Science & Tech Quote by Frank Luntz

“Sound science” lands here less as a devotion than as a credential - a badge you pin on policy to make it look inevitable. Coming from Frank Luntz, a pollster and message architect who helped modern conservatives rebrand everything from “estate tax” to “death tax,” the line reads like a strategic reassurance: don’t worry, we’re not ideologues; we’re technicians. It’s a political move that borrows the authority of the lab to quiet the noise of the legislature.

The intent is to make triage itself seem neutral. “Choosing which problems to tackle” is where power hides: agendas aren’t discovered, they’re selected. Science can tell you the likely consequences of a carbon tax, a border policy, a school voucher program. It can’t tell you which outcomes matter most, who deserves protection first, or what risks are acceptable. That’s values work. Luntz’s phrasing neatly collapses that distinction, implying that good data will naturally point to the “right” priorities.

The subtext also anticipates distrust. In an era when “science” is both a public good and a culture-war prop, calling for “sound science” signals sobriety while leaving room to define what counts as sound. The adjective does heavy lifting: it quietly excludes inconvenient findings as unsound, politicized, premature.

Context matters: Luntz made a career not simply interpreting public opinion but shaping it, teaching politicians to speak in ways that feel responsible without conceding ground. This sentence is a perfect specimen of that craft - an appeal to reason that doubles as a framing device, narrowing debate to methods while smuggling in the priorities.