Associated Press
The week after President Obama was re-elected, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) insisted Republicans need to "stop being the stupid party." He added that he and his party have "had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters."
The Louisianan added that his party should "stop reducing everything to mindless slogans, tag lines, 30-second ads that all begin to sound the same."
It all sounded quite nice, actually. Even if Jindal made a poor messenger, the message had the potential to serve as a wake-up call for a party that badly needs one.
This week, we were reminded of just shallow Jindal's rhetoric really is, and why he's not the Republican to lead the GOP away from "dumbed-down conservatism"; he's the Republican who can't let go of "dumbed-down conservatism."
Many of us have argued that "fiscal cliff" is a wildly overwrought metaphor to describe the contractionary effects of fiscal tightening that will be phased in gradually. Bobby Jindal, in an op-ed today, seems to think the metaphor is not overwrought enough ("Today it's the fiscal cliff, but that surely will not be the end of it; next year it will be the fiscal mountain, after that the fiscal black hole, and after that fiscal Armageddon"). But it also appears that Jindal lacks any understanding of what the fiscal cliff is or why economists think it's bad.
Jindal's op-ed is a truly sad display. The governor who seems eager to blaze a new intellectual trail for the Republican Party has an agenda that includes a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution (one of the worst ideas in the history of bad ideas); an 18 percent cap on federal spending (the other worst idea in the history of bad ideas); an arbitrary mechanism that would make it all but impossible for policymakers to raise taxes for any reason (which would make policymaking even more impossible); and just for the heck of it, term limits, as if having inexperienced policymakers would make our problems go away.
Taken together, Bobby Jindal, the guy who wants his party to "stop reducing everything to mindless slogans," "stop being simplistic," and start "trusting the intelligence of the American people," is rolling out old, tired cliches that don't work, crumble under scrutiny, and don't even relate to the ongoing fiscal debate.
Indeed, Paul Krugman, lamenting the "fiscal ignoramus factor," lamented, "You really have to wonder how someone who's a major political figure could be this uninformed -- but you have to wonder even more about the state of mind that induces you to write an op-ed about a subject you don't comprehend at all."
I realize Jindal has a reputation with the D.C. establishment as being a serious guy and intellectual heavyweight. It's time for the establishment to reevaluate those assumptions.
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So much for that vacation, Steve? Laura said you'd be in with a post or two, but you are pumping it out today!
LOL!
Sometimes it's hard to sit quiet or be indifferent when a lot of crap is flying by your window.
I remember when the con artist Paul Ryan "was" called serious and intellectual heavy weight.Then stuff happened and we saw or at least for those with eyes and hears saw how ridiculously narrow minded and intellectually shallow he actually is.
oops! those with eyes and ears.
7 posts by him before 1 o'clock... I'd say he had a hard time keeping quiet! =)
Yes, great post Steve.
One word: Louisiana
One word does not suffice. Louisiana? Also, too? Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, my own home Commonwealth of Pennsyltucky... and the list goes on and on.
Better summary term? Rape-Public-CON.
The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow
;-)
42, #2.1 Lets not forget the other deep red states down in de deep south.
You live in Pennsyltucky too! Don't you just love our Governor! Oh, he's turning things round for us......yeah.......right...
He's another one I have a problem looking at. I notice he is picking up confidence as the days go by. LOL
Remember, this is the guy who is pushing for school vouchers so children can learn that cave people frolicked with dinosaurs, and only 6000 years ago. He rejected the Medicaid extension, slashed arts funding to the bone, and doesn't give a hoot about anything except his own political ambition. Please also remember that not everyone who lives in Louisiana voted for this clown, or for Romney. It's difficult for some of us to self-deport, much as we might like to, when we own homes in a depressed market.
Pretzel, you forgot the Republic of Texas with the good gov. Goodhair and his merry band of evildoers. And having ties with Pennsyltucky, I cringe at what C.....t (aka, he whose name is not to be mentioned) has done to a once reasonably prosperous state. I suspect that he's in training to become part of the Texas political scene.
wstarn, #2.3 You are right. I apologize. I should have thought of that, as clearly Governor Corbett did not get into power in PA from MY vote, either!
Lots of people in the red states would prefer to be somewhere else, but they can't move.
No, it's not Louisiana or any of the other states listed. It's about power. Jindal thought he could tell it like it is, but that was before contact came from the Kochs or Karl Rove or their designated lobbyists. There are signs that the T.E.A group's hold on the Republican Party is weakening, but Jindal's about face is a sign that they still have power. It's amazing what the $37 million, yes, million, that the Kochs spend on lobbying each year has achieved. Or what the $300 million or more they spent on the elections in 2010 and 2012 has given them when candidates they backed won in governor and legislative races. Remember when, after the 2010 election, criticizing Rush Limbaugh resulted in the politician apologizing within days?
No, understanding Jindal means you have to understand who the real powers in Republican politics are. The Kochs and their colleagues.
I once thought of being a Republican, but I couldn't pass the IQ test low enough.
You didn't not study hard enough, did you.
Continue with the self delusion about how much "smarter" you think you are than Republicans (whatever the "average" Republican is). Why not talk about big ideas instead of continuing to degrade opposing viewpoints? Besides what does "smart" have to do with wisdom? You are exposing yourself.
Treeperson
"continuing to degrade opposing viewpoints" has been the ONLY thing we've heard out of the mouths of Rs, esp directed at our President. The one & only "big idea" from the Rw is---The only point of life is to acquire stuff & MONEY, no matter who you have to stomp on to get it (see koch bros story).
If am ever curious as to what the right is up to, just look at what dastardly deeds they accuse others of doing & that's what!
So Ben Franklin's words of wisdom come from a big dummy? Exposed troll
Wrong again. I'm fully clothed. Can't speak for the rest of us.
Kind of everything. you need to have a certain level of intelligence to be able to glean any wisdom from your life experiences. they say wisdom comes with age, well it doesn't. I'm oldish now and my friends and I thought the same thing, aren't you supposed to get wiser as you get older? well our parents didn't, we aren't and you aren't either if you aren't smart to begin with you aren't going to get any smarter later or wiser. all you can possibly hope for is to be less ignorant. so go read a book find a subject and read up about it.
Why did Jindal disregard our fiscal escarpment?
It's an escarpment, dammit Bobby! -Kevo
How about a "Crag" that's a word that doesn't get used enough in ecconomics...
You know why he disregarded it, it's not a common enough word and he doesn't want his audience looking things up - they might start researching other things and that would be bad if they started to acquire knowledge about their policy positions.
So he wants to stop reducing things to mindless slogans, but he comes up with 3 more for the future.
He holds the Copyrights
Bobby Jindal is lowering the perceived value of Rachel's Rhodes Scholarship by the hour. There has to be some sort of intervention that can be done; either he truly is growing dumber, or he's cynically playing dumb for partisan purposes.
Chait's takedown is great, but someone could really do a more in-depth response to all of the people simultaneously screaming about the Armageddon of the fiscal cliff and that "we must make huge cuts now!" Too many people - including the Very Smart People - have confused the basics of this issue, and something needs to break through the bubble before a huge mistake is made.
Well, the former is certainly possible - scientific study has actually shown that a steady "diet" of Fox Propaganda can in fact make you "dumber" - but the latter, sadly, is still more likely.
The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow
;-)
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Bobby has plenty of room to expand his ignorance.
when did know what the hell you were talking about ever become a prerequisite to a modern republican shooting his mouth off?
When anyone brings up Balanced Budget Amendment, just reply with Budget Surplus Under Clinton. It's always possible with the right leadership and correct principles.
Balanced budgets would be really bad for the neocons who want to always go to war.
"We need to go to war with Iraq; they aided bin Laden and they have WMDs."
"Okay, but we only have enough money in the budget for a 6 day offensive, then we have to withdraw."
Also, wouldn't terrorists be able to attack us at will knowing we couldn't retaliate, if say it's near the end of the fiscal year and the budgets have been consumed? At least Democrats wouldn't be asking for $ for $ cuts in spending to provide defense funding.
Balanced budget talk is just their attempt at appearing to be the fiscally responsible party - they know it's ridiculous, but they can point to it and say they tried to cut spending but the tax and spend libruls wouldn't let them.
The GOP has become a "dumbed down" singularity..
OMG - they're the "fiscal black hole"!!!
o.O
The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow
;-)
Fiscal chasm...or if you're underwater, fiscal abyss?
Proving once again that when you are "right", there is no room left in your brain for actual thought. Why worry, because you're right, right?
Well, no such commandment which sayest: Thou Shalt Think for Thyself.
The last time someone "thought" they'd try something new, they got chucked out of the Garden of Eden, and thus, the right hasn't been willing to try any new ideas since...
His 'no neanderthal left behind' education proposals must have a contaminant that gets into hair oil and causes rapid loss of brain cells.
That's a quote from Richard Mitchell's essay, "The Answering of Kautski." You can read the whole thing on the Internet. Just google it.
The point is that there's a political advantage to having a permanent underclass of citizens who are poorly educated. Cynical as that may sound, it's hard to deny.
Keep in mind that this is the party that thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be a heartbeat away from knowing the launch codes.
the lessons that repubs have to learn, WILL NOT COME EASY TO THEM. they are so convinced they are RIGHT.
While Jindal, Christie, Rubio and Haley seem to be the young, press-gathering GOP of the next generation, it is important to remember which Republicans are still in GOP positions of leadership: Boehner, Ryan, and McConnell. As long as that is happening, all Republican "leaning" Americans can be assured of BUSINESS AS USUAL.
That is actually good news for we Non-Republican Americans.
"Dumbed-down conservatism" is the ultimate redundancy.
All the evidence of bsiness as usual from the republicans is to cmpare their rhetoric wsith tjheir policies. With every Representative that goes on the talk shows, the latest one aired being from Georgfia on Weekends with Alex Witt, hasn't even begun to change the rhetoric. They're still pushing the Ryan budget outline from the last campaign, protecting the 2% and sticking it to the 98%, for the problems that they created for the 8 years of Bush, plus they have no jobs plan for increasing the wages/salaries and number of jobs as evidenced by nothing being proposed for legislation. Then there's the other issues on women's health/rights/safety, immigration, supporlting returning vets in jobs to list a few. If you think about it, how nice if they were to continue down this path of ignoring math, science, reality etc., etc., etc. It's unfortunate that the electorate that support their positions are low informatin voters and those who vote against their own best economic interest, which is why they want to cut eduction; a dumbed down electorate is what they're after. Look at what's been happening to worker wages over the last 10 -20 years; stagnent, while the rich gets significantly richer, and the middle class disappears with inflation and stagnent earnings.....
I think the President needs to assign all Republicans a homework assignment, he is the leader, teacher in charge. Each one of them needs to spend at least 3 weeks living among the impoverished and poor of his or her State. Middle Class families too. Let's show them with action how it really is. Then, they could go back to work, working for their people to try and make things easier for them. Don't listen to no hoity toity Tea Party, listen to the real people, the ones that have sacrificed so much for their children, there is where the concern for children is the greatest, not the future of children who haven't even been born yet.