Bobby Jindal: GOP needs to 'stop being the stupid party'

[|Zach|]

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned fellow Republicans they "must stop being the stupid party" during a fiery and sharp critique Thursday night at the Republican National Committee's Winter Meeting.

As top Republicans gather in Charlotte on Friday, many have focused on how to best reboot the party in the face of a 2012 election cycle that saw Democrats retain the White House and gain seats in both chambers of Congress.

For Jindal, a popular rising star in the party who is thought to be an early contender for the 2016 presidential nomination, that recalibration involves Republicans learning to "stop insulting the intelligence of voters.”
In the address, Jindal outlined at least seven steps that he believes Republicans need to take in order to remain competitive. In a scathing takedown, he accuses the party of "looking backwards" and having an obsession with "identity politics."

"We must reject the notion that demography is destiny, the pathetic and simplistic notion that skin pigmentation dictates voter behavior," Jindal said.

Jindal also said that the GOP must work to reframe its messaging on restricting the size of government.

"We must not become the party of austerity. We must become the party of growth," Jindal said.

He went on to take some not-so-subtle swipes at former Republican nominee Mitt Romney, insisting Republicans "must compete for every single vote — the 47 percent and the 53 percent." He also told RNC Chairman Reince Priebus that he hoped he was not relying on Romney's ORCA voter information system during his reelection bid at the meeting Friday.

But among Jindal's most provocative suggestions was the demand that the GOP needed to "stop insulting the intelligence of voters" — and display more intelligence themselves. Jindal's comments seemed targeted squarely at conservative candidates in Senate races whose comments on rape and abortion appeared to submarine their electoral chances.

"We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments," Jindal said.

The Louisiana governor also warned that Republicans were too associated with "big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes."

"We must not be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys," Jindal said. "We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive."

Jindal, who was elected last year to chair the Republican Governor's Association, has been among the party's most vocal critics in the aftermath of last year's election, and likely looks to position the governor as a forward-thinking voice as speculation begins to ramp up about 2016.
But his keynote address also served to underscore the theme of the entire Republican retreat, which has been singularly focused on rebooting the GOP brand.

According to excerpts of a speech to be given Friday, Priebus will call on the party to compete in every state across the country and invest in a new technological push. The RNC Chairman has also appointed a new committee to solicit grassroots feedback on a path forward for the party.

Republicans face a steep road to recovery. In a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week, 49 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable
view of the party — the highest figure since 2008.

Moreover, President Obama's campaign infrastructure was thought to be technologically and structurally superior on Election Day. Last weekend, Democrats announced plans to keep that organization in place with the creation of a legacy nonprofit group to be led by the president's former campaign manager, Jim Messina.

But Priebus is optimistic that the GOP will bounce back.

"The good news is our principles are sound. We stand for opportunity and for liberty. Freedom is always a new idea — an ever-fresh, revolutionary idea," he plans to say.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...#ixzz2IzYzLUA8

[Silock]

Too sane to go anywhere in the party.

They just want to nominate him because he isn't white. Probably not the case any longer.

[Bewbies]

Originally Posted by Silock

Too sane to go anywhere in the party.

They just want to nominate him because he isn't white. Probably not the case any longer.

The idiots that run the GOP will want nothing to do with him now.

[blaise]

It's called marketing. He's doing it for himself and the GOP needs to do a better job of it as a whole. Right now they're doing a terrible job of marketing to the generation of morons who type "lol" after sentences and watch MTV.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by blaise

It's called marketing. He's doing it for himself and the GOP needs to do a better job of it as a whole. Right now they're doing a terrible job of marketing to the generation of morons who type "lol" after sentences and watch MTV.

lol...yep.

[FD]

I await Sarah Palin's rebuttal.

[Cave Johnson]

Governor Kenneth makes some excellent points....

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by blaise

It's called marketing. He's doing it for himself and the GOP needs to do a better job of it as a whole. Right now they're doing a terrible job of marketing to the generation of morons who type "lol" after sentences and watch MTV.

- great ****ing point!

[Amnorix]

Think he makes perfect sense in many respects. There's no reason Republicans can't get more of the hispanic vote. When you're talking about emigrants who want to work hard to make money to send to their families -- that's right in their wheel house of work ethic and family-focused.

But they blow their own feet off over and over again by ACTING like, to be blunt, ignorant bigoted heartless assholes. Whether they ARE or not is an entirely different question -- that's how they come across. They need to reshape their image and expand their base by reaching out to democraphic groups that they have historically spurned.

[dirk digler]

We must not be the party of austerity all the while I am going to cut Hospicare care for the poor.

[htismaqe]

The Republicans weren't the only ones who bailed out banks and Wall Street.

It's funny how they pretend we have 2 parties and those 2 parties aren't COMPLETELY complicit in continuing to fleece the American people...

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

But they blow their own feet off over and over again by ACTING like, to be blunt, ignorant bigoted heartless assholes.

That is because they are blunt, ignorant bigoted heartless assholes. LOL LOL LOL

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

The Republicans weren't the only ones who bailed out banks and Wall Street.

It's funny how they pretend we have 2 parties and those 2 parties aren't COMPLETELY complicit in continuing to fleece the American people...

Yup! But that doesn't matter. The idea is for the left to Alinskyize the GOP, when it's more like a fight between the national socialists/mercantilists versus the communists. Where are the free-marketers and Constitutionalists? There are other ways between these two ideologies.

And Direckshun's first bolded sentence shows me Jindal is advocating Progressivism—what the GOP does anyway. Move left GOP! Move left!
The GOP got the Hispanic vote with Bush.

The real truth is people are disgusted with both parties.

[BucEyedPea]

Who really cares about the Presidency. I'd rather have Congress, because that's the better hope for change. They have to have spines though. It's too easy to control one man in the executive branch. Just get the right CoS on him, and certain things will be the issues of the day.

[CoMoChief]

BO's staff in his first term was almost all WallSt goons.