The national election fervor is over — at least for the time being. Republicans regained control over the House of Representatives.

Now all eyes are on Washington to see what’s next. As Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist James Carville famously quipped during the 1992 presidential campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Brief signs of an economic turnaround have been seen, but they haven’t brought any substantial job growth.

The reason is simple: business and industry don’t react well to change — especially, rapid, forced change.

Quite simply, businesses like to know the rules and they like the rules to stay stable long enough for the business leaders to figure out how to best operate within those rules.

In the last two years, we’ve seen sweeping government mandates — from health care reform to financial regulatory reform. Some of those changes are good, but much of the changes were coming too fast for anyone — particularly the nation’s business leaders — to keep up. If businesses don’t know the rules, they tend to hunker down, stay nimble and, unfortunately, not hire.

The reaction was clearly seen on Tuesday night as election returns were announced. Americans overwhelming sought change in Washington, D.C. That voter-mandate for leaders to stop rapidly changing the rules and quickly running up ever spiraling deficits was heard loudly and clearly.

Perhaps soon, if businesses start feeling a little more confident that the sweeping changes flying out of Washington are on the wane, job growth may start back.

At least that’s what we’re all hoping and praying.