My new Bloomberg View column points out that three of the Republican party’s rising stars — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan — have adopted the same basic explanation of what has gone wrong for Republicans and how they should fix it.
“We cannot just be a party that protects the rich,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal of his fellow Republicans. “The rich can protect themselves.”
Only a few weeks after an electoral drubbing, three leading Republicans have settled on very similar accounts of what went wrong for their party. Jindal, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin are all talking about middle-class economic concerns. All three men seem to have realized that failing to address these concerns was the party’s biggest mistake, and rectifying that mistake is now its biggest challenge.