this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Come January, the GOP will control every elected statewide office in Louisiana after Republicans swept three runoff races for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer Saturday night.

The GOP success, in a state that has had a Democrat in the governor’s office for the past eight years, means that Republicans secured all of Louisiana’s statewide offices for the first time since 2015. In addition, the GOP holds a two-third supermajority in the House and Senate.

Liz Murrill was elected as attorney general, Nancy Landry as secretary of state and John Fleming as treasurer. The results also mean Louisiana will have its first female attorney general and first woman elected as secretary of state.

Saturday’s election completes the shaping of Louisiana’s executive branch, where most incumbents didn’t seek reelection and opened the door for new leadership in some of the most powerful positions.

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[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 183 points 11 months ago (5 children)

So now that democrats are no longer a problem, Louisiana is going to become a thriving bastion of freedom and unprecedented economic growth because of the laws and policies that republicans are going to implement to help everyone... right? Right??

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 108 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The dog has caught the car. Let's see what he does with it.

[–] flipht@kbin.social 78 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Same as last time - undoing the budget surplus, massive tax giveaways to oil and gas, and shutting off the tap to anything that helps anyone who doesn't give campaign contributions. Last time, they closed all of our state hospitalsand laid off large swathes of the state work force, and bankrupted the state's employee insurance fund. This time, I am willing to bet they gut the emergency fund at the first opportunity.

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Neoliberalism doesn't build, it extracts.

Societies that don't build don't stand for long, and then are forgotten by time because they left nothing to show for themselves.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

MAGA Republicans are basically the opposite of neoliberals.

Also the idea that neoliberalism "doesn't build" makes no sense at all

[–] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

economically republicans are mostly neoliberal

what are they in your opinion?

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

MAGA is grounded on protectionist, anti-immigrant isolationism. Those three things are all inimical to neoliberalism

[–] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How much of that is rhetoric and how much of that is actual policy though

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well Trump blew up NAFTA, imposed immigration restrictions based on nationality, wants to end US involvement in NATO and the UN, pulled money out of the WHO, and also pushed for significant tariffs that started a trade war, so all of his actual policies are the opposite of neoliberalism

[–] jasondj@ttrpg.network 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Didn’t he replace NAFTA with the CUM Alliance or some such, and it was basically the exact same thing but with Trumps name next to it instead of Clinton’s?

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

That, and it's not free trade. Dudes as arrogant as he is simple minded

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I disagree flat out. MAGA is fullblown neoliberal. They don't want to regulate corporations, they don't want to raise taxes, they want to cut, dismantle regulatory control and shutter the government, allowing those who can to loot unfettered and unimposed. There's a phrase, it's not a war crime if it's the first time; that feels applicable here.

What am I not seeing, how is MAGA not the trickledown zombie if Reagan corpse? Shit, Reagan used the phrase first.

Whats been built in the past 40 years? In America. I don't see any bullet trains, I see stroads. I see some new high rises, but none that push any limits, except maybe the millennium tower in SF, and I assumed we were good letting Pisa hold the leaning tower title, but maybe I assumed wrong.

I'm wracking my head trying to think of a single American innovation that wasn't A. Created by DARPA and the public got the militaries hand me downs (GPS, IBM, Internet, Hubble) or B. Heavily subsidized to fund research and contracts/ preordered by the government.

Capitalists don't innovate. They build systems for wealth extraction. Let's look at the capitalist golden boy, Apple. There was and is no innovation with the iPhone. Phones already existed. So did cameras and MP3 players. Nothing new about a touchscreen or a GUI interface, the iPhone took all these elements and basic microcomputer parts, put it all together, renamed programs as 'apps', and charged $500 for it at a time when cell phones sold off at $200 high end. There is almost no change between models just stronger conponents, they just bricked old ones with updates and bloat forcing upgrading. Which is beyond fucked up. And since the 5c, at least, Apple has just purchased it's components from Samsungs waste bin. For over a decade buying a new $1000 iPhone was the same as buying a 2 year old Samsung, just with lipstick on the pig.

For a good sized segment an iPhone is a status thing. Those with one judge others and look down on them. It works both ways. Those who have an iPhone, I judge to be suckers and idiots. Because y'all got swindled by the greatest swindling modern history. Paying premium for bargain bin tech. Smh.

What reseach wasn't paid for with public money yet the dividends all end up privately gained? What a fucking shell game capitalists play. We're all taken for fools. They don't create jobs, they took over existing industries, lay offs for efficiency, repress competition, merge into monopolies, then it's the enshitification <- where we are now, where user gets fucked, businesses get fucked, but it's a monopoly so what can we all do? Amazon, Google, 2 textbook examples of get.fucked.inc.

Ever wonder why all the billionaires scramble for government contracts? Seriously. All of them. Show me a rich person not on the teat of the fed. I'm going to go with that's because there are no private contracts at that level. Not that there couldn't be, but that would require innovation and risk, and, again, Capitalists don't do that. Why would they? Perfect example. Take Shell, or Chevron. Why wouldn't they, in the 80s start to pivot towards solar and wind? They were the leaders of the energy secter, positioning emerging technology is R+D mixed with ROI. Surely they had people to crunch those numbers. But instead, what does history show they did? Suppress the climate studies, hire the mercs with PhDs to muddy the waters, and extract extract extract. They already have all this infrastructure paid for by the public in tax breaks. They're gonna use that earning potential until it costs more to operate than they can write off, or get tax breaks for.

All the way until they've fucked the climate for everyone else.

Not that they care. If capitalism has an underpinning catch all catch phrase it's, without a doubt, "I got Mine, Fuck you" silhouetted over a picture of someone pulling a ladder up behind them.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

There was and is no innovation with the iPhone. Phones already existed

Lmao

Needless to say

I disagree flat out. MAGA is fullblown neoliberal

You have no clue what you're talking about

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

NeoLiberal refers to lassaiz-faire capitalism. Reagan, Thatcher, Pinochet, Marty Friedman and the Chicago school of economics. Ayn Rand.

NeoLiberal has nothing to do with social policy. It doesn't care who is sucking who's dick at church or who's marrying their first cousin in their backyard bud light lazy river.

NeoLiberal = trickledown = Reaganomics

In actuality it's translated as corporatocracy.

What part of Donald Trump is against ANY of that? It is entirely the NeoLiberal revolution of the 80s, and daddies money, that allowed Trump the opportunity to rise in NYC.

Fill me in. Enlighten me. I'll be waiting.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Neoliberalism is not laissez-faire. Neoliberalism absolutely contains an entire philosophy of social policy (Hillary Clinton is a neoliberal and was the first major US politician of the modern era to support healthcare reform).

Neoliberalism is pro free trade, seeks market solutions but believes the government should work to address externalities, and is pro immigration and and anti-isolationist

NeoLiberal = trickledown = Reaganomics

There is nothing about Neoliberalism that requires Reagan's tax/economic views. As neoliberalism is essentially the policy of "follow economic orthodoxy" it's more accurate to say that Neoliberalism requires dissent from Reagan's views.

Donald Trump is explicitly a protectionist nativist who supports isolationism as a foreign policy. He is the opposite of a neoliberal.

You can not like neoliberalism, that's fine. But things you don't like can be different things.

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Clinton huh? Obama...care...? Modelled off Romney(®)care? The ACA never happened? That was a pretty big deal. I don't agree with it but none the less, you're categorically, empirically wrong.

Go to wiki. Reassess your knowledge base. Milton Friedman. You want to start there.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Clinton was pushing a series of policies derided as "Hillary Care" in 1993.

Starting on September 28, 1993, Hillary Clinton appeared for several days of testimony before five congressional committees on health care.[13] Opponents of the bill organized against it before it was presented to the Democratic-controlled Congress on November 20, 1993.[13] The bill was a complex proposal of more than 1,000 pages, the core element of which was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees. The full text of the November 20 bill (the Health Security Act) is available online.[

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993

She then, in 2004, put forth the basis for her more comprehensive plan, which by 08 became her health care proposal in the 2008 primary.

It's neat what you learn when you're born before the year 2000.

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Well shit, I was born in 81 whatdya know. I fucking graduated before 2000, you ain't got any footing there. You wanna talk about Jnco's? No Fear shirts? Matt Shepard being drug behind a truck and tied to a fence to die? What were you doin when news of Cobain came out? Shit my first concert was Rage Against the Machine in 96. Fucking good times.

And I knew all that, but all of that means fuckall. She was First lady, then ran for senator of NY, then secretary of state in 2012. But soooo what. What power did she really have?

Who gives a shit what HRC was trying to whip support of while first lady. She couldn't get the support, but fuck her for trying right? I'm not even a democrat, or a fan of Democrats, but I won't knock Americans for trying to help Americans. Even if I disagree with their direction. Motive is important, whole different kinds of laws come into play around it. I don't think anyone ever questioned HRCs patriotism. Hard to argue with the optics of the zero dark thirty war room. She didn't openly call for foreign aid attacking opponents in a political campaign, in and of itself is sedition. Was she a bitch? Probably. Given a choice of a leader who is a bitch vs say Mrs Butterworth, I'll take the bitch, thanks. For fucks sake, you people are impossible. Move to the south and secede. I'll stay in the NW and even vote to pay for your move.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

You wanna talk about Jnco’s? No Fear shirts?

Literally always.

Was she a bitch? Probably. Given a choice of a leader who is a bitch vs say Mrs Butterworth, I’ll take the bitch, thanks

100% man

[–] itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com 10 points 11 months ago

This will end well.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 39 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just look at the last thirty or so years in Texas for your answer.

Everyone I know is miserable and sees no way out.

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Texas is one of the wealthier states with very good growth in wages and very attractive to business with their zero business tax strategy. Along with this is some of the best housing prices and population growth. They seem to have done pretty good in the last 30 years although they have sides that have not done so good.

[–] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

…with some of the worst schools, terrible wages for the vast majority of folks, a power grid that’s barely hanging on, and an entire state government dedicated to destroying the right for women to control their own bodies, the right for kids to grow up well educated and free to be who they want to be, the right for businesses to control every aspect of our lives in pursuit of larger profits, and the right for the multiple industries to rape and pillage the entire state of all its natural resources while getting away scot free with poisoning and killing people.

It’s a wealthy state if all you look at is the amount of money here and blatantly ignore how it’s distributed amongst the populace. Housing prices are great… in the absolute middle of nowhere. Wanna be in a city, with the jobs? Pony up. Population is going up due to people thinking it’ll be cheaper here, only to find that the property taxes they pay are higher than the income taxes they paid where they came from with substantially fewer public services to show for it.

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Actually wages are quite good and with that very low taxes along with reasonable housing prices, you are very wrong on that point. Power grid. In line with California for failure. Much of that has to do with lack of base load more than anything.

And for your other points. Little bit of hyperbole there.

[–] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Tell me, do you happen to live in Texas, like I do? Were you born here, like I was? Have you had to deal with the BS this state has had to throw at you all your life, like I have?

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No but the stats don't lie. You likely would fair worse in many other states economically but there might be placed better suited for your temperament. I don't know you at all so that is just a guess.

[–] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

Well, just keep in mind that averages don’t mean much when the gap between the lowest and highest wages are so large. You’re looking for the mean, not the middle. Sure, wages have gone up all across the country, but when combined with the massive increase in home costs, rent costs, food costs, etc. it still means that a huge number of folks don’t make as much when you look at how much of a percentage of those folks’ wages are taken up by those things.

Anecdotally, my wife and I make more money an hour than we’ve ever made in our lives, but a greater percentage of that wage is taken up by various costs associated with just getting by. Rent’s gone up, food has most certainly gone up. We struggle more now than we did prepandemic.

I see more homeless folks on the streets than I used to. That’s confirmed by the studies showing that homelessness has gone up.

The Texas government has banned books in schools, even recently doing so for textbooks that paint the oil industry in a negative light when it comes to climate change.

Abortion in the state is straight up illegal now.

The government is actively looking to reduce the rights of LGBTQI+ folks.

When Austin tried to divert some police funding to non-police responses to mental health crises, the state government made it illegal to ever reduce local PD funding if the city has a population greater than 100k.

The electric grid failed multiple times over the last few years. The government recently allocated more funding to build more natural gas power plants… the same type of plants that failed during the last freeze. All the funds that went to the power companies to weatherproof their infrastructure have mostly gone straight to the folks running the companies, not to the work they said they’d do.

The state government recently passed a law that allows parents to take their kids out of public school and use a $6000 voucher to help pay for private school. That’s most of the tax dollars that would be spent on that kid in the public school, which means taxpayers are now funding private schools that aren’t subject to the same laws and regulations as public schools.

Women are actively being forced to give birth to babies that have no way of surviving, whereas previously the pregnancy would be terminated before putting the woman through that physical trauma.

Some cities have passed laws that prevent women seeking abortions to travel on their roads.

The Governor, against the law, put razor wire barricades in the rio grande, as well as shipping container walls on the border. When challenged, the federal government elected to continue to allow these things. Both are paid for by Texas taxpayers, and none of it was voted on.

Suicide rates for national guard folks on the border have skyrocketed. The things they’re being forced to do, nobody should be forced to do. It’s inhumane.

The citizens of Uvalde, in response to the school shooting where a shit ton of cops stood around doing nothing, continue to vote for the same leaders that allowed such a thing to happen in the first place.

This state does not care about people. The government literally only cares about making money. And none of the people seem to be interested in changing that.

[–] Frog-Brawler@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago

I mean, they already have the highest rate of inflation in the U.S…

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Is a possibility.