Resurrecting the brand without caring for the country

republican Tom Davis (R-VA-11th) wrote a memo Re: Where We Stand Today, the "we" being the republican party (does anyone else who really matters live in this country?), and "stand" meaning what are the chances of victory or as he puts it, "restoring the GOP brand." Well, we always knew that their idea of government was branding and image control, sort of making the Happy Meal look like a nutritious dinner for your child or even simply happy for that matter. (What exactly is happy about a held over cold slap of ground meat, a dollop of ketchup and a shrivled pickle slice? It's the worthless prize, isn't it.) Davis suggests the GOP brand as it now stands is an albatross to its candidates and that they best GOP leadership might be able to do is step back and allow candidates to brand themselves. The 13% of the time he's not voting with them, that's what Mark Kirk attempts to do.

"[D]aunting and troubling" to Davis are the Netroots and the the Red to Blue program of which Dan Seals is a recipient. He sees them as being fueled by discontent over Bush and Cheney and disappointment in the republican grassroots. (I never felt there really was a republican grassroots as it all seems so top down.) He also talks about some of the choices made by republicans including immigration, spending priorities and scandals that "leave [r]epublicans little to be enthused over."

Davis goes on to chart out what he calls key House races and the Illinois Tenth race appears in his chart to illustrate Democrats substantial cash on hand and how a well stocked DCCC has put some races in play.

I think it's sort of funny when he talks about "cultural elites" trending Democratic and it sounds to me like he means people who don't buy into racist pandering. Ah that Southern Strategy of Nixon and Reagan still has teeth.

He goes on to talk about gas prices, housing and the general economy. He claims to be explaining why republican have missed the boat and then goes on to miss it himself as his answer to gas prices is the short term thinking pro oil company answer, more drilling and drilling in ANWR. He has no plan to fund alternative energy research and development. He then admonishes his party for walking out on the housing crisis debate, but is still mired in free trade agreements that harm American workers and send displaced Mexican farmers flooding into the US. Health care to him is tort reform, caps on malpractice lawsuits.

Davis gets that his party is in trouble, but is way off on why. Yes, there are still some Americans who buy into racist and fearmongering arguments and inexplicably identify with people far richer than they will ever be, but more and more Americans have realized that the issues pushed by republicans are not the issues that affect their lives, and that republican solutions do not help them directly and that nothing ever trickles down. Americans want leaders who actually govern the country for the good of its people. Consequences of their bad governing ideas are being felt and no amount of branding, advertising or PR will successfully shove bad ideas down our throats indefinitely. Until Davis and his fellow republicans get that, their fundraising will continue to dwindle and they will continue to lose elections.