Jim Brown: The demise of enjoyable in La. politics

I’ve a tragic announcement to make. Politics is simply no enjoyable anymore in Louisiana. Let’s hope with new LSU Coach Lane Kiffin now we have one thing to take pleasure in. But not politics.
Reams of books have been written in regards to the colourful characters that ran the Bayou state all through its historical past. And the common citizen obtained concerned, attended rallies and actively supported their candidate of selection. Few states may match the depth and enthusiasm that was part of Louisiana campaigning. The state’s two favourite pastimes had been LSU soccer and Politics.
The two Longs who served as governor needed to remain concerned proper as much as the time of their deaths. Huey Long was shot and died September 10, 1935, eleven days after his forty second birthday. His final phrases had been, “God, don’t let me die. I have so much to do.” Younger brother Earl Long was famously quoted as saying: “Oh Lord, when I die, let me be buried in Louisiana, so I can stay active in politics.”
Retail politics was once a fundamental a part of any marketing campaign. No statewide candidate would fail to attend the Rice Festival in Crowley, the Watermelon Festival in Farmerville or the Strawberry Festival in Hammond. There had been 1000’s of arms to shake and voters galore who liked to be a part of the marketing campaign season. I skilled the thrill and thrill of campaigning throughout my 28 years in public life. Politics was simply a whole lot of enjoyable.
Most of my colleagues who served throughout my tenure going again to the Seventies ran for public workplace to serve and attempt to enhance the standard of life for the voters they represented. There was little considered monetary achieve. When I used to be first elected to the Louisiana state Senate again within the Seventies, I used to be paid $600 a month, with no workplace, workers or every other monetary assist. I represented a big a part of Northeast Louisiana. My cellphone invoice in my district averaged $900 a month. A marketing campaign contribution of $100 was a giant deal.
Today a political marketing campaign is all about who can increase essentially the most cash. TV drives the controversy. Political rallies are few, and you’d be onerous pressed to see a candidate for statewide workplace throwing sweet and using in a neighborhood parade. If a candidate is main within the polls, she or he typically chooses to not even present up for debates. So the general public loses curiosity, voter participation is down, and voter mistrust is on the rise.
Political events in Louisiana have gotten an increasing number of out of date. It has change into apparent that any allegiance to a specific occasion is over. Democrats make up 43% of registered voters, however a big quantity hardly ever vote their occasion affiliation. The quickest rising numbers of registered voters are independents that listing themselves with no occasion affiliation.
An fascinating facet word is that the final time a president was elected within the nation who was neither a Republican nor a Democrat was Louisiana native Zachary Taylor, who received on the Whig ticket again in 1848.
One of the issues in Louisiana and throughout the nation is that extremists in each events are dominating the political agenda. Or as veteran Republican marketing consultant Mac Stipanovich places it, “Somehow you’ve got to destroy the myth that you don’t win if you’re not crazy enough.”
And working throughout the aisles with a legislator from the opposing occasion is a factor of the previous in quite a few states together with Louisiana. A couple of years again, legislators would combat onerous for his or her political opinions in the course of the day, however then spend time socializing and dealing in direction of some sort of compromise when the working day was finished.
No longer.
Today, if a lawmaker from the opposing occasion disagrees or has a opposite opinion, then she or he is useless improper and sometimes is taken into account a political enemy.
There’s a U.S. Senator’s race in Louisiana on the horizon that, to this point, few appear to care about. The campaigns are simply, effectively uninteresting. Don’t you miss the rhetoric and musings of Huey, Earl, Jimmy Davis, and even ole’ EWE? Sad to say, the fun is gone. Let’s hope we will not less than cheer on Coach Kiffin and a profitable Fighting Tigers group subsequent fall.
Peace and Justice
Jim Brown
Jim Brown’s syndicated column seems every week in quite a few newspapers all through the nation and on web sites worldwide. You can learn all his previous columns and see persevering with updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.