Last week, the news that the Republican Party, was kicking off an initiative called the National Council for a New America, as part of an effort to rebrand itself, was somewhat lost due to the extensive coverage of Barack Obama's first hundred days as president and the news of Arlen Specter switching parties. Republican Party heavyweights, from the past and, presumably, future such as Haley Barbour, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Jeb Bush and Bobby Jindal and others behind this initiative apparently think the problem their party faces is one of branding and image, suggesting things may be worse for the GOP than initially thought.
In politics, rebranding generally means shifting emphasis and image away from negative and towards positive associations. This is why President Obama has sought to, and already begun, succeeding in rebranding America. During the presidency of George W. Bush many people around the world began to see our country through a negative prism based on the arrogance and destructive policies of our president. Obama's presidency makes it possible for people to see the US through a different prism, one of hope and opportunity. Importantly, with regards to the notion of rebranding, regardless of whether or not much of our foreign policy may not change all that dramatically during the Obama presidency, the way we present those policies and ourselves will.
In business, rebranding is also what you do when you haven't updated your advertising jingle for too many years, your mascot's clothes need to be updated, or your product's colors need to be brightened or muted because of changes in fashion. The problems the Republican Party faces, however, will not be solved by rebranding. The Republicans don't have problems of slogan or presentation. Their problems go much deeper than that. In these days of increased concern about swine flu, porcine allusions may require even more sensitivity than ever, but simply rebranding the Republican Party by somehow updating its image, with apologies to Sarah Palin, really is putting lipstick on a pig.
The quandary in which the Republican Party now finds itself is not due to a public relations problem, but stems from being strongly identified, and not without good reason, with the Bush administration. The Bush administration is broadly viewed as a failure, not because it didn't present itself well, but because it mishandled both the economy and foreign policy to disastrous effect. Additionally, some of the ideas which have been foundation of the Republican Party have, in the cases of radical social conservatism and unregulated financial sectors, become the views of an increasingly small minority of Americans. Other bedrock Republican views, such as fiscal conservatism and a realist based foreign policy, were abandoned altogether by the Bush administration and the Republican Party in the last decade. These are problems are profound and go to the core not just of the party's image, but to its vision, message and raison d'etre.
The post-Bush Republican Party is not unpopular simply because they are viewed by many as too old, too white, too male or too out of touch with 21st century America, although all those perceptions do not exactly help the party. They are unpopular because they are associated with a failed administration and, due to having become captured by the right wing fringe, are unable to contribute serious, remotely popular ideas to the debate. Rebranding may help a little, but it will not resolve these fundamental problems.
What is most striking about the Republican Party's rebranding campaign, as presented thus far, is that they seem to have taken much of the current leadership of the party and simply given them a new name, suggesting that they think that all Barbour, McCain, Bush et. al. need to win back lost support is a new website and clever title. If the Republican Party wants to become a relevant force in American politics once again, they should think less about branding and more about substance. A post-Bush Republican Party needs to be defined, but this will not be easy in this period of the Obama ascendancy. Simply attacking the popular and politically deft president has done nothing to broaden the Republican base. Instead this approach has mobilized, and empowered, those segments of the Republican coalition who can most effectively push independent and moderate voters away from the Republican Party. Thus far, the Republicans have largely avoided doing the hard work of thinking through viable policy solutions, governing well in the states where the party still controls the government or creating a viable 21st century vision of conservatism, but if they don't start doing this hard work sooner or later, the Republican Party's path back to relevancy will be even more arduous.
The Bush family is corrupt from top to bottom. The old man, W, Neill, this one, their great-grandfather....crooks of the first magnitude. I hope someone investigates this soon.
ARE YOU SCARED ENOUGH TO VOTE REPUBLICAN AGAIN ?
The GOP will play you into the position they want day after day after day.....
Maybe you should actually read the "bills that nobody reads."
It wasn't long ago that the Democrats would be so close to winning, yet lose and lose some more. After two years of winning back Congress and the White House, my fellow Dems seem to be getting cocky and starting to feel as though we can't lose. We can and we have and stories like this only give us more reason to think we are invincible. That frightens me. That hyped assuredness leads to very poor decisions, bad attitudes and makes for frightening mistakes...just look at the Bush era, the Republican's were convinced they had it all in the bag. Their superiority got the best of them.
So all I'm saying before anyone gets all riled up is I think we need to keep our heads on straight as if the GOP was just as strong as they were three months, or two years ago. Remember that the when it comes to a matter of life or death each and every living thing pulls strength and energy from a sheer survivalists mentality.
I don't support all of what Republican have been doing either, but it seems that Democratic voters will do and say anything just to keep their party in power.
Answer my question and I'll tell you why party politics is destroying this country.
They will never win over the legacy media and their pandering to liberal causes is who they have become. The only way they will be able to regain power is if they replace most of the liberal, pandering Republicans with Washington outsiders who conservatives can believe in.
The Obama and in general the democratic partys brand is moving towards strength, technology, future, diplomacy, forward leaning, pragmatic, integrity
The brand is being buffed in to this though because in general democrats and the party are embracing what america really needs and what the most logical policy choices are.
Therefore republicans by walking in to an obvious trap of constant opposition are in fact aligning themselves with problems that are not pressing and solutions that are not legitimate and all the while exposing themselves as the same types of political hacks that would 'mislead' an entire world in to an illegitimate war and mindbogglingly continue to question and ignore global warming.
They speak it, but have yet to show it in anything they've done so far.
"Therefore republicans by walking in to an obvious trap of constant opposition"
You mean to say 'exactly as the Democrats did when the GOP were the majority party, right?
"are in fact aligning themselves with problems that are not pressing and solutions that are not legitimate"
Please, enlighten us as to what those are. Thanks.
"and all the while exposing themselves as the same types of political hacks that would 'mislead' an entire world in to an illegitimate war"
Are you referring to Clinton appointee, CIA Director "it's a slam-dunk" George Tenet? This is what happens when you carry over the opposition's henchmen.
"and mindbogglingly continue to question and ignore global warming."
All my friends believe it, all my legacy media talking heads believe it, and even though the global temperature has flat lined for the past decade, I still believe. Yes, Praise thee Algore.
They had many, many years to prove us wrong.
Instead they used their opportunity to make toilet paper of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, ruin the nation financialy and make us an object of scorn all over the world.
Thanks, GOP!
These guys said that the GOP needs to forget about Ronald Reagan.
Of course they do, this bunch make Reagan look like a saint and a genius in comparrison.
What Republicans don't realize that it isn't just about Bush and they can't spin-doctor their way out of their decline because when it comes down to it....they are just not on the same side as the large majority of the American people are when it comes to policy...both foreign and domestic. It's exactly their "values" and platform that does not jibe with the American people. It doesn't help that they openly detest feminists, non-whites, gay people and the thought of workers rights either.
Today's GOP clings to their past "glory" days of the Reagan era, which was not exactly a great time for a lot of Americans...inflation, unemployment, high interest rates, ignoring the AIDS epidemic. They should be looking farther back for inspiration but they won't. Because Rush tells them not to.
I have to doubt that the Republican Party could produce anyone of that caliber anymore.
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
--President Dwight D. Eisenhower
If it fails to deliver its members will be out on their collective ear as well, as they should be.
After their FAKE COWBOY BUSH got the presidency, the Republicans
went to the max with their LYING, CHEATING AND STEALING.
After WILD PROFITEERING, DEREGULATION and FOR-PROFIT WAR-MONGERING,
the Republicans kept on lying, cheating and stealing while they were crashing
American economy and having Bush LIE and say "y'all, it's gonna be okay...".
SURE. NOT.
Americans CANNOT AFFORD Republicans and their lying, cheating and stealing.
Republicans are TOO EXPENSIVE.
Republicans are TOO EXPENSIVE."
LOL, I guess you haven't looked at Obama's budget, it makes Bush's spending seem restrained.
The Obama Administration is spending money to keep this economy from going completely in the tank. The Bush Administration started the process, if my memory doesn't fail me, with a 700 billion rescue package for Wall Street companies, and by the way, they tried to keep the program entirely out of the scrutiny of any controlling instance.
Remember?
The fact that the Republicans chose to call this re-branding, rather than a new product speaks volumes. The Republicans have a product that no one is buying and they're trying to get more sales by re-branding it.
I say, stop buying it and they might come out with a new product that someone might like.
"Hey let's order extra cheese on our pizza!!!"
I like cheese on pizza too.
http://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html
However - the x and y generations -- in larger and larger numbers - DO NOT need or want anyone telling them what to think, what to do, who to hate, etc., etc.
Cantor kissed Rush's keister by back-peddling from the term "Listening Tour" and re-naming it an education tour. Rush's point? -- that they should be going out to "educate" others. In other words - telling others what to think, what to do and who to hate.
It's NOT going to work. Re-Thugs don't even live in the present -- they live in and yearn for the past. We know that because they are only , ever and about completely about dragging America back to the 15th century. Ain't gonna' happen fellas.
The world is changing to fast for them. They're helpless against the tide of change because they are completely unwilling to change ANYTHING.
*
"In the 18th Century they knew more about how freedom works that the people here at HuffPost. "
Really? You mean the kind of "freedom" that's ONLY for WHITE, MALE, LANDOWNERS?