AMERICAN WILL

Louisiana governor and Republican presidential candidate Jindal shares the tenets of his presidential campaign.

The author sets out his positions in a passionate, angry polemic. With the assistance of former speechwriter for George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld Matt Latimer (Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor, 2009) and his partner in a literary agency/ghostwriting business, former Rumsfeld speechwriter Keith Urbahn, Jindal offers 10 chapters that focus on moments of crucial decision-making for the nation. The presidential election of 2016, he maintains, is just such a moment: when voters will decide whether or not the country will “continue down the path of bigger government, emboldened enemies, diminished liberties, and hostility to religious faith.” A committed conservative, Jindal is convinced of American exceptionalism, which God planned and liberals undermine. Among the visionaries who exemplify instructive values were the anti-federalists, who fought for a Bill of Rights that would temper the power of the federal government; and entrepreneur Edwin Drake, who “ushered in a world-wide energy revolution” by drilling for oil in Pennsylvania. Risk-takers like Drake, Jindal claims, would today be hampered by “environmental radicals and a compliant media” who raise questions about such issues as hydraulic fracturing. Only the free market, the author maintains, can “encourage technological innovation in renewables such as solar, wind, and hydropower.” The author spends most of the book attacking Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, government-mandated health care, and the current administration’s foreign policies, including the proposed nuclear deal with Iran. Although he claims that his own party needs to put forth solutions to domestic and global problems, he offers only general principles: smaller government, better schools, empowerment for “ordinary Americans,” a president who “does not apologize for American power,” and freedom for Christians to act on their religious beliefs.

Anyone following Jindal’s campaign will find nothing new, and much repeated, in this perfunctory book.