Warren J. “Puggy” Moity was a colorful character from New Iberia who, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, ran for – and lost – just about every statewide elective office there was. In the process of campaigning, he threw out charges against his opponents with reckless abandon – one being in the 1971 gubernatorial campaign that US Rep. Edwin Edwards (the eventual winner) was, of all things, gay. (Edwards responded by walking up to Moity at a debate in the old Capitol House Hotel and planting a wet kiss on Moity’s cheek.)
Moity is long gone from the political scene but there is a person in Livingston Parish who seems to be trying to emulate Moity by (a) running for whatever local office is available and (b) trashing other politicians with inappropriate attempts at humor – attempts that fall far short of the mark for several reasons.
Brandon Browning is nice enough person in a one-on-one setting but put him on Facebook where he can register his attacks without having to come face-to-face with his adversary, and it’s another story. He suddenly becomes brash, arrogant, and condescending.
Maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to cast aspersions on others lest his own double standard – and ignorance – be exposed.
Browning has already lost one race for Livingston Parish Tax Assessor. And he lost rather handily at that. But now, he’s running for sheriff against incumbent Jason Ard who, despite having his own heavy political baggage, is expected to dispatch Browning with relative ease. Even the scandal involving Ard’s pal and former head of the parish sheriff’s office’s S.W.A.T team isn’t expected to drag Ard down against a political novice such as Browning.
In case you’re wondering or might have forgotten, that S.W.A.T. team leader, Dennis Perkins and his wife were arrested and are awaiting trial on multiple counts of rape, sexual relations with animals, and handing out cupcakes spiked with Perkins’s sperm at the school where his wife taught.
And yet, even that won’t be enough to push Browning over the top.
But that hasn’t deterred him from one posting a message on Facebook that he was ready for the new Civil War. More recently, he has gone on the attack against the physical infirmaries of President Biden and Pennsylvania Sen.-elect John Fetterman – Biden for his stuttering and Fetterman for impairments from his recent stroke.
Keep in mind that Browning was a dedicated supporter of one Donald “Egg on Legs” Trump who ridiculed a physically HANDICOPPED REPORTER – and then denied doing it even though there was video evidence that clearly showed that he did.
When called out on his trashy attack, he attempted to defend his position by claiming that he was discriminating “against a lack of cognitive ability and function.” Remember, he supported Trump unconditionally despite Trumps demonstrated inability to complete a cohesive thought without wandering off-script.
Someone named DeAnna challenged Browning who replied that he was raising the issue because of the “tremendous amount of responsibility and stress. Cognitive aptitude is indispensable. Communication skills are essential. Furthermore, self-awareness is crucial. I’m discriminating against a lack of cognitive ability and function.”
Of course, Browning offered the ultimate proof that he was not biased when he said, “I’ve hired Democrats before.” Oh, well then, he probably has good friends who are black and gay, too.
The exchange continued in that same vein, so I won’t bore you with the rest of it, except to say that DeAnna reminded Browning that Trump was unable to pronounce Yosemite, Nambia, or diversity – not because of any physical disability but out of sheer ignorance. – and that it was Trump who said the US bombed airports at Fort McHenry during the REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
What Browning has yet to understand is that it’s perfectly acceptable to disagree with someone – anyone – on political philosophy. That’s why we have have Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, etc. But you don’t go after someone over a physical or mental disability. Those are off-limits to all people possessing a shred of decency, particularly political candidates. (Of course, when a politician deliberately dyes his entire body orange and breaks out the knives on opponents, that’s a bit difficult to ignore and all bets are off.) And for that reason, Browning will never elected to any office as long as he persists with his sophomoric attacks.
But the real reason that Browning probably should keep his opinions about cognitive ability to himself stems from a conversation I had with him a few weeks back at a parish council meeting.
I conducted a fake poll at that meeting and at coffee shops in the ensuing weeks with the intention of using the results in my annual April Fool’s column but now, after reading Browning’s asinine assessments of Biden and Fetterman, in which he conjectured about a one-on-one conversation between the two, speculating, I guess, that it would be a taxing effort by both men, I decided to go ahead with his response to my poll.
Remember, it was a fake poll done with the intention of displaying ignorance and prejudice against an individual and political party without benefit of knowing the facts.
My question was: What do you think of President Biden’s announcement today that he was going to ask Congress to mandate that the US use the Arabic numbering system exclusively?
One woman I encountered at the Whistle Stop Coffee Shop in Denham Springs said rather abruptly, “If it’s something Biden wants, I’m against it.” That prompted me to ask her what she did with her pandemic stimulus check. I never got an answer.
When I posed the same question to Browning and Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks, I got nearly identical responses. Each said he would have to study the issue more thoroughly in order to respond.
Yet Browning is eager to post his criticism of other men’s physical disabilities on social media while allowing his lack of mental acuity and basic civics to hang out there for all to see.
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