Bittersweet Change

I am totally surprised William Jefferson lost. As bad as I wanted him out of there I am still surprised he went down. The reason is easy to see. Not enough people felt the need to go out and vote specifically for him. None of the other candidates who ran in the Democratic primary would have lost to Joseph Cao. This goes against what I usually stand for but I think the low turnout was a good thing. It showed these local black politicians you can’t just take things for granted and expect people to show up for you just because. Cynthia Willard Lewis learned that in the city council election and now Bill Jefferson knows it too. I can’t speak for every black person in New Orleans but I want someone to engage me and my concerns. Keep your inspirational speeches with your racial code words and tell me how we are going to get these schools together or a hospital open. I would rather have thousands of my brothers and sisters living better at the cost of one or two people having political power then voting for the same people over and over and having nothing to show for it. I might be ahead of my time in that mind state but all great ideas start off small.

The question now is who in the hell is Joseph Cao and how effective can he be in Washington where a Democrat revolution is going on? Is he going up there to represent the entire district or just the small percentage of Republicans? If he does he will be looking only at a two year term. He’s probably looking at only two years anyway. I hope he’s not one of those elitist that have plans to manipulate the recovery in order to frustrate poor people from moving back home. I’m not saying is. I’m just speculating because I don’t know much about him. I hope that’s not the case because anyone with sense should realize by now that’s not going to do anyone any good because if there’s one thing we have learned since Katrina is you can’t stop New Orleans folks from coming home if they really want to. Let’s hope it’s not that and he has some hidden Obama skills no one knows about and brings people together. Besides, I would hope that the liberal Democrats in Washington that black people have been so loyal to for years wouldn’t purposely shut out a district that is 60% black just to make the new Republican congressman look bad enough to lose in 2010. Let’s hope someone finally puts the people over their own agenda. William Jefferson didn’t and that’s why he’s no longer our Congressman.