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.
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I remember when I first heard Boehner was the new Minority Leader. Talk about branding. Then I heard he pronounces it "baynor" - and I thought that certainly fit the brand since Republicans don't have much tolerance for "boners."
The Republicans could use the Firesign Theater mock political slogan, "Forwards, into the past!" or maybe just dust off, "The more things change, the more they stay the same with McCain."
The "CHANGE YOU DESERVE".
Like $2.43 from a fifty dollar bill to fill up my car, THAT kind of change Mr. MINORITY leader?
There will change alright Mr. Come November, you and your thieving, lying friends will be looking for new jobs in the PRIVATE sector, where you get to compete with young guns who haven't been gettiing fat on $300 lobbiest lunches for 20 years..
Got that resume updated?
If you had a proper republican car liike a Lincoln Navigator, KOisGod, you would get $15.27 in change from your $100 bill. And you could thank George Bush for his tax cuts that let fat cats like you afford to pay those prices.
Why not just do a Contract With America 2.0? Even Newt should like that one. Or why not do the old standby and wrap themselves in the flag and hide behind the bible. The oldies but goodies. Of course none of this is news. Way back at the beginning of the campaign, Laura Ingraham pointed out that Republicans needed to address economic issues. Now I'm sure she meant more tax cut fun and games, but when Mike Huckabee started in with the populism, the business lobby went nuts and sicked Limbaugh and company on him. Therein lies the rub. There is only so much phony posturing the Republicans can do before even their loyal supporters freak out. Lets just see how much "change" they can stand.
Exactly the problem. For example , the wingnuts are going crazy over McCain's ineffectual, underfunded, useless global warming plan.
Why?
Because even an ineffectual, underfunded, useless global warming plan is based on the premise that global warming is happening, which is more than the wingnuts can endure.
"Branding" is a very good choice of words. They market political candidates to us like they were consumer goods like cars or beer.
If they want us to believe them all they have to do is pass the Veterans Bill and out do the Dem's with a universal health care bill passage .
I think the slogan sounds rather ominous - like "the change you deserve" as in " you'll get what you deserve for voting us out in 2006."
We should help them out with a contest here to suggest something better.
How about: "We are the proud Republicans - conservative about everything except your money, your sex life and your civil rights."
The solution to make the Republican Party extinct is **NOT** to turn the Democratic Party into its clone. Sadly, this has been the trend over the last years. A real opposition party would have impeached Bush and Cheney since it was clear they LIED about Saddam's WMDs. I think it's time for the US to join the rest of the world and get more than two parties...
Can we rebrand them with real branding irons?
I'd like that.
heh...
The more the voters get rid of on both sides of the aisle the more room there is for true change, of course, first I have to find a shorter, really catchy name for my party.
http://strictlyanecdotal.com/2008/05/13/the-democratic-party-is-in-no-way-democratic.aspx
Throw all the bums out. Reality, 90% of incumbents will continue, in spite of incompetence.
The Republican party was taken over by the neocons. The neocons have destroyed it with spend spend spend. It now stands big government programs leveraged to dictate the morals of a few on the population.
rebrand the republicans extinct, for historical reference only.
Respectfully, I disagree. Boehner was making a threat.
Hopeless277, cla62: I know republicans do not like to talk about history because it reminds everyone of how you lied us into a war, bungled Katrina, foisted Gonzalez/Goodlin on the country, Craig/Vitter/Fossella, etc, etc.
You would rather we bury our heads in the sand!
They have the slogan "Change you deserve" right, after all. They're just not getting that the change we deserve is getting them out of the way of progressive law and policy making. The Republicans may still be a party in the future, but a less relevant one. A new day is dawning on American politics. What we are witnessing is only the formative stages of what is to come. They can brand and market all they want to, my gut level feeling is their power is waning. As we become greener, more energy independent and more socially in-line with the great ideals of our national forefathers, the Republicans will loose purchase on their stranglehold on democracy and progressiveness.
Well said!
What do you propose to replace it?
Truthful, rational decision making, and renewed international diplomacy.
I'd start with a foreign policy not run by the American Enterprise Institute, a federal judiciary not staffed with a bunch of Federalist Society clones and a federal bureaucracy staffed with people who did not have Liberty University as their first, second, third or 10,000th choice of college.
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