What The New Orleans Mayor’s Race Was Really About (Or What Michelle Malkin and Matt Craven don’t understand about New Orleans)

 

All wars are about the same thing.

The new way vs. the old way.

Now in New Orleans, the city where I'm from, we very much dig the old way.

We were the last city to raise the drinking age to 21.

We still have second line parades which ramble through the city every weekend.

 

4 years ago, when Ray Nagin ran for Mayor, he was the outsider.

He was going to modernize the city.

Put things online.

Run the city like a business.

Nobody knew who he was. He was some cable executive who had made some money and was coming back to give to his city.

He energized middle class folks like my wife and I.

We loved the city but most business was done on a "who you know" basis. The traditions which made the city such a unique place were the same things which were holding it back.

Nagin was a breath of fresh air to some of us because though he was born, raised in and obviously loved the city, he wasn't tied to any political party.

He put up his own money to run. He loved the city that much.

All the real political people (In both parties) hated him.

My wife and I were some of his first volunteers. We watched him piss off the old school democrats and the new school republicans.

I didn't agree with everything he said (The idea of running government like a business is one of the dumbest memes to ever catch on in the history of politics. but I digress…) but he had a vision and understood the traditions of the city.

He won the election because he was able to get middle class folks, both black and white to join in his crusade to update the city. Nagin received a majority of both black and white voters, an uncommon occurrence in New Orleans.

Before Katrina, Nagin would have probably won in a landslide. He was making moves.

After Katrina, the old way thought they had a chance to get back in.

Nagin's opponent in the runoff is a nice guy. (I'm a big supporter of his sister) But he was very much tied to the old way of doing things.

He just wore a new suit.

His dad was the last white mayor of the city and he had served in the legislature for a long time. Landreiu was qualified but, in my eyes, had been around the old way of doing things for his entire life.

Electing him would have been a step backwards to the corruption and graft which has been holding the city back for years.

I think that's one of the reasons Nagin won.

And I'll tell give you another reason:

During Katrina Nagin got on the radio and cursed out the federal governments response to what was happening in the city.

He call for "moratorium on press conferences".

He didn't care about politics and the long range ramifications.

He just honestly spoke the feelings of most of the residents of the city.

Instead of sounding and thinking like a politician, he sounded and spoke like a man who had watched his city destroyed and was angry with the government's response.

And isn't that what you want a mayor to do: represent you?

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