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Reader question: Please explain “keep his feet to the fire” in the following sentence: It’s up to voters to keep his feet to the fire and not give him an easy time. My comments: Once elected, that is, as the speaker seems to be talking about someone seeking public office. People who seek public office tend to forget their campaign promises once they get elected. “Forget” is a nice way of putting it, I know. Perhaps they simply couldn’t do what they promised. Newly elected French President Francois Hollande, for example, promised to slap a 75% tax rate on people with an annual income of more than 1 million euros. That’s awful hard to do if you ask me, as it is practically declaring war on millionaires. Downright impossible, as a matter of fact, if plain truth is to be told. But, on the other hand, voters tend to forget about their political leader’s mission, too. Once the politician they support wins an election, they feel as though they themselves have won and will feel really good about themselves ever after, forgetting why they have voted for their leader in the first place. And so, therefore, the speaker here says voters should maintain the pressure on their elected public official all the time, making sure he does not forget his campaign promises. In other words, voters need to “keep his feet to the fire” - they should keep torturing him by keep holding his feet to the flames of fire. | 
