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In the wake of his party's defeats in the 2012 elections, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has positioned himself as a leader in setting the GOP on a smarter path. He was the first Republican to publicly condemn Mitt Romney's "gifts" comments, and soon after, Jindal declared he wants Republicans to "stop being the stupid party."
And while these efforts are drawing praise from some on the right, let's pause to note the superficiality of Jindal's vision. Take his comments yesterday on Fox News, for example.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) accused failed Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock of saying "stupid" and "offensive" things that damaged the Republican Party.
"We also don't need to be saying stupid things," he said. "Look, we had candidates in Indiana and Missouri that said offensive things that not only hurt themselves and lost us two Senate seats but also hurt the Republican Party across the board."
On abortion, while Jindal said he's pro-life, "we don't need to demonize those that disagree with us. We need to respect the fact that others have come to different conclusions based on their own sincerely held beliefs."
Here's the detail Jindal neglected to mention: he opposes any and all abortion rights, without exception. If the Louisiana governor had his way, women impregnated by a rapist would be forced by the American government to take that pregnancy to term. The same would be true in cases of incest or pregnancies in which the health of the mother is at risk.
In other words, as far as public policy is concerned, the only difference between Jindal, Akin, and Mourdock is word choice. Jindal doesn't want candidates in his party "saying stupid things," but he's entirely comfortable with those candidates adopting the same extremist positions he espouses.
Indeed, the larger irony of Jindal presenting himself as a forward-thinking, far-right leader is realizing just how odd a choice he is.
On the one hand, the Louisiana governor says he's "had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism"; on the other, Jindal is a fierce, anti-gay culture warrior who wants children to be taught creationism and believes he participated in an exorcism.
As this relates to abortion, Jindal is effectively urging his party to adopt the same vision as Mourdock and Akin, but present their agenda with less-offensive talking points. It's reminiscent of Charles Krauthammer's advice to the GOP: "The problem ... for Republicans is not policy but delicacy."
They're both misguided if they think softer, more polite language can make the right-wing social agenda seem more palatable to the American mainstream.
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Yes, Jindal seems to be criticizing fellow Republicans on matters of style only, not of substance.
The chastizing of Akin and Mourdock is a prime example-- he didn't like their "stupid" comments on abortion policies, but he favors exactly the same laws against abortion for anyone, including rape victims, that they advocate.
Look at Jindal's record as governor and he's done everything he is "complaining" about. And then some!
If you'll recall, that's why Akin caused such an uproar at the time -- his views were entirely in line with the party platform; his crime was talking about them out loud.
My concern is that people will just take whatever fluffy language they spew out to mean they aren't as objectionable in their beliefs as they are. In fact, I think the Republicans are counting on it.
Fluffy language works very well for Obama, why wouldn't it work for everyone else.
That said Republicans will have to come around to the reality that abortion is between a woman and her God, not his.
Dang Shooter, another point you made that I have to agree with. Good for you!
"That said Republicans will have to come around to the reality that abortion is between a woman and her God, not his."
AaronMA - well said! I have often caught myself looking at the pointing finger, instead of in the direction toward which it is pointing.
Shooter242 - Jindal is quoted as having said "..we don't need to demonize those that disagree with us. We need to respect the fact that others have come to different conclusions based on their own sincerely held beliefs."
Any Republican who really believes that, any Republican who genuinely believes in representative government, would have already denounced the Teaparty/Taliban's efforts to disenfranchise Americans.
The Tea Party isn't the Evangelicals. It's secular.
And there you go from saying something I agree with, to being the same old Shooter. No, the Tea Party isn't 100% evangelical, but I'd bet $10,000 that they're probably close to 96% of it. Even that might be generous.
I'd also rather put it as : Republicans will have to come around to the reality that abortion is between a woman, her doctor, and her conscience.
Abortion is a decision between a woman and her doctor. In most cases, if a woman has strong religious feelings, she would not be discussing an abortion with her doctor. The idea that the TP is secular is hogwash. Almost every single one voted for the abortion bills in Congress.
Jindal says some things but does the opposite as you mention, he would be Romney with better lies. Reject this holy roller and his crooked party.
It looks like it's going to take a few more elections for them to realize that good POLICY is good POLITICS
Follows along well with the current Republican thinking- it wasn't the ideas that the American public rejected, but rather simply how they were presented.
Putting a pretty garnish on a plate full of sh!t isn't going to make it taste any better.
One of my mentors liked to say, "If you polish sh!t, all you get is shiny sh!t."
If you reject the kinder, gentler gotp you will not get the free velvet picture of Elvis fighting off a dinosaur while holding the ten commandments.
The Republican solution to their defeat: bigger smile, sharper teeth.
That's all you have to know. And don't be surprised when it works. 47% of voters in the Presidential contest voted for a liar when they knew he was lying and when they knew his policies weren't in their own best economic interests. 47%.
47%.
What I'd like to know is what that percentage would have been if Obama was all white; because if the Democrats have a white candidate in 2016 and the repubs don't change their policies, it seems they would lose by a lot more (granted, there may be less black voter turnout, but I think it would be less of a difference then the change in the "vote for the white guy" vote).
Louisiana ranks somewhere between 47 - 50th on the lists of indicators (health, education, poverty, etc.) of the states, so why should we listen to him, again? Yep, I heard those crickets too.....Bobby Jindal leader of one of the worst, most backward states in the nation and he wants to dismiss the "stupid" within his party - that's rich!
While he creates a whole stupid underclass with his awful school voucher program for future young republicans. He has a habit of starting projects, abandoning them in midstream, then blaming someone else when they do not come to fruition, and this has gone on throughout his entire career. Please remember, not all of us white folk in Louisiana voted for this clown or for any other Republican.
Then you have my condolences for the pick of your fellow citizens.
Slow students get 'left back'.
And the Smart Ones (like Huntsman) are vilified.
They should nominate Huntsman for Secretary of State or Defense. He's the only Republican I can think of that I don't hate. It would shut up some of the naysayers and I think he would do a good job.
The real impact of Akin and Mourdock's rape comments was that they let the abortion genie out of the bottle i.e. they said what they and many Republicans have believed all along. So now they are trying to get the genie back in the bottle by trying to say this is just how it was said, not the policy behind it. But it's too late because so many people, and especially women rightfully so, have seen and heard them for what they are, total anti-abortion zealots that want a total ban on all abortions. This was and still is their policy. Let's not let them convince themselves otherwise.
This is such a crucial issue. Katie and I really appreciate your keeping light focused on it, Rachel. The Republican problem is not "saying stupid stuff." The real problem is "thinking stupid stuff." American women do not need Bobby Jindal or any other Republican telling them what they can and can't do with their bodies.
He's a smoother, brighter, male Michele Bachmann. That's all.
Well that's certainly not saying much.
So is Daffy Duck
This is so funny... Jindal is another loon who feels that simply being dishonest is the best way to get folks to vote Republican. Not a sliver of difference between Akin and Jindal as far as the policy goes, but apparently Akin was "stupid" enough to be honest about it. Can't wait to hear Jindals stump speeches...
"Governor Jindal, as your party's presidential nominee, please describe your views on abortion - I know you're pro-life, so will you have any exceptions for rape/health of mother/incest?"
"I believe what I believe the majority of Americans believe regarding abortion, and I think that that would be best disclosed after I am elected, when I can confer with Congress about it. I don't have time to go in to detail about it now."
I see the Republicans have been trying to shred that old snake skin for a new disguise of deceit. Republicans are the same as they have always been deceivers and outright liars.
Jindal wrote an op-ed last week arguing that the GOP needs to stop trying to appeal to voters with dumbed-down slogans and tag-lines, and instead to articulate their plans to voters in real terms. The majority of the piece was, you guessed it, the same mindless conservative rhetoric that failed at the polls ("Focus on people, not government" and "Government spending does not grow our economy" and "President Barack Obama and the Democrats can continue trying to divide America into groups of warring communities with competing interests, but we will have none of it.").
At the end of the piece, Jindal does give two relatively more 'specific' policy proposals. What were they? Energy independence (as an outcome, without any plan) and updated education system. In other words, after voters rejected Romney's platform a week ago, Jindal's big idea is to recycle 40% of Romney's five-point plan (which, by the way was no different from the McCain plan or the Bush plan). Jindal is transparently attempting to brand himself as 'the smart Republican' in the room. In reality, it's the same stupidity, in a more polite package.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/15/opinion/jindal-gop-election/index.html
The guy who supposedly wants Republicans to stop being the stupid party is working toward "market based" health care reform by refusing to establish a health insurance market in Louisiana.
One senses that the GOP currently believes that all Willard Mitt had to do was pander to Latino voters—utterly missing the point that the problem with the Republican party, their choice of candidate and the type of campaign they devised, was profoundly hateful and dismissive of deeply held convictions—that our voice and our votes mattered, the taxes we do pay (that many seem to believe we do not), the work that we do and the families we raise matter and have an impact in how we are governed.
The GOP has always needed scapegoats—recall Reagan’s “welfare queen”--someone who can be portrayed as “different,” somehow “un-American.” But this time what came under attack was our President and the diverse accents with which we all spoke in one American voice. What would Gingrich do without his “food stamp President,” or Willard without his 47%?
On election night President Obama made calls to Speaker Boehner and Mitch McConnell and was told they were both asleep. Like sulky stood up prom dates they ignored the calls. One does not get woken up when the President of the United States calls? And after stating that the Affordable Healthcare Act was the “law of the land” John Boehner had to retract it in the face of Tea Party pressure and, yet again, state his mission to have the law repealed. It seems they have learned nothing. I suspect that the rising tide of Latino, African-American and Women voting power will easily drown the political coward who caves to the bigoted and the hateful.
Poison the water but don't drink it.
Jindal, Barbour, Rubio, Christie, Ayotte and many more on the current the list of GOP penitents were all fiercely defending the GOP hard line until Nov. 6, 2012. The only difference between them and Romney, is that Willard's flip-flopping was synchronized to a boiled egg timer, these guys flip flop to the beat of a political drumming. Not all the GOP has accepted the drumming given to them by the Dems. Ryan and his followers are firmly entrenched in their hardcore views. They still blame the election loss on high voter turn out, in particular minority voters (urbanites), so look out for more voter suppression. The main issue is the GOP still has the same evangelical and tea party base so nothing the penitents say or do will really change how they really act in office, except they found their mask of reasonableness in their closets to try and fool us. If you really listen to them they may sound like they are cooperative or have a different perspective but it is all a ruse and play on words. The GOP also thinks that by putting a person of color in the forefront they will win over the minorities, Llatinos, Asians or Blacks. If you still have the same policies, it ain't gonna work. The GOP = The American Taliban.