The challenge for Republicans is convincing voters that their newfound concern is sincere. After three years of budget cuts and fiscal crises that badly damaged the GOP brand, voters not only rejected presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012 but also have told pollsters that they view Republicans generally as indifferent to middle-class interests.

That must change if the party hopes for a different outcome in the 2014 midterm elections and beyond, senior Republicans say.

“We are going to have to offer an affirmative platform in areas from job training and education to entitlements and the social safety net to employment law and environmental regulation,” said Oren Cass, domestic policy director to the Romney campaign, “instead of just acknowledging problems that liberals are talking about and then criticizing big-government responses.”

More: - the Washington Post