All Of Jindal's Awful Policies (That We Know About

On Wednesday, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal announced that he is entering the 2016 presidential race. Jindal has served as Louisiana's governor since 2008, and has had a solidly Republican political record. He joins the race as the 13th Republican to throw their hat in the ring. Perhaps the number 13 should be given special heed in this case, as a Jindal presidency would spell bad luck for many Americans. Bobby Jindals' politics are scary, and his candidacy is not one I am excited about. I don't think he really stands a chance against other more powerful candidates in his party, but knowing that he now has a national audience to impart his opinions to is unsettling.

To call Jindal an ultra-conservative would not be an exaggeration. in fact it might be toning things down a tad. Jindal leans very far to the right on every major issue, which is often bad news for women, the environment, and education. We can only speculate on any additional beliefs and policies he will suggest in his attempts to sway conservative voters in the coming months, but I can say confidently that I won't be happy to hear about any of it. So that you're armed and prepared for what is to come during Jindal's campaign, here is a summary of some of his most harmful policies.

Vehemently Anti-Choice

So much so that he actually compared pro-choice policies to slavery in America in his 2010 book, Leadership and Crisis :

America's Judeo-Christian heritage commands us to help the help-less and demands that we protect innocent human life. Yes, this is a demand, not an option. America is a place that actively strives to protect its most vulnerable members. Undoubtedly, we as a country have made wrong turns over the years--we tolerated slavery after all.

Well I guess we know how much we can count on Jindal to have our backs on abortion.

Against Same-Sex Marriage

In that same book, Jindal appears to want us to feel bad for him because his same-sex marriage views are extremely outdated. He writes,

The elite press, having heard rumors that I am well-educated and maybe even halfway smart, invariably start with the same line of questioning, "How could you, an educated person, oppose same sex marriage? Or favor intelligent design? Or be a Republican? Or not drink Frappucino?"

When I speak to national reporters, some shoot me a mock sympathetic look, as if to say, "It's okay, I know you can't really believe those things, I know you just have to say that stuff to get elected here in the Deep South." They believe either I don't really hold these socially conservative viewpoints, or I'm really not that smart.

I mean, are those two assumptions really that unreasonable?

Doesn't Quite Understand Climate Change

While he has conceded that human behavior does play some role in climate change, he doesn't seem to fully grasp exactly how human behavior is harmful to the environment. I say this because he went berserk on President Obama after the president stalled on approving the Keystone XL pipeline:

There are no logical reasons to oppose construction of the pipeline other than an irrational liberal ideology that blindly and unscientifically opposes all forms of energy which they themselves do not deem to be sufficiently ‘"green" or ‘"renewable."

Not only is this lovely excerpt evidence that Jindal favors hyperbolic rhetoric over actual arguments, but also demonstrates that he missed the many memos that unequivocally stated that the Keystone pipeline would have disastrous environmental impacts, including a huge increase in greenhouse emissions. This information came from scientists and everything, Bobby!

Favors Hugging And Praying Over Policy Change

At least when it comes to gun laws, apparently. In a super classy move last Thursday, Jindal went to town on Obama again, but this time accusing him of pandering to his base when the president called for changes in our gun laws following the tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina. Jindal stated that the president should be

Hugging these families [of the victims], and praying for these families.

I don't see why hugging and wanting to make it harder for people to get murdered due to gun violence have to be mutually exclusive, but okay.

Does Not Support Federal Health Insurance

Jindal is very big on admonishing any use of "top down" government policies, and apparently government subsidized health insurance is not an exception. Instead of providing well-reasoned criticisms, Jindal preferred to point out that the marketplace health insurance website had difficulties launching.

The disastrous rollout [sic] of Obamacare is a case in point that we don't need top-down, one-size-fits-all federal mandates, and instead should continue to focus on health care solutions that make sense for Louisiana. Obamacare needs to be repealed. The dysfunction of the website and the President's broken promises on being able to keep your health plan are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the problems with this law.

While tech issues with the start of Obamacare were unfortunate, I am not sure that I understand why that means Americans shouldn't have subsidized health insurance. I pass the question back to Jindal.

I suppose it could be mildly entertaining (in a dark and depressing way) to hear more of Jindal's hyperbolic and misguided rhetoric for as long as his campaign funds hold out. In a sense it could be seen as a reality check. This is what a legitimate contender for the nomination of the Republican party looks like in 2015. It's something to keep an eye on (when your eyes aren't rolling out of your head, of course), because these are, unfortunately, representative of many policy-makers in Jindal's cohort.

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