Whatever happened to the GOP rebranding effort?

It started with such gusto, the GOP website had a whole section devoted to giving ideas about where the party should go, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush were doing a listening tour across America to get ideas, Republican and conservative pundits were constantly talking about rebuilding the party image, that effort seems to have vanished.  What I have seen is a move to “cleanse” the party of those that would abandon their core values in order to grow.  The core values part was never clear because they seemed to always go back to reminiscing about the Reagan years without ever talking specifics.

Regardless, the GOP seems to have descended into an unmanageable mess full of people screaming for the President’s birth certificate and yelling about FEMA camps, ACORN, and the coming fascist Nazi health care system.  There have been calls for violence by both conservative fringe groups and prominent conservative talk show hosts.  It honestly looks like the whole conservative movement has descended into chaos.

I’ve never been a fan of the Republican party, I’ve always considered the party to be a little bit on the shady side ever since the Nixon administration but I have to say that I never thought the party leadership would lose control of the party base like this.  I never dreamed that a party that was so good at staying on message and controlling the news cycle would fall so far and so fast.  I’m actually a little shocked at what has happened.