It was both the best and the worst of times for Louisiana in the fall of 2003. The gubernatorial race had graduated from being fought between a current prisoner of the law and a member of the Ku Klux Klan to a series of debates between a female, white Democrat and a Republican man of East Indian descent. Apparently progressive for the current national ethos; yet, the issues were still Louisiana’s long-sought-after upward mobility in the fields of business, education, and general American popularity. Both of the candidates' platforms seemed only mildly convincing to the booth-weary voter.
Wait, what did you say? A white woman and a brown-skinned Indian man openly vying for the governorship of Louisiana, and with support? The crowds screamed in bouts of excessive self-delightment, “What a contest! What progress! Do we vote for one minority or the other? How far we have come!” Louisiana had indeed arrived and the complexion of southern stewardship had changed. But, was this the same ol’ two-step disguised as a modern medley? What ever happened to standing for someone who was going to be a voice and hand of positive change?
Hence, this voter’s quandary. Did I want to vote for Kathleen Babineaux Blanco whose political principles are closer to mine? Or ought I help get elected Bobby Jindal, the first Indian-American governor in the history of the United States even if I don’t agree with his views? While not naïve enough to back a candidate just because he looks more like me than the other person does, I did feel the pull of responsibility towards my ethnicity. And this wasn’t an obligatory stance, as it turned out to be for the majority of East Indian voters in this state. One has to admit that despite the immense contribution of Indian-Americans to this nation’s economic and scientific infrastructure, we are a grossly under-represented political minority. Few of us voluntarily run for office; in fact, lots leave our civic fate in the hands of the white, black and Hispanic politicians we choose to represent us.
Yes, this is America and not the Old Country where it is each faction to itself. Or is it? Why then do we have national Black caucuses, leagues of Hispanic voters, and the like? Historically, these are groups with limited participation in government, who feel that their interests are not going to be acknowledged if they don’t appoint their own to government. Their perspectives and situations are missing from the process; their voices are not part of the dialogue that seeks solutions to problems. This in turn serves not only as a statement of the gap between political representation and social reality, but also as a slight admonishment of the participatory void rendered by Indian-Americans in this nation today. Quite simply, if we as Indian-Americans are going to be treated as “a people,” it’s about time we get our cultural viewpoints in the mix.
All of this said, I kept arriving back at the original question: Blanco or Jindal? Common sense prevailed, however, and I utilized my INS-given right and ability to listen to the candidates and their platforms, as painful as Louisiana’s myriad issues can be. Who was it that said, “Judge not a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character?” This advice applies to people with brown skin, too.
Was I glad my dilemma prolonged itself into the wee hours of election morning, aided by horrid negative campaign ads on the part of both parties. While Kathleen Blanco is no Shakespearean oratrix and does not possess any special gifts of vision and originality, Bobby Jindal was his own undoing. It was a close election, with Blanco earning only 4 more percentage points than her competition. But, what happened to Bobby, the Republican media darling who had his name splashed in red, white, blue, and lights all over the state compared to Blanco’s demure baby blue and black? When I began to pay attention, I noticed how many things the man had going against him. Some were factors that would be considered my own bias, but other important ones that were just plain political suicide.
Having recently arrived from Washington D.C. after a key stint in Bush’s Department of Health and Human Services (he worked for Tommy Thompson – my old governor – two de-merits right there!), young Jindal had to work very hard to get the attention and backing of this state. Of course, he wouldn’t have left his old job to run for this one if he didn’t have the vote of confidence from important Republican players in Louisiana such as the state GOP and Mike Foster, the current Republican governor. Shortly thereafter, he began to get the support of most of Foster’s interests and constituents, and the adulation of the Indian-American community, particularly those with business affiliations.
Following the primary began the series of campaign ads and debates that truly exhibited Jindal’s color. Again, Blanco's performance was not particularly stellar, but along with his own gawky and unemotional style of communication, these displays brought out the nature of a state government under Jindal. One that would serve the businesses and not necessarily the healthcare and educational needs of this state. When people are homeless, penniless, and dying, and schools cannot graduate literate children, there is no justification to line the pockets of business interests of Louisiana. In his last few years in office, Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, has strikingly shown us that there isn't a viable conduit for wealth to trickle down from the economic gains of a few parties, much less pour. These people need basic healthcare and education to save them from their abject poverty before they can start to accept the jobs that a government-corporation agreement can bring in. Jindal was not out to win hearts, or maybe he was but not aware that it wasn’t on the agenda.
Coupled with Nagin's surprising endorsement of Jindal, a business-oriented stratagem began to emerge from the pieces of the “Who’s Going To Be Governor?” puzzle. The Jindal consortium could not satisfactorily address the education and healthcare void, refused to meet with key activists, and nicely surrounded itself with the air of the moral winner (thanks in part to Bobby’s ample reserve of politically transparent yet ecumenically nebulous ramblings – problems solve themselves if he prays on them, reminds me of someone). Despite all of this, Jindal was poised to win sheerly by the power of numbers – the votes of Foster’s backers, Nagin’s gifts of crucial black votes, the buoyant anticipation of Indian-Americans, and a variety of conservative and corporate concerns throughout the state.
Why didn’t Jindal win? Blanco has no particular magnetism either, so what happened? The most popular explanations are a) that Blanco knows the state well of late and surpassed him in exhibiting concern for the people of Louisiana, while Jindal was just a new kid on the block who needed to be less impassive and more charismatic to win the hearts and votes of this southern state, and b) Jindal nobly opted out of responding to and reciprocating the pivotal radio and television campaign ads right before election day.
While I do not argue the probability of the above theories, I have a strong suspicion that Bobby Jindal did not get elected simply because the south is not yet ready for an Indian-American governor. The same forces in conservative deep-Louisiana, that the Republican Party so badly needed to get itself in power, are the ones that I contend did not vote for a brown-skinned, Indian-American man to be their leader. The racism inherent in the party that Jindal stands for, especially its southern extension, got the native Cajun daughter in power before any other minority ever would. Blanco may have won on her merits, Jindal may have lost on his disadvantages, but it is possible that this was a simple case of the state cutting off its nose to spite its face – “I’d rather vote for a white gal than a brown boy.” Do you really think Bubba and Cooter would stand for a Jindal or a Krishna at the helm of their shrimp boat?
Regardless of who won and why, what still remains is Louisiana’s Indian-American body politic. These are people who ethno-consciously cheered for the Indian son done good, regardless of his platform and the political outcome. Would they all have benefited and been represented by him? Yet, they backed themselves into an interesting corner by backing Jindal. A lot of them are hurting because of the crash from euphoria to defeat, yet most exhibit a sense of disenfranchisement by association. They feel that the political process has let them down, even though it is one they did not use with realism (and I don’t mean the “fact” that an Indian man cannot be an American governor, but the one that states that any candidate one supports can lose at this game). We are left with a generation of Louisianan Indians who are Republicans simply to vote for Bobby Jindal and what he promised the party could deliver to them. Name recognition is manna from heaven for a political party, and the Republicans may have these votes in the future even if they don’t run someone of Indian descent.
The Indian community can definitely pride itself on the fact that one of their own has risen this fast and that far. My hope is that Bobby Jindal’s campaign serves as a beacon and an anti-deterrent for young Indian-Americans to take more active roles in the government that professes to represent their interests. We are not merely cut out to be doctors, software engineers, researchers, businesspeople, or yet another minority. We are Americans, we can break the political glass ceiling, and we are to serve all Americans as leaders, not just our own community and special interests. Some day, we will overcome reality and our own self-imposed limitations. Bobby Jindal made the mistake of marrying himself to Louisiana business interests and not those of the people. He was too unemotive, too removed, and frankly too different. The end result was his rejection and his ethnicity with it. Getting back into a position of a winning chance is an uphill battle for any political candidate; it is markedly harder for minority Americans. And that was the taming of Bobby Jindal.