Democrat, GOP leaders would rejoice at Fayard candidacy

Seldom does a high-profile politician come along that both Louisiana Democrats and Republicans fervently hope will run for office. One has emerged as a candidate for governor later this fall – all because, for different reasons and at different levels, she is such a useful idiot.

In fact, as far as these go, former lieutenant governor candidate for Democrats Caroline Fayard is about as useful an idiot as you can get. The term “useful idiot” came from European communist movements, to describe somebody that thinks of herself as an ideological ally of a group but instead is held in contempt by it and used for its own purposes that do not match hers. The modern formation of the classical definition describes well her relationship with state Democrat power brokers.

They face an ongoing crisis as Republicans now hold all levers of power in every single elective policy-making way – all executive branch offices, both chambers of the Legislature, the Public Service Commission and (counting the appointed members) the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Further, the position of Gov. Bobby Jindal in his reelection quest is such that only he can defeat himself, discouraging Democrats from fielding a competitive candidate this fall.

Finding such a gubernatorial candidate they desperately want. You can’t win if you don’t play and the future is unwritten, so, as slim as their chances may be depending upon fantastic fortune for them, these chances are zero if they don’t run somebody who can get more than a handful of votes. Further, having somebody competitive at the top of the ticket can have helpful trickle-down effects on the vote. Somebody with the resources that the party doesn’t, that can stimulate the base to assist out down-ballot candidates that, unlike this person, do have a chance to win their districts and will not without this kind of help from above. Somebody with enough of an ego and own money to not mind the whole exercise.

And here, like a gift from the gods, comes Fayard. With her family’s wealthy connections and Democrat willingness to skirt ethics laws as charged by an ethics complaint and alleged by political observers, a small coterie of supporters can come up with enough scratch for a credible campaign by her to get yellow dog Democrats to the polls. Best of all for party leaders, it’s a freebie, with little expected of it in the way of support other than making sure presumably unrestricted cash that comes into it ends up going out the door to her.

However, Republicans also should be excited about the possibility of her running against Jindal. They know somebody will at some point, because Democrats simply cannot allow Jindal a free pass no matter how unbeatable he seems, as illustrated above, even if they can’t get such a gift horse as Fayard and have to work harder and spend more as a result. Yet Fayard would be a useful idiot to them in a different way than the classic “use-her-for-your-own-purposes” that state Democrats intend.

Simply because, as far as politics goes, she is a literal idiot. It was damaging enough to her credibility that her attempts to present herself as a blank slate and babbling in generalities during her statewide campaign imperfectly covered her liberal Democrat tendencies. This happened even though the lieutenant governor’s contest, by nature of the office’s almost nonexistent duties, is as issueless as can be – the exact opposite of governors’ races where candidates cannot hide from or finesse easily issues. In any run for governor, this reduced credibility means that any attempt not to sound like a liberal Democrat will be disbelieved and her credibility will suffer even further to her detriment on election day, and if she does give full throat to her core liberalism in articulating issue preferences she will sustain a worse throttling at the polls.

But worse, she doesn’t have the temperament or intelligence to even try to act like a candidate who can win. The infamous “I hate Republicans” rant in a public forum (which drew approving noises from Democrat elected officials and leaders in the room), guaranteed to alienate Republican registrants and provide plenty of fodder for the GOP to exploit, cannot be explained away or written off as the expression of the common woman inexperienced in the ways of the political world inexpertly and inarticulately sounding off. This rube, despite already being the veteran of a competitive statewide campaign, reaffirmed with this that she just doesn’t get it, that she is a deeply flawed candidate additionally saddled with the wrong agenda that no amount of money can fix.

That is, a political rube with a lot of money and ego, and that’s why the GOP should be so excited about having her toss her designer hat into the ring. Not only would she turn out as the worst possible candidate to compete, but also with the resources her campaign could deploy she would suck the air out of the room for any other Democrat who might prove to be more competitive and (especially if black) do a better job of stimulating turnout to help the down-ballot Democrats. As history has shown, money alone can turn lead into gold as candidacies go, and hers is such a leaden one that it threatens to weigh down Democrats all the way through the ballot, compared to what others could do who would be doubly discouraged from getting in the race by both Jindal’s and her presence in it.

Surely state Democrat leaders know of this possibility, but they likely would rather go with her than hope somebody else who could do better will manifest, because that person may not come. Plus, from the perspective of whites in the party whose power slippage from them to blacks has reached a tipping point, a Fayard candidacy would provide more help to white Democrats running down ballot than would a black candidate, even if in the aggregate another candidate might produce overall more Democrat wins below the statewide level.

Pretty much the bloom was off the Fayard political rose shortly into the general election runoff for lieutenant governor, and now her rhetoric has hacked off the flower itself. She’s not ready for prime time and if she seriously wants any kind of political future she best lay low to wait for better conditions to appear and reinvention opportunities. Democrats would cut their losses by getting her to run, and Republicans would take satisfaction in that their opponents will settle with her and potentially can exploit her presence further for their own gain. Now the only suspense left is whether she ratifies her status as a genuine useful idiot by actually running for governor.