A Surprise from the Deep South
Letter from the Editor

Something is cooking down on the bayou, and it is not a giant pot of duck andouille gumbo. In actuality, I am confident that things are going on as usual in my hometown of Louisiana with two exceptions: the Louisiana State University Tigers are undefeated in football, and the state is poised to elect one of two unusual political candidates for governor. As people, they really are not that unusual, but amidst the wash of fat old white men, they stand out. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is slightly ahead of Bobby Jindal in recent polls. That’s right—Louisiana, that backass Southern state is about to elect either a woman or a South Asian as governor.

What is going one here? The state that has traditionally dragged the nation along with its liberal policy has just elected the Terminator as governor, a conservative warrior sent from the future to protect human kind from destruction at the hands of their own machines, presumably updated copies of the Cheney-bot currently occupying the Vice President’s position. Conversely, almost half the state of Louisiana is supporting one of the first serious Indian-American for candidate for governor, while the other half is supporting a Cajun woman.

One potential explanation is that Louisiana politics have always been a little different from other places, so this governor’s election should be no different. Indeed, Governor Edwin Edwards rewrote the state constitution some four or five times, and is now serving about three centuries of jail time for embezzlement from the gambling industry he helped create. Maybe this desperation for good candidates has forced the voters of Louisiana, a traditionally less-than-open-minded state to look beyond the fat white men that usually control politics.

Regardless of the reasons why, for once Louisiana is doing better than a state other than Mississippi, at least in my humble opinion. Slowly but certainly the political climate seems to be opening slightly more and more to the underrepresented, be they Austrian American or Asian American and that’s a step in the right direction. And by the way—Geaux Tigers.