In a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library last week, the Louisiana governor claimed that there was a “silent war on people of faith” being waged in this country. Waldman examines how Jindal’s rhetoric played to the conservative id:
Jindal is rather shrewdly attempting to tap into something that’s universal, but particularly strong among contemporary conservatives: the urge to rise above the mundane and join a transformative crusade. It’s one thing to debate the limits of religious prerogatives when it comes to the actions of private corporations, or to try to find ways to celebrate religious holidays that the entire community will find reasonable. That stuff gets into disheartening nuance, and requires considering the experiences and feelings of people who don’t share your beliefs, which is a total drag. But a war? War is exciting, war is dramatic, war is consequential, war is life or death. War is where heroes rise to smite the unrighteous. So who do you want to get behind, the guy who says “We can do better,” or the guy who thunders, “Follow me to battle, to history, to glory!”
Saletan compares Jindal’s argument to the one Bob Jones University made for its ban on interracial dating 14 years ago:
The resemblance between Bob Jones’ argument and Jindal’s argument raises a simple question: Does the right to practice a religious belief against gay marriage differ fundamentally from the right to practice a religious belief against interracial marriage? There are several ways to claim that it does. But these rebuttals don’t stand up. … If religious freedom protects your right to discriminate privately between same-sex and opposite-sex relationships, does it also protect your right to discriminate privately between same-race and opposite-race relationships? If not, why not? As Bob Jones put it: “Does a Christian consensus have to exist to make a belief right? Who decides?”
Kilgore notes that “Jindal’s job approval ratio now comes in at a terrible 35/53”:
Worse yet, asked if Jindal should run for president, Louisianans say “no” by an insulting 63/25 margin (even Republicans oppose his candidacy by 50/36), and that’s not because they want him to stay home and do his job since he’ll be leaving office at the end of 2015. Listed among possible 2016 candidates, Bobby can win only 13% among Louisiana Republicans, seven points behind Mike Huckabee and just one point ahead of Ted Cruz.
The Dish 