Mutineers, we have our first brown Governor. 🙂 Join me, as I bold my favorite parts of the NYT article which declares this history-making outcome.
Bobby Jindal, a conservative Republican congressman from the New Orleans suburbs and the son of immigrants from India, was elected Louisiana’s governor Saturday, inheriting a state that was suffering well before Hurricane Katrina left lingering scars two years ago.
Mr. Jindal, 36, defeated three main challengers in an open primary, becoming this state’s first nonwhite governor since a Reconstruction-era figure briefly held the office 130 years ago.
With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Jindal received 53 percent, above the 50 percent-plus-one threshold needed to avoid a runoff in November. He will be the nation’s first Indian-American governor when he takes office in January.
Have I popped champagne? Yes, I have. No, I don’t believe in teaching Intelligent Design, I certainly am not an advocate of getting rid of a woman’s right to choose and I still support hate crime legislation.
I can guzzle bubbly despite all that, because there’s something else stirring within me– recognition that someone who looks like me did something so significant, combined with an uncomplicated thrill over the fact that Bobby made history.
There are so many valid reactions to Jindal; I know about them because thanks to Amardeep’s post, we have hosted a lively discussion regarding his background, his policy positions and the greater implications of his politicking, for “the community”. Amardeep’s thoughts resonated with many of us who are conflicted about Louisiana’s new Governor. The good news is, there are no wrong reactions.
Each of us is allowed to feel how we do, so while some of you gnash your teeth, I’m happy for him and by extension, us. Better than that, the next time some little kid decides that they want to be in government when they grow up, their immigrant parents now have a visual, a template, a precedent to latch on to, much the same way my English minor was suddenly acceptable once Jhumpa won.
There is much to do, much which is owed to the great state of Louisiana and her people; this is just the beginning of that story and I idealistically hope that it has a happy ending. What Jindal can do (and really, whether he can do it) remains to be seen. But I don’t think it’s disrespectful or inappropriate to raise a glass to him tonight and wish him a sincere congratulations.
Doing so doesn’t mean we buy in to his positions lock stock, neither does it mean he’s like, the greatest thing EVAR. It just means that we are happy for someone who accomplished something extraordinary. Congratulating Bobby is something I humbly think we should do, because ideally we should each choose generosity of spirit over bitterness and rancor. Choosing the former and congratulating a winner doesn’t lessen us or diminish our passionate convictions, it just demonstrates our tolerance, equanimity and good faith that we will allow a person’s actions to speak before we do, negatively and presumptously.
heh no ANNA, I know my parents… and their friends… and my aunts and uncles… and their friends…
Millions of Catholics around the world believe that life was created by God but also believe in evolution. Nearly every priest Bishop and Cardinal that I have met accepts both concepts. Is that so hard to comprehend. It is not for me. One belongs in the realm of science – the other in the realm of religion. Only a shallow Catholic refuses to accept both. American catholicism is populist and is another strain in Catholic belief and thought. It is not a either/or function, it is an AND function.
Also, the Bible is the word of God but it was written and is interpreted by man. There is no ‘one’ interpretation. False prophets abound. Many fundamentalist christian preachers are ‘false prophets’. Jindal’s election is a great case study in a marketing class.
Forgot to mention this link to read more about his religious views: http://www.jindalonreligion.com/
“as oppossed to those incomplete ones you guys up there have. i knew tis was all about penis envy.”
Penis envy? Hardly. Our “conservative” government makes the Democrats look positively fascist. About half your country wanted to join us after the 2004 election. No, we’re pretty happy here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesusland_map
yeah, all it takes is one trip to india to know they’re all about gay rights, minority rights, and protecting the environment. funny how those who accuse others of being whitwashed see non-western cultures purely thru the prism of western leftist dogma. i haven’t seen caricatures this bad since marxist social realism.
i just read one of jindal’s attempts to argue against atheistic evolution, and produced this post in response, Bobby Jindal: ignorant genius. i don’t really talk much about jindal’s politics or even his personal narrative. the title says it all though.
ANNA: excellent posting and replies. I have enjoyed your views. I shared the posting below on another mutiny forum regarding the same subject. Sorry about the duplicate posting.
I am a male liberal who votes Democrat almost always, US citizen, born and raised in India. I also have respect for libertarian values which don’t always gel with the Democrats. The Christian Coalition calls themselves “values voters”. Well, I am a values voter too, except my values are different:
With all this said, I believe that business typically performs much better than government, and that capitalism is way better than communism on any given day. For example I believe that public education needs to see more competition from charter schools.
When visiting India I am all in favor of the recent changes that have come about because of capitalism and economic progress. While living here in the States I can see that a little more respect for socialism would be helpful. I find it humorous that rednecks who can’t even afford a doctor’s visit or subsequent treatment will vote readily for Republican candidates who convince them that having choice in healthcare is more important than having any acccess to healthcare. It’s like saying I’d like to have a choice between going out with the two prettiest women in Hollywood, even though I know I am completely out of that league.
People who want black and white answers regarding US politics and Bobby Jindal should move to some other planet.
What is wrong with wanting to succeed and being able to deliver results?
Having grown up with all kinds of parental pressure, I deeply honor and respect Bobby’s desire to Americanize, convert to Christianity and make choices that made sense to him.
We can criticize him till the cows come home [in Punjab or in LA], but I would like to see how many of the desis on this forum can match his accomplishments, even though most desis are “type A” overachievers.
I would not vote for this guy on any day. He is completely opposed to what I stand for. But I respect what he is doing. He is doing what makes sense to him. Mark my words, this guy is gearing up to something much larger than the LA state, he is looking at being the President of the US.
If I had to work with this guy, I would completely feel comfortable working with him, matter of fact I would know that success would almost be assured having a guy like him on my team. But would I vote for him? No, not really, but given the choices they had in LA state, maybe I would reconsider.
Many democratic states and cities have republican governors or mayors. These guys are much better at getting the job done, even though they have a church-sponsored idea of social justice and are extremely good fodder for Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report.
Republicans are not all immigrant-haters. People become Republicans for all kinds of reasons. One party is not going to suit all of one’s preferences, but as long as your burning issues are addressed, I suppose you know who to vote for. I respect the Republican intent and propaganda about small government and business-like approach to things. However, this party has been pandering of late to the Christian Coalition who are ideological brothers of the Hindutva bandwagon in India. To me Republicans have something similar with communists: they sound great on paper, but in reality their ideology produce only more totalitarianism and larger government. Clinton was the best Republican president in recent times according to Alan Greenspan and I agree wholeheartedly with him. He lived up to the real Republican values, not the fake stuff we have been seeing of late.
There are only two religions left in the world: conservative and liberal.
A liberal Jew, a liberal Hindu, a liberal Roman Catholic, they are all the same when push comes to shove.
However, I am a liberal Hindu who is done with pandering to the Gandhian ideals of pacifism in the face of terrorism. You cannot pull a Gandhi with Hitler, or with Osama. And in this, I am beginning to have more respect for the neo-cons. No matter how crazy I sound saying this, I will say it. Extremist Islam needs to be finally met with an iron hammer, and if it takes crazy ass rednecks in this country to rise up to the challenge, I applaud them no matter the ideological and cultural differences I might have with them.
So I am just yet another example of what I have been trying to say in this posting:
There is no simple black and white categorization of desis in this country. So please quit trying to portray Bobby Jindal as a this or that. See if you can make a difference in this world. I will, as soon as I am done typing this. 🙂
I can certainly identify, Anna. I grew up as often the sole brown kid in a community full of white kids with Sanskrit names, who generally said the same prayers, attended the same school and, even when my cousins arrived to increase the brown effect, there seemed to be little in the way of automatic pal-creation and a curious absence of greased playground slides to acceptance and 24/7 fun.
i think the only situation in which being of a certain religion/sect can assist is if the community you’re brought into is filled not with kids but seasoned adults who’ve experienced all the horribly inane cruelties of childhood.
Razib,
have you had a chance to wince at the latest D’Souza gem, accusing the big, bad atheists of mounting a campaign to (gasp!) teach science to his readers’ children? At least he made the effort to cherry-pick quotes from the names currently bubbling in pop-media.
Can we please cease and desist with the use of ‘rednecks’ especially if you haven’t gone to school with/lived with/dated/grown up with at least one person you would consign to that category which produces so little analytical value it would more worthwhile if you stabbed yourself in the head with a ballpoint pen while typing it, just to see how high your pain tolerance is?
How does “rising up to the challenge” not include a slow erosion of civil rights, exponential growth in the tools of an ideal nanny-state and the expansion of inefficiency (in gov’t spending) to a scale heretofore unseen in the US?
If you think that being a ‘crazy ass’ is the solution to security problems posed by “Extreme Islam” (what is that, like Exxxxtreme Skiing or Exxxtreme Snowboarding?), and you’re done with being a ‘wussy’ Gandhian ahimsa-advocate, why don’t you enlist and put your money where your obviously uninformed mouth is? Surely such conviction that mindless application of conventional military force would logically lead one to put their own keister on the firing line:
Just don’t think you can get away with slapping a magnet on your car or telling us Gandhian sympathizers (who, BTW, have probably laid more beatings on people than you–in self-defense) to get with the ‘crazy ass redneck’ programs.
that should read: “surely such conviction that mindless application of conventional military force can deal with all security problems would logically lead one to put their own keister on the firing line”
have you had a chance to wince at the latest D’Souza gem, accusing the big, bad atheists of mounting a campaign to (gasp!) teach science to his readers’ children? At least he made the effort to cherry-pick quotes from the names currently bubbling in pop-media.
yeah. well, he’s either a liar or he’s stupid. he repeats moronic things about history which anyone who has read plato or the pre-socratics would laugh at.
p.s. and when i say d’souza is a liar or he’s stupid, i speak as someone who doesn’t disagree with all of his politics (the pro-freedom & anti-multiculturalism part i can go along with, the allying with muslims against the evil atheists, obviously not so much).
That is probably my second favorite phrase (“ahistorical view”) next to “I hate you.” =D
murali, thanks for the “redneck” control. Seriously.
What if he, who came in from the far Right, and whose name we dare not speak in polite company, is an Indian [RAW] Intelligence Plant?
BhelPurian Candidate?
you meant socialist. more importantly though, you need to move on from the 50s. clearly, you haven’t acquainted yourself with the copious volume of moral commentary by oral roberts, james dobson and the like.
seems like something gold bond should cure, innit?
This I agree with.
careful. that’s HMF’s pet peeve…telling people to “move on” from tyranny
…that and cleaning your clock, though the latter is getting old.
That’s quite interesting cos I thought it might have mattered. Anyway, just as an aside, I think there may be 2 separate issues here: i) recognition at the level of personal interaction- where “brown”-ness is obvious and could be a separating factor ii) recognition at the level of public awareness- where “brown”-ness is less obvious just from reading a banner/flyer/etc about someone named “bobby jindal”, and thus is less of a cognitive barrier at creating a bond with that person based on shared views.
That’s true and a very enlightened view. However, I think many of us aren’t as aware of our bitterness or have faced up to the fact that our choices made us what we are- I know I find it difficult. So, sometimes understanding why people are being so vicious might be useful for the discussion. Also, I don’t think should be telling people who they should or should not be hating.
BTW, is “hate on those” OK in the US? Shouldn’t it just be “hate those”? Just checking as a newbie in the US who still gets confounded by questions like “where are you at?”
HMF: a woman and a black man would not be the top 2 candidates, even this early on, if the exec branch was “sealed off” as you say. you need to move on from the 50’s.
Thanks, I am aware of these trends. I was just wondering if an additional reason for the perceived lack of political participation could be due to the focus on education/other careers. Like you said, there was a surprisingly large gap between Dalip Singh and Bobby Jindal. Perhaps, ABDs and DBDs paid more attention to Indian politics, and didn’t see much point in getting involved here? Again, these are all conjectures. I guess we’ll need to wait for a pol science grad student’s study of South Asian involvement in US politics at all levels across 50 years before we can come to some firmer answers.
a woman and a black man would not be the top 2 candidates, even this early on, if the exec branch was “sealed off” as you say.
Mmm. hmm. well excuse me for being skeptical/realistic and actually providing facts to back it up. Even after providing you a clear cut precedent (from only 4 years ago, not 50) of a complete reversal of support for the leading democratic candidate (who was white and had a dick, in less than 3 weeks prior to the primary) you don’t concede the truth.
Even if I did need to “move on from the 50s”, it would still be irrelevant to your BS point that Hillary’s popularity at this point is somehow indicative of her getting the nom. Furthermore, even if she does win the nom, that means dick squat in telling whether she actually wins the election (because someone only enters the executive branch when they’re actually elected)
Although, since you have this penchant for dragging things on, for the exec branch, I will state the male requirement is more penetrable than the white one. Obama’s not getting close to the nom (even if there was no Hillary), and without Hillary’s connection to Bill, she wouldn’t be anywhere near it either.
Anyway, I learned the Howard Dean lesson, my bet is on Edwards.
chooooo chweet! 😀
“Hate on” is slang, just like “Where you at” (I think the “are” is highly unnecessary). “Hate those” is correct. 🙂 You are right.
Extremist everything needs to be hammered. How people can think intolerance, hatred and especially violence should have anything to do with a deity is beyond me.
these religious stories contain many violent statements. Its not a huge logical leap that people would think violence has something to do with a diety..
“hate on” is slang, but I think that it arises out of the difference between actually hating a person/group as opposed to ridiculing, criticizing, or derogating a group. In theory, you could “hate on” someone without “hating” them, if that makes any sense at all.
harminder, perhaps part of the gap between Dilip Singh Saund and Bobby Jindal also has to do with the vast array of changes to U.S. immigration and naturalization policies vis-a-vis Asians (desis included)? For example, Saund is among the last generation of immigrants who are allowed to naturalize in the U.S., and the Immigration Act of 1924 effectively bans Asian immigration for approx. 40 years (I am excluding the McCarran-Walter Act since its impact for Asian immigration was not as profound as the 1965 Immigration Act).
hmf:
i agree with you that its too early, and hillary peaked too soon, though i think she’s more formidable than dean, who was a lesson that perceived left-wing fanaticism won’t fly in freedom loving america. hillary, like bill, understands that.
i only take exception to your “seeled off” rhetoric, which is too extreme and black & white in a land where the top 2 candidates are not white males. your not reading the signals, that the seal is breaking. hillary and obama’s, popularity is indicative of this, as this wouldn’t have happened in the 50’s.
Even extreme love and kindness? 😉
though i think she’s more formidable than dean, who was a lesson that perceived left-wing fanaticism won’t fly in freedom loving america
What did Dean say that was so “left wing fanatic”? That the war was a mistake? That it was poorly planned? Isn’t that what the every retired general that’s breathing now is saying? Only dean was saying it in 04 (when the rest of the hoodwinked american public remained, hoodwinked) instead of 07/08 (when dumb “nascar dads” finally are waking up and smelling the i.e.d’s)
your not reading the signals, that the seal is breaking. hillary and obama’s, popularity is indicative of this, as this wouldn’t have happened in the 50’s.
Hello, black people and white people going to the same school and shitting on the same toilets woudln’t have happened in the 50s. An avowed klansmen getting punished for cold blooded murder wouldn’t have happened in the 50s. Whites don’t need to whitewash, you’re doing their job for them.
And now because there’s some rah-rah’ing behind a black candidate (and notice how as it gets closer to the primary, the rah-rah’ing for obama is slowly sinking) and a female (who also happens to be the wife of who some consider the greatest, if not smoothest president of the last 50 yrs) this is indicative of the executive branch “seal breaking”? Please. get some perspective.
This.
But dean was quite conservative, ergo my use of the word “perceived.” Kerry shrewedly “doubted his patriotism” by having his supporters run an anti-dean ad featuring bin Laden’s visage (though he used a third party group so he could maintain plausible denial, which is, to be fair, plausible). not unlike his own swift-boating or the Senator Max Cleland ruckus. Dean was effectively labeled a left wing looney, although he wasn’t.
You’re too hysterical. I always knew you were a closet feminist.
Here is SAALT’s official response to Jindal’s election:
Statement from South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) on the Election of Bobby Jindal as Governor-Elect of Louisiana
The election of Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to the position of chief executive in the state of Louisiana is an important milestone in the context of civic and political participation by South Asians in the United States. With over 2.5 million South Asians in America, community members have begun to engage more actively in the civic and political process in the 2004 and 2006 elections – from voting to expressing views on important issues to running for office at local, state and national levels.
While Governor-Elect Jindal has broken new ground, it is important to review his stances and record on issues affecting immigrants, minority communities, the economically disadvantaged, LGBTIQ individuals, and women. As an organization that addresses civil and immigrant rights issues through a social justice framework, SAALT urges Governor-Elect Jindal and his administration to use this opportunity to address the significant inequalities encountered by communities in Louisiana and around the country through policies that will advance civil rights protections, lift up economically disadvantaged communities, eliminate racial and religious profiling, and create an inclusive environment where immigrants are welcomed and treated with respect. SAALT serves as a resource on these issues and others, and can be reached at (301) 270-1855 or at saalt@saalt.org.
Bill Clinton harvested the cold war peace dividend as well as the republican congress. As for the “some consider the greatest, if not smoothest president of the last 50 yrs”; please, get some perspective. He was an average president at an opportune time.
DL, Naaah blud, i’m stickin’ wit jabbin’ pens in the head.
As for the “some consider the greatest, if not smoothest president of the last 50 yrs”; please, get some perspective. He was an average president at an opportune time.
please get some reading glasses. I said (as you quoted) “some consider the greatest” not that I agreed or disagreed, rather making the point that his popularity is a huge component of Hillary’s current success.
You’re too hysterical. I always knew you were a closet feminist.
ok Mr. Cruise, say Hi to your nephew for me.
tom cruise did something to his nephew?!!
Maybe a different kind of hammering?
tom cruise did something to his nephew?!!
yea, he jumped up and down on his couch screaming “I love kate”, but then a week later the nephew said something like “well my father’s brother who sometimes I call uncle, who happens to also have the name tom came over whispered quietly that he might have some affection for a lady named kate”
So, he took a past event, and severly understated it’s significance, well, because, some people do that.
he underestimated tom’s love for kate? sounds like the nephew got it right.
Heh hee. I dont agree with you on some political stuff. But this was right on the mark.
oh, but i thought that we are free from this tyranny now that reagan personally crushed gorby’s tiny testicles with his giant manly hands, while simultaneously giving him a welcoming hug, and exhorting russians to win one for the gipper? so hard to keep these inspirational messages straight. apologies to anybody who is offended by this revisionist history. i realize it does not give the fair share of credit to the pope who infused freedomness in the oppressed communist countries by virtual godly high-fives from his pope mobile. in any case, i am glad that capitalism, that automatic utopia, is working so well with a baby kissing, sturgeon fondling, manly man.
but i do appreciate your thoughtfulness in watching out for me.
interestingly enough according to the Freethinkers: A History of Anerican Secularism book http://www.amazon.com/Freethinkers-American-Secularism-Susan-Jacoby/dp/0805074422, before the 19th century the South was more enlightened than New England ie evolution etc per my memory
an interview with the author: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/144/story_14451_1.html
The history of secularism is also the history of a certain kind of religion. One of the interesting things that happened in this country is, between roughly 1780 and 1825 in New England, more than half of all of the once orthodox Calvinist churches transformed into the much more liberal, Unitarian churches, a development the orthodox of the day hated as much as the religious right hates secularists today. In fact, they referred to Unitarians as infidels and atheists. But those people led to a transformation of American religion. They were influenced by freethought and freethinkers were influenced by them. And later on when evolution came along, this part of American Protestantism accommodated itself to evolutionism, as it had accommodated itself to Enlightenment thought in the 18th century.
This.
Are you serious? Never mind the byaah speech happened after his poor performance in the Iowa primary, so unless you engage in some real republican spining whereby events happen out of sequence, it couldn’t be blamed on it, but there’s nothing ideologically left about the byaah speech, or anything else he said during his campaign, he more often than not spoke the truth, or as you call it “hysteria”
hmf, you seem to be incapable of noticing when people agree with you, perhaps b/c you have a “with us or against us” attidude, which is endearing.
hmf, you seem to be incapable of noticing when people agree with you,
eh, well it happens so rarely, which makes it a little tough, not that I care either way, but human beings usually get accustomed to one way or another.
i was rooting for dean, as i find myself rooting for obama, b/c their anti-war stand would make for great debate, wheras kerry and clintons stands are really just politically expediant, though they argue their just nuanced. this is why i dislike nuance sometimes. its the last excuse for the inexcusable.
dean was portrayed by the DLC as too radical, although he was actually more conservative than kerry (the white house stayed out of it b/c they wanted dean). kerry (with plausible denial) max clelanded him and the bubble burst in iowa. then he screamed, the media overplayed it, and the jig was up.
Anyway, we’re coming away from the original point, which itself is off-topic. The executive branch is one of those golden-chalices, sort of like the Hamptons. no matter what else happens or who gets support from what corner or what happens now that doesn’t happen in the 50s, one could only really believe the demographics will change when they actually change. All these “harbingers” really amount to nothing.
that’s interesting and explains a lot. for me, the examined life is all about harbingers. it’s all the market, a leading economic indicator. the most money is always made by those who get in early on the new new thing. you stick to government bonds, i see.
the examined life is all about harbingers. it’s all the market, a leading economic indicator
what it really explains is your complete disinguine reading of the word and context that I used it, so you take a word completely out of context, put it into a different setting (financial instruments, which have their own complex forecasting and prediction algorithms, not just “look, everyone says THAT stock is hot!”) , and change the entire meaning of the point I made. Notice I put “harbinger” in quotes, indicating that I don’t believe they are actually indicative that the American public is remotely ready for non white/non male president (or even VP) I think they’re nice pivots for repubs and people with their head in the sand to state “look things are changing” the same way Colin Powell and Condi Rice are repeatedly used to “prove” racism doesn’t exist.
It’s as if I said, “I don’t like sandwiches” and you reply, “that says a lot, for the earl of sandwich is a fantastic piece of history, as there were at least 10 successors to his line, and I believe history is very important” Unbelievable.