In its election post-mortem last year, the Republican Party conceded that it had become a bit too extreme, and needed to rebrand itself to win over more voters. Exhibit A that the party is trying to (finally) take its own advice: Last night's State of the Union rebuttal.
Seated before a makeshift fireplace, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) offered (in a very calm tone) a "hopeful Republican vision" for the nation. Though light on policy specifics, McMorris Rodgers — the Republican Conference chairwoman, and the highest-ranking woman in the House GOP leadership — said the GOP's vision "helps families rise above the limits of poverty and protects our most vulnerable." Notably, she contrasted that approach to the president's without sharply critiquing Obama himself.
"We want you to have a better life," she said. "The president wants that too. But we part ways when it comes to how to make that happen."
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That is a marked shift from the more heated rhetoric of the past few years, when even some mainstream Republicans suggested Obama was a brash tyrant out to destroy America. And in that sense, McMorris Rodgers' tone signals that the GOP is, after years of full-throated opposition, perhaps trying out a softer tone.
So why the change?
Republicans have spent pretty much the entirety of Obama's presidency opposing nearly everything he's done. In 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview that the "single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
Hence, we've seen more than 40 votes to repeal ObamaCare, a government shutdown, and endless brinksmanship over the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling. Though the bickering has tainted both parties and the president, Congressional Republicans have come out looking the worst.
The GOP's favorability imploded, and party identification fell to an all-time low. Worse, a significant majority of Americans now think the GOP is the more extreme party, and that its members aren't particularly concerned with average people's needs.
Clearly, some sort of rebranding is needed.
Enter McMorris Rodgers, who spoke at length about her past — working at a McDonald's to pay for college — and her feel-good home life — she recently gave birth to her third child, and she has another who was diagnosed with Down syndrome. That she is a high-ranking woman in a party that has struggled to court female voters is hardly a coincidence. McMorris Rodgers is "the quintessential Republican counterpoint to the contraceptive-popping, In-Leaning feminist Democratic voter," wrote Nora Caplan-Bricker in The New Republic. "She's Supermom."
Even the rebuttal's framing — "the true state of the union lies in your heart and in your home" — was intended to conjure up cozy images and warm feelings. Contrast that to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) screaming about the Affordable Care Act a few years back:
To be sure, one friendly rebuttal does not necessarily mean the GOP is softening its politics in tandem with its image. House Republicans are at least considering some limited aspects of immigration reform after months of dawdling on the issue, and GOP leaders said they would not pick a big fight over the debt ceiling this time around.
Yet with the party still deeply divided, and with Tea Party types as fiery as ever, there's no guarantee the GOP has the unity necessary to truly take a gentler legislative approach to match its new veneer.
