Politics & Power Quote by Frank Luntz

A moral alibi disguised as professional advice, Frank Luntz frames persuasion as a kind of ethical diet: choose only the “clients” you “believe in,” and discipline will do the rest. The wording is doing heavy lifting. “People like me” quietly normalizes a guild identity - message-crafters as a necessary class - while “have to” shifts agency away from the consultant and toward the supposed demands of the job. It’s less confession than self-exoneration.

The list structure matters: “clients, corporations, political people, products, services, networks.” By stacking politics beside consumer goods, Luntz collapses civic life into a marketplace of brands. That’s his signature worldview and his career context: the pollster-messaging strategist who helped popularize euphemisms and reframes (“estate tax” to “death tax,” “global warming” to “climate change”) that treat language as an instrument panel for public feeling. In that world, “belief” isn’t theology; it’s a compatibility check between what you’re selling and what you want to be seen selling.

The subtext is defensive because it has to be. Luntz’s profession invites a recurring accusation: that he manufactures consent and launders controversial agendas through nicer words. So he preempts the critique by invoking “discipline,” a virtue term that implies he’s resisting temptations - money, notoriety, power - that would pull him toward clients he can’t justify. “We want to see succeed” completes the move: it recasts persuasion as loyalty, even care, rather than manipulation. The intent is clear: if you control the language, you must also control the narrative about why you’re allowed to.