-By Warner Todd Huston
After the disastrous loss of majority status that befell the Republicans in Congress with the results of the 2006 midterm elections, conservative members of the GOP — and even a few not so conservative — began floating a new sound bite mantra. We have “lost our brand” became the meme as House members fanned out to the media in an attempt to reassure the rank and file that they had realized their mistakes, were chastened, and were about to “take it back.”
The biggest focus of that “lost brand” was that of fiscal responsibility. Wild Congressional earmarks, “bridges to no where,” and waste became a hallmark of the Republican Congress and many Republicans believed that this was one of the main reasons that Republicans lost the support of the electorate. In a reversal of the conventional wisdom some polls even showed that Americans had come to trust the Democrats in spending more than they did Republicans.
Florida Republican Adam H. Putnam told the Pittsburg Tribune-Review back on March 31st of 2007 that it was time to get serious.
“I think a key reason was the issues of corruption, where we had a bumper crop of scandals and incompetence. … Americans lost the sense that Republicans brought a commonsense, business-like manner to governing (and that) undermined our brand.
It was further undermined by a sense that we had lost our way on fiscal responsibility. So when people went into those voting booths, they really felt disenchanted with a party that they perceived to have lost its way. We were seen as being petty. We were seen as being only in it for ourselves. We had stopped talking about big, bold ideas. We had stopped talking about relevant solutions — and we paid for it. “
In November of 2007, former RNC chairman Mel Martinez told Ronald Kessler, “When I look at polls and they show that the American people trust the Democrats more than the Republicans on spending, it shows us how we’ve lost our brand. We’ve got to get our brand back.”
This idea of taking the brand back even made itself into a new organization of conservative Congressmen called Reagan21. With this new caucus of sorts, the *members of Reagan21 wish to assure us all that they are still committed to Reagan’s vision of government.
Continue reading “The GOP Must Avoid Becoming Democrat Party Lite”