A majority of Americans say they want us out of Iraq. A majority of Americans want universal health care. A vast majority of Americans wanted Congress and the President to extend health care benefits for children of poor and lower-middle-class families - even if it meant raising their taxes.
House Republican leader John Boehner and his colleagues have heard their calls, and responded...by crafting a marketing slogan that tells Americans what idiots they are.
Robert L. Borosage at HuffPo runs down on "The Change You Deserve," a message that the Republicans hope will dispel the near-inevitable specter of massive defeat at the polls in November. As Borosage notes, when the opportunity for "real" change reared its head, Congressional Republicans murdered it:
The Senate minority set a new record for filibusters before the first session was over. The president issued a record number of veto threats. House Republicans perfected procedural tricks that would put sand in the gears. As last as last week, they switched their votes on a resolution celebrating mothers on Mother's Day simply to obstruct business on the Senate.
They blocked the resolution to set a date to get the troops out of Iraq. They blocked extending health care to children. They blocked allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs. They blocked overturning subsidies to big oil and investing them in alternative energy.
It's clear what Americans want (and need): An end to the War. Universal health coverage. Cleaner energy. An end to torture and illegal detainment. An end to Wall Street bail-outs. Unfortunately for the GOP - and, for the last eight years, unfortunately for the American people as well - none of those needs fits with the trickle-down "legacy" of Ronald Reagan, which consists of slashing social services in the name of corporate welfare.
So instead, we get "The Change We Deserve." It's a cleverly condescending bromide. You won't get the change you want, because what you want, according to the GOP, is stooopid. They know what you really need.
Skyrocketing health costs. A reliance on non-reusable energy that requires raping the Alaskan wilderness. Detention and torture of the innocent. Domestic spying. 100 years of war in Iraq.
That's The Change You Deserve.
Are you inspired yet?
UPDATE: Turns out the slogan may even be trademarked. Now THAT'S change!