Demagogue

In a comment to my post yesterday about conservatives' post-Katrina discovery of Louisiana's poverty, one Demagogue reader commented:

I'm stunned that you left out that Lousiana's leadership (local and state) has been Democrat for quite some time now.

So why does the responsibility fall on conservatives to create jobs here when the Democrat government couldn't do so before the nations worst natural disaster? Isn't it the (liberal) local and state government who has been "ignoring the problem for years?"

First of all, my suggestion that conservatives have ignored the poverty issue was not meant exclusively as a slap at Republicans. This is the Deep South, after all, a place where both Democrats and Republicans pursue generally conservative policies. In fact, I never even used the word "Republican" in the original post.

Second, as for the point that Louisiana's leadership "has been Democrat for quite some time now," that point is irrelevant since (as I mentioned previously) I fully acknowledge that conservatives of both stripes -- Dem and GOP -- are guilty of neglecting poverty and related issues.

But even if you want to view the issue in strictly partisan terms, the notion that Dems have been running the state "for quite some time" is not entirely accurate. True, most local officials are Dems, but party I.D. is relatively insignificant in municipal and county elections. Over the past 25 years, however, the Louisiana governor's mansion has been split almost evenly among Democrats (13 years) and Republicans (12 years).