Republicans must be really stupid?

[kentuck]

They are trying to "rebrand" their image, re-define their Party. What is so difficult to understand?

People, even Republicans, do not like to be lied to. They do not like to be used as political props.

When you claim to be a Party of "fiscal responsibility", you cannot double the national debt and keep your credibility. When, just 6 months ago, your Republican President came out in front of the TV cameras to tell the world that our entire economic system was near collapse, you cannot pretend that nothing needs to be done except to cut taxes and spending. It is not enough to just "NO" on everything.

First of all, Republicans have no credibility. They need to come clean. Not only with their supporters but with themselves. They fucked up everything. They need to admit it. They supported George W Bush for eight long years as he spied on American citizens, as he increased the national debt limit, as he lied us into an unnecessary war, as he tortured people and broke our laws and treaties, as the economy faltered. They did nothing. Zilch.

And now, they want to pretend that they have a new message. They have nothing but the same old useless shit. They are trying to put old wine into new bottles. It won't work. They need to be told to go back and try again. Otherwise, they may want to study the story of the dodo bird.

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. They just don't get it. It's not re-branding if...............

you are selling the same old shit under the same old name.

[Grillydad]

3. I disagree

I think that is exactly what rebranding means. Not actual change in the face of reality which indicates a different policy is necessary, but taking the same failed ideas and renaming them, hoping no one notices.

[Marr]

2. There really isn't anything they can do but wait.

They didn't just lose an election on wedge issues. Their loss was much more profound than that.

They had control of the government for years. Their economic policies brought us to the edge of another depression, and their foreign policy left us isolated and vulnerable. You can't just come in now and say, "oh-- we didn't really mean that stuff-- that's not who we are". That won't fly. Firstly, it *is* who they are and everyone knows it. Second, they're essentially just saying to their voters, "as soon as we're elected, we ignore all this idealism shit and just enrich ourselves".

Not exactly a strong sell. They can't actually change the product (pro-wealthy, anti-middle class policies), because that's their whole reason for existing.

[OHDEM]

4. Their base is extremists and/or 1 issue voters.

What can they do? Moderating doesn't work when the people you can count on are far-right. Their base is all people who don't really want to pay taxes, want us to use our vast military power to bully everyone and Christian fundamentalist who want to tell everyone else how they MUST live. How does one moderate that? Of course there are also business people who appear to want the gov't to leave them alone to make money (the only thing that really matters to many of them) despite the fact that this "free market" BS has proven to screw us all!

I hope they keep bickering. As long as they're divided, they can't possibly win!!

[Still Sensible]

6. That is exactly the problem for them, and judging from their

current activities, it will take them some time to figure out a way to recover. As self-serving as Specter's defection is, what he said about the party going too far to the right is correct. The "old" republican coalition of fiscal conservatives, libertarians, and the social conservatives is no more. The libertarians were kicked to the curb by the other two factions in the last 10 years. The republican fiscal conservatives (oxymoron alert) have no credibility with the vast majority of Americans. That leaves the nutbag fundamentalists calling the shots. This is what started as the Reagan revolution... and left them with a party where the inmates are running the asylum.

Either the party will realize this and emerge with leadership in the mold of Eisenhower, Nixon and Rockefeller moderates, or it will contract to only its fundamentalist base. Of course, the fundamentalists have the party power right now and they won't cede it easily. The republican purity brigade is now all about social issues--anti-choice and anti-gay. They are trying like hell to keep the anti-tax anti-big government message alive... the only place they have identified that is acceptable diversification.

So they have come full circle. This began as a Reagan led crusade against taxes and big government, where the "fiscal conservatives" and banking/business interests cynically brought the moral majority movement into the republican fold with their basically southern, racist point of view. Now those fundamentalists are the power brokers... cynically trying to use the anti-tax, anti-big government message to keep enough of the old coalition together. It won't work and IMO it looks like it will be a few election cycles before they will do what is necessary to get out of the wilderness.

[BarbaRosa]

5. Republicans must be really stupid.

And they keep up their end of the bargain so well.:rofl:

[Bombero1956]

7. polish a turd

and it's still a turd.