Beware of false GOP rebranding efforts [View all]

[DonViejo]

When Bobby Jindal says Republicans must change their ways, he doesn't mean change their policies or anything

BY ALEX PAREENE

Conservatives with an eye on the future are rolling out their post-election loss “we must remake the party to save it” pitches. In Politico, Louisiana governor and perennial fantasy presidential candidate Bobby Jindal weighs in, getting some positive press for saying, “We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything.” One would think some major policy changes would be required to make the Republican Party cease being the party of big business. One would be wrong.

There are two separate conservative narratives emerging since Obama’s shocking-to-them reelection. Everyone in one camp is basically saying, don’t overreact to this loss, because a couple thousand extra white votes in Ohio would’ve won it. The other camp is basically competing to win Andrew Sullivan “Yglesias Awards.” (Congrats, Erick and Gov. Jindal! And Bill Kristol, too!) They are sounding, suddenly, very reasonable. They are recognizing the flaws of their side and demanding changes. Just not actually any significant changes.

When you hear Republicans and conservatives soberly intone that Big Changes Will Have to Be Made if they want to Remain Competitive, listen closely for any actual suggested Big Changes. Go through the Politico story on its Jindal interview and you’ll see that he is actually not saying anything at all. Jindal is clearly pursuing the same agenda as he was before the election. His point is that this agenda should be branded slightly differently.

This is his prescription: The Republican Party should stop saying stupid things.

“It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”

-snip-

read more:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/beware_of_false_gop_rebranding_efforts/