Everything that Jindal said and did last night can be explained by the legacy of anti-regulatory, free market rhetoric that has dominated the Republican party (as well as much of the MSM) for over 25 years.
This ideological lens is clearly evinced by Faux News’ Brit Hume’s comment that Jindal’s "speech read a lot better than it sounded, this was not Bobby Jindal's greatest oratorical moment," It takes a very specific, and quite impervious, ideological mindset to conclude that the Republican rebuttal’s core message was dandy but Jindal’s delivery mucked up the night.
The Katina reference – It is odd that so many commentators are treating Jindal’s invocation of the Katrina disaster as an inexplicable gaffe. For a Republican ideologue, the government’s failure during Katrina is the ideal talking point. Since Reagan, the Republicans have actively worked to make their anti-government rhetoric into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The strategy has been to systematically underfund government agencies, to appoint agency heads who are philosophically opposed to the agency’s mission, and particularly under Dubya, to appoint incompetent people to head these agencies. If the tacit goal is for these agencies to fail, then "heck of a job, Brownie" is in fact a well earned kudos. What Jindal and company did not get is that people can actually distinguish between the officious bureaucrat who hassles you at the DMV and government agencies that are charged with saving your life in a disaster.
When the hurricanes hit and the levees break, individuals just aren’t in a good position to pull themselves up by the boot straps. This point applies to economic disasters as well as natural ones. Most people want the government to fix these massive structural problems. Fortunately (from my standpoint) the Republican’s ideological rhetoric allows for no nuance or gray areas. Government is always the problem and never the solution. As Chis Matthews said "Oh God!"
Tax cuts and still more tax cuts – Tax cuts actually serve the anti-government agenda noted above. If you have buy in on the anti-government position, then it is not to hard build outrage about the government taking your money. For years, progressives have argued that the Democrats needed to change the terms of this "tax and wasteful spending" mantra by reframing government spending as productive investments in America’s future. Obama has made that turn brilliantly and the Republicans simply have no answer. The related point is that the trickle down bubble has completely busted. Yet, the Republicans keep believing that they can convince the 98% that their lives will be enhanced by transferring more wealth to the upper 2% who "take all the risks and create all the jobs." However, the banking crisis showed that the upper 2% only want to take risk with everyone else’s money.
The cadence thing – Going back to Dan Quayle, Republicans have gotten a lot of mileage with their version of anti-intellectual, common man populism. Being smart becomes the dreaded marker of elitism and snobbery (as opposed to be being filthy rich). Talking slowly and using simple language has been one of the performative means for getting this "just folks" message across. That fad has run its course. The Republicans can not grasp that Dubya’s obvious incompetency pushed this common man model to its breaking point and beyond. The backlash against Palin shows that Americans now want someone who is well above average to be making the tough decisions. Faux folksiness and advancing ideas so simple that a child with an unusually short attention span can understand them, just ain’t the ticket for success it used to be.
Ethnic Packaging – The Republicans are like a company selling a beverage no one likes and instead of reformulating decide to change the package color and logo. So in 2008, they decided that being a woman was the right package to sell their neo-con product. After the Obama win, they quickly updated their market research and concluded that America wants an ethnic looking leader. I can imagine the strategy session – Okay, how do we top a good looking, smooth talking Hawaiian born President with a Kenyan father? How about a first generation Indian immigrant who goes by the name Bobby (can we get a Joe in there maybe?) and who sounds a lot like Andy Taylor on quaaludes. Damn, we can’t fail!!!! American will eat that sh#t up for damn sure!!
It takes someone with a true genius for failure to roll out this Jindal repackaging. If not the brainchild of Bill Kristol, then a worthy successor awaits in the Republican wings.