While
addressing the Republican National Committee (RNC) last Friday in
Charlotte North Carolina, another "intellectual leader" of
the Republican party,
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, got lost in
the woods of logic as he struggled foot by foot, forest path by
forest path to escape the land called Wing Nut. He started out well
enough, but paths he believed would lead to brighter vistas spiraled
to the right leaving the poor governor pretty much where he started.
In an auspicious start he tossed up an idea generally left unspoken
at RNC gatherings:"We must not be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys. We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive. We are the party whose ideas will help the middle class, and help more folks join the middle class. We are a populist party and need to make that clear." (Full text here)By the conclusion of his speech, however, that liberating sentiment turned out to be simply only a feint to the left soon abandoned for a path circling back to the right.
Another long quote from the same speech uncovered his particular problem - he doesn't understand that speaking of change doesn't fool anyone if in the very same speech you aggressively reiterate the very same GOP principles that most need reform and correction. That only leads you back to Wing Nut City.
Jindal:
"Now let me shift gears and speak to changes I believe we must make if we are to win elections. As I indicated before, I am not one of those who believe we should moderate, equivocate, or otherwise abandon our principles. This badly disappoints many of the liberals in the national media of course. For them, real change means:
- Supporting abortion on demand without apology
- Abandoning traditional marriage between one man and one woman
- Embracing government growth as the key to American success
- Agreeing to higher taxes every year to pay for government expansion
- And endorsing the enlightened policies of European socialism
That is what real change looks like to the New York Times editorial board. But that’s crazy talk. America already has one liberal party, she doesn’t need another one.
Government spending still does not grow our economy. American weakness on the world stage still does not lead to peace. Higher taxes still do not create prosperity for all. And more government still does not grow jobs. If you believe in higher taxes, more debt, more government spending, weakness abroad, and taking guns from law-abiding citizens – you already have a party that is well represented in Washington."Having thus circled back on himself, there he is, back at his home base. If as dubious an explorer as Bobby Jindal, Lewis and Clark would've never left Illinois; Stanley would never have asked "Dr. Livingston, I presume"; and had Columbus, Cabot Ponce de León, Cartier, and their compatriots been as hapless, the Americas would perhaps still be undiscovered.
Jindal concluded the typical radical right-wing list of demonic liberal misdeeds with this rather paradoxical phrase:
No, the Republican Party does not need to change our principles…but we might need to change just about everything else we do.[Italics added; ellipses in Governor Jindal's original transcript]I see. Don't change the "principles," GOP principles that a significant majority of American voters object to in poll after poll, and, soundly rejected with their votes quite recently. But, Jindal does urge Republicans to consider his cris de coeur to "change just about everything else we do."
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