come to heel

“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back on our side, or we defund and get rid of, abolish, the FBI, CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of them if they do not come to heel,” Mr. Gaetz said on Friday.

He would not, he said, be a “servile puppy dog,” no matter how many Republicans demanded he come to heel.

Of course, “the party” is less a monolith than an unruly collection of fiefdoms, none necessarily powerful enough to make candidates or voters come to heel through sheer force of will or strongly-worded-statement.

They had little doubt that, in the face of the most technologically advanced, bulked-up, destructive force on Earth, hostile states would be “shocked and awed” by a simple demonstration of its power, while friendly ones would have little choice but to come to heel as well.

"This is no time for half measures. We should bring all the powers over health, education and other services back to Madrid and leave Catalonia without a penny. They'd soon come to heel."