Come January, the GOP will control every elected statewide office in Louisiana after Republicans swept three runoff races for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer Saturday night.
The GOP success, in a state that has had a Democrat in the governor’s office for the past eight years, means that Republicans secured all of Louisiana’s statewide offices for the first time since 2015. In addition, the GOP holds a two-third supermajority in the House and Senate.
Liz Murrill was elected as attorney general, Nancy Landry as secretary of state and John Fleming as treasurer. The results also mean Louisiana will have its first female attorney general and first woman elected as secretary of state.
Saturday’s election completes the shaping of Louisiana’s executive branch, where most incumbents didn’t seek reelection and opened the door for new leadership in some of the most powerful positions.
So now that democrats are no longer a problem, Louisiana is going to become a thriving bastion of freedom and unprecedented economic growth because of the laws and policies that republicans are going to implement to help everyone… right? Right??
The dog has caught the car. Let's see what he does with it.
Same as last time - undoing the budget surplus, massive tax giveaways to oil and gas, and shutting off the tap to anything that helps anyone who doesn't give campaign contributions. Last time, they closed all of our state hospitalsand laid off large swathes of the state work force, and bankrupted the state's employee insurance fund. This time, I am willing to bet they gut the emergency fund at the first opportunity.
Neoliberalism doesn't build, it extracts.
Societies that don't build don't stand for long, and then are forgotten by time because they left nothing to show for themselves.
MAGA Republicans are basically the opposite of neoliberals.
Also the idea that neoliberalism "doesn't build" makes no sense at all
economically republicans are mostly neoliberal
what are they in your opinion?
MAGA is grounded on protectionist, anti-immigrant isolationism. Those three things are all inimical to neoliberalism
How much of that is rhetoric and how much of that is actual policy though
I disagree flat out. MAGA is fullblown neoliberal. They don't want to regulate corporations, they don't want to raise taxes, they want to cut, dismantle regulatory control and shutter the government, allowing those who can to loot unfettered and unimposed. There's a phrase, it's not a war crime if it's the first time; that feels applicable here.
What am I not seeing, how is MAGA not the trickledown zombie if Reagan corpse? Shit, Reagan used the phrase first.
Whats been built in the past 40 years? In America. I don't see any bullet trains, I see stroads. I see some new high rises, but none that push any limits, except maybe the millennium tower in SF, and I assumed we were good letting Pisa hold the leaning tower title, but maybe I assumed wrong.
I'm wracking my head trying to think of a single American innovation that wasn't A. Created by DARPA and the public got the militaries hand me downs (GPS, IBM, Internet, Hubble) or B. Heavily subsidized to fund research and contracts/ preordered by the government.
Capitalists don't innovate. They build systems for wealth extraction. Let's look at the capitalist golden boy, Apple. There was and is no innovation with the iPhone. Phones already existed. So did cameras and MP3 players. Nothing new about a touchscreen or a GUI interface, the iPhone took all these elements and basic microcomputer parts, put it all together, renamed programs as 'apps', and charged $500 for it at a time when cell phones sold off at $200 high end. There is almost no change between models just stronger conponents, they just bricked old ones with updates and bloat forcing upgrading. Which is beyond fucked up. And since the 5c, at least, Apple has just purchased it's components from Samsungs waste bin. For over a decade buying a new $1000 iPhone was the same as buying a 2 year old Samsung, just with lipstick on the pig.
For a good sized segment an iPhone is a status thing. Those with one judge others and look down on them. It works both ways. Those who have an iPhone, I judge to be suckers and idiots. Because y'all got swindled by the greatest swindling modern history. Paying premium for bargain bin tech. Smh.
What reseach wasn't paid for with public money yet the dividends all end up privately gained? What a fucking shell game capitalists play. We're all taken for fools. They don't create jobs, they took over existing industries, lay offs for efficiency, repress competition, merge into monopolies, then it's the enshitification <- where we are now, where user gets fucked, businesses get fucked, but it's a monopoly so what can we all do? Amazon, Google, 2 textbook examples of get.fucked.inc.
Ever wonder why all the billionaires scramble for government contracts? Seriously. All of them. Show me a rich person not on the teat of the fed. I'm going to go with that's because there are no private contracts at that level. Not that there couldn't be, but that would require innovation and risk, and, again, Capitalists don't do that. Why would they? Perfect example. Take Shell, or Chevron. Why wouldn't they, in the 80s start to pivot towards solar and wind? They were the leaders of the energy secter, positioning emerging technology is R+D mixed with ROI. Surely they had people to crunch those numbers. But instead, what does history show they did? Suppress the climate studies, hire the mercs with PhDs to muddy the waters, and extract extract extract. They already have all this infrastructure paid for by the public in tax breaks. They're gonna use that earning potential until it costs more to operate than they can write off, or get tax breaks for.
All the way until they've fucked the climate for everyone else.
Not that they care. If capitalism has an underpinning catch all catch phrase it's, without a doubt, "I got Mine, Fuck you" silhouetted over a picture of someone pulling a ladder up behind them.
There was and is no innovation with the iPhone. Phones already existed
Lmao
Needless to say
I disagree flat out. MAGA is fullblown neoliberal
You have no clue what you're talking about
NeoLiberal refers to lassaiz-faire capitalism. Reagan, Thatcher, Pinochet, Marty Friedman and the Chicago school of economics. Ayn Rand.
NeoLiberal has nothing to do with social policy. It doesn't care who is sucking who's dick at church or who's marrying their first cousin in their backyard bud light lazy river.
NeoLiberal = trickledown = Reaganomics
In actuality it's translated as corporatocracy.
What part of Donald Trump is against ANY of that? It is entirely the NeoLiberal revolution of the 80s, and daddies money, that allowed Trump the opportunity to rise in NYC.
Fill me in. Enlighten me. I'll be waiting.
You're absolutely right about not just MAGA Republicans, but just about all Republicans. But at the end of the day, what do the Democrats actually do besides "stop Republicans"? Forgive student loan? Bring peace to the Middle East? Fix healthcare?
"Stop Republicans" is pretty important, but they can't even do that. So yes, Democrats/neoliberals don't build shit.
Well Democrats are not a neoliberal bloc, but an alliance of beliefs across the spectrum, so it's a bad choice to paint them all with one brush. I'd personally love if the Dems were all neolibs, but they do nothing in lockstep.
To try and suggest that Democrats do not have policy goals they pursue is a pretty big stretch. Biden's admin had several significant policy victories, and yes, they include student loan reform.
The BBB initiative and specifically the Inflation Reduction Act is the single largest green initiative in the nation's history, with significant manufacturing subsidies, so implying they "aren't building" makes no sense.
Oh man, you lost me at "I'd personally love if the Dems were all neolibs". Neoliberals are as much the answer to America's problems as "classical conservatives" are.
The whole point is that the Democrats have had a public mandate and majority control of the executive and legislative branches multiple times under multiple Democratic presidents in the past century. But what have they actually accomplished besides marginal improvements at best? They can't even just stop or reverse Republican damage. The bar is higher than just that. They're absolutely pathetic and can't do jack fucking shit.
*chews on tailpipe*
You Gen Z folks will put anything in your mouths
I will waterboard you like its 2004.
Ok boomer
This will end well.
Just look at the last thirty or so years in Texas for your answer.
Everyone I know is miserable and sees no way out.
Texas is one of the wealthier states with very good growth in wages and very attractive to business with their zero business tax strategy. Along with this is some of the best housing prices and population growth. They seem to have done pretty good in the last 30 years although they have sides that have not done so good.
…with some of the worst schools, terrible wages for the vast majority of folks, a power grid that’s barely hanging on, and an entire state government dedicated to destroying the right for women to control their own bodies, the right for kids to grow up well educated and free to be who they want to be, the right for businesses to control every aspect of our lives in pursuit of larger profits, and the right for the multiple industries to rape and pillage the entire state of all its natural resources while getting away scot free with poisoning and killing people.
It’s a wealthy state if all you look at is the amount of money here and blatantly ignore how it’s distributed amongst the populace. Housing prices are great… in the absolute middle of nowhere. Wanna be in a city, with the jobs? Pony up. Population is going up due to people thinking it’ll be cheaper here, only to find that the property taxes they pay are higher than the income taxes they paid where they came from with substantially fewer public services to show for it.
Actually wages are quite good and with that very low taxes along with reasonable housing prices, you are very wrong on that point. Power grid. In line with California for failure. Much of that has to do with lack of base load more than anything.
And for your other points. Little bit of hyperbole there.
Tell me, do you happen to live in Texas, like I do? Were you born here, like I was? Have you had to deal with the BS this state has had to throw at you all your life, like I have?
No but the stats don't lie. You likely would fair worse in many other states economically but there might be placed better suited for your temperament. I don't know you at all so that is just a guess.
Well, just keep in mind that averages don’t mean much when the gap between the lowest and highest wages are so large. You’re looking for the mean, not the middle. Sure, wages have gone up all across the country, but when combined with the massive increase in home costs, rent costs, food costs, etc. it still means that a huge number of folks don’t make as much when you look at how much of a percentage of those folks’ wages are taken up by those things.
Anecdotally, my wife and I make more money an hour than we’ve ever made in our lives, but a greater percentage of that wage is taken up by various costs associated with just getting by. Rent’s gone up, food has most certainly gone up. We struggle more now than we did prepandemic.
I see more homeless folks on the streets than I used to. That’s confirmed by the studies showing that homelessness has gone up.
The Texas government has banned books in schools, even recently doing so for textbooks that paint the oil industry in a negative light when it comes to climate change.
Abortion in the state is straight up illegal now.
The government is actively looking to reduce the rights of LGBTQI+ folks.
When Austin tried to divert some police funding to non-police responses to mental health crises, the state government made it illegal to ever reduce local PD funding if the city has a population greater than 100k.
The electric grid failed multiple times over the last few years. The government recently allocated more funding to build more natural gas power plants… the same type of plants that failed during the last freeze. All the funds that went to the power companies to weatherproof their infrastructure have mostly gone straight to the folks running the companies, not to the work they said they’d do.
The state government recently passed a law that allows parents to take their kids out of public school and use a $6000 voucher to help pay for private school. That’s most of the tax dollars that would be spent on that kid in the public school, which means taxpayers are now funding private schools that aren’t subject to the same laws and regulations as public schools.
Women are actively being forced to give birth to babies that have no way of surviving, whereas previously the pregnancy would be terminated before putting the woman through that physical trauma.
Some cities have passed laws that prevent women seeking abortions to travel on their roads.
The Governor, against the law, put razor wire barricades in the rio grande, as well as shipping container walls on the border. When challenged, the federal government elected to continue to allow these things. Both are paid for by Texas taxpayers, and none of it was voted on.
Suicide rates for national guard folks on the border have skyrocketed. The things they’re being forced to do, nobody should be forced to do. It’s inhumane.
The citizens of Uvalde, in response to the school shooting where a shit ton of cops stood around doing nothing, continue to vote for the same leaders that allowed such a thing to happen in the first place.
This state does not care about people. The government literally only cares about making money. And none of the people seem to be interested in changing that.
I mean, they already have the highest rate of inflation in the U.S…
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Given they had around 35% turnout, it's more like they're getting the government they didn't vote for.
That's why they hold elections in off-off-years. They know turnout is highest in Presidential election years, followed by the midterms and turnout falls off a cliff any other time. They know the Republican faithful will show up but most others will be busy or facing election fatigue.
If you choose not to vote, you've made a choice for the government you get. Fuck em.
35% voter turn out.
Eat and drink the poison you deserve you lazy fucks.
Imagine being as stupid as Louisiana lol
Welp, Louisiana-stupid is now being added to my daily use. Thank you.
This article feels like it's trying to spin things into something less than Republicans restoring the hold they had in a state that has been predominantly Republican for a very, very long time.
As someone who has lived in Louisiana for a long time , it used to be MUCH more balanced than it is now. We had democratic governers and state senators. It has inched further and further right over the past few decades, and they’ve run off anyone worth enough sense and money to get out of this shithole. The election results have been terrible this year and honestly I blame the Louisiana Democratic Party which seems to have either fallen apart or sabotaged our candidates this year by doing absolutely nothing and ceding control to the republicans. My friends and I all went and voted but there’s basically no uniting force in the Democratic Party here to even attempt to get the truth out anymore. Just hatred and stupidity running rampant now is what it feels like.
The Democratic party is an absolute mess here. They practically don't exist.
The LA Democrat party leadership has been a lethal mix of inept and corrupt for a while now. I would argue John bel Edwards won in spite of rather than due to their assistance. There is a rumor floating around (not confirmed) that they hosted a fairly large fundraiser for Shawn Wilson (ostensibly to funnel whatever they raised into his ongoing gov campaign) and then just pocketed the money. Given that the former dem party chair Karen Carter Peterson just got sentenced to 22 months in fed prison (on the day of the primary no less) for helping herself to campaign money, that seems more plausible a story than it might otherwise. Seriously, who is going to throw their hat in the ring for ANY statewide office if that's the kind of support you can expect for your flagship candidate? And then you get to get your veto overridden by a repub supermajority ? Nah, way less stress to just stay in a lobbying job somewhere. Say what you want about Karl Rove and co, but the state level elections were where he and his cohort of repub strategists focused quite a bit of effort grooming candidates since the late 90s and it has continued to pay dividends for them.
Well yeah, GOP and corporate media policy is to always shift blame for the results of GOP policy to anyone else.
Step 1: Be the butthole of America (Outside of Florida)
Step 2: Go all in on the team that got you there and are very vocal about keeping you there
Step 3: ???
Step 3: Choose fascism, because obviously, it's voting that got you into this mess. (/s)
Don't laugh, I've heard this argument being made. "Why should I waste my time voting when the only candidates are all shitheads? Just go ahead and put whoever you want in office and quit wasting my time. It's not like it matters anyway."
I have, too. The problem is, that's extremely lazy and privileged. It's lazy, because the candidates aren't identical; one is superior, even if only by a little. Progress happens incrementally, not all at once.
It's privileged, because they can't be bothered to do even the basic level of research to discover those differences. They'd rather paint both candidates with a broad brush, call it a day, and assume they'll be able to go on with their life as before no matter who wins.
But these candidates, from the school board to the presidency, vote on laws and policies that affect their life every day. They choose projects to fund and judges to interpret the law. Our votes matter, because there's an entire party spending an inordinate amount of effort trying to suppress the ability to vote.
If you meet someone like that, tell them they're a privileged asshole for thinking that preventing theofascism is somebody else's problem.
Those who are able need to vote with thier feet.
While you're not wrong, that's really going to suck for the folks who aren't able to leave.
In fact, it will make it less likely that things will ever stop sucking for those who aren't able to leave.
Suck worse than waiting for the next Katrina?
The folks who can't move are waiting for the next Katrina.
No doubt. But at this point sacrifices must be made. The system doesn't allow for correction without it. Eventually, we can start a fund to help people leave. But in the mean time the state will lose representation as the population declines.
I think they already did.
In case you had any doubt, abortion is also banned there.
A ban on drag is coming very soon. And the whole "don't say gay in schools" thing. And writing slavery out of curriculums. And criminalizing trans operations. Oh, and gerrymandering.
These are all things our legislative branch tried to pass that our democratic governor was able to keep at bay. We're about to turn into Florida.
Add to the list of states I'll never go to
I look forward to seeing the voter turn out and that 70% of the population didn't vote because it's hard, they don't have time, yada yada yada, bitching begins after they see them strip the entire state of anything remotely good.
Edit: So close. 65% of the eligible voters sat on their ass. Enjoy the government you chose through your inaction.
Welp, guess I’ll never see Mardi Gras before New Orleans is swallowed by the sea.
So, cops are going to get exemptions from local property taxes? I'm not as upset about firefighters and EMS getting it but still… it'll be a good excuse in a couple of years, at most, to raise property taxes on those who can't afford to move to a better state.
Literally making them landed gentry who are above the law.
So when do we march south again?
Sherman shall rise again
Let me guess… they campaigned on fixing the socialism and the sheeple will continue to elect them because sheeple logic.
I live in TX. GOP has had control for about 30 years and always campaine on fixing the broken system created by the other side… its sad
This is exactly why it's Louisiana though.
Sounds like this was a test run of what is to come.
