The Republican governor of Louisiana, who signed a bill which allowed intelligent design to be taught alongside evolution, is now calling on Republicans to “stop being the stupid party,” but because of the a party’s anti-science policies. “We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything,” Gov. Bobby Jindal told Politico in an interview published on Tuesday. “We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”
Jindal also said that Republicans needed to “reject identity politics” and fight for the vote of every single American.
“That means the 47 percent and the 53 percent, that means any other combination of numbers going up to 100 percent,” he explained.
Jindal, who is the son of Indian immigrants and had a major in biology at Brown University, is slated to take over the Republican Governor’s Association next week.
In 2008, Jindal signed the Louisiana Science Education Act, which critics say allows creationism to be taught in biology class. He also opposes abortion in all cases, supported for a constitutional ban on same sex marriage and voted against expanding federal funding for stem cell research.
“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal explained to Politico this week. “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’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”
