Three Cheers for Bobby Jindal

What a breath of fresh air Bobby Jindal is! Opposed to large federal expansion programs such as "No Child Left Behind", Bobby Jindal isn’t afraid to speak the truth. By cutting taxes in Louisiana six times, giving students in New Orleans more school choice, including private schools, and cutting state spending by 12% ($4 Billion) over just one year, Gov. Jindal is doing what needs to be done to demonstrate that conservative ideas work. I recently listened to him speak with Laura Ingraham on her radio program. Here are some highlights:

Republicans lost because we didn’t give voters a clear choice. We defended spending and corruption we never would have allowed Democrats to get away with, and pointed fingers at the other side as being even worse. Our actions did not match our rhetoric. We must change this. We cannot defend or tolerate earmarks, out of control spending, and corruption within our own party.

We must stop making excuses, such as media bias. The NY Times is never going to endorse our candidates or policies. Pointing to such issues isn’t going to solve anything and it’s not going to bring people over to our party.

We need to be authentic and unembarrassed to stand up for what we believe in: smaller government, less spending, lower taxes and empowering individuals and small businesses. On Capital Hill, there are young voices and fresh faces of genuine conservatism. Among them are Paul Ryan (WI), Mike Pence (IN), Kevin McCarthy (CA), Jeb Hensarling (TX), and Eric Cantor (VA).

While leaders at the federal level are important, the future success of our party will be determined by what we do at the local and state level, as well as within the private sector. Through competence and solutions which work, we can make a persuasive case for conservatism. Innovative policies which result in solid improvements will lay out the case that conservative ideas work.

One such example of innovation at the state level comes from the 1990s when states successfully reformed welfare programs. A similar opportunity today is health care reform. We can’t just say ‘we’re against a single-payer health care system’. Instead, we must demonstrate at the state level that health care can be made affordable by using competition and choice.

We have the chance to earn the American voters back and to do that, we must act the way we talk. We have to give people a reason to vote for us. We have to show voters how our solutions can work.