Louisiana Voice

Political campaigns these days just seem to come up woefully short of substance and painfully long on eyewash. Not even substance’s antonym, style. Just eyewash.

For example, have you heard a single candidate (among the Repugnantcans: Democrats are essentially mute at this point, perhaps waiting until the general election) offer anything on his or her position on any issue?

• Has even one of them told you of any proposed legislation or solution to soaring prices of groceries, utilities and gasoline?
• Have you heard any of them offer any way to cool down the war rhetoric that threatens to erupt into WWIII? The brash braggadocio of a POTUS, his out-of-control secretary of defense and his sycophant secretary of state?
• How do the candidates feel about the incursion of ICE into our daily lives—through warrantless invasions of homes, arrests and even beatings and shootings of non-violent American citizens, the planned development of huge detention centers to detain tens of thousands of people who happen to have the “wrong” skin pigment?
• And of course, even as Repugnantcans and Democrats alike clamor for release of complete and unredacted Epstein files, has either candidate dared to address that festering issue?
• Most important of all, has any candidate made a public statement, pro or con, about Trump’s assault on voting rights? The federal seizure of state voting registration records?

Are there any limitations to the dangerously autocratic and increasingly bizarre actions of an obviously mental unstable POTUS?

The answer to each of those questions is a resounding NO! Not one. Zilch. Nada.

One can usually tell which candidate has the early upper hand by the amount of piling on by his or her principal opponent. In this case, it’s a no-brainer that incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, after incurring the wrath of President Inepstein by voting for conviction in his second impeachment trial, is fighting for his political life.

Accordingly, he has taken dead aim at his main threat: U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who has the endorsement of TACO Con. Early on in the campaign, CASSIDY DENIED any association with the attack ads against Letlow, but deny though he will, his fingerprints are all over those ads.

And Sen. Cassidy’s newest ad trumpets his work on “reducing taxes for the elderly,” “no taxes on tips,” yada, yada, yada. C’mon, Senator, do you seriously think a few dollars more on a tax return (money that was already ours, by the way), a few spotty tax reductions here and there will offset the quantum leaps in the prices of groceries, consumer goods, gasoline, college tuition, housing, commercial travel, utilities and natural gas? I mean, really?? Kinda makes that $400 million ballroom and Trump’s expenditure of $1 million taxpayer dollars to play golf seem a bit extravagant, doncha think? Why the hell haven’t you addressed those little matters?

Letlow, for her part, has been strangely, almost EERILY QUIET during the campaign, apparently content just to have Cadet Bone Spurs’ endorsement. That, however, may not be enough as the attack ads are beginning to have a withering effect on her early favorite’s role. The charges of her insider trading, valid or not, are taking a toll as is her record of never having passed a bill while serving in the House, a fact Cassidy gleefully touts.

Equally puzzling is the quiet candidacy of State Treasurer JOHN FLEMING who, like Cassidy, is a medical doctor and like Letlow, once served in the U.S. House.

Let’s face it, Louisiana voters just are not accustomed to the lull before the storm during a political campaign.

The only thing the three senatorial candidates have in common is Trump. One (Letlow) has his endorsement and the other two are desperate to run on his coattails even as he ignores their efforts to endear themselves to him.

The same thing can be said of the 5^th District House candidates, each of whom is seeking to succeed Letlow as she walks away from her presumably safe seat in pursuit of a promotion to the Senate.

State Sen. BLAKE MIGUEZ of New Iberia, which is not even in the 5^th District, has garnered Mar-a-Lardo’s endorsement over equally devoted State Rep. MICHAEL ECHOLS of Monroe who, absent an endorsement, reached into his bag of fealty and pulled out a legislative bill to name the proposed new Mississippi River bridge near Baton Rouge after His Orangeness. Top that Miguez!

State Sen.  RICK EDMONDS is another aspiring MAGHAT who apparently wants nothing more out of life than to represent the 5^th District voters in pursuit of the IMPOTUS agenda.

Likewise, State Board of Regents member MISTI CORDELL of Monroe wants to defend Genghis Don from the “constant attack from the extreme left” and from “partisan impeach attacks.”

Again, though, no real solutions to the problems staring down American families—just those that threaten der Führer. Not a damn word about making college affordable, making housing more affordable, making life more affordable. Just protecting the interests of a tyrant.

That is the sum total of every Repugnantcan candidate for the U.S. Senate and for Louisiana’s 5^th District U.S. House seat.

That is indeed a sad commentary on the field of candidates for these two critically important offices.

Seven candidates and not a single original thought among the seven. No not one.