It's Not Easy Being A Liberal In Louisiana

I wasn't always a liberal. Back in my early days, I was raised as right-wing conservative. I was taught that liberals rejoiced in abortions and that gay people wanted to recruit young people like me into their supposedly hedonistic and sinful lifestyle.

Life threw me a number of curveballs as an adult, and through a number of circumstances, I found myself living in extremely conservative Louisiana. After reversing a series of unfortunate choices and student debt, I became political again, especially in the wake of the Tea Party takeover of Congress in 2010.



It's been five years now since I moved to Louisiana, and I've moved ever further to the left in that time. Here, I am surrounded by people who despite being incredibly bigoted towards Hispanics and other non-whites, have a poor grasp of the English language.

Not only is their incorrect use of prepositions and possessives enough to give any English major fits, their understanding of the political process is staggering. This is the state that elected Bobby Jindal twice, and has finally elected a conservative Democrat to take his place rather than David Vitter who was crippled by his own past, along with his attacks on fellow Republican candidates.

In my time here, my newfound interest in politics has presented me the opportunities to make connections with people who love the state of Louisiana and want to reverse the failed conservative policies of politicians like Bobby Jindal and David Vitter. These outstanding individuals include Bob Mann from LSU, Lamar White Jr from Cenlamar.com, and Sean Illing who now writes for Salon.

Turning Louisiana back to the center will not be an easy job. I have no illusions that there aren't massive corporate and political interests that will want to keep the state solidly conservative, and in the hands of the fossil fuel industry.

For better or worse, this is where I belong now. And I will do whatever I have to do to turn my adopted state around.