REBRANDING FEVER

The democrats are in a tizzy of rebranding this week.  This is their go-to tactic when things are falling apart.  Don't try to come up with a new message/legislation/platform, just slap a new name on it, hype a different angle and keep on truckin'. 

Rebranding is a not uncommon thing, but it has had a long history with progressives in particular.  Waaaaaay back at the turn of the 20th century, the progressive party took hold.  Unfortunately, their policies eventually fell out of favor and they had to start calling themselves liberals in the mid 1900's.  After a few decades of the same failed policies under the new label, they managed to make the term liberal unattractive, and so they pulled "progressive" back out of the closet, dusted it off, and have been using that term to describe themselves ever since.

More recent examples of their rebranding fervor was just last year, when the highly unpopular health care bill was rebranded.  "Single payer" became "public option" which then became the "consumer option" with a little side trip to "co-op".  

The war on terror became an overseas contingency operation.  Violent attacks on our country by jihadis were no longer terror attacks or suicide/homocide bombers, they were man-caused disasters.  Just a few weeks ago, President Obama declared an end to combat operations in Iraq, while leaving 50,000 active troops in the country.  Operation Iraqi Freedom was rebranded as Operation New Dawn, and voila! we're no longer at war in Iraq (even though we still have troops dying over there).

Just this week, the democrats launched their new website and logo in an attempt to rebrand themselves as...well, no one's really sure.  I just hope they didn't pay a lot of money for the logo design and website, because it sure looks like they didn't.

Now Science czar John Holdren has offered up rebranding for climate change.  Which, you may recall, was once called global warming.  Well, now they want to call it "global climate disruption".  After all, trying to sell us that we were actually changing a global phenomenon like the weather was a little far fetched, so they must be hoping "disruption" is more palatable. 

The other rebranding taking place this week is a rather odd, ham handed thing involving the much debated Bush tax cuts. Nancy Pelosi managed to really paint herself into a corner on the whole tax cut thing.  She was adamant that the cuts would expire, all of them, top to bottom.  Now she is being forced to backtrack because so many economists are warning of dire consequences to the economy if they are allowed to sunset. So what is her brilliant plan?  She gives them a different name and suddenly, instead of a Bush era payoff to the evil rich, they are an Obama-sent gift from above to the poor, suffering middle class.  She used the new term during her weekly press briefing today, talking about extending the "Obama middle income tax cuts".

 Now, maybe the woman is really stressed out - she certainly has reason to be - and is simply confused.  Unfortunately, the more logical answer is that, since they have nothing else to run on and more and more economists are freaking out, this is a feeble attempt to show her party in a compassionate light while denying credit to the evil Bush.  She seems to think that merely extending the tax cuts for a year or two will automatically make them the brain child of this administration, instead of a holdover from the last.  Frankly, it's rather insulting to our intelligence, Madame Speaker.  This is a blatant attempt to steal credit for something to score political points while simultaniously vilifying Bush for having done it in the first place. 

You would think that they would have learned that a tactic like that doesn't work.  After all, they tried that with the Iraq war, and got blasted for it.  But hope seems to spring eternal on Capitol Hill.  Either that, or she's having a nervous breakdown.  It's hard to tell which. 

REBRANDING FEVER