A relationship is found between the quantized isovector rotor and the
microscopic RPA formalism. The scissors restoring force is obtained fr
om a sum-rule approach. It is not influenced significantly by symmetry
-restoring interactions, derived consistently from the deformed potent
ial. The resulting neutron-proton interaction generates a scissors res
toring force, which almost coincides with that extracted by the relati
ve angular momentum from the deformed mean field alone. Such consisten
t interactions do not favour much orbital M1 strength at high energy a
nd the scissors mode fragments mainly over the low-lying orbital 1+ ex
citations.