Eric Hoffer once wrote, “Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.” This comment is frequently misquoted, but the idea is always basically the same.
The Republican Party in Louisiana is an example of this phenomenon. When I registered to vote 45 years ago, I insisted to register as a Republican despite my inability to vote in the Democratic primaries, which were where all the elections actually occurred. I was determined to protest the incompetence and the graft that was everywhere. We few, we happy few, grew in numbers over the years as Louisiana fell further behind other states and the obvious contrast with the competent (Texas, North Carolina, etc.) became more and more blatant.
We even eventually elected Republican governors! Alas, the results were not good. Treen and Roemer were politically incompetent and nothing really changed. But we kept hoping that the right man would actually change things. Then we moved to Foster and the reality was in your face: The Republican party was now officially a racket. The coup de grâce (or cup of grass) was for John Alario to convert to the Republican party. O tempora o mores!
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Slabbed commenter Uptown Music is a resident of New Orleans.
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