

Even as more and more prominent Republicans are calling on the party to step away from anti-gay rhetoric, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal insists the GOP can come out on top while still clinging to discrimination against the LGBT community.

On Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press, David Gregory discussed former Utah governor Jon Huntsman’s endorsement of marriage equality, and asked Jindal if same-sex marriage could be seen as a conservative value.

“Look, I believe in the traditional definition of marriage,” the Republican governor explained.

He then seemed to suggest it wasn’t the GOP’s increasingly out-of-touch attitude that cost it the White House, but the crummy economy. (Or maybe he was just dodging the issue.) “We had an election that was dominated by economic issues,” he told Gregory. “We lost that election because we didn’t present a vision showing how we believe the entire economy can grow, how people can join the middle class. We’re an aspirational party, and we need policies that are consistent with that aspirational private-sector growth.”

You’re absolutely right, Governor Jindal—that’s why a majority of top corporations provide domestic-partner benefits to their LGBT employees. If the GOP wants to be relevant to the next generation of voters, it’s going to have to wake up and join the rest of us in the 21st century.