Who Owns The Republican Brand? Not Republicans.

May 5, 2009 / 10:19 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

It’s not Republicans. And it’s not Rush Limbaugh–much as Obama, his minions and the press would like to paint it so.

I’ve got bad news: The opposition owns the Republican brand. Oh yes, they do. Democrats define Republicans and the Republicans accept the definition by operating from their false premises.

How do I know Republicans are owned by the Left? Because the Republican message is consistently negative and defensive: “I’m not mean.” ” We don’t believe that.” “I’m not extremist like them“. And by them, Republicans are defining themselves against the press-Obama-grassroots caricature of Republicans. In doing so, the Republicans with a national voice diminish their own party.

Lorie Byrd notes the same phenomenon in her aptly titled The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Republicans“

In a recent conference call, the RNC’s new media director Todd Herman said the Republican party does not own the Republican brand – Jon Stewart does, among others. He is absolutely right. Little the Republican Party, or conservatives, have done lately seems to have made much of a difference in that image problem. They are not setting the narrative. Their opponents on the Left, and those in the liberal media are doing it, and with great success.

Those much younger than I am may believe that if we just behave more like Ronald Reagan, the good natured optimist, then the world will see that we are really nice people with good intentions. What they fail to realize, and what those who lived through the Reagan years know, is that during his administration he was often demonized by those in the media and the opposing party. He was painted by his opponents as a dim witted war monger who wanted as many people as possible to be homeless and die of AIDS. But Reagan was beloved by the majority of the American people because he was able to talk past (and above) the media to speak to them directly.

In order to reclaim the Republican brand, the DC bubble people–the Congressmen and Senators, the Republican party leadership, the donors, Think Tanks, and the often parasitic consultants–need to speak the language of middle America and learn and accept the premise that Americans and conservatives are good, decent, hard-working normal, diverse people. It is possible to be diverse and conservative. In fact, that IS the face of the modern Republican party. So the insiders need to stop buying the distorted image presented by DC media elites, leftist nutroots and Democrats themselves.

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  • http://www.everymanblog.com Everyman

    Better question: Who in the world wants to own the Republican brand? It’s not a brand at all. It’s a mix of unrealistic wish-fulfillment bereft of principled belief in just about anything. It wants smaller government, one that only comes into our homes to be sure that we are not doing what no good Republican would ever do. It wants fiscal responsibility of the sort that it could neither demonstrate nor enforce when, not all that long ago, it controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. Better a movement to promote commitment to principles, one that is open to all in the political spectrum than this brand of persistent failure to live up to what they profess to believe.

  • http://mkfreeberg.webloggin.com Morgan K Freeberg

    What’s been done to Republicans falls right into the Things I Know #272 and #273 ways of motivating people to do things that hurt them. Make an accusation; make it a really ugly one; make REALLY sure there isn’t a grain of truth to it; and most important of all, make it abundantly clear to the person you’re accusing, that as far as you’re concerned you’ve yet to make up your mind about whether the accusation is true. The primary message needs to be that they have one — one — shot left at proving themselves innocent, and that is to do this thing you want to do, that is contrary to their interests.

    This is what salesmen do whenever they say “I can see you’re a man/woman of refined tastes.” To prove it, you have to buy their garbage.

    ut Reagan was beloved by the majority of the American people because he was able to talk past (and above) the media to speak to them directly.

    I distinctly recall a Doonesbury cartoon about this very thing. It was a White House Press Corps thing, and Rick Redfern himself was shouting to no one in particular, “Somebody stop him! He’s going over our heads, directly to the American people!” Heheheh. Wish I could track that one down right now.

    Regarding how to put Republicans back in charge of their own image, I have a suggestion. Adopt my platform. In a nutshell: People are good, and they’re good for each other. I am good for you, you are good for me. We already are participating in a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship, and we don’t need a government program to get such a relationship going. Even across sex-preference, skin-color, country-of-origin or gender lines. Period, full stop.

  • Jeff

    The main problem I have seen is that Republicans are painted to be overly zealous people that would like nothing better than to create a police state with some form of Protestant Christianity as the official religion of the country.
    I know that’s an exaggeration, but as much as I try to separate the religion from the party, it has become impossible for me to discern where one ends and the other begins. But, contrary to what you’re saying, many prominent Republicans are coming across as out of touch, reactionary, and dogmatic. I’m also simply referring to how they conduct themselves and their mannerisms, not their positions on the issues, which is another thing entirely.
    I would like to see a politician with more liberal views on the hot-button issues, such as same-sex marriage and abortion, but takes a more conservative approach to the operation of the government itself. But for now, it’s going to be one or the other.

  • J David

    The elephant is a giant fly-blown corpse. Conservatism needs a new home, as it’s message will only be corrupted by ANY connection with the RINO Party country club. It is NOT reforming, it has NOT learned any lessons, the LOSERS who have been leading it are still leading it. There is NO COMPROMISE with evil, and those who do are irreparably tainted.