Former 2016 presidential candidate Bobby Jindal has concerns that the Republican Party may soon outlive its usefulness, but remains optimistic about the GOP’s chances in November.
The former Louisiana governor told the Washington Examiner the danger facing the Republican Party is not a single candidate such as Donald Trump, but an identity crisis brought on by ignoring conservative principles.
“It’s certainly fair to describe the Republican Party as the worst political party out there except for all the alternatives,” Jindal said. “I don’t see at this point in time a viable alternative for conservatives to go out there and implement and present our principles, but I do think if the Republican Party continues to move away from our conservative principles, at some point it is fair to question, why does the party exist?”
Reflecting on his own failed campaign, Jindal noted that other anti-establishment candidates successfully leveraged voters attitudes better than he did, and he noted, “This wasn’t the season for detailed policy papers.”
The governor would not say who he hopes will become the Republican nominee, citing his two previous faulty selections — including himself and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — as reason to avoid making another pick. However, Jindal said he did not think Trump would be the strongest nominee and expressed concern about his lack of specific policy proposals.
“I’m not a fan of Donald Trump at all … I don’t consider him to be a conservative,” Jindal said. “My concern is that he’s not opposed to big government; he just wants to be the one running big government.”
Jindal said Trump could not persuade him between now and the convention or November that the former reality television star was truly a conservative, but suggested that Trump could do several things to help quell his concerns about a potential Trump presidency.
“One of the things he could do is be more specific about the kinds of people and the names of people he would appoint to key positions,” Jindal said. “For example, who would he consider putting on the Supreme Court? Who would he have as his defense secretary or secretary of state? That could go a long to helping, at least showing us that he’ll be surrounded by principled, proven conservatives.”
Jindal said he’s not interested in a job in the next administration and talked about his desire to continue making the transition to the private sector. He intends to remain involved in public policy through his think tank, America Next, but appears to be moving away from Republican politics.
The governor said he wasn’t sure if he would attend this summer’s convention and would not commit to campaigning with the Republican nominee later this year. He added that he thought any GOP nominee would defeat the Democrats in November.
Jindal also urged the party not to change its nominating rules to benefit any particular candidate, and said it’s important not to view Trump’s rise as part of a passing fad.
“One of the mistakes I think the party has made is it ignored its own members for far too long,” Jindal said. “For a party to believe in a bottom-up approach to governance that doesn’t believe in a top-down approach, it’d be nice for the party to practice what it preaches and actually listen to the voters out there.”
