Jindal ‘tired of the hyphenated Americans’
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, reflected on his heritage Saturday in calling for a renewed emphasis on pursuing the American dream.
Jindal spoke of his parents immigrating from India to Baton Rouge, La., where he was born months later, joking about his dad missing a hospital payment and forcing the couple to return the baby.
“We used to be proud to call America the great melting pot,” Jindal said later in his remarks at the First In The Nation leadership summit in New Hampshire, noting his parents were proud of their heritage.
{mosads}Still, Jindal insisted, “They weren’t coming to raise ‘Indian-Americans.’ They were coming to raise Americans.”
“I don’t know about you, I’m tired of the hyphenated Americans. No more ‘African-Americans.’ No more ‘Indian-Americans.’ No more ‘Asian-Americans,’ ” Jindal said to applause.
Jindal caught attention for similar remarks earlier this year at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Jindal focused the crux of his remarks Saturday in the early-voting state on “school choice,” saying a family’s zip code “too often determines whether that child will get a great education,” which he called “unacceptable.”
“Instead of forcing the children to follow the dollars, we should let the dollars follow the child,” Jindal said.
Jindal suggested that unlike other potential GOP presidential contenders opposed to Common Core, he was actually fighting against the education standards in federal court. A judge in Louisiana recently threw out a separate lawsuit targeting the K-12 standards in the state.
Jindal alleged that government-promoted history lessons would focus on “victimhood,” and that in his speeches and policies, President Obama “seems intent on dividing us by class, by geography, by race, by gender, by income.” He also criticized Obama on foreign policy issues, particularly on negotiations with Iran.
Jindal also suggested his popularity in his home state had fallen because he had trimmed government.
Not missing an opportunity to take a jab at Hillary Clinton, Jindal opened his speech to laughs by reading fake remarks depicting the former secretary of State as supportive of Obama’s policies and ideas.
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