The Midterms Were Not a Revolution

By FRANK LUNTZ NOV. 5, 2014
ON election night 1994, as Republicans recaptured the House for the first time in
40 years, I stood in the audience and watched my client Newt Gingrich, who would
soon become speaker of the House, declare the beginning of the “Republican
revolution.”
I knew immediately that the smartest man I had ever worked for was making
the worst rhetorical blunder of his career. Nobody voted Republican to start a
revolution. They did so because they were fed up with a Democratic president
overreaching on health care and a government seemingly incapable of doing even
the smallest thing effectively. We all know what happened when Mr. Gingrich tried
to turn his rhetoric into action.
Sound familiar? No one is quite saying “revolution” this week, but
Republicans across the country, in their glee over Tuesday’s elections, are coming
dangerously close to making the same mistake.
True, there will now be more Americans under Republican representation
than at any time in decades. And the re-elections of G.O.P. governors in blue states
like Michigan and Wisconsin are certainly a validation of their policies. It was a
tsunami; someone needs to get the Democrats a towel. But that anti-Democrat
wave was not the same as a pro-Republican endorsement. In many races that went
from blue to red, Republican success was hardly because of what the G.O.P. has
achieved on Capitol Hill. In fact, if Americans could speak with one collective voice
— all 310 million of them — this is what they said Tuesday night: “Washington
doesn’t listen, Washington doesn’t lead and Washington doesn’t deliver.” Purple
states tossed out their Democratic senators for being too close to Washington and
too far from the people who put them there.

The current narrative, that this election was a rejection of President Obama,
misses the mark. So does the idea that it was a mandate for an extreme
conservative agenda. According to a survey my firm fielded on election night for
the political-advocacy organization Each American Dream, it was more important
that a candidate “shake up and change the way Washington operates.”
I didn’t need a poll to tell me that. This year I traveled the country listening to
voters, from Miami to Anchorage, 30 states and counting. And from the reddest
rural towns to the bluest big cities, the sentiment is the same. People say
Washington is broken and on the decline, that government no longer works for
them — only for the rich and powerful.
They voted out those who promised to do more in favor of those who said they
would do less, but do it better. That’s why the Democratic candidates for governor
who condemned their opponents for spending too little on education,
transportation and programs for the poor and unemployed still lost. The results
were less about the size of government than about making government efficient,
effective and accountable. Our election night survey showed that 42 percent chose
their Senate candidate because they hated the opponent more. One pre-election
poll had over 70 percent willing to throw everyone out and start fresh.
Winning on Election Day is not the end. The objective can’t be just to bide
time for the next election; that’s a losing strategy. The mission has to be a
restoration of confidence in the future. The question is: What can Republicans at
all levels do to make this happen, and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past?
First, hold Washington accountable. From the cover-ups of veterans dying
while being denied care to using the I.R.S. to target conservative groups, recent
scandals highlight the chasm between hard-working taxpayers and Washington.
But this also means holding your colleagues accountable. No turning a blind eye to
broken promises. If you’re truly different, act truly differently.
Second, make the people’s priorities your priorities. In our survey, the top
priorities were making the government more efficient and controlling spending. So
tackle deficits and the national debt, and root out the waste and abuse of
government programs. Reduce the crippling red tape and regulations that are
strangling small businesses. As the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said,
show that a Republican Congress has both the wisdom to listen and the courage to
lead.

Third, stop blustering and fighting. Americans despair of the pointless
posturing, empty promises and bad policies that result. Show that you are more
concerned with people than politics. Don’t be afraid to work with your opponents
if it means achieving real results. Democrats and Republicans disagree on a lot,
but there are also opportunities of real national importance, like national security
and passing the trans-Atlantic trade deal.
Aside from a small activist constituency, Americans are not looking for
another fight over same-sex marriage or abortion. This isn’t to say that voters want
their leaders to co-opt their convictions. People are simply tired of identity politics
that pit men against women, black against white, wealthy against poor. More than
ever, they want leadership that brings us together.
This isn’t about pride of ownership regarding American progress; this is about
progress, period. Americans don’t care about Democratic solutions or Republican
solutions. They just want common-sense solutions that make everyday life just a
little bit easier. But they can’t get their houses in order until Washington gets its
own house in order.

Frank Luntz, a communications adviser and Republican pollster, is president of Luntz Global Partners, a consulting firm.