these steps , President Obama should take a few days off and read a couple of books about President Woodrow Wilson 's last two years in office . There are a lot of parallels between the two presidents . Both were college professors . Both liked to hide on a golf course ( Wilson holds the record having played more than 1,000 rounds as President ) . Both were powerful orators . Both had deeply held convictions . Both disliked the Congress . The collapse of the Wilson presidency after the 1918 midterm defeat is a cautionary tale for President Obama . Republicans gained 25 seats in the House and five seats in the Senate , enabling them to control the Senate by a narrow 49-47 margin . Wilson did not seem to realize how powerful that Senate control was , even if by a close margin . He also did not realize how deeply senators feel about their prerogatives and constitutional authority . Obama determined as ever to bypass Congress . Wilson 's reaction to the new Republican Senate was to defy it . He went off to the peace conference of Versailles which ended World War I with no Republican senators in the delegation . He wrote the League of Nations treaty ( the forerunner to the United Nations ) refusing to compromise with Republicans in the Senate . When the Republicans insisted on adding some limitations to the treaty , Wilson fought them . He went to the country and launched a nationwide speaking tour . The tension and exhaustion led him to collapse with a stroke on October 2 , 1919 . The incapacitated president was protected by his wife , who in effect ran the administration until he left office . The American people repudiated Wilson by an enormous margin in the 1920 elections . Republican Warren Harding won 404 electoral votes and more than 60 % of the vote . In the House , Republicans gained 62 seats for a 302-131 majority . In the Senate , Republicans gained 10 seats for a 59-37 majority . President Wilson had presided over the destruction of the Democratic Party -- and it did not become competitive again until the Great Depression a decade later . President Obama seems determined to reject the American people . He set the terms for this election on October 2 at Northwestern University when he declared that his `` policies were on the ballot . '' The American people took him at his word and defeated Democrats at every level . When the President 's party loses the Senate , additional seats in the House , a number of governorships , and almost 300 state legislators , the American people have spoken . Republicans today have more state legislators than any time in the party 's history . Republicans also control more state legislative bodies than any time in their history . Republicans have very likely tied and may surpass their post World War II high-point in membership in the U.S. House , making Speaker Boehner the most successful Republican Speaker in electoral terms since Longworth in the 1920s . If the president 's opponent reaches those kind of high-water marks after a 160-year history , something big is happening . Pollster Kellyanne Conway reports that 74 % of last week 's voters wanted President Obama to work with Congress rather than unilaterally issue an executive order on immigration . Gallup reports that 53 % of the American people want the new GOP Congress to set priorities while only 36 % favor President Obama setting the priorities . This is a striking decline for the President from 2012 ( Obama is down 10 percentage points and Republicans are up 11 points in two years ) . If President Obama defies the will of the American people , he will destroy the Democrats ' chances in 2016 . Democrats in 2014 had to hide from Obama . By 2016 , at this rate , they will have to repudiate him . That would all but guarantee their party 's defeat , with a party descending into internal strife and the pro-Obama hard-liners fighting with anti-Obama Democrats who just want to survive . Hillary Clinton would find it a nearly impossible environment for a campaign . There are more immediate consequences to an Obama war on Congress . The Congress will fight back , and the Congress has more tools to fight with than the President does ( the spending power , committee hearings and oversight power , and taking votes , to name a few ) . Congressional tools are so extensive and so misunderstood that they deserve their own column . It will be interesting to see how the White House reacts to the new Congress . Outgoing majority leader Harry Reid has protected the President from a lot of difficult choices by controlling the Senate so tightly . As a result , President Obama and his team may not even fully understand the disaster they could be creating by declaring war on Congress . Reading of Wilson 's catastrophic experience might temper the Obama White House . If not , the new Republican Congress will defeat it . Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion .
Woodrow Wilson : President Obama may take steps that would inflame Congress in Congress . He says executive action on immigration , coal industry regulations would be confrontational . Gingrich : Obama should study career of Newt Gingrich , who fought and lost vs. GOP .