“We cannot just be a party that protects the rich,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said of his fellow Republicans. “The rich can protect themselves.”

Only a few weeks after an electoral drubbing, three leading Republicans have settled on very similar accounts of what went wrong for their party. Jindal, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin are all talking about middle-class economic concerns. All three men seem to have realized that failing to address these concerns was the party’s biggest mistake, and rectifying that mistake is now its biggest challenge.

Republicans have been vigorously debating the meaning of last month’s election. Some argue that it wasn’t a catastrophe requiring major change, just a setback. For them, the party’s most urgent task is to refine its techniques for getting out the vote. Others say that the party needs to support comprehensive immigration reform to appeal to Hispanics. Still others counsel the party to be less conservative on moral issues. Some also say the party went astray by nominating a wealthy moderate, Mitt Romney, for president.