The events of the past couple of months in the elections in Louisiana as well as the rest of the country are demonstrating a change in the makeup of the Republican party.  That is no secret, and one can find story after story about that in the news.  However, the vast majority of these simply miss the mark on what is really happening.  The media simply attributes the loss of long-time incumbents to their opposition to President Trump.  The president is certainly a huge part of that equation, but to lay all responsibility at his feet is a total oversimplification.  It ignores the history of this evolution of the Republican Party.

To begin with, people need to understand the truth about the legislature.  This applies to Louisiana, Washington D.C., and every other state in America.  By and large, legislators don’t really care about the people that they represent.  Yes, you read that right.  Your representative probably does not really care one bit about the struggles that you face in your daily life and whether he is making things better for you.  To be fair, there are exceptions.  Some few legislators do actually care about their constituents and make an honest effort to do their job in the right way.  But those people are exceptions to the rule, and for the most part they are doomed to failure because of the nature of the institution.

You can think of it in terms of a high-class country club.  During their campaign, political candidates are applying to a club for the elite.  Once elected, they have joined the club.  At that point, they view themselves as being above the rest of us.  Once they become members of the club, their concern is about taking care of their club and their fellow club members.  They are not interested in anyone who is not a member of the club, unless they are able to help them stay in the club.  This could not be better demonstrated than by the reports of Senate President Cameron Henry saying that his job as senate president is to protect his senators from difficult votes.  That completely sums things up.  The legislature only cares about the legislature.

This is why they continue to support eminent domain for carbon capture despite a steady stream of their constituents begging them to change that.  It is not because they like the carbon capture industry.  It is because the carbon capture industry has a lot of money and is better positioned to help them stay in the country club.  John Doe who might be able to contribute fifty bucks to a campaign (and that is a sacrifice to him) has no value to his senator or representative because that poor fellow is not able to help keep him in the club.  If carbon capture funds were to disappear, our legislature would drop that industry like a hot rock.

This is why we have a supermajority of Republicans in both the house and the senate in Louisiana, and yet we have Democrats appointed as committee chairs and to the #2 position in the senate.  It is why our legislature gives $18 million dollars to a convicted felon to open a taxpayer funded grocery store in North Baton Rouge because a Democrat requested it.  It is why Democrat legislators get to pick and choose which judges in New Orleans will stay in office and which will have their positions eliminated.  These situations occur again and again and again, because it is not Republican vs. Democrat.  It is the legislators vs. the little people (the rest of us).  That is why the senators in DC are so angry about January 6.  It is not because their lives were threatened.  Anyone who has watched the video footage knows that is not true.  They are angry because the ‘unwashed masses’ violated their elite country club.  And that is unforgiveable to them.  The common folk do not belong in their hallowed halls.

Which brings us back to the original point.  For decades, the Republican Party was known as the chamber of commerce party.  While they paid lip service to conservative principles like smaller, less intrusive government, their actions said something different.  They just directed their big government policies to benefit business as opposed to the labor unions and social welfare programs that the Democrats supported.  That has begun to change.

It started with the Tea Party movement.  True conservatives started being elected and long-time ‘chamber of commerce’ Republicans started getting unseated.  Some of the establishment politicians saw which way the wind was blowing and tried to blend in with the new group.  But that is not who they are, and they can’t help but reveal their true colors on occasion.  We saw that here in Louisiana with Bill Cassidy acting as if he were Trump’s biggest supporter and then voting to convict him in his impeachment shortly after getting re-elected with Trump’s support.  He then became all about Trump for this election and immediately turned on him again after losing.  We saw it in Texas with John Cornyn telling the media that, “I think President Trump’s time has passed him by”.  Then at reelection time, he posts photos of himself reading Trump’s book.  And just like Cassidy, after losing his election he is losing no time turning on Trump.

The country club members despise Trump because he is not a member of their club, and their club is supposed to be all-powerful.  And not only that, but he is not interested in joining their club.  Despite being incredible wealthy, Trump represents those ‘unwashed masses’, and he is taking power and influence away from the country club.  He is replacing those long-time club members with people like him, who disdain the club. And they hate him for that, because again, it is not Democrat vs. Republican, it is elite establishment vs. the rest of us.

The Tea Party movement appealed to the everyday citizen.  It attracted blue-collar workers and middle-class citizens.  Then Donald Trump stepped onto the political stage.  He paid no fealty to the country club elites and unapologetically favored the little people over the country club.  People began to see these entrenched representatives and senators for what they really are and realized that they are not who they claim to be.

Real People don’t care about seniority, or how much pork you can bring home.  That is the old chamber of commerce thinking.  Real People want leaders who truly believe in, and practice true conservative principles.  We want the country and the state run the right way.  So, when a Cassidy or a Cornyn loses badly in a primary, it is not accurate to say that it was because Trump opposed them.  It is because people began to see them for who they really are and decided that is not the type of person we want to lead our government.  Bill Cassidy would likely have lost this election even if Trump had endorsed him, which was never going to happen.

Unfortunately, there has always been a mindset among voters that everyone else’s senator or representative is terrible, but their own guy (or gal) is great.  If you are reading this, you need to take an honest look at what YOUR elected leaders are doing, and whether they still deserve to be there.  Most do not deserve it.  That list is very long, and the list of good ones is very short.

It has gotten somewhat better in Louisiana over the past few election cycles.  But all too often, we throw out a bad politician and within a very short time frame the replacement ends up looking just like the person that they replaced.  The country club is great at seducing and corrupting even those who join it with the best of intentions.

Legislators in Louisiana are often heard to ask why no one trusts them.  They seem to honestly think that they are different, that they are making things better and should be earning that trust back.  But the man on the street sees the same political gamesmanship, the same backroom dealing, the same self-interest controlling the legislature.  As a result, the legislature and administration in Louisiana likely have less trust from the voters than ever.  That is why they can’t even get a constitutional amendment passed that has a tax cut.  Imagine that you have so little trust that you can’t even get people to vote for you to take less of their money.

Our legislature has a LONG way to go before they rebuild any trust in the electorate.  Right now it is one step forward and four or five steps back for them.  And they have earned that lack of trust.  More long-term incumbents (and quite a few freshmen and sophomores) need to be fired by the voters.  The only way the leopard will change his spots is if he gets kicked out of the country club and sent back to the jungle.