Opinion: What does the Republican Party stand for now?

Republicans need to take Tuesday's results seriously. They have some hard questions to answer after Tuesday night.

Making sense of the loss

Losing control of Congress is bad enough, but what should concern the party even more is where those losses occurred and the voters who appear to be moving away from it.

It's tempting to blame the results on the normal challenges facing the president's party in a midterm election. There's certainly some truth to that. But dismissing Tuesday as nothing more than a predictable political cycle would be a mistake.

Listening more than explaining

I think Republicans need to spend less time explaining why they lost and more time listening to the people who voted against them.

Americans are frustrated. They worry about the cost of living, the economy and whether Washington is making their lives any better. Those concerns don't always fit neatly into the political arguments that dominate cable news and social media.

Life after Trump

The Republican Party also needs to figure out what it wants to stand for beyond Donald Trump. His influence on the party is undeniable, but a political movement built around one individual eventually has to answer what comes next.

That doesn't mean abandoning conservative principles. It means making those principles relevant to the problems people face every day.

Working to earn back people's vote

Republicans shouldn't assume that voters who supported them in the past will automatically return. Independents, suburban voters and younger Americans aren't obligated to support either party. Their votes have to be earned.

Democrats shouldn't assume Tuesday gives them a permanent advantage, either. American politics has a way of humbling both parties.

But Republicans would be making a serious mistake if they treated these results as a temporary setback that will somehow correct itself.

The voters sent a message Tuesday. Whether Republicans are willing to hear it is another question.