It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that… 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 need to stop being the stupid party.
(Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor and head of the Republican Governors Association, Politico, November 12, 2012)
I was relieved when I read this admonition Governor Jindal issued to his fellow Republicans on Monday. Because I think the offensive, bizarre and stupid things they say are actually quite dangerous. After all, nothing incites stupid behavior like stupid rhetoric (e.g., “Obama’s a foreigner”, “Obama’s a socialist”, “He needs to learn how to be an American”, “let’s take our country back”).
Unfortunately my relief was short-lived. Because here is what no less a person than defeated Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan said yesterday when ABC asked – in his first post-election network interview – if he thinks President Obama now has a mandate for the policies he ran on, including raising taxes on the rich one percenters:
I don’t think so, because they also reelected the House Republicans. So whether people intended or not, we’ve got divided government.
Now, if he had learned his lesson and was heeding Jindal’s admonition, Ryan would have said, “Of course the president has a mandate, but so do House Republicans.” Never mind that the interviewer could then have reminded Ryan that the people also reelected the Senate Democrats.
So whether he realizes it or not, House Republicans are outnumbered among the big-three political institutions (namely the presidency, the Senate, and the House) 2 to 1. Then again, as former President Bill Clinton illustrated repeatedly during the campaign, Republicans don’t know much about Arithmetic.
But here is why Ryan saying that Obama has no mandate is not only stupid but also hypocritical:
[Republican] pundits are now trying to wipe the egg off their faces by claiming that Obama has no mandate. But, to give you a sense of how blinded by prejudice/racism they are, just bear in mind that these are the same pundits who hailed the ‘indisputable’ mandate Bush won in 2000 even though he mustered just 271 electoral votes and lost the popular vote to Gore 47.9 to 48.4 percent.
By instructive contrast, Obama captured 332 electoral votes last night and won the popular vote 50.6 to 47.8.
(“Obama Defeats Romney in A Landslide,” The iPINIONS Journal, November 8, 2012)
I am waiting for Jindal to chastise Ryan to demonstrate that he really will not tolerate Republicans saying such stupid things. But I fear they will never learn. Hillary must be salivating….
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