"The big Republican accomplishment is that they have detoxified their brand"

[leftstreet]

The Republican Party In Triumph
By David Brooks and Gail Collins

November 5, 2014

Gail: See, that’s the frustrating thing. For the last two years the Senate has had Democratic committee chairs who went out of their way to work with Republicans on economic issues. But they were stonewalled by the Republican leadership. And then the voters blamed the Democratic incumbents for gridlock.

David: For Democrats, I guess one big lesson is: Stop talking to each other. Democratic politicians spent the early part of the year running against the Koch brothers. That argument may scare a lot of people in liberal bastions, but no one outside of these bastions knows about them or cares.

David: The big Republican accomplishment is that they have detoxified their brand. Four years ago they seemed scary and extreme to a lot of people. They no longer seem that way. The wins in purple states like North Carolina, Iowa and Colorado are clear indications that the party can at least gain a hearing among swing voters. And if the G.O.P. presents a reasonable candidate (and this year’s crop was very good), then Republicans can win anywhere. I think we’ve left the Sarah Palin phase and entered the Tom Cotton phase.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/the-republican-party-in-triumph/?_r=0

WOOHOO! Go OBAMA!! Six years of reaching across that aisle, capitulating and compromising, and you managed to give legitimacy to a dead political party the voters soundly defeated in 2006 and 2008!!!!

Obama Budget to Include Cuts to Programs in Hopes of Deal

Published: April 5, 2013 930 Comments

WASHINGTON — President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/us/social-programs-face-cutback-in-obama-budget.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

December 07, 2010
Obama's Capitulation on Taxes

What is the point of having Obama and the Democrats in power in Washington if what we get is an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of Americans in the midst of the worst recession in memory?

You know we are in trouble when John Boehner and Mitch McConnell seize the podium to praise Obama for coming around to their side on this issue.
- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/rc120710.html#sthash.WruwSzpY.dpuf

07.31.11
Obama Gives It All Away
It’s hard to overstate the extent of the president’s capitulation to the right. Conservatism will be the driving force in U.S. politics for years to come, argues Michael Tomasky.

Back when George W. Bush and Karl Rove were wrecking the country, my liberal friends and I had many a hearty laugh about Rove’s boast that he was realigning American politics. Yep, we thought, but toward the left! Those hopes seemed vindicated when Barack Obama won the presidency. But just as Bush and Rove helped revive liberalism, it now seems plausible that Obama is ushering in a conservative era. The former did it through rank incompetence, while the latter is simply handing the Republicans the keys to the house and saying, “Take what you want.”

If the Obama/McConnell deal goes through—and it’s still sort of iffy, at least with respect to the House, where Tea Party dead-enders may find common cause with disgusted liberals to doom it—conservative governance will have made several extremely consequential strides, in both the short and long term. Here are four.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/31/obama-s-capitulation-on-the-debt-ceiling-marks-a-new-conservative-era.html

Obama Capitulates to GOP and Withdraws Labor Protection from Colombia Trade Deal
By: emptywheel Tuesday June 28, 2011 6:09 am

The website for the US Trade Representative still has a link to the inadequate–but nevertheless improved–labor protections that the US had demanded from Colombia to support a trade deal with the country.

But according to Sander Levin–who just announced his opposition to the deal–Obama has agreed to a Republican demand to drop such protections from the deal.

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by Republican’s sheer cynicism anymore. But with this move they have effectively demanded–and Obama has agreed–that our workers should have to compete against workers in a country who may well be murdered if they stand up to management. The GOP has now insisted that the race to the bottom include murder.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/06/28/obama-capitulates-to-gop-and-withdraws-labor-protection-from-colombia-trade-deal/

[spanone]

1. they have detoxified the optics of their brand. they are more toxic than ever

[Turbineguy]

2. They haven't detoxified.

They've gotten their base to like toxin.

[AverageJoe90]

3. They haven't detoxified their brand one bit, actually.

David Brooks is full of shit on something else, too, by the way: this year's crop of Goppers was even worse than in 2010 in some ways. Unfortunately, we'll be stuck with a lot of them for at least another few years.

[Octafish]

4. That is the take-away.

Leave it to David Brooks, who owes it all to the late Rev. Moon.

[AZ Progressive]

5. We'll see about that in 2016

[hifiguy]

6. Not at all. It's what Charlie Pierce said.

They put the 'baggers in shoes, and taught them how to speak in public. Same old toxic teatalitarian shit, just dressed better and sent to a speech coach. And maybe a dentist.