Up until this legislative session Louisiana suffered from a strange phenomenon found in some red states.
Louisiana had a solidly Republican legislature, but was saddled with a Democratic governor. This problem is easier to solve than the more common red state conundrum: A conservative legislature with a RINO (Republican In Name Only) governor.
Louisiana voters came to their senses and elected a solid conservative in Republican: Gov. Jeff Landry.
What a difference that has made!
As noted left-adherent Barack Obama observed, "Elections have consequences."
And as The Washington Times concluded, "Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, with the help of his solid Republican majorities, signed off on a laundry list of legislation that spells out a Republican agenda that could ping the national GOP’s radar."
This development brought some measure of joy to your authors.
Now we can point to someone other than Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., as an exemplar of using government for conservative ends.
Here a just some of the laws passed and signed by Landry that return a measure of sanity to living in Louisiana:
- $3 billion cut from the state budget
- Universal school choice
- Constitutional carry
- A ban on vaccine mandates
- A ban on ranked choice voting
- A ban on sanctuary cities
- State police can now arrest illegal immigrants
Other improvements made to the Bayou State include:
Public (read government) schools are forbidden to teach DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion) indoctrination, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Teachers must also use pronouns that match the sex on a student’s birth certificate.
Local governments are banned from passing firearms restrictions exceeding state law.
Protesters demonstrating outside private residences can be fined.
Liability is limited for people in fear of their lives when rioters illegally block a road.
Major expansion of RICO and racketeering law applied to organized riots.
Two abortion-inducing drugs will be classified as controlled substances.
Men pretending to be women, and vice versa, are banned from using facilities that do not match their birth certificate sex.
That’s quite a return on a vote in a single election.
Landry, though, didn’t do all this on his own. "Last October, Louisiana elected a conservative governor and the Louisiana Freedom Caucus doubled their size in the legislature," the Louisiana Freedom Caucus tweeted.
Over 27 new laws were authored by members of the Freedom Caucus and passed by the legislature.
Making a red state red is a two-step process.
Elect a genuinely conservative governor and fill both houses of the legislature with equally conservative members, while expelling the Chamber of Commerce 'conservatives' that have plagued red states for so long.
That’s what Louisiana and Florida have both done.
"Andy Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, wrote on X above the list of new legislation Friday, 'I’m officially declaring it now — Louisiana is the new Florida!'"
As we wrote earlier, this should be the goal for conservatives.
Make your red state as red as possible.
Create a cultural environment so hostile to leftists that they move to the nearest blue state.
Louisiana and Florida are starting down this path.
Readers outside those states need to ask their state leadership what’s holding them back?
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.