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.
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.