This week we have news that state senator Royce Duplessis, a long-time leftist Democrat in the Louisiana legislature, has now joined the race for mayor of New Orleans which will be decided this fall. Former legislator and current city councilwoman Helena Moreno is also in the race, as are city councilman Oliver Thomas and a few others less well known.

Based upon the political history of the candidates, the race for mayor of New Orleans will feature two characteristics. If true to form, the campaigns will emulate the ascension of the more extreme far-Left leanings of the national Democratic Party, and this race will undoubtably be a contest to see who can promise the most free stuff to the voters.

Second, the candidates will blame the undefined, but in their worldview, clearly greedy “rich” and unethical businesses for the poverty of the people and the failures of the city to create opportunity and prosperity. They will claim that social justice mandates that these same “rich” and businesses must be forced to pay to make up for the injustice of poverty, a political tactic I call fear and jealousy. This is all pretty typical Louisiana populism, but with an expected added touch brought on by the radial takeover of the national Democratic Party.

Now, here is the problem for such campaign tactics. After decades of social populist governance, the option to tap a pool of New Orleans’ “rich” is illusory. The “rich” population has been shrinking for decades as most larger businesses fled the city. Simply, there is no way to pay for what I assume will be the promises that will be made. Paraphrasing Margret Thatcher, socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.

Except for the occasional windfall (Katrina, COVID, Democratic control of the Federal government, and so on), New Orleans ran out of resources years ago. Worse yet, if any of these expected unrealistic promises were implemented, they would only exacerbate the city’s slow decline and the desperation of deserving people.

Voters with a depth of insight will recognize the fallacy of a campaign based upon wild promises. But the majority of voters, desperate for a better life, will probably ignore what they should recognize as phony and will accept the promises as if they could actually mean something.
With a media inclined to avoid any negative connotations that in-depth reporting would reveal about years of liberal policies that have failed the city, there can be no expectation that the ramifications of wild promises and claims of economic injustice will ever be thoroughly vetted.

Therefore, whomever makes the most outrageous case for a sorts of free stuff will probably be the next mayor.

We have seen mayor after mayor, promising salvation through feel good policies, come and go as the city, surrounded by a sea of prospering southern cities, slowly declines. If this race winds up as races before it, races featuring all sorts of promises based on ignoring economic realities, then unfortunately the only future of New Orleans will continue to be of a city that tourists want to visit but then go home to live and raise their families.