by Deb Cupples | According to Pollster.com, the Republican party's brand "is in worse shape than any opposition party in recent memory." It's no surprise, then, that The Politico tells us that Senator (and ex-presidential candidate) John McCain is striving to give the Republican party a "makeover."
Someone should tell GOP leaders that improving party support will require far more than a stop at the Estee Lauder counter.
After 9/11, the Republican party (which then controlled Congress and the White House) had great opportunities to do truly great things for our nation: things that could have had good and lasting effects.
Instead, most Republican politicians in Washington used the nation's post-9/11 fears (i.e., willingness to trust government) to stimulate more fear among citizens and to line the pockets of corporate donors at the expense of us ordinary taxpayers.
A few real-world results include: our nation's questionable invasion of Iraq based on questionable (perhaps false) information, along with the costs to our nation in lives and dollars; the steady deregulation of the banking and securities industries, which resulted in the near-collapse of our nation's financial system and economy; the dismantling of checks and balances against abuses by private contractors, which resulted in billions of tax dollars being lost to contractor waste, fraud and abuse.
The whipped cream on the sundae: prominent, self-styled "family values" Republicans got caught committing hypocrisy when they committed (or attempted to commit) adultery: e.g., John Ensign, Larry Craig, David Vitter.
At this point, GOP leaders should abandon their old-world belief that turds can be polished. Said leaders should remember the words of Abe Lincoln, one of our nation's best-ever Republican politicians: "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."
If Republican politicians want the public to view them more favorably, then they should start focusing on the party's actual substance: i.e., they should start behaving and voting in a way that truly benefits ordinary Americans -- instead of merely pretending to do so.
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