Jindal's cold-blooded positioning

Oh my. Andrew Sullivan is perhaps going David Brooks' route. He was so close to getting it right, in agreeing with Bobby Jindal that Mitt Romney is "absolutely wrong," but Sullivan veers at the last minute and concludes: "Jindal seems to get it. Which is encouraging, don't you think?"

I see a hook, sense a line, and smell a sinker.

Jindal's a smart guy. No doubt about that. In fact, he's smart enough to know that Mitt Romney's campaign and personal postmortem were two of the dumbest acts in the show-business history of politics. Really dumb. Colossally dumb, as in, never-ever-to-be-repeated dumb. But does Jindal's fundamental ideology differ from that which Romney espoused? When Jindal asserts that "our policies" are the better policies for all Americans, by "our" he means, essentially, Romney's of 2012. Bobby was right there with Mitt, all throughout.

Jindal is positioning himself, that's all. He's positioning himself as the Southern populist: anti-Washington, anti-big government, anti-big business. Do not, however, let the "anti-big business" part fool you; a strenuous federalism would conquer the perceived evils of big government, for sure; but, by removing the fiercest federal fox, it would allow corporatism free rein. So we're back to Romneyism.

The one indispensable carrot in any Southern populist's bag, though, is anti-intellectualism, and on this, Jindal's got himself covered. The "Louisiana Science Education Act," which Jindal signed into law in 2008, is, as the Times-Picayune put it, "named for what it is designed to destroy." Adds Slate:

The act allows "supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials" to be brought into classrooms to support the "open and objective discussion" of certain "scientific theories," including, of course, evolution.

So, does Jindal really "get it," as Sullivan muses? You betcha.

Comments

[japa21]

Sullivan is so desparate for a conservative Obama, that he will accept anything that has the slightest hint of it. That is also why he was so excited about Ryan's budget.
Unfortunately, Sullivan has a tendency to look at things extremely superficially and never exame what is beneath the veneer.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that Jindal endorsed Newt Gingrich in the primaries this year. And he also performed or was the recipient of an exorcism, I can't recall which. So if he's the future of modern Republican thinking, then the Dems should have a long, uninterrupted run as America's dominant political party.

[Turgidson]

Yep. Despite Sullivan's many epic rants about how crazy and destructive the GOP is, he desperately, passionately wants to find a sensible Republican he can hitch his wagon to. And that post shows he's kicking the tires on Kenneth the Page.

The most the Republicans have said is that they need to do a better job convincing the voters that their policies are good for the middle class (in other words, thinking of new, more persuasive lies to get enough working class voters to vote against their self-interest to cobble together 50.1%). Even the more outspoken Republican self-reflecters like Jindal are careful not to actually advocate for actual different policies. Only new and improved talking points.

I guess, after screaming and hollering for 4 years that Obama's mainstream policies were a socialist takeover, it takes a while to unwind that ball of yarn. But...so far no progress.