Rebranding Republicans

"We're going to give you the change you deserve" --

House Minority Leader John Boehner

That's not a threat; it's a promise -- from the Republican congressional leaders. Really. Led by perpetually tanned House leader John Boehner, Republicans have suddenly discovered that the country wants change -- and they have decided to offer it to us. Washington is broken and they promise to fix it. They rolled out a new slogan -- "the change you deserve" -- to be followed by a new "American Families Program." (The campaign ran into trouble from the start: an alert blog -- Bluestem Prairie -- revealed that the slogan is the registered advertisement for the anti-depressant Effexor XR -- which, come to think of it, might just be what Boehner needs these days).

Republicans for change; now that's a switch. Until last week, congressional Republicans have been systematically, resolutely, and consistently committed to obstruction, not change. It was a clear strategy. No minority ever gets blamed if nothing gets done. After Democrats took over the majority of both Houses in 2006, Republicans set out to obstruct everything they could. Then they would run against a do-nothing Congress, accusing the Democrats of breaking their promises. Sort of like knee-capping the postman and then complaining about the mail being late.

They went about this with Tom DeLay-like discipline. The Senate minority set a new record for filibusters before the first session was over. The president issued a record number of veto threats. House Republicans perfected procedural tricks that would put sand in the gears. As last as last week, they switched their votes on a resolution celebrating mothers on Mother's Day simply to obstruct business on the Senate.

They blocked the resolution to set a date to get the troops out of Iraq. They blocked extending health care to children. They blocked allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs. They blocked overturning subsidies to big oil and investing them in alternative energy.

But despite their success in gumming up the works, the strategy hasn't been working out too well for them. Congress has grown less popular, but increasing majorities think the solution is to throw out Republicans, not Democrats. 29 Republicans looked at the race and decided to retire. Republicans suffered stunning special election defeats in former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's seat in Illinois (to an anti-war candidate), and in a solidly Republican district in Louisiana (despite running ads painting the Democrat as an Obama clone). Newt Gingrich warned that they faced "real disaster" this fall unless they changed course. "We can't win solely by tying our opponents to Barack Obama and his liberal views," Boehner concluded, "We also have to prove Republicans are agents of change."

"Our brand is still under repair," Boehner noted in a presentation for his Republican colleagues. So he called out the marketing gurus. Over the next week, he promises to roll out a new agenda to go with the new slogan. With the open seats, Republican candidates not scarred by the past can run as agents of change. If John McCain, a 35-year veteran of the beltway, can market himself as a maverick for change, why not the House Republicans?

But Boehner's rollout is likely to run into craters a lot more perilous than the slogan pothole. Every Republican candidate for Congress will have to answer a few basic questions: Are you with Bush and McCain on sustaining the war in Iraq? Do you support Bush and McCain's economic policies -- the tax cuts, the corporate trade deals, the privatization of Social Security, the unraveling of employer based health care?

If you are not with Bush and McCain, why should Republicans support you? If you are with them, why would the eight in ten Americans looking for a fundamentally new direction vote for you?

But no one believes in the magic of marketing more than politicians, eager to re-package themselves like the new Coke. Forget consistency. Forget conservatism. Boehner and his colleagues aren't worried about learning from the failures of the past years. They are worried about survival. And a snappy slogan, a new bumper sticker, and a fresh jingle may be the best hope they have.

Comments

[bacaja]

History, if not present is going to look very unkindly on a group of people who have
wrecked destruction on their own country to degree that is becoming unfathomable.

[themunz]

The GOP have played the game of making Congress ineffective because they have had the numbers to do that. To now convince voters that they want Washington to change, having resisted every move that would have made Congress work is a task to big for any spin artist to pull off.

[qdog112]

Republicans are masters of slogans and re-branding. See how well it worked with "NEW COKE"? What they fail to realize is that it's not the packaging, it's what's inside the package.

[nin]

I like the slogan that I saw on the yes we can video and it had me in stiches. I really think the American people would swallow this:


GOP-08

"LIKE HOPE...BUT DIFFERENT"

[joebaggadonuts]

So Bonehead goes to an elite branding/marketing guru to sell hisself and this party to the people who he screwed. Ain't the irony rich.

[racetoinfinity]

And aren't the rich ironic, in this case, used for its meaning as INSINCERE.

[leftbehind2000]

Not surprisingly, the Republican party was the first to turn to an advertising agency to brand its candidate. After getting thumped for nearly 20 years, the party got Eisenhower into office largely on the efforts of BBD&O with their "Eisenhower Answers America" spots. While Eisenhower hated the idea of this style over substance approach, it was tailor-made for the new TV age. Ike rode the advertising campaign to the White House, and in so doing, cast the template for future hopefuls.

[iratior]

The GOP has received some well-deserved criticism on this message board. Most of the criticism has been about GOP domestic policies. I think there needs to be more criticism of the foreign policy, especially as it applies to Colombia. Right now, Colombia has a despicable government headed by Uribe, who is for all intents and purposes a dictator. Congress acted very properly when it refused to approve a free trade agreement with Colombia. Now it needs to go further, and cut off all military aid to Colombia, and get all the military advisors out of Colombia. Thils would have the additional advantage of cutting government expenses --- something the GOP always claims they want to do, though somehow, there's always enough money to engage in wars of conquest and to prop up dictators. So please, Congress, cut off military aid to Colombia.

[demigod]

Columbia has oil, and their right wing dictator is letting American oil companies control it, that's why Bush and the Republicans care about Columbia. That's the ONLY reason they care about it.

[Economike]

They want him as a counter balance against Chavez who is funding the insurgents in Columbia.

[HearNoWeasel]

The "Change" is going to be positioned not so much as change from Bush-style politics as it will be change from a Democrat-run Congress. From www.crooksandliars.com:

"According to a memo that will circulate to House Republicans today (and which Boehner’s office seemed willing to leak), the GOP caucus will get a relatively straightforward message: “Washington is broken, the American people want it fixed, and Democrats in Washington have proven unable or unwilling to get the job done. Republicans will. Americans have seen first-hand the change Democrats are making, and it is moving America in the wrong direction. To the American people, we say that Republicans will deliver ‘the change you deserve.’”

It's brilliant. No Republican voter ultimately wants to seek fault with their party, or their own past voting record. They'll jump at this fig leaf. And it's just what Democrats deserve for their abject cowardice. They had tools - filibustering, blocking bills, impeachment hearings, blocking funding - to seriously fight for their agenda. But they played it safe and comfy and highminded-like, while Republicans stuck together to gum up the procedings. Now the bullies are putting the blame on the whimps.

There's your treasured "bipartisanship", Democrats. Lady Pelosi should serve up impeachment hearings on that table tonight. Torture, with illegal war on the side. Wiretapping for desert.

[DuPageDem]

Abject cowardice is dead on. Our useless leadership has handed this to the Rethugs on a platter. Their "filibusters" are a paper fiction -- Reid never required them to actually read the DC phone book into the record. If these so-called DINOs were any more corporate, they'd have logos tatooed on their foreheads. We need to slash & burn the blue dogs and elect more progressives.

[watererbob]

Sounds like my alcholic younger brother - "I've changed1 I'm not drinking now & I'm not going to lie anymore either!" Guess you know who that came out!
Time for a bit of "Tough Love" - OK we'll see how you cooperate with a progressive Democratic Majority (for a few years) then we'll know how sincere you are about "Change"!

[Indubio]

Boehner has to be worried...not only will his party be blown out of both houses of Congress in the November election by what may prove to be the largest margin since the 1932 elections but the blame for that will ultimately devolve onto him. Truthfully, Boehner is merely a sap, the fall guy...the blame lies with Republican policies dating to the 1890s that have always favored the upper class and big business. The GOP has crapped all over 90% of the American public since 1980 and got away with it because Democrats lacked the spine to offer serious challenge, the MSM was complacent about the affects of GOP policies on average Americans, and GOP leadership skilfully managed wedge politics that enabled them to convince voters to cut their own economic throats. Amazingly enough almost 30% of the electorate continues to vote against their economic interests...go figure. Come November however, even slimy Newt understands that wedge issues won't save his party. Hell, Gingrich is more to blame for the pending GOP debacle than the hapless Boehner but Boehner deserves as much scorn as can be dumped his way because he had a chance to change course but elected to maintain GOP business as usual. With any luck, Boehner will return to the private sector next year and ponder his future. I'm sure he isn't overly stressed about that however.

[Stirner]

Try not to confuse "conservative" Republicans with the "neoconned" collection of war-lusting, tax-collecting, money-printing crowd that slipped out of such miserable so-called "think tanks" as the Heritage Foundation. The people who support Ron Paul want their Party back. Their Party was stolen from them in the 1990s by these 7-piece suit types who had emerged out of the "Young Americans for Freedom" and other such anti-communist fronts, and then developed into simple flag-waving Nationalists at best, and Fascists at worst. We are now dealing with the worst -- those who have neither regard for the Constitution nor human rights. They have no objection to either illegal war or torture. Ah, and I haven't heard much from the liberals either --Diana Feinstein and Chuck Schummer both think that water-boarding is just dandy, and the Dems have been very supportive of the war (our own Congressman, Joe Sestak - D-7) has already voted 2 times to support Bush's war, and he had the gall to run on an anti-war platform! Go figure --

[Economike]

Amazingly enough almost 30% of the electorate continues to vote against their economic interests...go figure. I seem to remember Mark Twain saying something about how ignorance is the most destructive force against mankind, we seem to be getting hit pretty hard in America right now.

[certainot]

the most effective branding tool America has seen the last twenty years is the talk radio monopoly with it's coordinated uncontested repetition to 50MIL Americans. that mechanism will continue to do most of the branding for this country until the monopoly is dismantled or some new Fairness Doctrine is enacted. it defines the 'conventional' wisdom and its power may wane but it still makes all progressive efforts much harder than they would have to be if the monopoly was recognized instead of ignored.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

The right wing talk radio listeners are 28%er pro-Bushies. Nothing to be gained by marketing to them.
They dont DRINK the Kool-aid as much as live and breath it like fish in the ocean.

[certainot]

their coordinated uncontested repetition has been the most effective branding and counter branding tool politics has ever seen. and its trickle up effect in dominating the flavor of the rest of the media goes unnoticed and unfactored because there are no transcripts and progressives can't stand to listen to it. the perfect propaganda weapon.

[nypoet22]

Oh, they're "agents of change" alright. Look how effectively they changed our country:

from plenty to poverty

from surplus to deficit

from boom to recession

from a prosperous peace to bankrupt from war

from loved and respected to universally loathed worldwide.

Yep, if there's one thing they are about, it is change.

Which is fitting, since the change in our pockets is all most of the rest of us have left.

[gaila]

That sums it up perfectly. Please send it to the Obama campaign and the DCCC! With appropriate photos for each line, it would be an excellent campaign ad.

[Amalek]

The Change we Deserve is the extinction of the republican party.

I call for the restoration of the Whig party in America.

Established in 1834, the Whig Party was a reaction to the authoritarian policies of Andrew Jackson. “King Andrew,” as his critics labeled him, had enraged his political opponents by his actions regarding the Bank of the United States, Native Americans, the Supreme Court and his use of presidential war powers. The term Whig was taken from English politics, the name of a faction that opposed royal tyranny.

I think the time is right for a new party in America that is a reaction to the authoritarian policies of George W. Bush "King Bush", who has enraged Americans over his actions related to the economy, Mexicans, the Supreme Court and his use of presidential war powers.

Bring back the Whigs!

[DirtyDawg]

The thing about 'branding', is that just because folks don't like what you are or what you stand for, it doesn't mean that you can just 'change' and that'll be that. No way Repugs can change what they fundamentally believe...the vile, arrogant, and even criminal behavior that they've demonstrated over the years. These are bad people, people, and no amount of marketing manipulation and spin will change it.

Now if you need a new slogan, I've got one that fits you perfectly: We're not happy till you're not happy!

[dadele]

Vote Republican because the poor have too much money and the rich don't have enough

[stavros]

Republicans.

"They are worried about survival".

Sucks to be a polar bear.