A week ago, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal showed that his focus is on posturing for an upcoming run at being selected as the Republican Party’s nominee for the next presidential election and not on correcting the damage he has done to this state.

For those not aware, the governor penned an opinion piece in The New York Times stating that he is “holding firm against gay marriage.” It is no surprise that he would believe this way, as it is common among Republicans to be against same-sex marriage. It is Republican state senators and representatives who are passing or attempting to pass bills such as Louisiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2010 or the Marriage and Conscience Act. However, the matter of state is being allowed to ban same-sex marriage is now being heard in the Supreme Court. Jindal’s attention is needed elsewhere.

It is undoubtedly beating a dead horse to mention the fiscal disasters that this state has seen in the last seven years, but there will never be enough words to properly explain the state of Louisiana’s budget following Jindal’s butchering of it. It has also been exhausted that Jindal has spent much of his time out of the state, shaking hands and kissing babies, for a presidential run that is as likely as Congress axing the term limit clause in the Constitution and allowing President Barack Obama to run for a third term.

Jindal’s opinion piece in the New York Times used the buzzwords that get people hot under the collar. “Left-wing activists bullied” conservative legislators in Indiana and Arkansas to back down from “protecting religious freedoms.” Liberals are attacking conservative values. The question is, does Jindal realize that standing up for his state is just as important as fighting these so-called left-wing bullies?

It is within every American citizen’s right to believe or not believe or to support or not support whatever he or she wants. This is not an attack on people’s religious beliefs; it is an attack on Jindal once again putting the state second (and second might be a stretch) on his priority list.
This political posturing does nothing for the state. We are still facing budget cuts to higher education that has the state’s flagship university talking about declaring bankruptcy. That may also be political posturing, but in the grand scheme of things, a state governor’s priority should be the state. No one is going to elect a governor president who can’t keep his home state in order anyway.

The case of same-sex marriage will be heard and decided upon in the Supreme Court. However, it isn’t Jindal’s job to grandstand and pen op-ed pieces about it. It’s Jindal’s job to fix the state’s problems– problems that he created.