President Trump &  Louisiana’s Governor Jon Bel Edwards

The DINO Issue

Growing up in Louisiana, there were terms  known as “Conservative Democrat” or Blue Dog Democrat. Having been raised in the same general neighborhood as Britney Spears’ parents and the family of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, we all knew what it meant to be fiscally conservative and we knew how to care for our environment to protect hunting, fishing, farming, and tree cropping.

Governor Edwards won re-election this weekend. Did I think he would win? Yes, and it had nothing to do with President Trump. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming winners statewide  in Louisiana were republicans in recent elections where one statewide Republican candidate beat the Democrat by 250,000 votes 59%-41%

In the end, John Bel Edwards only needed a fraction of the Republican or Blue Dog vote to win 51-49%.  Because of Governor Edwards’ credentials from the military and other right of center issues such as being pro-life, he is a natural candidate for traditional & centrist Louisiana voters.  Thus, anyone saying that Trump helped Edwards get elected is a political buffoon if they see the facts.

So, what is the moral of the story?  Do I think that Democrats will begin running “pro-life” veterans in all of the states to capture power in the elections? The answer is no because to win the nomination and the primary, the candidates need to appease the 33%+ hard core leftist voters who have some fairly extreme litmus tests to follow.  Today however, Governor Edwards is being labeled a DINO Democrat in Name Only.  Honestly, that is not a bad label to get these days.

In the case of Gov. John Bel Edwards, he only needed 4-6% of the Blue Dog or Republican vote to take the statewide election. However, the sad news is that when governors like Edwards win, the spoils tend to go almost exclusively to the democrat party loyalists where the vast majority of entrepreneurs, small business and working folks who are not registered Democrats are cut out.

This weekend, I spoke to an UBER driver in New Orleans at length, and she said that the democrats were primarily unified on one issue which was Medicaid expansion.  Medicaid expansion was not the original intent Obamacare. Thus, Obama crashed the free Louisiana Health Care System for the most needy, and now, Medicaid expansion is the only way to keep the least fortunate covered. Medicaid pays for health care for more than 74.5 million people nationally. Although participation is optional, all 50 states participate in the Medicaid program.  As crazy as that sounds, Medicaid may be the only issue that holds the democrats together that they can all agree upon particularly when a DINO is running for office.

The moral of the story is that any progressive or  conservative can win an election if they support family & business, support the military &  teachers, keep taxes fair, support law & order, and support health care for the most needy.