Governor Bobby Jindal is declaring war on the Republican establishment. In a conference call this afternoon before his speech at Americans For Prosperity, he repeatedly denounced “professional conservatives in D.C.,” “professional Republicans in D.C.,” the more generic “folks in D.C.,” Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, and the Republican leadership in Congress.
I like Governor Jindal, but this strikes me as curious. If Bobby Jindal is not a member of the Republican establishment, who is? He has been: secretary of the state health department in Louisiana (a job to which he was appointed at the age of 25), a member of the House of Representatives, an adviser to Tommy Thompson when he was at HHS, vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, etc. It may be that “establishment” has been redefined that way George Orwell described the redefinition of “fascism”: “the word has no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’”
Governor Jindal has entered the bomb-throwing stage of his campaign, which is, unhappily, going nowhere; he’s at less than 1 percent in the Real Clear Politics poll average. He is at 2 percent in Iowa and doesn’t have a great deal of resources at his disposal.
But, no doubt aware that blood in the water is the flavor of the month in Republican primary circles, the once-wonkish young governor is chumming the waters. The results are sometimes silly: In today’s telephone conversation, he referred to our current immigration situation as “an invasion”; he of course has a point about the crying need for assimilation, but there will no doubt be some snickers that this panicky sentiment should be pronounced by a man who missed being born in Punjab by only six months.
“We are too hung up on being politically correct,” he insists, practically taking the words out of Donald Trump’s mouth.
He had harsh words for a couple of fellow governors. Jeb Bush’s recent counsel of moderation—that a Republican should “be willing to lose the primary to win the general”—is, as Jindal sees it, a classic establishment sellout. “That’s the establishment telling us to hide our conservative views,” he says. “We don’t need a second liberal party—a cheaper Democratic party.” He also suggests that Scott Walker doesn’t have the guts to debate him on health care, a debate that Jindal has offered on an anytime/anywhere basis. “Maybe he’s intimidated,” he says. “Maybe he’s not ready to debate,” sounding as though his intent were to run Walker’s underpants up the flagpole after school.
Jindal denounces Walker’s recently revealed health-care plan as a new federal entitlement that inevitably will be paid for with new and higher taxes. And he insists that Republicans are not serious about repealing the so-called Affordable Care Act. Pointing to the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the law, Jindal proclaims: “There were folks in D.C. who were glad we lost that case.”
Maybe Republican primary voters will be persuaded that a man who has spent very nearly every day of his adult life in elected or appointed office, including a stint in a national leadership role at the RGA, is here to vex the establishment and rain fire upon its strongholds. Maybe he’ll convince them that Scott Walker is a gutless big-government man. The voters Jindal is trying to persuade with this will not need any convincing about Jeb Bush.
But he is descending into fantasy. He declared today that as president he would seek to pass a law that would charge mayors and city council members in so-called sanctuary cities with criminal offenses—as accessories—every time an illegal immigrant in their jurisdiction committed a crime. That is absurd.
But absurdity is selling at the moment.