Why Bobby Jindal Will Never Be President of the United States

Bobby Jindal, Image courtesy of The Bayou Progressive.

My friend Lamar White, Jr. over at cenlamar.com recently penned the most intelligent, blistering critique of Bobby Jindal that I’ve yet to see. One of the important points made is that ahead of Jindal’s almost certain run for the White House in 2016, he has done everything possible to align himself with the people who influence the early primaries – the far-right Christian conservatives.

For anyone who has paid attention to Louisiana politics, Bobby Jindal has been setting this up for years. In fact, I am pretty sure that becoming the first Indian-American president has been a goal of his ever since he first got into politics, and maybe even before that.

President Obama ended the long succession of white men as President of the United States and showed the changing, diverse face of America to the world. What’s more, he showed that it was possible for a skinny kid with a foreign-sounding name to become the leader of the free world.

Yet, Bobby Jindal is no Barack Obama. He’s not even close. Don’t get me wrong, President Obama has his faults, as does everyone else. However, President Obama has excelled despite his flaws, but Bobby Jindal has seemed to embrace the far right in order to make up for his massive shortcomings as governor of Louisiana. From Lamar White:

LSU STUDENTS ORGANIZE PROTEST AGAINST BOBBY JINDAL'S HATE-BACKED MASS PRAYER EVENT

Students at Louisiana State University are organizing a demonstration in protest of the Baton Rouge campus administration’s decision to host “The Response,” a mass prayer event sponsored by the American Family Association hate group. A number of high-profile conservative political figures like Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal will join Christian evangelists in what the AFA has described as a group meditation.

"What we really need in these United States is a spiritual revival. It is time to turn back to God," Jindal explained in a video invitation to the event. "It's time to light the spark that starts the spiritual revival that will put these United States of America back on the right path." 

Earlier this month the AFA published and quickly pulled an official prayer guide for The Response suggesting, amongst other things, that marriage equality and abortion were the causes of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

"As a member of the LSU student community, it saddens and offends me that our administration would welcome to campus a recognized hate group whose vile rhetoric targets gay and transgendered people, Muslims, immigrants, and other marginalized groups," said Maggie Cloos, a student responsible for creating a petition to ban the AFA from the LSU campus. the organizer of the student-led petition.

Organizing Against Hate Groups, the protest, is set to be an all day event featuring workshops teaching attendees how best to speak across political and social differences. So far six organizations housed at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus have signed up to participate in the protest with more expressing their interest in offering support.

Both The Response and Organizing Against Hate Groups will take place on January 24. Watch the American Family Association's video invitation to The Response - Louisiana: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis

Pat Robertson Is A Fan Of Bobby Jindal: 'Wouldn't It Be Great If We Had A President Who Was A Former Hindu From India?'

“The 700 Club” ran a puff piece on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal today, and color Pat Robertson impressed.

“Some interesting politicians are out there and they’ve got a couple who have Indian backgrounds,” an astonished Robertson said to introduce the segment.

After running an interview in which Jindal played well to the Christian Broadcasting Network audience by saying that the “greatest threat to America comes from within” including an “assault on religious liberty," Robertson said, “what an amazing man.”

“He has gone far and will go farther, no question about it. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a president who was a former Hindu from India? What a great story.”

Jindal was born in Louisiana.

In any case, Jindal might want to be wary of winning Robertson's praises, as the televangelist previously claimed that God told him Mitt Romney would win the 2012 presidential election.

Welfare Dynasty: Duck Dynasty Cast Recieves $70,000 from Louisiana Taxpayers PER EPISODE

Do you remember a time when Patriarch Phil Robertson said that African-Americans were better off “pre-entitlement, pre-welfare?” When they were “happy” and “Godly?” Do you remember those remarks? Good. Keep them in mind, because while Robertson was complaining about Blacks on welfare, the cast of his show, Duck Dynasty, soaked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in welfare money from the State of Louisiana every year.

According to Inquisitr, the cast receives $70,000 per episode in government handouts from the state, and are paid $200,000 per week to be on the show:

One industry insider estimates that the Duck Dynasty cast, which is paid $200,000 per week to appear on the popular reality show, receives government benefits of $70,000 for every episode of the A&E cable show from the state, even though Louisiana recently slashed funding for health care programs and pension programs for public employees such as police, teachers, and firefighters.

Bobby “we should stop being the party of stupid” Jindal, the Louisiana governor who may harbor presidential ambitions, recently presented Phil Robertson with Louisiana’s first Governor’s Award For Entrepreneurial Excellence and landed a high-profile guest appearance on the show during Season Six’s premiere. This was at the same time the state was paying out the subsidies for the production of the show.

According to Inquisitr, the handouts are part of an incentive program that the state has for film and TV productions, earning the state it’s nickname: “Hollywood South:”

The handouts are part of Louisiana’s incentive program for film and TV productions, a program which began in earnest in 2002 and which has earned the state the nickname “Hollywood South.” Dozens of film and TV projects shoot there, to collect the generous taxpayer-backed subsidies, which cover about 30 percent of a film or TV show’s production costs in Louisiana. 

While advocates of film subsidy programs say that they lure big-time production to states that offer the money — 43 states now offer some version of a film subsidy program — economists have said that the programs cost states millions and produce very little economic benefit in return. 

Louisiana recently did a study that found only 15 cents of economic benefit for every dollar spent by state taxpayers are used to prop up Hollywood productions, including reality shows such as Duck Dynasty.

The nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) published a report on film subsidy programs, which found that the subsidies are big money-losers for states, and result in budget cuts to needed programs, to compensate for money poured into the pockets of productions such as Duck Dynasty. 

Those budget cuts further stifle state economic growth.

The CBPP stated in the report that:

The revenue generated by economic activity induced by film subsidies falls far short of the subsidies’ direct costs to the state. To balance its budget, the state must therefore cut spending or raise revenues elsewhere, dampening the subsidies’ positive economic impact.

According to the CBPP, the subsidies are given the productions that were likely going to be filmed in the state anyway, even without taxpayer handouts — for example, Duck Dynasty, which could only be shot where the Robertson family lives: Louisiana. The welfare payments that go to the show, then, do nothing to keep it the state. What’s more, the handouts may even have kept the show from being canceled, despite declining ratings.

Court sides with MoveOn over Jindal

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) administration in Louisiana picked an unusual fight recently, taking MoveOn.org to federal court, accusing the progressive activist group of violating trademark rules when it put up billboards criticizing Jindal’s opposition to Medicaid expansion.

 

So far, that hasn’t turned out well for the Republican governor: a federal judge ruled yesterday afternoon that the Baton Rouge-area billboard is legally permissible.

In his original court filings, [Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne] said the national liberal organization improperly mimicked his office’s trade and tourism branding in its satirical billboard posted just outside of the state capital. But U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick disagreed Monday, siding with MoveOn.org in stating the group’s free speech rights trumped the state’s case.

 

“The State has failed to demonstrate a compelling reason to curtail MoveOn.org’s political speech in favor of protecting of the State’s service mark,” Dick said in her ruling. She added “irreparable injury” would not be caused to Louisiana’s tourism campaign if the ad remained in place.

For those who haven’t been following this dispute, Louisiana is one of several red states that refuse to adopt Medicaid expansion, despite the fact that he policy would bring coverage to nearly a quarter of a million low-income residents. It led MoveOn.org to put up a billboard that reads, “LOU!SIANA Pick your passion! But hope you don’t love your health. Gov. Jindal’s denying Medicaid to 242,000 people.”

Jindal shifts gears on free speech

In December, Phil Robertson, one of the stars of a reality-television show called “Duck Dynasty,” made a series of offensive comments during an interview. A&E, the network that airs the reality show, decided to suspend him over his bigoted remarks.

 

Almost immediately, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) leapt to Robertson’s defense. For a private business to suspend an employee, Jindal was, was an affront to the “First Amendment.” As a constitutional matter, this was gibberish, but the far-right governor dug in anyway, positioning himself as a free-speech absolutist – Americans must be able to communicate whatever message they please, without exception or consequence. “The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with,” Jindal said. “This is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views.”

 

At least, that’s what Jindal thought when the controversy was over bigotry from a television personality. The governor’s take on free speech is different now.

MoveOn and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) are locked in a fight over ObamaCare, billboards and free speech.

 

Louisiana’s lieutenant governor has issued a cease-and-desist order to MoveOn, arguing the liberal group is improperly using Louisiana’s “Pick your passion” tourism slogan to slam Jindal’s refusal to accept an expansion of Medicaid.

 

The liberal group’s billboard in Baton Rouge reads: “Louisiana! Pick your passion! But hope you don’t love your health. Gov. Jindal is denying Medicaid to 242,000 people.”

As the Jindal administration sees it, when a television network suspends an employee, it’s an outrageous First Amendment violation, but when the government tries to restrict political speech on a billboard, that’s fine.

 

Hmm.

Bobby Jindal Claims that the Justice Department is Racist – For Not Letting Him Have His Way

Oh Bobby Jindal, I just can’t quit you. Actually, it’s more like we in the “liberal mainstream media” can’t quit you. I mean after all, you stated that you wanted to end “dumbed down conservatism” when you spoke to Politico after the 2012 election in which Obama pretty much pulled up Romney’s magic underwear and gave him a wedgie as America laughed. Here’s the full quote, just in case you don’t remember it:

“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.” (Source)

And you know what? For a brief moment, a few of us in the media suspended disbelief and thought that just maybe you would somehow move the party back ever so slightly to the center. Maybe you’d finally get the country club Republicans to say enough and kick the snake handling preachers, the fundamentalists and the conspiracy nuts off your golf course – even if it meant they would go vote for someone like Virgil Goode or David Duke. In the autopsy report for the 2012 election, it was quite obvious to you and just about everyone else that pandering to those very people was what killed any chance Romney would ever have at sitting behind the desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In that moment of suspended disbelief, the possibility crossed my mind that your party would even be willing to lose a couple of election cycles in order to get your political house in order, even if it meant doing the political version of fumigating the entire place to get rid of the cockroaches.

A sensible Republican governor from a Southern state, the son of Indian immigrants. You could’ve been a 2016 contender, Bobby. You could have shown everyone that the Republican Party had ideas that didn’t just work for rich white men, but also for everyone – including minorities like yourself. Instead of taking your own advice, you chose to go straight back to the “derp.”

Remember when you said that President Obama could “learn from Louisiana“? I thought that was hilarious – even more so when I found out you intended that as a serious statement. Or how about that time you appointed Tony Perkins, who is the head of a documented hate group, to the Louisiana Law Enforcement Commission? At first I thought this had to be a joke, but upon further investigation I just shook my head and said “that’s my governor.” Then just the other day I found out you decided to hire an out-of-state firm at the cost of $4 million dollars to find ways to save money in the state budget. That one had me in stitches, seriously.

I don’t know if you intended this latest statement as humorous but it was just icing on the cake for writers like me. Now for those of you who are reading and aren’t from here, Louisiana is still quite segregated. So much so that in some parts of Louisiana, there are still “white churches” and “black churches,” often right down the street from each other. Bobby Jindal has been trying to ram a school voucher system through (really just a ploy to move taxpayer dollars to private religious schools) and he’s been repeatedly blocked by the Justice Department due to the fact that many of Louisiana’s school districts are still under desegregation orders after all these years. That’s why the following statement, in his own words and from his own website, is so ridiculous that I had to make sure I hadn’t fallen asleep and woken up in Michele Bachmann’s diary:

“The Department of Justice proposal reeks of federal government intrusion and proves the people in Washington running our federal government are more interested in skin color than they are in education.” (Source)

That’s right, Bobby Jindal claims that the Justice Department is being racist for not letting him push a voucher system that will essentially create two separate school systems – in other words, segregation. Seriously though Bobby, you’re a gold mine for political writers like myself. If it wasn’t for the fact that your incompetence (even though you are very well-educated) at running a state was affecting the 4.6 million people who are unfortunate enough to have you as their governor, the dumb things you keep on doing would be hilarious. I really do hope you run for president – Hillary will eat you alive.

Bobby Jindal Rips Republicans, Tells Them to Prepare for Revolt Against Obama's 'Leftward March'

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal rips the current state of the Republican party in a new piece in Politico, and says it better be ready for this:

"At some point, the American public is going to revolt against the nanny state and the leftward march of this president. I don’t know when the tipping point will come, but I believe it will come soon. Why? Because the left wants: The government to explode; to pay everyone; to hire everyone; they believe that money grows on trees; the earth is flat; the industrial age, factory-style government is a cool new thing; debts don’t have to be repaid; people of faith are ignorant and uneducated; unborn babies don’t matter; pornography is fine; traditional marriage is discriminatory; 32 oz. sodas are evil; red meat should be rationed; rich people are evil unless they are from Hollywood or are liberal Democrats; the Israelis are unreasonable; trans-fat must be stopped; kids trapped in failing schools should be patient; wild weather is a new thing; moral standards are passé; government run health care is high quality; the IRS should violate our constitutional rights; reporters should be spied on; Benghazi was handled well; the Second Amendment is outdated; and the First one has some problems too. Their philosophy does not work and it got our nation into the mess it’s in."