Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

I get weird politics. I grew up in Louisiana. During the 1991 governor’s race, a popular bumper-sticker read: “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.” Former Governor Edwin Edwards, the “Crook,” and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, faced off in the general election. Amusing Crook stories abound, but they’re not bulletin appropriate. But I’ll share a few.

In the 1970s, a Houston Chronicle journalist challenged Edwards about his shady dealings. Edwards replied, “I don’t know what you guys from Texas are worried about because I only steal from Louisiana.” At the 1984 Democratic Convention, Edwards persuaded Louisiana’s only Gary Hart delegate to switch his vote to Walter Mondale. A Hart supporter from Wyoming accused Edwards of “immorally” converting the delegate. NBC anchor, Connie Chung, asked Edwards if he had “done anything immoral.” “Not since I got here,” quipped Edwards.

Duke was not amused. Racial progress was at risk. Flash back: Governor Huey Pierce Long (1928-1932), “The Kingfish,” was a post-Reconstruction progressive, abolishing poll taxes and helping Blacks and poor folks. Long ended the choice between shoes or textbooks for schoolkids. Long’s heir (after two interims), Governor Richard Leche, was deemed the “second Louisiana purchase.” Leche went to federal prison for skimming WPA funds and was succeeded by Long’s certifiable younger brother: Earl. But segregationist Jimmy Davis – though supporting programs helping Blacks (unequally) and poor Whites – was elected in 1944 and again in 1960. The civil rights’ tug-and-pull was favorable in the 1960s, in tandem with federal laws. But when Duke ran in 1991, it was concerning. Edwards said, “While David Duke was burning crosses… I was building hospitals…” The Crook won by a landslide. It was important.

Today’s partisan divide must not trouble us. The checks-and-balances and peaceful transitions of our republic are about a trajectory of progress – not fast results. Our Founding Fathers, for all their faults (nothing in this world is born in innocence), understood the importance of a multilayered system of laws and check-and-balance that protect the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We should be grateful to Providence for their practical wisdom.

“The cause of freedom is not the cause of race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.” (Anna Julia Cooper, 1858-1964, African American author, activist, educator, “A Voice from the South”).