I posted about this the other day and was set upon by out of staters who still think Jindal is a rising GOP star. All I can say is so far I’m not too impressed with him.
As have I - several times. But the facts are stubborn things. The man is a poseur. He fooled me.
The acceptance of this premise has succeeded in shutting up a lot of white males in all strata of society and politics.
Those who accept this premise believe we need non-white-males to voice the conservative principles first put into action by white males and that established this country as the freest and most prosperous country on the planet.
That is why so many GOPers backed Powell and Rice before they had any idea what their principles truly were.
I, for one, reject the premise. I have problem with non-whites proclaiming conservatism. The fact of the matter is that I, like Dr. King dreamed of, do not see the issues in terms of race or ethnicity. They are completely irrelevant to me—except when being a white male precludes you from the public debate. Then I do stand up for white males. And there are plenty of very intelligent, articulate white males out there that espouse conservative views very well. Of course, they do not receive the attention that others receive in large part because they are discriminated against by the bigotry of the MSM.
That said, Jindal may make a fine conservative leader at the national level some day. My arguments against him are the same as they were. He does not have enough experience as an executive in elective positions. Part of what that experience does is show us what his true principles are. It certainly was not a very smart move for him not to veto this legislation while the GOP is holding him up as a possible Veep and he is trying to claim to be a Reagan-style conservative. Reagan would have either given them a pittance of a raise so that his opposition could save face while truly representing the people, or he would have vetoed it altogether.
Jindal appears to have folded his hand before he even looked at his cards. He probably feared vetoing the bill and then having constant opposition as a result of his veto. Had he been more forward thinking, he would have realized that he could have vetoed the bill, appealed to the people to support his actions, and then, if he faced retaliatory opposition, called upon the people to pressure their representatives. This is how Reagan handled these issues.
Let's not be like the Democrats and support people because they are minorities and that would help us when more votes. I don't care about the GOP. I care about conservatism. If people support Powell or Rice or Jindal because of their race/ethnicity, they are as misguided as the Democrat left.