Possumblog

No, this actually seems to work in the favor of those who Jackson and Sharpton represent, because the lower income people were the ones who were displaced. The wealthy old money whites are still living there in houses that were unflooded. If they had an election right now, the chances are greater for election of a white mayor.

O! Merciful heavens! We certainly can't have that, now, can we?!

Seriously, though, if they wanted to, this could be fixed. If they wanted to.

The Dems have been barely winning statewide elections with NO carrying them over the top. Lose 60,000 Dem votes there and LA becomes a solid Republican state. You can't bet that Blanco is in a panic. As the latest Long Machine governor, she doesn't want ot be the last.

Maybe Blanco shouldn't be reelected on the basis that she is an idiot. Who cares what party she represents?

I think it all goes back to that Stupidity Flux theory Larry espoused the other day. When you base your entire political success on grooming voting blocs with a sense of dependency and a lack of personal responsibility, well, you tend to get a lot of people voting for you because you promise to protect them and give them everything.

As long as you're able to keep them from knowing how bad they actually have it, you tend to create a nice little self-perpetuating enterprise.

Of course, something like this comes along, and people are forced into situations where they are allowed to see that there are viable alternatives to corruption and idiocy (from either Democrats or Republicans), and they tend not to want the same old same old.

Actually, the current Mayor of NO is not a Long Machine guy. As I understand it, the LA Dems are split between the old line Long folks who are mostly if not all white and the post civil rights Dems who are multi-racial. I could care less what party a person is from if they are capable and honest but we seem to be able to get no more two of three. If they are politicians, they are either not capable or not honest or both.

If you are interested in how it works, check out the make up of the Alabama Homeland Security Department and local emergency management agencies, all appointed Rep. political hacks. If we get a Dem Gov in 2006, then we will get a set of appointed Dem. hacks just like LA.

There's also the very slight chance that the voters will examine the efforts of their local officials during Katrina and decide to throw the bums out. I suspect that with the city devastated, it's a lot harder to have Chicago-style voting ("Vote early, vote often") and that little edge will be gone.

Of course, given that the people of DC re-elected Marion (I'm telling you, officer, it's powdered sugar!) Barry over & over again, I'm not certain the bums would actually get thrown out.

Best not to take any chances, though.

True. No point trusting the electorate to actually elect. Pro-choice clearly only goes so far.