We could go on for days with examples of just how noxious the American political class has become, but for our purposes we’ll just stick to a few media and political examples here in Louisiana showing how much these people actually LIKE the shutdown and want it to continue.

Let’s start with Mitch Landrieu, the failed former mayor of New Orleans, who launched this forth earlier in the week…

There’s an easy translation for that, which is that Landrieu doesn’t want to see the economy reopened at all.

How are you going to produce “health equity” in the short or intermediate term? How is that remotely practicable? The factors which make black people – because that’s who Landrieu is talking about here – more susceptible to the Wuhan virus than other demographic groups are fairly deeply ingrained. They’re largely, though not solely, behavioral. Obesity, diabetes and other co-morbidities come in no small part as a function of diet and exercise, and a lot of that is cultural. It isn’t changing in a matter of days or weeks.

Nobody argues with the notion that as a state and a country – regardless of race or ethnicity – we should eat better, exercise more, live healthier and so on. What role the government can and should play in producing such a result is far less settled. What Landrieu is demanding is that role be far larger and more pervasive than most people would accept, and he wants to use the shutdown as leverage to achieve that political end.

Which makes it a good thing that Mitch Landrieu is no longer relevant as a political figure and never will be, unless somehow he manages to wangle himself a cabinet role in a future Democrat administration.

But LaToya Cantrell, unlike Landrieu, is still relevant. And she’s no better, believe us.

The novel coronavirus may join a short list of history’s events that have led to the cancellation of Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Mayor Latoya Cantrell suggested on Tuesday that canceling the 2021 Mardi Gras festivities is “something we have to think about.” Speaking in an interview with the Washington Post, Cantrell said that one of the factors she needs to consider is when the city reopens and the steps that are taken to make that happen.

She said she wants the city’s reopening to be slow and steady.

“It will give me great pause right now before I commit to saying we are moving forward with Mardi Gras 2021,” Cantrell said. “We will let the data dictate the dates.”

The economic damage it does just to suggest that Mardi Gras might be canceled this far out is incalculable. What she’s done is to signal to every tourist thinking about traveling to New Orleans between now and next February that (1) New Orleans isn’t safe and (2) New Orleans isn’t going to be safe for a long time.

Even if you believe that’s true now, if you’re the mayor of that city it isn’t wise to create the assumption it’ll stay true forever. Because whether the virus goes away or not what you’re doing is assuring an economic shutdown in a city which relies on tourism to prop up an otherwise failed economy.

Here’s something that’s true of both Landrieu and Cantrell. Both of them pander to people in lower economic strata in New Orleans, and both of them pushing an economic shutdown of a tourist city are victimizing those people. Because the hotel maids, busboys, fry cooks, cab drivers and other low-paying jobs those folks are relegated to are the first jobs to go away when a tourist economy shuts down and they’re the last ones to come back.

The effect of all this economic naysaying is to keep those people poor, desperate and dependent on government. Which to Landrieu and Cantrell is more of a feature than a bug, as it’s been the playbook for more than 50 years in their party.

Moving on, we have the execrable Lamar White, whose left-wing website The Bayou Brief posted an “expose'” of sorts having run across a memo that Covington-based political consultant Jay Connaughton wrote for the Senate Republican delegation assisting in messaging as that delegation pushes to reopen the state’s economy. According to White, this is evidence of a dirty Republican cabal seeking to infect the entire state with the virus…

Taken in its totality, the document reads like a guide to subverting public health policy and reframing the efforts to curb the pandemic, which has already claimed the lives of at least 1,800 Louisianians, as an “economic shutdown.”

One can look at White’s quote and wonder how sheltered a life he leads that he thinks the state’s lockdown is an unassailable exercise of public policy and no questions or alternate views can be had. Another interpretation is that, in a typical leftist mindset, no dissent can be credited or tolerated from the official point of view.

With efforts continuing within the Legislature to gain signatures for a petition that would by law overturn Gov. John Bel Edwards’ emergency declaration and put the state back to work, something which would be politically catastrophic to Edwards’ second term as governor, don’t be surprised if White and others like him become ever more shrill in attempting to demonize Republican legislators seeking to end the shutdown.

And then there is Edwards’ camp, which has been working overtime to defend the shutdown…

.@LouisianaGov executive counsel sends a letter to GOP legislative leaders saying if an effort to rescind the gov's order goes forward, Louisiana would in effect reopen schools, cancel federal aid, etc. #lalege #lagov

— Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) April 29, 2020

There is no support for the proposition that federal aid to Louisiana would be in jeopardy if the emergency declaration was overturned. None. That is a fiction cooked up by Edwards’ camp. We checked with the state’s congressional delegation and they can’t find anything in the CARES Act making aid dependent on a state-level emergency declaration.

This is sad because by the White House criteria, even if JBE had done parish by parish, @sharonhewitt’s district wouldn’t qualify. Playing politics with people's health is dangerous, Senator. #lagov #lalege #COVID19 https://t.co/kDeH6bZSaO pic.twitter.com/JciU6txigz

— Richard Carbo (@richardacarbo) April 28, 2020

HOLD UP@ppcpage didn’t tell his colleagues that he had #covid19 for a month, but continued to meet with them and the public.

He’s the last person that should be lecturing anyone on “communication.” His poor communication could have cost lives. #lagov #lalege https://t.co/quGAGSlVaj

— Richard Carbo (@richardacarbo) April 28, 2020

Senate President Page Cortez tested positive for the virus last month. That doesn’t mean he had the virus or was contagious with it for a whole month as Carbo says.

You post that when you’re trying to make the case the legislature shouldn’t go back to work. Because if they go back to work they’re going to do things which John Bel Edwards will not like. So it’s better to keep the shutdown going.

We could go on. The examples are everywhere. These people want the economy shut down, and not because they want to promote public health. They’re about political power, period, and they will do literally anything to get and hold it.

Act accordingly.