SOLUTIONS/ISTOOK: How can Republicans repair their brand?

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By Ernest Istook

A few years ago we said goodbye to the Oldsmobile. It went the way of the Pierce Arrow, Plymouth and Studebaker.

Some believe conservatives and Republicans will be the next brands doomed to follow into extinction. They forecast death by suicide for the GOP and extinction via political climate change for conservatives.

But let's not bury either group beside the Whigs and the Mugwumps.

Republicans and conservatives overlap but are not identical. Yet they need each other to flourish because Democrats own the liberal brand. Unless they have a conservative brand, Republicans will have no brand at all.

Most conservatives believe that America will back them if they simply stand firm on their principles. But that's not enough because today's liberal dominance in Washington reflects American attitudes more than we'd like to admit. The economy, demographic shifts and having a skilled liberal communicator as president make it insufficient for conservative officeholders to abide by their principles.

John F. Kennedy's famed inaugural speech challenge has been flipped upside-down. Asking "what you can do for your country" is redefined to mean supporting big government rather than a call to self-responsibility.

Conservatives must accept the burden of educating a nation whose core founding principles have been eroded by left-leaning media, Hollywood and political correctness, and damaged by conservative misbehavior.

Fixing our brand requires that we educate, communicate and advocate differently. The lower-tax message won't resonate with the millions of Americans who already enjoy zero-income-tax liability, thanks to conservative efforts. Those voters ask, "What have you done for me lately?"

The high cost of Congress is the way to re-establish the appeal to personal pocketbooks. We need a kitchen-table agenda that reflects both the concerns of the moment and timeless principles. "Economic stimulus" benefits are worth less to families than if Washington halted the policies that keep jacking up prices (often in the name of helping children or, more recently, to protect the planet).

This consumer-oriented conservative approach should focus on how government has escalated the costs of everything from health care to energy, food and more. Programs and subsidies touted by the left are often an effort to offset and mask these high prices.