People Not to Vote For - #1: Bobby Jindal

Bobby Jindal is young, from a visible and growing minority, and the future of the republican party. He graduated from Brown with honors, and went on to be a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, reading political science. In his first political post, as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, took Medicare from a giant deficit to a surplus. At the age of 28 he became the president of the University of Louisiana system, and a few years later, after an unsuccessful gubernatorial run, he was elected to the House by the Louisiana's 1st Congressional District. In 2007, he once again ran for governor, and this time won handily, becoming the youngest sitting governor at age 36.

So: He's popular, intelligent, and fiscally responsible. He's the son of immigrants, and the first Indian-American governor, in a southern, racist, state. What's not to love?

As it turns out, a lot. Onto the issues:

• Bobby Jindal is against abortion. Really, really against abortion. Even in cases of rape, incest, and if the mother's life is in danger. (However, procedures that indirectly cause an abortion and are needed to save the life of a woman are ok. And emergency contraception is too, as long as you ask for it in the emergency room, and you've been raped. I'm not making this up: click)
  
• In Congress, he voted against repealing the PATRIOT act, and voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.
• As Governor, he supports the teaching on intelligent design, and signed into law this: (quoted from the official website of the Governor of Louisiana:
  

  SB 144 by Senators Nick Gautreaux, Amedee, Dorsey, Duplessis and Mount provides that on a first conviction of aggravated rape, forcible rape, second degree sexual battery, aggravated incest, molestation of a juvenile when the victim is under the age of 13, or an aggravated crime against nature, the court may sentence the offender to undergo chemical castration. On a second conviction of the above listed crimes, the court is required to sentence the offender to undergo chemical castration.

  This bill also provides that a court may instead order a physical castration instead of the chemical castration.

• He's a batshit insane convert to Catholicism. Now, I don't have a problem with most Catholics, but when you're an undergraduate and you perform an exorcism on your classmate, then write an vivid, detailed article about it for the New Oxford Review, you've got issues. The actual article is subscription only, so I can't offer any choice quotes - I've read it, but can't track it down again - but it is creepy. Read the start here.

Convinced yet? Now, this guy may be fine for Louisiana, but the Republicans believe that he is the future, and seem to be working him up for a possible presidential bit in 4 or 8 years. (He's also been mentioned as a vice-presidential nominee, but I really doubt that will be happening: he's too young for McCain, and he'd damage his own prospects by hitching himself to the Straight Talk Express). This man in dangerous; he is intelligent, charismatic, and a minority, and appeals to the Christian right. If he ever gets elected to national office, he could be a new Nixon, except instead of mixing intelligence with an amoral, evil streak, he'd mix it with crazy theoctatic impulses. And that is far worse than anything Nixon ever did.

So please, don't vote for Jindal. If you're liberatarian, hate him because he voted for the PATRIOT Act and against flag-burning. If you're evangelical, hate him because he's Catholic. If you're southern, hate him because he's not white. If you're a Democrat, you should already hate him.