Only 48 hours after the GOP wave swept the nation in one of the largest one-sided electoral victories in U.S. history, analysts are clamoring to interpret what it means for the future of both parties and for the coming 2016 election.
Famed political analyst and pollster Frank Luntz is warning Republicans not to gloat and assume that the results are a mandate for the party’s candidates and policies.
The correct view we should have, he explains, is that voters rejected Democrat rule, which is clearly not the same thing. Voters will be equally as scrupulous in their judgment of Republican leadership in the coming sessions leading up to 2016.
Luntz detailed, “There will now be more Americans under Republican representation than at any time in decades. And the re-elections of GOP governors in blue states like Michigan and Wisconsin are certainly a validation of their policies.”
He continued, warning :
“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…
They voted out those who promised to do more in favor of those who said they would do less, but do it better… The results were less about the size of government than about making government efficient, effective and accountable.”
Calls for moderation are already being heard from certain corridors within the Republican Party as a means to balance policy zeal ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Whether that strategy makes sense, or will lead to more of the same, will depend greatly on whether Congress is able to make headway with the new dynamic.
