Jindal to GOP: "Stop being . . . stupid."

[TheCouga]

Jindal: End 'dumbed-down conservatism' - POLITICO.com Print View

I admire Jindal's desire for the GOP to produce their first intellectually-based platform in 40 years or so. I don't think his pleas will work, however.

The people that run the party today do not respect intelligence. They regularly deride "elite thinkers" and graduate-level education. Their ultimate respect goes not to smart minds, but to gorilla-like, tightly-wound, "think with their gut," pseudo-alpha-male personas whose main goal is to simply be a dick rather than solve problems and reach compromises. Good luck with an intellectual appeal to those guys, Bobby.

[pyrotigers]

Jindal: End 'dumbed-down conservatism' - POLITICO.com Print View

I admire Jindal's desire for the GOP to produce their first intellectually-based platform in 40 years or so. I don't think his pleas will work, however.

The people that run the party today do not respect intelligence. They regularly deride "elite thinkers" and graduate-level education. Their ultimate respect goes not to smart minds, but to gorilla-like, tightly-wound, "think with their gut," pseudo-alpha-male personas whose main goal is to simply be a dick rather than solve problems and reach compromises. Good luck with an intellectual appeal to those guys, Bobby.

I know you hate them and all, but do you really view Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as dumb from the gut guys? I'm not saying they were GOOD choices, but they certainly don't fit your stereotype of neanderthal Republicans.

Of course, I think Bobby Jindal is a joke and he's only saying this to try and get back into the race for 2016 despite being wholly unqualified.

[TheCouga]

Romney and Ryan are cut from the same cloth. I don't think either are "dumb" the way Sarah Palin, Richard Mourdock, Michelle Bachmann, and Todd Aikin are dumb. However, I do not think they are very smart, either. They are smug people that have been coddled all their lives that think anyone that makes less money than they do is lazy. I think they both are very deeply cynical people--to the point of being nihilists--and ran a campaign that reflected this. I think the public also got a sense of this, which made both candidate very unlikable in an election that was very winnable for the GOP.

[TheCouga]

In the end, it was arrogance that did Romney & Ryan in. They thought they could win an election based solely on attacking Obama rather than reaching out to voters and building some sort of trust and offering up some signs of empathy. But they lost.

As for Republicans losing the Senate...for the second election in a row, it was due to most of their candidates being astoundingly stupid (O'Donnell, Buck, Angle, etc. in 2010; Aikin, Mourdock, Berg, etc. in 2012).

[sinister porpoise]

Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response to Obama's State of the Union in 2009, in it Jindal criticized Congress for spending "$140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring." and said "Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."



"Something called 'volcano monitoring'" as if having foreknowledge of a disaster is an exotic concept.

Word to Jindal: 'Volcano monitoring' needed - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience | NBC News

Volcano monitoring likely saved many lives — and significant money — in the case of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (where the United States had military bases at the time), according to the USGS.

The cataclysmic eruption lasted more than 10 hours and sent a cloud of ash as high as 22 miles into the air that grew to more than 300 miles across.

The USGS spent less than $1.5 million monitoring the volcano and was able to warn of the impending eruption, which allowed authorities to evacuate residents, as well as aircraft and other equipment from U.S. bases there.

The USGS estimates that the efforts saved thousands of lives and prevented property losses of at least $250 million (considered a conservative figure).

[TheCouga]

A lot of what Jindal says is a tacit admission that you can't be popular in the GOP without some dumbed-down message that "all government spending is a waste."

Bottom line is that almost the entire GOP base is ideologically and blindly opposed to government spending, even as they take advantage and take for granted all the government spending that goes to protect their health, improve their lives, and protect their homeland.

[Euphdude]

I don't think Jindal makes a statement like this unless he's looking to make a run for the presidency in 2016. That said, I agree with what he says -- the hard part will be convincing the rest of the GOP along with its base. Suggestions like these are usually met with responses like "that would turn us into Democrats".

[TheCouga]

I don't think Jindal makes a statement like this unless he's looking to make a run for the presidency in 2016. That said, I agree with what he says -- the hard part will be convincing the rest of the GOP along with its base. Suggestions like these are usually met with responses like "that would turn us into Democrats".

I actually think a Jindal/Christie ticket would be hard to beat in 2016. Unless Hillary runs...which I'm hoping happens. I just don't think anyone can beat her.

Even though I don't like Christie (due to his strong connection to ALEC), I do think he is a decently smart politician.

[pfife]

I agree, Hillary is the early favorite.

Right now, I'm thinking the best option on the GOP side is....... [gulp] Jeb Bush.

[TheCouga]

I agree, Hillary is the early favorite.

Right now, I'm thinking the best option on the GOP side is....... [gulp] Jeb Bush.

I really think the Bush name is ruined for the rest of the history of US politics.

[screwball]

Pills will have Jindal "Christie'd" by tomorrow, if not already.

[pfife]

Um, someone needs to tell Jindal he's messing it up!

Same with Ramesh Ponnuru
Condescending Twaddle about Hispanics - By Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner - National Review Online


we can't have the GOP going around thinking they shouldn't be condescending to voters!

[TheCouga]

Pills will have Jindal "Christie'd" by tomorrow, if not already.

I think Pills' days are numbered anyways. Clear Channel is ironically being bought up by Bain Capital over the last year or so, and Bain is doing what they always do: ballooning the corporate debt and extracting massive dividends and "management fees." The company is mostly a exoskeleton right now as the Bain blood funnel has sucked out all the insides and enriched Romney's retirement plan. Clear Channel and Rushbo's $40 million/year contract will soon get shredded when the bankruptcy **** hits the fan.

[Euphdude]

I actually think a Jindal/Christie ticket would be hard to beat in 2016. Unless Hillary runs...which I'm hoping happens. I just don't think anyone can beat her.

Even though I don't like Christie (due to his strong connection to ALEC), I do think he is a decently smart politician.

If the GOP adopts a position like what Jindal is proposing, the GOP will likely gain voters regardless of the candidates. Right now a Jindal / Christie ticket looks pretty solid for the GOP, although I agree that Hillary would beat them.

The underlying problem with the GOP is it's primarily funded and controlled by billionaires and corporations who have their own agendas. Jindal is calling for change that would likely benefit the party on a common individual level, however any proposed changes probably need the "blessings" of the uber-rich who really control the party and its platform.

[TheCouga]

Private Equity Insider Talks Bain Capital Like It Really Is - Forbes

Say goodbye, Rushbo. Bain's insect-capitalism as sucked out your gelatinous, gooey insides to enrich their management and left your host company to rot. Just like it did to all those steel and toy companies. And you spent all of 2012 kissing Romney's butt.

[shabba4detroit]

Another thread full of liberals telling Republicans what they need to do .... yawn... Wake me when this schtick is over.

[TheCouga]

Another thread full of liberals telling Republicans what they need to do .... yawn... Wake me when this schtick is over.

Jindal is a liberal?

[ballmich]

The GOP cannot stop being stupid, it's been culturally ingrained over the last 50 years. I mean, it's a nice concept, but things are much too far gone at this point.

But as one of my friends points out, those that are prepared will get to lead on the other side.

[sinister porpoise]

If the GOP adopts a position like what Jindal is proposing, the GOP will likely gain voters regardless of the candidates.

Softening their positions means less fearmongering and less in the way of distinction to bring out single-issue voters e.g. abortion, immigration. I don't see an obvious path of bringing in more voters while retaining the religious right to the same degree.

[shabba4detroit]

Jindal is a liberal?

No, smartypants. The rest of you are.

[shabba4detroit]

Softening their positions means less fearmongering and less in the way of distinction to bring out single-issue voters e.g. abortion, immigration. I don't see an obvious path of bringing in more voters while retaining the religious right to the same degree.

Where's the religious right going to go? If only the GOP would realize that and treat them like Democrats treat African-Americans. Take them for granted, toss them a few crumbs and just pound the message that the other side is the devil.

[mtutiger]

Another thread full of liberals telling Republicans what they need to do .... yawn... Wake me when this schtick is over.

No need... it appears from this thread that you never went to sleep to begin with.

[Euphdude]

Softening their positions means less fearmongering and less in the way of distinction to bring out single-issue voters e.g. abortion, immigration. I don't see an obvious path of bringing in more voters while retaining the religious right to the same degree.

That's the dilemma the GOP faces. They will have a hard attracting new voters without alienating those voters who vote for them based on single issues like abortion, gay marriage, and immigration.

[chasfh]

I really think the Bush name is ruined for the rest of the history of US politics.

I don't think this is true at all. Don't you remember seeing these around?



And that was only a year after leaving office. After eight years, literally everything people thought he was about in 2008 will be completely forgotten. Time heals all wounds.

Jeb Bush is very articulate, thoughtful and possessed of self control. His brother did not give him a high bar to go over. Jeb is my odds on favorite to take the oath of office on January 20, 2017.

[chasfh]

Bret Stephens in today's Wall Street Journal:

Stephens: Earth to GOP: Get a Grip - WSJ.com

In January I was rebuked by some readers for predicting that the GOP would lose, and for saying it deserved to lose, too.

"It doesn't matter that Americans are generally eager to send Mr. Obama packing," I wrote. "All they need is to be reasonably sure that the alternative won't be another fiasco. But they can't be reasonably sure, so it's going to be four more years of the disappointment you already know."

I quote these lines less to boast about my prescience than to establish some credibility for what I'm about to say.

Fellow conservatives, please stop obsessing about what other adults might be doing in their bedrooms, so long as it's lawful and consensual and doesn't impinge in some obvious way on you. This obsession is socially uncouth, politically counterproductive and, too often, unwittingly revealing.

Also, if gay people wish to lead conventionally bourgeois lives by getting married, that may be lunacy on their part but it's a credit to our values. Channeling passions that cannot be repressed toward socially productive ends is the genius of the American way. The alternative is the tapped foot and the wide stance.

Also, please tone down the abortion extremism. Supporting so-called partial-birth abortions, as too many liberals do, is abortion extremism. But so is opposing abortion in cases of rape and incest, to say nothing of the life of the mother. Democrats did better with a president who wanted abortion to be "safe, legal and rare"; Republicans would have done better by adopting outgoing Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels's call for a "truce" on social issues.

By the way, what's so awful about Spanish? It's a fine European language with an outstanding literary tradition—Cervantes, Borges, Paz, Vargas Llosa—and it would do you no harm to learn it. Bilingualism is an intellectual virtue, not a deviant sexual practice.

Which reminds me: Can we, as the GOP base, demand an IQ exam as well as a test of basic knowledge from our congressional and presidential candidates? This is not a flippant suggestion: There were at least five Senate seats in this election cycle that might have been occupied by a Republican come January had not the invincible stupidity of the candidate stood in the way.

On the subject of idiocy, can someone explain where's the political gold in demonizing Latin American immigrants? California's Prop 187, passed in 1994, helped destroy the GOP in a once-reliable state. Yet Republicans have been trying to replicate that fiasco on a national scale ever since.

If the argument is that illegal immigrants are overtaxing the welfare state, then that's an argument for paring back the welfare state, not deporting 12 million people. If the argument is that these immigrants "steal" jobs, then that's an argument by someone who either doesn't understand the free market or aspires for his children to become busboys and chambermaids.

And if the argument is that these immigrants don't share our values, then religiosity, hard work, personal stoicism and the sense of family obligation expressed through billions of dollars in remittances aren't American values.

Here's another suggestion: Running for president should be undertaken only by those with a reasonable chance of winning a general election. It should not be seen as an opportunity to redeem a political reputation or audition for a gig on Fox News. Mitt Romney won the nomination for the simple reason that every other contender was utterly beyond the pale of national acceptability, except Michele Bachmann.

Just kidding.

Though conservatives put themselves through the paces of trying to like Mr. Romney, he was never a natural standard bearer for the GOP. He was, instead, a consensus politician in the mold of Jerry Ford and George H.W. Bush; a technocrat who loved to "wallow in data"; a plutocrat with a fatal touch of class guilt. His campaign was a study in missed opportunities, punctuated by 90 brilliant minutes in Denver. Like a certain Massachusetts governor who preceded him, he staked his presidential claims on "competence." But Americans want inspiration from their presidents.

Mr. Romney was never likely to deliver on that score. And though I have my anxieties about the president's next term, I also have a hunch the GOP dodged a bullet with Mr. Romney's loss.

It dodged a bullet because a Romney victory would have obscured deeper trends in American politics the GOP must take into account. A Romney administration would also have been politically cautious and ideologically defensive in a way that rarely serves the party well.

Finally, the GOP dodged ownership of the second great recession, which will inevitably hit when the Federal Reserve can no longer float the economy in pools of free money. When that happens, Barack Obama won't have George W. Bush to kick around.

So get a grip, Republicans: Our republican experiment in self-government didn't die last week. But a useful message has been sent to a party that spent too much of the past four years listening intently to echoes of itself. Change the channel for a little while.

[pfife]

I don't think this is true at all. Don't you remember seeing these around?



And that was only a year after leaving office. After eight years, literally everything people thought he was about in 2008 will be completely forgotten. Time heals all wounds.

Jeb Bush is very articulate, thoughtful and possessed of self control. His brother did not give him a high bar to go over. Jeb is my odds on favorite to take the oath of office on January 20, 2017.

yeah I agree

except I only say he's odds on favorite to get the GOP nomination. I don't know for sure about the white house

[Gehringer_2]

This from TNR

Republicans Have Problems With White Voters, Too | The New Republic

Nate Cohn breaks down the GOP 'advantage' among white voters and finds it is almost 100% concentrated in the old Confederacy. After reading this article it's hard to see how the GOP as it is presently constituted would not loose the next election in a bigger landslide assuming the next Democratic Presidential candidate is white.

[TheCouga]

This from TNR

Republicans Have Problems With White Voters, Too | The New Republic

Nate Cohn breaks down the GOP 'advantage' among white voters and finds it is almost 100% concentrated in the old Confederacy. After reading this article it's hard to see how the GOP as it is presently constituted would not loose the next election in a bigger landslide assuming the next Democratic Presidential candidate is white.

Great article.

If the GOP wants to continue to blame their failures on "minorities that want a handout," I'm all for that. That will ensure they never win another national election again. Their numbers are declining among well-educated whites and Northern whites fairly rapidly.

[Joe Gahona]

I really think the Bush name is ruined for the rest of the history of US politics.

Wishful thinking. Like when old people say rap will die out in a few years.