Peterson increasing liability for LA Democrats

Louisiana’s Democrat head honcho state Sen. Karen Peterson has become more tiresome – if that’s possible – than ever, perhaps even to the point the party leadership should jettison her.

Peterson, not exactly known for her tact, subtlety, or deep knowledge of the issues, has a history of making extraordinarily partisan, half-baked statements. She has flown into a rage over a birthday cake and manufactured stories about it, rudely treats fellow legislators in violation of decorum, and gets into a huff about perceived sexism by a Republican legislator yet could not bring herself to condemn unconditionally the actions of a fellow Senate Democrat who admitted to violent behavior towards a woman.

Her latest individual moment of brilliance comes surrounding statements made by Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters. The almost-octogenarian from California recently called upon activists to harass publicly political opponents, specifically those working for the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration.

Few elected Democrats offered support for that sentiment. Most, like her boss House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, rejected the notion that people be subjected to abuse for political affiliations with which someone disagrees.

Louisiana’s Rep. Cedric Richmond, who happens to lead the Congressional Black Caucus (Waters is black), gave Waters a tepid, lame defense in saying she had not asked to incite violence against those officials who disagreed with someone’s viewpoint. Of course, that dodged the entire issue: Waters still urged confrontations designed to impact negatively the private, personal lives of people, whether than included any physical violence.

Richmond does not hold an official party office. However, Peterson does, and also appears to believe in Stalin’s dictum that to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs. A prolific Twitter user, Peterson sent out a series of posts defending Waters. Her main point seemed that Waters deserved robust defense because she did things such as supporting policies that allegedly helped families and children, and Peterson also questioned why few Democrats in leadership positions acted reluctant to defend her.

Which goes to show just how ill-informed and pathetically wrong are both Waters and Peterson. For example, if Waters really wanted to help families with children, she would stop stumping for a job-killing minimum wage of $15 hourly and promote government policy that creates jobs and encourages work, something she steadfastly has refused to do throughout her legislative career.

(Not to mention that the wealthy Waters, when introducing such minimum wage bills, wouldn’t even pay her congressional interns, following the lead of most Democrats in the House of Representatives.)

The last thing Democrats need in a right-leaning state like Louisiana is for their leader to legitimize harassment and escalate incivility. While the party’s far left agenda never will attract many conservatives, more moderate voters remain in play, some of whom perceive public policy problems resulting from an inability by political factions to work together and will view Peterson’s drivel as encouraging more conflict.

Additionally, Peterson has proven to be a miserable strategist. During her reign at the party’s top, Democrats have won exactly one statewide race, putting Gov. John Bel Edwards into office. Yet she initially rejected his candidacy and even asked him to bow out at one point.

All current electoral signs point to incremental Republican legislative gains in 2019 as well as an Edwards defeat. Absent extraordinary political circumstances, there’s no hope of altering that destiny even if Peterson shuts up, unless she steps down.