By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Keeping up the strident criticism of his Republican party and its defeated presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Louisiana’s Indian-American governor Bobby Jindal has advised his party to stop insulting voters by saying stupid things.
“We as a Republican Party have to campaign for every single vote,” said Jindal, the new chairman of the Republican Governors Association on Fox News Sunday.
“We don’t start winning majorities … by insulting our voters,” he said referring to Romney’s reported comments to donors on a conference call that President Barack Obama defeated him because of so-called “gifts” that he gave to key voting blocs such as women and minorities.
Jindal, considered a top 2016 presidential contender, said he “absolutely” disagreed with Romney’s comments.
The Republican Party needs to go back to basics to attract the broad coalition of voters credited with putting Obama back in the White House, he said. “If we want people to like us, we have to like them first.”
“You don’t start to like people by insulting them and saying their votes were bought. We are an aspirational party,” he said.
Jindal said the Republican Party needs to convince voters it is the party of the middle class and upward mobility. Its conservative principles “are good for every single voter” and it “has to campaign for every single vote,” he added.
“We also don’t need to be saying stupid things,” he said referring to Republican Senate candidates in Indiana and Missouri who lost their elections after making comments on rape and abortion. Those remarks helped turn away female voters from the Republicans, he argued.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])