Shorter big-time plugged-in Republican strategist to Byron York: The GOP is going to adopt a drastically different strategy. No longer will we pull stunts, gin up cheap controversies for cable news, bullshit the electorate or engage in theatrics. We're all about winning on the issues now,
just like in the days of Drill, Baby, Drill.
OK then! This does sound bold and new and not at all duplicitous. Yes, Republicans sure were nothing but substantive and issue-driven in the offshore drilling "energy debate" of 2008: Sarah Palin addressing the electorate, consolidating public opinion, no one questioning anyone's sanity, making Barack Obama change rhetorical course by half a degree, and if I remember correctly, congressional Republicans spent the 2008 summer recess barking into the void about offshore drilling, hanging out alone in the Capitol demanding things which
have not happened. Republican WIN! Politically speaking,
how have their arguments about offshore drilling paid off?
Republicans are searching for a new catchphrase to define this year’s offshore drilling debate after concluding the memorable “drill, baby, drill” line of the last presidential campaign has lost potency — or even worse, become a political liability.
Time is of the essence. Already, some Republicans are fretting that they haven’t upgraded the message in time for the fast-approaching energy debate. “This year, everyone’s thinking maybe they’ll actually come up with grown-up things to say,” said Republican energy lobbyist Michael McKenna, president of MWR Strategies. “‘Drill, baby, drill’ impeded the conversation. We energy guys hated it.”
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who has been at the forefront of environmental issues, called the catchphrase “fun and catchy, but devoid of reality.” And at the recent House GOP congressional retreat, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty begged his fellow Republicans to sharpen their energy message to help win back voters. “‘Drill, baby, drill’ is a great slogan, but it’s not enough,” he said. “We need to identify with emerging issues and get ahead of them.”
All eyes are now turning to new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who coined the phrase, and some lawmakers hope he might crank out another infectious slogan.
What an excellent success story for the GOP to model its new strategy on. And to think, it leads right back to wordsmith Michael Steele! How do you say offshore drilling in suburban hip-hop settings? Drill off the Sandy Hook! East Coast drilla, West Coast drilla! Anyway, nothing substantive will come of this.
That is because Republicans are so mired in their own bullshit that even their attempts to divest themselves of bullshit are mired in bullshit. Their problem isn't about messaging or technology; it's metaphysical--there is nothing outside the bullshit. I submit that if Republicans actually detoxed and started making arguments that didn't presuppose dozens of nonsensical premises and acres of lies, innuendo, obscure mythologies, etc., they wouldn't be Republicans. I don't know what they would be, or where that would leave their base, but thankfully it's not my job to imagine these things. It's hard not to believe that any dominant conservative politics will only sally forth in a crazy new world of the future in which liberals for some reason appear soft on intelligent life forms emerging from the sea.
ALSO: John Cole
advises Republicans to sit down and shut up like the electorate told them to do. A novel idea--stop talking at the electorate and start listening. Of course, they wouldn't be Republicans if they did that, either. But hey, if the religion blogger Andrew Sullivan
thinks this means Obama has forced his opposition to change on his own terms, how can we possibly doubt that this talk of a new Republican stunt-free strategy isn't itself a stunt?
