The basic reason I moved to New Orleans is simply this: I like it there. My family’s from there, my wife and I fell in love in that city, we got married there, and if you’re fortunate enough to be able to live in uptown New Orleans, you have what is in my opinion as high a standard of living as anywhere in the world. Basically I love great food, good music, LSU sports, and family. Where else can I go and get all of that within an hour and fifteen minutes of my front door?
But there is something that is driving me more than just the obvious appeal and pleasures of living in New Orleans. And that is that, at my age, sixty-five in October, I so much would prefer to be a part of something trying to make it, as opposed to being a part of something that already has it made. It’s like my view of politics. I always try to identify with the folks who are trying to make it and not the folks who already have it made.
That’s the classic difference between a Republican and a Democrat. Republicans exist to protect what people have, and Democrats exist to help people have the opportunity to acquire the things that they need. Civil rights, education, women’s rights, opportunity, health care, you name it. The Republicans are a party that is designed to protect wealth. We should always strive to be a party that is designed to help people attain riches, of which money is only one part. We move for financial security but, more than that, family security, and security from fear and threat.
The other thing is that New Orleans is a monument to what harm bad government can bring about, and, moreover, how good people can overcome bad government. When your national policy is tax cuts for wealthy people and not levees and flood protection for all people, the result is inevitable. When your policy is political appointees over competence, the result is inevitable. When your policy is to blame everyone else for your problems as opposed to accepting responsibility for your inaction and ineptitude, the result is inevitable. However, people have seen through this, and they are starting to make real progress all across South Louisiana.
If I can contribute anything, however small, to this effort, and to the state and the people I love, I’ll be all the happier and all the better for it.