Bruised Republicans vow to give party's image a makeover

[No Elephants]

Bruised Republicans vow to give party's image a makeover



By John Whitesides

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina | Fri Jan 25, 2013 6:12pm EST

(Reuters) - Bruised and divided by November's election losses, Republican leaders emerged from a series of self-analysis and strategy sessions this week with the outlines of a game plan to reverse voting trends that favor Democrats.

After a frank assessment of the party's shortcomings, state and national officials at the Republican National Committee's winter meetings vowed, above all, to improve the image of a party that they acknowledge is seen as unwelcoming - or even hostile - to single women and the nation's growing minority population.

"You are going to see a very aggressive effort by this party to put on a different face," said Sally Bradshaw, a Florida political strategist and one of five party leaders on a panel that will study how Republicans can refurbish their image.

<snip>

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who led a strategy session called "Messaging Matters," said the party could learn from what he called former president Ronald Reagan's happy and optimistic outlook.

"We value anger as a habit," Gingrich said of Republicans, adding such a tone has hurt the party in its policy and political struggles with the popular Obama.

"We will win that argument better if we're in the Reagan tradition of happy warriors than if we are in the tradition of some of our candidates, who have been at best dour," he told reporters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/25/us-usa-republicans-idUSBRE90O17M20130125

My California politics buddy was right. They won't change. They will only try to change how they are perceived.

Perception is not the issue.

They've always--well, in my lifetime, anyway--been perceived much better than they should be.

In part, that is because Democrats do not do nearly enough to expose them.

If Newt thinks smiling while you vote to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds as a condition of exercising a constitutional right will do the trick, he is not as smart as I though.

Or, maybe this, too, is part of their imaging--pretending for the media and the public that their only problem has been that people misperceive them and some of their candidates have not been cheerful enough.

[Enthusiast]

1. Last election cycle they mostly stopped pretending.

They were right up front about their desire to control women's access to abortion and even birth control. And at the state level this shit continues. In many states they are still trying to enact "heart beat" bills-in Ohio for instance. Last election they were also up front in their push to destroy organized labor. Recently in Michigan they pushed through a right to work measure. If they want to change their image they had best get on that right away because changing a labor state to right to work is pretty glaring and not very well hidden.

It's their policies we hate.

[No Elephants]

2. It's all glaring. The Republicans are left with only the glaring stuff.

I honestly believe it is the rightward movement of the Democratic Party in the last 30 or so years that has helped eliminate moderate Republicans.

The Koch Brothers and the Ayn Rand loons don't help either.