Fox News' regular pollster and message guru Frank Luntz is very depressed about the state of politics in America - a situation he helped to create. He's upset with both Republicans and Democrats. And that's why he'll probably not be talking about it on Fox News any time soon.
In a terrific article in The Atlantic, Molly Ball writes that Luntz' depression started when Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election. Romney had, according to Luntz, squandered his opportunity with a terribly-run campaign. But that was not the worst of it, according to Ball.
It was what Luntz heard from the American people that scared him. They were contentious and argumentative. They didn't listen to each other as they once had. They weren't interested in hearing other points of view. They were divided one against the other, black vs. white, men vs. women, young vs. old, rich vs. poor. "They want to impose their opinions rather than express them," is the way he describes what he saw. "And they're picking up their leads from here in Washington." Haven't political disagreements always been contentious, I ask? "Not like this," he says. "Not like this."
Not surprisingly, Luntz blamed Obama. But not in a way that will help his Fox News cred. Because, as Luntz seems to see it, Obama outdid him in the negative, divisive messaging department and all Luntz' weapons are powerless against it:
Luntz knew that he, a maker of political messages and attacks and advertisements, had helped create this negativity, and it haunted him. But it was Obama he principally blamed. The people in his focus groups, he perceived, had absorbed the president's message of class divisions, haves and have-nots, of redistribution. It was a message Luntz believed to be profoundly wrong, but one so powerful he had no slogans, no arguments with which to beat it back. In reelecting Obama, the people had spoken. And the people, he believed, were wrong. Having spent his career telling politicians what the people wanted to hear, Luntz now believed the people had been corrupted and were beyond saving. Obama had ruined the electorate, set them at each other's throats, and there was no way to turn back.
While it's nice to know that Luntz "wishes we would stop yelling at one another," as Ball put it, it's hard to feel too sorry for Luntz. After all, as the article notes, he's the guy who drafted the Contract with America, helped propel Newt Gingrich to a Republican takeover of the House and considers Gingrich a political mentor. Gingrich, as professor Bill Schneider wrote in Politico is the father of political gridlock. He got there by denouncing and demonizing Democrats.The New York Times went further:
He refers to himself as a historian, but apparently his personal study of history has primarily taught him about the effectiveness of demagogy. Donald Trump, fiddling with birth certificates, is an amateur compared with Mr. Gingrich at sliming the Obama administration — as well as Democrats, Muslims, blacks and gay men and lesbians.
If Luntz really cares about the state of the country, maybe he could stop moping about playing the role of Dr. Frankenstein, take some personal responsibility for his role in the morass and use his platform to work on healing some of the divisions he and his pals helped to create. Even though he probably would not find much support for that effort, should he decide to undertake it, on Fox News.
In the meanwhile, The Atlantic points out Luntz has plenty of creature comforts in his various luxury homes to console him.
Not like this, eh, Luntz? Yeah, I would generally agree with that. And your conclusion is that the folks are picking up their leads from here in Washington? Yeah, it does indeed sound like DC (especially when the GOPers meet on Obama’s inauguration day at the Caucus Room plotting their “campaign of obstruction” against the newly elected President). Oh wait, who organized this little GOP get-together? Why it was Frank Luntz, the GOP operative, er, pollster. Pffft!
I found it particularly interesting that Luntz admitted that the Occupy Wall Street movement was indeed onto something. No doubt most of the talking heads at FOX “news” and other conservative outlets thought the exact same thing and were secretly fearful of the potential power of the 99%ers. I can certainly understand why Frankie and his ilk would be glad that OWS movement “turned out to be a bunch of crazy, disgusting, rude, horrible people”.
Go wallow in your political depression and your realization that you can’t wordsmith your way to power/influence anymore when it comes to the folks, Luntz. You are not part of the solution – you ARE part of the problem. Perhaps it’s not, as you believe, that the “people have been corrupted” but rather that you have been corrupted.
So, Luntz, I hope you take this with the good intentions with which it is meant – take your bullish!t manipulations and get the hell out of our faces. Go reinvent your punk ass in Vegas. Perhaps Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adeslon need someone who can come up with new, clever ways to divide the folks from their wallets.
Btw, Luntz’a description (as quoted at the top) also sounds like the 24/7 cable news channels. So who are the folks really getting their divisiveness from – the politicos in DC with whom they have very little/no contact with? Or more likely from the cable news channels that come into their living rooms on a daily basis?
And, as far as his suggestion that Obama is creating class warfare, apparently Luntz hasn’t really been paying attention. Class warfare has looong been coming from Luntz’s side of the aisle. Also, I wonder if Frankie is familiar with John Fugelsang’s spot-on twitter: “Rich people pay FOX people to make middle class people blame poor people”. Now THERE’S your class warfare, Frankie.
When W won re-election in ’04 I wouldn’t describe myself as depressed, bummed maybe, but I didn’t feel like locking myself in a room contemplating suicide. In fact being a lifelong Democrat I accepted defeat as part of being one.
Here’s a suggestion Frank, instead of playing these word games with the simple minded how about trying ideas and solutions to sell. Give people a reason to vote for your side and not against your opponent. If all else fails then continue to come up with tricks and not honestly to destroy the opposition, you’ll feel better.
I have to say, it always kills me when righties like Frank Luntz get their panties in a wad about “divisiveness” and “class warfare” when people on the bottom start to fight back. It’s not class warfare when income inequality gets worse and worse, it’s only class warfare when somebody points it out.