Bobby Jindal: Let’s stop being the stupid party
In the keynote address at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting, Jindal said the GOP doesn’t need to change its values but “might need to change just about everything else we are doing.”
“We’ve got to stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults,” he said. “We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that.”…
He called on conservatives to stop fighting with Democrats on their terms about the size of government in Washington and focus instead on connecting with voters across the nation.
“Today’s conservatism is completely wrapped up in solving the hideous mess that is the federal budget, the burgeoning deficits, the mammoth federal debt, the shortfall in our entitlement programs,” he said. “We seem to have an obsession with government bookkeeping. This is a rigged game, and it is the wrong game for us to play.”
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It seems like Bobby Jindal is good for calling Republicans stupid lately, and also… uh..nope, can’t recall anything but that really. Doesn’t seem like a good strategy to win voters to your side. Instead of lecturing conservatives on what they shouldn’t be doing, how about getting quoted saying the things that you stand FOR.
Braveheart on January 24, 2013 at 11:40 PM
Let’s start by telling
BobbyBarney Jindal Fife to stop shooting us in the foot. And Otis Christie needs to lock himself up somewhere in New Jersey for a while until he sobers up.Glenn Jericho on January 24, 2013 at 11:41 PM
It certainly made for the great AP headline that I’ve already seen displayed in various newspapers from around the country.
Conservatives need to continue to publicly flagellate themselves. It gets such great press. /s
Drained Brain on January 24, 2013 at 11:42 PM
Jindal better watch out or he will be co-hosting a show with Joe Scarborough soon
Joey24007 on January 24, 2013 at 11:44 PM
Kind of love you Bobby but your first tv speech and Ryan’s debate performance left me looking for a more substantial leader.
arnold ziffel on January 24, 2013 at 11:52 PM
Here’s an idea. Just stand up for your principles. How’s that?
Warner Todd Huston on January 24, 2013 at 11:55 PM
People actually sit through Jindal speeches without cringing? I’m with Matt Lewis on this one; Jindal has absolutely no charisma. I’d love it if Supriya Jindal ran for office as she is the more charismatic of the two.. Discuss.
I am interested in Ryan’s new speech however. Some of his media appearances seem to suggest that Adorkable’s speech includes Lincoln references.. True North indeed It strikes me as less demeaning than to say that the Republican Party is stupid. Honey gets more than vinegar. Ryan and Rubio are really transcendent because both are much better politicians than the governors.
Illinidiva on January 25, 2013 at 12:13 AM
Great speech by Jindal. We have to start kicking asses and taking names. That starts with an honest appraisal of where we are and how we got here.
rdbrewer on January 25, 2013 at 12:38 AM
Bobby likes plan B in case of rape. That is his way to be non-stupid.
Mormontheman on January 25, 2013 at 12:48 AM
OK, geniuses, Jindal sucks, Ryan sucks, etc.
So tell me, geniuses (all you who stayed home and re-elected Bam, man what a genius move), who doesn’t suck?
Martin Luthier on January 25, 2013 at 2:06 AM
Why don’t you tell us the great and wonderful Democrat who should be elected? What, there really isn’t one? Then why should it be any shock that so many in the GOP could be equally as worthless?
sharrukin on January 25, 2013 at 2:14 AM
The Rs have been called the Stupid Party for a long time because they earned it, repeatedly.
Jindal is right.
single stack on January 25, 2013 at 4:27 AM
After bombing the GOP reply to a state of the union address is he really in the position to criticize the rhetorical abilities of anybody else?
DFCtomm on January 25, 2013 at 6:38 AM
Otis would look like Mr. Olympia standing next to the fatboi chowhound Obama BBBJ governor.
HondaV65 on January 25, 2013 at 6:40 AM
He’s right, of course. And, judging from the first several comments, it’s easy to see Jindal has landed a few punches.
RayinVA on January 25, 2013 at 7:05 AM
I think he is talking about the “open mouth, insert foot” scenarios that played out in Missouri and Indiana. The guy in MO was a flake, but it should have been an easy win in IN instead, the guy let the
mediapropaganda arm of the Democratic party goad him into saying the same stupid shit. That’s what I call a stupid party.Odysseus on January 25, 2013 at 7:10 AM
Says the gov who signed an education bill that allows for creationism in science classes.
Sigh.
Good Lt on January 25, 2013 at 7:33 AM
Says the guy who just gave every media outlet their headline for the day.
xblade on January 25, 2013 at 7:40 AM
Sorry BJ…. But one of the dumbest things the party has done over the past four years is to make stupid generalizations in speeches that the corrupt media can harp on for weeks. Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame on the every prime time NBC show.
How about citing your critiques specifically next time so the media doesn’t indict everyone with an R after their name?
Peggy Noonan has a column that pinpoints our real issues. We are obviously leaderless with everyone posturing to gain the upper hand thru grandstanding. The house has bungled every opportunity the past 12 months and have decided status quo will produce something good eventually. I disagree.
Bensonofben on January 25, 2013 at 7:41 AM
This.
Stoic Patriot on January 25, 2013 at 7:47 AM
Explain to me how this doesn’t make you the Stupid Party.
SagebrushPuppet on January 25, 2013 at 8:14 AM
The problem is, to the extent that it means anything at all, it’s a suggestion to keep spending or maybe take up SoCon issues.
It really doesn’t mean anything at all though. Big boy government involves bookkeeping, Bobby.
HitNRun on January 25, 2013 at 8:24 AM
Why is it imperative that we exclude certain possibilities from the realm of unfalsifiable science? Seems pretty closed-minded to me. The realm of what we don’t know dwarfs that of what we do.
It seems quite possible to me there is “science” out there that cannot be measured by the tools available to humans now and maybe not ever, such that it would fall under the rubric of what you would consider religion today.
crrr6 on January 25, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Jindal proved his own point. Calling your own party stupid is stupid. It’s a headline all over the internet. It’s even the lead story when I login to my comcast email. Thanks Bobby!
Wigglesworth on January 25, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Every faction of the R’s has our own brand of stupid. The Establishment decided on their 2012 candidate before the 2008 candidate had an opportunity to lose, totally sure this wasn’t giving Democrats a game plan years in advance *facepalm*. The religious types keep blundering into the media’s traps, then whiiiine when the rest of the Party won’t circle the wagons. Even the Tea Party gets fits of mindless anti-establishmentarianism, runs a kindergarten teacher who employs the Underpants Gnomes for campaign consultants, and is truly amazed when that campaign loses.
Stupid like this can be fixed. But not without acknowledging the stupid is there.
Sekhmet on January 25, 2013 at 8:36 AM
Jindal is right. First you got to accept the obvious to take the next step.
tommy71 on January 25, 2013 at 8:41 AM
A Smart Party (rather than a Not Stupid Party) would highlight in words and pictures the hideous failures of Democrat leadership, including housing projects that become slums, corrupt political leadership that steals taxes for personal gain, the racism that breeds interracial crime, and the flouting of law that victimizes everyone and protects no one (like the DC gun laws).
.
Words and pictures, lots of nasty, brutish, scary pictures which point the finger directly at Democrats and emphasize the accomplishments of Republicans (and conservative ones, at that, rather than squishes). Make Democrats the pompous source of American failure in every area while remembering that Democrats use pejorative adjectives to describe Republicans at every opportunity, without challenge and without consequence. Show the housing projects slums which are falling down, roach-infested, rat-breeding, criminal cesspools that they are an pin them on the Democrats. 60% of Detroit torn down as slums under Democrat leadership.
.
That’s what a Not Stupid Party would do, for starters. It’s embarrassing for experienced politicians to be such puddles of whiney chickenshittery.
ExpressoBold on January 25, 2013 at 8:47 AM
It’s time to admit that if you want to be seen as something other than the party of stupid, you have to stop passing stupid legislation like this.
Because creationism is not science. It’s religion.
So excluding alchemy from chemistry class is close-minded, too? Should we include astrology in astronomy education now?
That’s not an excuse to ascribe what we don’t know to superstition and magic. People used to think epilepsy was caused by demonic possession before we found out what it actually was. That didn’t make the claim of demonic possession true.
Not an excuse to foist magic and superstition into the gap in knowledge.
Science is not a religion. How does one measure ‘science?’
Through this little exchange, hopefully you can begin to see why this kind of legislation that is exclusively an effort of the GOP in various places in the country is a big reason why they are branded the party of stupid. Defending this crap makes shaking off that moniker impossible. Jindal was no help in dispelling that when he signed the aforementioned bill.
Good Lt on January 25, 2013 at 8:54 AM
The GOP actually has better answers to the urban outreach area, too.
http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_1_gop-cities.html
onlineanalyst on January 25, 2013 at 8:55 AM
If $6 trillion in four years is “government bookkeeping” and a rigged game, then I am all in. Not sure why this fad of “we are the stoopid party” got started, but it seems self-serving and unproductive to me. We should stop it.
Jaibones on January 25, 2013 at 9:03 AM
You do realize that some libs are up in arms about this one because it allows LA Science Teachers to teach counter to established Science like Global Warming don’t you?
Nah, I don’t think you do. You take a clip from the NSCE which references a 0-comment post by John Derbyshire at the National Review, where the main aspersions are cast from a site which is mainly written by NSCE contributor Barbara Forrest. And you’re fooled by all of it. Besides the quote from Derbyshire based on his quote of Forrest’s reading into it–when they are not quoting opinion, all they do is say this:
You’re an odd libertarian. You oppose Big Government except that you can’t trust local schools to make good decisions on what to teach from Science.
Good Lt., Acolyte of Big Government(Education Edition).
Axeman on January 25, 2013 at 9:12 AM
…and creationism.
By the way, you do realize that the world is getting warmer, right? That is what the data show. That’s not in dispute in the scientific community, and neither is the validity of evolution.
What the dispute are A) the cause(s), and B) what is going to be done about it. I’m with Bjorn Lomborg on this one.
Creationism is not science.
Good Lt on January 25, 2013 at 9:20 AM
We, WE? I didn’t do any of that. Don’t claim the mantle of being the stupid party for me, thank you.
Of course, this IS an AP story, they purport to be the facts, but I will presume the most salient points made by Bobby Jindahl were left on the cutting room floor.
Fleuries on January 25, 2013 at 9:45 AM
Yeah, because that’s what the other side is clamoring about, right? That’s the “settled science” that people don’t want challenged in school just because data shows warming, right?
Because in the context that I mentioned it, that’s all it refers too. The outrage of the liberals in teach AGW skepticism is simply “Hey, guys it’s getting warm”.
You keep mentioning “Creationism”. The bill doesn’t and I didn’t. And all any of you have presented is scuttlebutt and opinion. I mentioned that other things that people are scared that it will be allow to be taught in classroom is dissent on AGW or whatever they want as an official on Global Warming. If they decide that Science indicates they should “hide the decline” than the Medieval Warming Period “wackos” are prevented from being introduced into the curriculum.
All you can do is challenge my specific interpretation of the data, rather than deal with the issues raised. Yes, I know that data–some of it compiled by people who wanted to “hide the decline”–shows warming. And yes, I’m absolutely sure that the most official record shows warming. I also know that there’s a guy going around photographing government thermometers over pavement, near AC exhaust vents, on airport tarmacs and that there are skeptics that have documented the case that thermometers that had been in rural locations were not moved despite the introduction of pavement through urban sprawl. And that these individually make up the data points that create the graph.
The trick is knowing that aggregates are made up out of particulars. Not being able to regurgitate that the most official sources will show warming. I absolutely know that the world has warmed from the “Little Ice Age” where New Yorkers used to host whole elaborate carnivals over the frozen Hudson river. Yes, I know this. And I know from past discussions that your understanding of history, outside your learned narrative, is embarrassing next to mine.
I’ve told you time and time before that you argue like a freaking liberal. Before you can check the sins of “settled Science” you have to check that somebody has the “fidelity to Science” that you have. I’ll tell you one more time: Dude, learn to argue.
Axeman on January 25, 2013 at 10:03 AM
Right. And enforcing that dogma is the reason you’re a Big Judiciary/Big Education guy. You didn’t refute your devotion to Big Judiciary/Big Government Education, you simply explained it.
You feel that the government education boards have to step in where a governing board, itself, is allowed to step in and allow a science teacher to introduce materials to counter points already in the standard curriculum because you can’t trust these people to make the right decisions on what part is and is not Science.
You feel that establishment of religion, become “excessive entanglement with religion”, become “not wholly secular in intent” and given the warzone of our federalized schools–in other words an federal overreach and pandering in education, combined with judicial overreach with Incorporation, combined with an ever-expanding chain of interpretation and judge-made law–is necessary to advance us in weaning us like pups off of the opiate of religion. I know that many of you libertarians rely on the tradition of judge-made law and rely on Big Judiciary to beat your fellow citizens into the right way to think.
And I’m pretty sure the only response you’ll have to all this is to find some heterodoxy on the subject of Science to trumpet.
Axeman on January 25, 2013 at 10:21 AM