BY B. JAY COOPER
Reprinted from BJayCooper.com

Short  answer: I don’t know. But I do know that many of our new “frontrunners for the 2016 nomination” aren’t defining that path either.

I just read a piece by Bobby Jindal, Louisiana GOP governor, who said he’s laid out seven “ideas for change.” Let me briefly sum them up: stop looking back, compete for every vote, reject identity politics, stop being the stupid party, stop insulting the intelligence of voters, stop being the party of  “big,” focus on people not government.

Thanks, governor…but where are the ideas for change? I see navel gazing. Now where do you lay out a policy path for change, which is what the Republican Party really needs. I know the Tea Party types think they have that, and what they have is 100 percent acceptable…by them.

How about instead of stopping things, moving things forward. Like, on immigration which is now stalled in Washington after great fanfare that THIS would be the year to pass it. Or gun control, which never got going despite the emotion and horror over the Newtown shooting even after the great fanfare that THIS was the year to get it done. Or, well, or a lot of things.

Jindal’s seven ideas for change amount to a hill of beans. I agree with most of them, but that isn’t change – that’s just smart rhetoric to make him sound like anything but a Tea Party-er. The party needs sensible ideas on POLICY. That’s that thing that doesn’t move in Washington anymore. Let me say it again POLICY. There, that’s the change we can all believe in. ACCOMPLISHING SOMETHING. Not building stonewalls on every important issue simply to position yourselves – Republicans and Democrats – for the next election. Tell you what, I’ll take just one idea — just one — on how to get something done in Washington because they aren’t getting anything done in Washington of any significance.

One thing I definitely agree with Jindal on –stop insulting the intelligence of the American voter. They aren’t the ones demanding 30-second ads. You’re the ones giving them to us. They aren’t demanding sound bites to fit a short cable news piece. That’s what you give us. We aren’t demanding whistle stops at airports substituting as talking to the American people. You perform those, you pack the audience with supporters and you get the pictures you want, all happy, exciting and accepting warm for 24-hour news channels. What choice do we have?

Jindal does lay out some policy in his treatises on governing (or, better put, on his positioning himself to run for president) but they are generalities we can all agree on: a government that provides a level playing field, creating a sustainable energy policy, a better education system.

You won me over, governor, I want all those things.  Thanks for the destination. Now, whither the route to get there from here?

Editor’s Note: B. Jay Cooper is a former White House deputy press secretary and former head of communications at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He also was a reporter at the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American. He is deputy managing director of the Washington, D.C., office of APCO Worldwide.