# What the fuck is this republican "brand" I keep hearing about? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 5, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934 "2008-06-05T21:30:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gozu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gozu/32/6615_2.png) [@Gozu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/1 "2008-06-05T21:30:44Z")
This is a fucking country, not a supermarket. What kind of fucking world do we live in where it’s acceptable to use fucking marketing terms **openly** to talk about political parties? Fuck this shit and those who came up with it and are working hard to banalize the incursion of corporate thinking into the people’s politics. As if we needed to do more to discourage honesty and moral integrity in favor of commercial propaganda. And fuck the people who came up with “bleeding edge”. It’s CUTTING EDGE you cocksucking motherfuckers! Edges don’t fucking bleed you retarded buffons. WE FUCKING GET IT THAT IF AN EDGE IS CUTTING, IT’S GONNA MAKE YOU BLEED! WE DON’T FUCKING NEED IT SPELLED OUT GODDAMNIT! WHAT ARE WE? RETARDS? Cutting edge was fucking fine. Everytime i read “bleeding edge”, I just want to puke. FUCK YOU ALL AND YOUR GRUESOME RAPE OF OUR CULTURE! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/2 "2008-06-05T21:38:58Z")
Political campaigns are a kind of marketing. You’re “selling” a candidate to voters. Therefore, it’s ok to use marketing terms and concepts to describe them. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/3 "2008-06-05T22:16:42Z")
“Bleeding edge” doesn’t mean the same thing as cutting edge. Cutting edge means using the latest and best technology. Bleeding edge means using technology that’s one step newer than that, stuff that hasn’t been proven. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/4 "2008-06-05T22:25:16Z")
We are all members of a giant corporation called ‘The United States of America’. Get fucking over it. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/5 "2008-06-05T22:33:19Z")
[QUOTE=Gozu] Fuck this shit and those who came up with it and are working hard to banalize the incursion of corporate thinking into the people’s politics. [/QUOTE] Here it is [back in 2002:](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_40/b3802098.htm) > [@](#): > > Says GOP pollster William D. McInturff: “The Republican brand during the Clinton era was shaped by our Southern legislative leadership. Now, voters think of President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Condi Rice. That repositions the party in the political marketplace and strengthens the entire brand.” I suspect use of the phrase goes back to at least the late 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/6 "2008-06-05T22:46:41Z")
“Brand” is a defensible term for a party label, considering they have to market it and advertise it using methods very similar to commercial marketing and advertising (as well as by other methods unique to politics). ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/7 "2008-06-05T22:51:47Z")
I’m in favor of anything that rapes any aspect of our culture that deals with political parties. Culture, schmulture. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/8 "2008-06-05T22:54:35Z")
Well, lets see. Prada. Versace. Cartiers. Old Spice, of course. Marlboro… ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/9 "2008-06-06T01:38:53Z")
I think “rape” is not at all the right term here. Branding is a simple bendover application of a hot-iron logo to the loins of those owned and utilized for profitable production. Down the chute they go! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/10 "2008-06-06T01:41:38Z")
Look on McCain’s left buttock, you see the “Lazy W” brand. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/11 "2008-06-06T01:51:48Z")
I appreciate the candor of using marketing terms in regards to elections. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/12 "2008-06-06T02:11:16Z")
[QUOTE=madmonk28] I appreciate the candor of using marketing terms in regards to elections. [/QUOTE] Yeah, it’s easy for utility. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/13 "2008-06-06T03:32:57Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] “Bleeding edge” doesn’t mean the same thing as cutting edge. Cutting edge means using the latest and best technology. Bleeding edge means using technology that’s one step newer than that, stuff that hasn’t been proven. [/QUOTE] Yes, also “leading edge” gets used synonymously with “cutting edge”, and “bleeding” is a play on that. The insinuation is that by going one step beyond the proven the costs can outweigh the advantages (haemorrhaging money). (I only hear “bleeding edge” used with regards to new technologies though – who would apply it to politics?) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/14 "2008-06-06T06:15:12Z")
[QUOTE=Gozu] This is a fucking country, not a supermarket. What kind of fucking world do we live in where it’s acceptable to use fucking marketing terms **openly** to talk about political parties? [/QUOTE] Sorry, that train left the station 40 years ago. [The Selling of the President](http://www.amazon.com/Selling-President-Joe-McGinniss/dp/0140112405) from 1969 was all about marketing Nixon. That Republicans have a brand makes sense. The brand is supposedly strong defense, business-like competence, small government. When Bush screwed things up, he screwed up the brand just like some bottling company selling Coke that tastes like dog piss. I think one of the reasons they lost so big in 2006 (besides Iraq) that the family-loving Pubbies started looking like a collection of pedophiles and adulterers. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/15 "2008-06-06T08:00:59Z")
[QUOTE=Gozu] FUCK YOU ALL AND YOUR GRUESOME RAPE OF OUR CULTURE! [/QUOTE] The state of culture that you consider “yours” was formed by the very same process as is currently changing the culture in a way that you are decrying. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/16 "2008-06-06T09:10:32Z")
I too hate that term, and I await the two handed two finger wiggle thing to be added to it when using the term. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/17 "2008-06-06T11:05:41Z")
New, Republican Brand[sub]TM[/sub]-now, with even more of the Red State Christian American values you’ve come to rely on! [sub]Republican Brand is a subsidy of the GOP. All Rights Reserved.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/18 "2008-06-06T12:29:20Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Well, lets see. Prada. Versace. Cartiers. Old Spice, of course. Marlboro… [/QUOTE] And Astroglide. Don’t forget Astroglide. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/19 "2008-06-06T12:53:00Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] New, Republican Brand[sub]TM[/sub]-now, with even more of the Red State Christian American values you’ve come to rely on! [sub]Republican Brand is a subsidy of the GOP. All Rights Reserved.[/sub] [/QUOTE] Yeah, like Reagan Cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934/20 "2008-06-06T13:00:07Z")
[QUOTE=Princhester] The state of culture that you consider “yours” was formed by the very same process as is currently changing the culture in a way that you are decrying. [/QUOTE] Maybe he’ll calm down if you just get off his lawn already? -Joe [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-is-this-republican-brand-i-keep-hearing-about/451934.md?page=2)