A BREAK FROM POLITICS-SO WE DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!

Monday, November 16th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

A BREAK FROM POLITICS-SO WE DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!

 

Don’t you and I deserve a campaign break? For months, we’ve been suffering through accusatory political rhetoric from both political parties. I don’t know about you, but I think we all should tune out for a while. After all, the cost of these 2026 federal elections will exceed $20 billion, with most of this money going to advertising trying to win us over. And guess what? In Louisiana, all this political marketing changed virtually nothing.

On the national level, both political parties accused the other as being soft on crime, not protecting the borders, and doing little to stop inflation and high gas prices. The message was clear. Throw the incumbent bums out. And across the country, there were some big upsets and surprises.  But here in the Bayou State after all that money was spent, voters went to the polls and kept nearly all the bums in place.

It’s no secret that, in the majority of elections, there are two key elements in getting elected to a major political office in Louisiana. The first is money. I’ve forgotten what the second element is. In highly contested statewide races, Louisiana often is listed as the most expensive state, per capita, in the nation. Remember Lisa Minnelli singing in the movie Cabaret that “Money makes the World Go Round.” She sure was right when it comes to political spending

Corporate campaign money has been bountiful in recent Louisiana campaigns. The war chests of the present Bayou State officials are filled with corporate checks, both from in and out of the state. Members of the Public Service Commission are actively supported by the corporations they regulate. LLCs formed by law firms are big players in Louisiana judicial elections. 

Here’s the real problem in Louisiana. And it’s not just corporate contributions. It’s the flooding of out of state money into Louisiana campaigns. Hundreds of millions of dollars pour into Louisiana political war chests every election cycle. How do Louisiana citizens benefit when large amounts of campaign cash flood into the state to influence Louisiana elections? Isn’t there a built-in conflict of interest as to where an official’s loyalties lie when large out of state donations are accepted?

Hey, I have an idea. There is a simple and constitutional way to keep Louisiana elected officials focused on Louisiana issues. A candidate for public office should only raise campaign funds in the district from where he or she is running. If you are running statewide, raise all your financial resources within the state. If you are running parish wide, your limits are within your home parish. Legislators, congressmen, and U.S. Senators would be limited to raising campaign dollars from within their respective districts. Simple.

Keep fund raising local. Make the candidates focus and be responsive solely to the voters in the districts that put them in office. No soliciting by candidates for campaign funds from any person or group that resides out of district or out of state. Oh, there would be loud protests from lobbyists who hand out the campaign dollars to gain their “special access.” And incumbents, who can work the system from day one in office would object at having to forgo all the many out of district fund raising opportunities. But the voters would be the beneficiaries.

If by accident a few new faces get elected, unfortunately we all will have to take heed of the song by The Who. Their refrain sums up a voter’s dilemma well.

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Don’t get fooled again, no, no
Don’t get fooled again.

 

So don’t count on any groundswell of change. As long as out of state money floods Louisiana, it’s going to be the same old, same old in both Baton Rouge and Washington.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

CAMPAIGN THOUGHTS AFTER THE ELECTION!

Monday, November 9^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Change is in the air.  Even down here in the deepest of deep southern states, we are seeing the leaves on trees turning from green to a variety of browns. Thank goodness, the weather has changed from toasty warm to right down pleasant.  And if you want to see some real change, take a look at our politics.

Who would have thought that such a massive blue wave would sweep across the entire country. President Trump told voters repeatedly, some 37 times, that they should vote as if he were on the ballot. And voters did. They gave the Republicans a shellacking.

And get this. Who would have believed that in the Louisiana U.S. Senate race, an African American Democrat, who could not even get re-elected to the police jury in one of the smallest parishes in the state, would come within a whisker of defeating Trump’s hand-picked candidate, who is a sitting United States Congresswoman. 

Now I know coming close only counts in throwing horseshoes and hand grenades. But the Republican candidate, Julia Letlow, did little more than wrap her arms around President Trump and smile at cameras without taking any positions on issues. She should thank her lucky stars that the national Democratic Party did not give the Democratic candidate, Jamie Davis, any help at all. A little aid from the Democratic Party would have sent Letlow back to teaching school again.

In neighboring Mississippi, national Democratic organizations poured some $3 million into the coffers of the Democratic candidate, an African-American district attorney. It’s been 44 years since a Democrat held a US Senate seat in Mississippi. Votes are still being counted, but as of this date, the Democrat holds a 1700 vote lead.

National Democrats focused a major effort on the Mississippi Senate race. President Barack Obama filmed an endorsement ad. Former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and several U.S. senators campaigned for the Democrat  in Mississippi. None offered aid for Davis in Louisiana. James Carville put it this way: “The national institution of the Democratic Party and the national institution of media doesn’t believe that Louisiana even exists.”

One good thing that came out of the elections across the nation is that having a massive campaign war chest does not automatically get you elected. In 2024, Kalama Harris out spent Trump yet she was defeated.  In last week’s election, Republicans out spent Democrats by some $1 billion. Elon Musk alone poured an estimated $474 million in Republican political campaigns during the 2026 midterm election cycle, according to federal disclosure records. There needs to be some kind of limit on campaign spending on both the national level as well as right here in Louisiana.

Louisiana also loses Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. He announced he will not run again, and he would quite frankly have an uphill fight with so many republican congressional losses.Representative Steve Scalise, also from of Louisiana, is in the running to replace Johnson, and it certainly is in the state’s interest for him to be elected.

One little noticed change here in the Bayou State was the passage of a constitutional amendment by voters limiting any governor to two terms in office. Conventional wisdom here is the current governor Jeff Landry pushed this amendment so that he would not face a challenge from former governor John Bell Edwards, who was twice elected to the state’s top post.  But Landry overlooked the fact that Edwards had already served his two terms, and any limit on him running again would be considered retroactive.

 

 The new amendment was passed after it was legal for Edwards to run for more than two terms. Simply put, you cannot pass a law or an amendment that takes away a right a person had at the time they were serving. The same logic applies to former Governor Bobby Jindal. So Edwards or Jindal can run again but Landry, who is just completing his first term, cannot. Maybe the Governor shot himself in the foot.

 

The Democrats will still have their hands full. President Trump still has two more years to serve, and the latest Gallup poll finds this Congress has a miserable 14% approval rating. And guess what? It’s only 729 days away until the next national election.

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. 

 

 

 

 

Monday, November 2nd, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

A NEW PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE:

DEALING WITH THE RISE AND FALL OF LSU!

 

Louisiana State University, located in my hometown of Baton Rouge, has selected a recent president, Dr. Wade Rousse, who has been in that position for less than a year. And to say that he faces a big job ahead of him is an understatement. Educationally, the state’s largest university is a mixed bag of quality and mediocrity, typical of many public universities.  Now there’s nothing like being in Tiger Stadium on a football Saturday night.  But when it comes to national rankings, and raising money for its endowment, LSU continues to be at the low-end, even among schools in the Southeast Conference. He also is discovering that LSU, once the centerpiece of higher education throughout the South, is now fighting for relevant academic survival.

 

Huey Long was the best friend and supporter LSU ever had.  The Virginia Quarterly Review called him the father of the modern LSU and said, “Huey stroked LSU as if he had been coddling a newborn pet elephant.  During fiscal stringency in all other American states, Huey force-fed LSU with increasing appropriations.”  The Kingfish made no secret of his long-term goals for the state’s flagship university. “LSU’s going to be the Harvard of the South,” he said.

 

LSU’s relevance as an educational pillar in the South continued into the 1950s.  Prominent writers like Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren made the Baton Rouge campus a gathering place for major literary figures. The Southern Historical Association began publishing its Journal of Southern History as well as the highly respected Southern Review, all from LSU.  And the LSU Press became the publishing beacon for serious fiction and non-fiction rivaled only by the University of North Carolina Press.

 

Outstanding young academicians in a variety of fields were attracted to Baton Rouge, and the music department produced grand opera accompanied by its own symphony orchestra under directors of international acclaim.  The efflorescence of so much creative and academic talent drew praise for Louisiana nationwide.  But that was then. What happened in recent years that caused Louisiana State University to drop its mantle of excellence, not just nationally, but right here in the Deep South?

 

In the 60s, education became the key to survival for other southern states that did not have the huge reservoirs of oil and gas that was bountiful in Louisiana. Who cared about having a college degree when an oil field worker with a tenth grade education could make as much or more than many professionals with graduate degrees?  A college education became less relevant.  And that’s when politics came into the mix.

 

With the economy running on autopilot in Louisiana, and unemployment running way behind other southern states, the cry for keeping the flagship university strong fell on deaf ears.  Rural legislators were more concerned about beefing up local colleges to LSU status, and even building unneeded new colleges and trade schools.  And LSU became its own worst enemy by not aggressively making its case as to how critical a flagship university is to the economic well-being and future of a state

 

The leadership of LSU made three key mistakes that allowed it to fall into the fiscal abyss the university finds itself in today.  First, it did not aggressively defend and promote its status as the flagship of all colleges in the state.  I was around the state capitol as an elected official in various capacities through the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.  LSU was just one of the many education interests lobbying the legislature and the Governor.  The University’s leadership did not consider LSU in a unique category. They simply did not make their case as key universities in other states have done. 

 

The second mistake made by the LSU leadership was the failure to develop a solid endowment plan. The state’s flagship ranks near the bottom of all Southeast Conference schools.  US News and World Report recently released its annual university rankings.  How did LSU do?  It’s ranked a paltry 202^nd in the nation.

 

What the new LSU president will quickly find is that Louisiana is at a crossroads.  If the state’s leadership does not work to promote and protect a high degree of excellence at LSU, the best and the brightest students will leave the state for greener pastures, or settle for a less challenging education that will limit their opportunities in the future.  As James Carville recently said: “Half the crowd in Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night can’t even spell LSU.”  Dr. Rousse certainly has his work cut out for him.  Geaux new Tiger.

 

Peace and Justice.

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. 

 

 

 

THE PASSING OF ONE OF LSU’S GREATEST!

Monday, October 26^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE PASSING OF ONE OF LSU’S GREATEST!

Louisiana lost a major sports icon last week. LSU coach Dale Brown, one of the winningest coaches in basketball history, passed away at 90 years old. He took LSU from the dregs of college basketball as a respected coach who posted numerous winning records.  Coach Brown was Southeast Conference coach of the year or the runner-up on nine different occasions, and was national coach of the year twice. 

 But he was more than a basketball coach.  He was a motivator and regularly spoke out about the importance of changing the social ills that face so many Americans.  He traveled the world, and sought out challenges, even traveling in a small boat the whole length of the Mississippi River. He was a personal friend of Mother Teresa and close to several presidents, including George Bush.   Simply put, Dale Brown was a renaissance man. He was also my close friend.

Dale knew that I was a basketball recruit at the University of North Carolina. I was the first recruit of legendary coach Dean Smith there, and Dale and Dean were close friends for many years. We always joked that we had to be related having the same last name.

Dale came to Louisiana from North Dakota, but immediately adjusted to the special Louisiana way of life. He knew he had an uphill fight trying to solve basketball in a state that is still consumed by football. LSU Athletics Director Joe Dean told Coach Brown: “If you take the job, you will raise the flag, you will sing the national anthem, you’ll keep your own stats and you will sweep the floor. LSU is totally uninterested in basketball.”  

I’ve had front row seats for LSU basketball games for over 50 years. During the time I served as Secretary Of State, I often brought a load of the state’s newspapers to thumb through as I watched the game. Dale made a special trip to see me in my office back in the 1980s. There had been a picture in the local paper of me reading during a basketball game. Coach Brown asked me to please not read during the games as it looked like I was a fan who was uninterested. I  certainly complied with his wishes.

Dale undertook a personal vendetta against the NCAA as to how it regulated basketball. He openly  called the national sports supervisors “Gestapo bastards” for how he believed they governed. His fight against the NCAA continued for many years, and most of the changing regulations he had lobbied for were eventually put in place.

I still have a copy of a 1985 Sports Illustrated magazine that had Dale Brown on its cover. The headline said it all, “Crazy Days at LSU.” When they talked about the coach, the cover story said, “Hello trouble, I’m Dale Brown.” The article went on to quote Dale as saying “From the moment they snipped the umbilical cord, I’ve been in the middle of controversy.”  It was easy to understand why so many people loved this guy.

Dale always made it clear that he wanted to be a winner. He coached LSU for 25 years, and when he retired in 1997, he held 448 wins. Dale made two Final Four appearances, one in Philadelphia and the other in Dallas. I was there on both occasions.  Thirty years has passed and Dale Brown still ranks forth on the all-time list of winningest coaches.

Many outstanding basketball coaches have come and gone since Dale Brown retired. But if you have to look for one coach who strived for victory in sports as well as in life, and spoke out about so many social causes that were important to him right up until the day he passed away, there would be none better and few who could compare with LSU ‘s indomitable Coach Dale Brown. Rest in peace, my friend. There will definitely be a place for you up yonder.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

HOLDING SOMEONE’S HAND!

Monday, October 19th, 2026

Baton Rouge , Louisiana

 HOLDING SOMEONE’S HAND!

I’ve always looked upon myself as a hand holder. Of course, holding the hand of a loved one. As someone in politics, I’m sure I have shaken thousands of hands over the years. The Beatles urged us many years ago, singing: “I wanna hold your hand.”

I always loved to sing Neil Diamond’s best-known song, Sweet Caroline. His words say:       

Hands
Touchin’ hands
Reachin’ out
Touchin’ me, touchin’ you.

(As a sidenote, the first time I heard Neil Diamond perform was quite a day. I got married at noon, went to see Tulane beat LSU, and went to a late Neil Diamond concert at the LSU Assembly Center.)

Holding someone’s hand is one of the simplest, yet most powerful, ways to express affection, love, and human connection. Sometimes, a hand can say what words cannot. Covid changed all that for many of us. We started fist bumping or just waving. People were reluctant to hold someone’s hand because of what proved to be an unfounded worry about infection.

I always have looked forward to the priest or preacher telling their flock: “Peace be with you.” We would turn to one another and shake our neighbors’ hands. It seems like we’ve drifted away from the special symbol of taking a hand close by us. I’m here to advocate we take up this tradition again.

I believe all of us need connection. A hand, held with tenderness, can help someone feel valued, accepted, and remembered. It reminds us that we are part of one another’s lives. So now, when I go to church on Sunday, I’m making it a point of holding the hand of those seated around me. During the stressful world we live in today, it seems like a small gesture, but an important thing to do.

There is something quite special about holding another person’s hand. You don’t have to solve their problems, entertain them, or explain their feelings. You simply have to be present.

A hand can say: I am here. You matter to me. You don’t have to face this alone. For this moment, let us share the world together.

Author Roger Rosenblatt puts it this way: “You pray with your hands. You sign language with your hands. Some read the lines in your hands as predictive of your life. Approval is indicated by a show of hands. To celebrate you give a high five. Extend your hand towards a baby and it will cling to a finger.”

And sometimes, holding someone’s hand is also a way of saying, I don’t know how much time we have, but I want you to know that you are special to me. Perhaps the most important thing about holding someone’s hand is for a few moments, two people are reminded that, despite all the independence we cherish, none of us is meant to go through life entirely alone.

From those of us who follow the teachings in both the Old and New Testaments the “laying on of hands” has special significance. Jesus Christ used his hands to heal the sick and bless small children. I was named after the Apostle James.  He prescribes using the hands to anoint with oil on the forehead, which I do each week when taking communion.

In the book of Genesis, Jacob (Israel) placed his hands on the heads of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to pass down a patriarchal blessing and assign their future inheritance.

OK, I know I’m an old guy and certainly have missed a number of friends who passed away before me. But it’s still not too late for me to make special connections with all my old and new friends. And shaking hands, even holding a hand for a bit longer than normal, seems like a really nice gesture in this crazy world we live in today. So if you pass me on the street, see me in a restaurant, or sit close to me in church, be aware of the fact that I’ve become a renewed hand holder. I’m OK with that, and I hope you are too.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. Several quotes were used from AI. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

  

IT STILL SHOULD BE COLUMBUS DAY!

October 12th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

It was Christopher Columbus’s day with a big celebration at the White House by President Trump. Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation declares Oct. 12 as Columbus Day and praises the Italian explorer’s “valor, adventure, and ingenuity.”

Many are opposed to honoring Columbus and have changed the celebration date to something called Indigenous Peoples Day. That’s right. We changed the name, and now we are supposed to celebrate those Indian tribes Columbus encountered on his discovery of the Americas, a number of which were cannibals. So let’s give a one hand clap for all those indigenous groups that ate, raped and massacred numerous  explorers coming to  the new world.

OK, OK, Columbus was a brutal voyager.  But all sides were pretty much so back in that day. Actually, Columbus himself was a fairly unimportant character as to why there is a national day named for him to begin with. And would you believe that like so many other major events that affected the development of America, the idea of Columbus Day all began in Louisiana.

Columbus Day becoming a national holiday was essentially an accident.  Here’s what actually happened. After the Civil War (that by the way was kicked off at Fort Sumter by Louisiana Brig. Gen. P.G.T Beauregard and his  Confederate forces), there was widespread immigration into the United States. Large numbers of Italians flocked to New Orleans, the  cosmopolitan city of the south.  These new immigrants worked for low wages and kept to themselves along with maintaining the Italian language, strong family ties, and a resilient Catholic faith. They were resented by many New Orleanians already living there.

With all these new immigrants from a number of countries, crime took a strong increase. We’ve all seen “The Godfather.” (If you haven’t, you probably ought to quit reading this as you won’t understand.). The “Mafioso” culture of the Italians grew dramatically for their own protection.  This didn’t sit well with all the other locals.

In his recent book “Vendetta,” Richard Gambino describes the situation this way. Hatred for Italian immigrants practically became official city policy as the mayor said on the record to reporters, “Italians in New Orleans lacked honor, truth, pride, religion, or any other quality that goes to make a good citizen.”  These immigrants from Italy  took the brunt of widespread killings as Italians were lynched in the streets and hung on lamp posts. 

Tragically, half of the country shared this sentiment coming out of the Crescent City. The Washington Post described the lynching as “the people’s justice, swift and sure, visited upon those whom juries in New Orleans had neglected to punish.”  Tensions  grew between the U.S and Italy.  Some in  Washington even talked of war between the two countries.

Thank goodness for President Benjamin Harrison, who most of us have never even heard of. He was outraged as to what was happening in New Orleans and put together a federal fund for those families of Italian victims who were lynched. His efforts were not popular in Congress and there was even an attempt to censure President Harrison over what he had done.

Harrison then noticed that the 400^th anniversary of the Columbus landing in the New World would take place on October 21, 1892.  So he argued this would be a good beginning point for healing.  

 

So it was New Orleans, not Columbus, that was the emphasis to have this national holiday. A way to honor Italians after the terrible violence that took place to so many of its citizens in the Crescent city. The name of Columbus was almost a fluke. It could have been any significant Italian.  (Humm! Let’s see. Leonardo de Vinci, Michaelangelo, Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti How about even Tony Bennett day?)

 There are more than 6000 locations named for  Columbus throughout the U.S., including Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Georgia, Columbus, Illinois, and Columbus, Arkansas to name a few. We also have the District of Columbia as our nation’s capital, the Columbia river, British Columbia and Columbus Circle in Manhattan. So do we now change all these thousands of names?

 

We have torn down monuments, wiped clean certain history books and now we are ignoring historical events by suppression.  And before we consider more wiping of our history clean, it might be a good idea to see just what the real story is behind the historical event.

Oh, and by the way, my personal choice to honor Italians would be Sophia Loren Day.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

 

AMERICA NEEDS MORE HEROES!

Monday, October 5^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

AMERICA NEEDS MORE HEROES!

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote that we are born to need heroes. Having a hero in our lives nurtures us, gives us hope, lifts us up, gives us reasons to dream and be inspired. Every kid has a special champion they admire and look up to. I was no exception. Early on they were sports superstars.

I went to high school in St. Louis before my folks moved to Louisiana. Baseball and basketball stars were my early idols as a kid growing up cheering for the St. Louis Cardinals
professional baseball team and the basketball Hawks. I attended Busch Stadium on a May Sunday afternoon when Stan the Man Musial hit five home runs in a double header. What a magic day that has never been repeated in baseball. I never stopped admiring and cheering on the guy who was considered the greatest baseball player of his day.

I could list several other special sports moments and superstars I look up to. But at the top of my list was, in my opinion, the greatest basketball star who ever played the game. He grew up in Baton Rouge and set records galore both at LSU and in the N.B.A. No, not Pistol Pete Maravich. Sure, he was spectacular on the court and was as good a scorer as they came. But my hero, then and now, was and is Bob Pettit.  He died last week at the age of 93.

Bob Pettit’s rise to one of the all-time greats began at Baton Rouge High back in the early 1950s. He couldn’t even make the squad in his freshman and sophomore years, but then he blossomed to lead his high school team to the state championship and gain a scholarship to LSU. And then did he blossom, becoming a two-time All American, averaging 28 points a game in his career. His No. 50 jersey has been retired forever and hangs at the P. Mac on the LSU campus.

Then Pettit joined the St. Louis Hawks and was an NBA all-star in all 11 seasons he played. I
constantly badgered my Dad to take me to the St. Louis Arena to watch Pettit play. And after the game when I went home, I headed for the basketball goal on our garage to shoot for hours and try to imitate Bob Pettit on our driveway court.

Let me tell you how captivating the Hawks and Pettit were to our community. The Hawks and the Boston Celtics, with star Bill Russell, were playing for the NBA championship on a Saturday afternoon back in 1958. I was competing in the Missouri district track meet and was about to run in the high hurdle finals. But the meet was halted for the large crowd in attendance to listen over the loudspeakers to the final minutes of the Hawks-Celtics game. Pettit hit the winning basket in the final seconds, scoring 50 points for the contest. Yes, I won the race, but the highlight of the day was Bob Pettit’s super performance.

I had hoped to be a college star like Pettit and was lucky enough to be recruited by legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith. But a superstar was not on the radar for me, and I stayed on the track in college. When I ended up in Louisiana, what a treat it was to meet and get to know my hero, Bob Pettit. He became a successful banker down in
Jefferson Parish and was always available over the years with advice and political support. He was looked on as a gentleman in both business and sports.

 A statue of Bob was unveiled on the LSU campus right outside the basketball center. He had one of the great jump shots in the game, and his statute shows him in the same pose that allowed him to be the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.

When it comes to national politics, the nation rarely excels. But in college sports, the Bayou State has created many superstars. And at the top of the list is my personal longtime hero, Bob Pettit. We sure could use many more just like him.

*******

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.