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

[burnt]

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

Wellll... We are imminently prepared to take this country back from greedy corporatists and return it to *people* who are intent on healing and solving important problems and injustices­... but if you Republicans just want to give us the change we deserve, well that's okay too. In fact, I believe we might prefer it that way.

We can start with a Democratic Party Executive, Judicial Branch and large majority Congress. Then give us favorable legislation to remedy alllll the damage that has been done over the past 20+ years (see how I included the Republican Clintons?).

We'll see where it goes from there. Thanks for your understanding. It's good to know you have a firm grasp on the reality of the situation, Republican Party. Oh!... and if all this gets too depressing for you, just take a pill... and lay down for four years.

[cla62]

Yes, lets blame the republicans for the democratic lead houses which happen to have the lowest ratings in the history of ratings. Wow, lower than even the evil George Bush. Typical dem. response to pathetically low ratings. Just blame the republicans for our pathetic results, we don't have anything else to blame it on. The people are talking, they do want change, and it's obvious that a democratically lead house and senate isn't going to work. The ratings you all like to use are showing us that! At least Pres. McCain can keep us from complete socialism.

[proudliberal4truth]

Are you kidding me? Haven't you been paying attention the past 2 years? The Republicans have done everything imaginable to block any real Democratically led movement for change and they've done it OUT IN THE OPEN with no sense of shame. Until the Dems get real control (a two/thirds majority in both houses and President Obama in the White House) this country will continue to suffer under the weight of Republican dominance. Repubs have NO qualms about destroying our way of government for their own gain and power. Go back and reread the original post again.

[mouselion]

You do not understand that the Republicans are dirty players, keeping the wheels of democracy from turning through trickery, filibusters and even lies. It does not suit their purposes to allow We The People's will to succeed. You are parroting what they want people to believe, hoping to cause a backlash against the Democratic rise in power. The American people have seen enough, however -- nothing they can do will turn the tide.

[ksyellowdog]

"And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom." --- excerpt from 'The PROPHET', On Freedom by Kahlil Gibran

[KOisGod]

Right on - the wisdom of Gibran, a Sufi master and lover of Rumi!

[hopeless277]

Please, let's no rehash the past. It's over and done. We need to go from here. Start again, fresh. No need to bring up the obstruction issue. We're different now. We want the American people protected and free. Republicans will hit the ground running and help the American people realize their dreams. The Democrats only want investigations. INVESTIGATIONS? Now what will that solve? It's all in the past. We, the Republican party are the party of the FUTURE. The American people have no patience for investigations. This great country was not founded on investigaions, it was founded on ACTION!! And that is what Republicans are poised for, ACTION. The Democrats in congress are the obstrutionists. Hearings and more hearings on things that happened IN THE PAST. The FUTURE is what counts. Elect Republicans in the fall and finally see ACTION in congress, not just boring investigations. FUTURE ACTION-Republicans in motion.

[BillZBubb]

ROTFL! Now that's good satire!

[benjaminblue]

Somehow with the Republicans, "tomorrow" never comes. Remember Katrina, and how Mr. Bush said, "there will be time later on to place the blame," implying that he was occupied at the moment in concentrating on providing effective leadership. But, of course, there was no leadership then, and there was no accountability moment later on. What we need, desperately, is for someone to take the time -- right now-- to investigate this evil administration and hold it accountable for all its inane, immoral, illegal and treasonous acts, so no future administration, and no future lockstep members of Congress, will be tempted to trample on the Constitution and the citizenry ever again. Mr Bush must be punished for his shameful terms of office, and his minions must be punished as well.

[LeftLeanWing]

but wasn't that Ted Bundy's criminal defense strategy.

"All those victims of my actions are just a thing of the past.... Mark my word ; I promise to never ever do anything like that in the FUTURE C'mon C'mon said Bundy"

[Puller58]

hopeless277, no really, you are kidding, right? Action? Like what? You mean like in the men's room with Mark Foley and Larry Craig? Like Tom DeLay and funny money business? The Past? You act like that isn't going to continue in the future. Why not just stick with the Republican mantra of "God, gays, and guns." That's where they've been, where they are, and where they're going.

[Moose49]

Any politician or political consultant who uses that God-awful word, "brand," ought to be summarily convicted of malpractice and banished from holding public office or working for a political candidate.

[wolfgangmo]

Ghandi said to be the change you want to see in the world. Apparently the change the GOP want to be is called the Status Quo.