I was among the 5K or so who gathered at the Pontchartrain Center tonight to hear Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders make his pitch of economic populism and opportunity expansion in deep red Louisiana.
Why, exactly? The chances of our state's eight electoral votes going to any Democratic presidential candidate are slim to none and the pros from Dover of both parties have long treated our state, quite rightly, as an unnecessary stopover. So why would the senator from Vermont bother with li'l ol' Kenner, no matter how enthusiastic the Orleanians in from next door may cheer?
The senator opened by addressing that very question, and reiterated the truth demonstrated by fellow Green Mountaineer Howard Dean: if you're everywhere, they have to fight you everywhere. It's 50-state and it's smart, and the senator from Vermont understands how stupid we were (the president and his chief of staff were) to stop persuing it.
"My colleagues in the Democratic Party have made a very serious mistake," said the senator tonight in Kenner. "They've written off half of America. Where people work 40, 50 hours and can't get out of poverty, where kids have no food, where people have no health care... That's where we should be!"
And, true to form. the candidate never budged from the core message he believes can win over a new majority coalition: wealth and income inequality are no myth and no accident. They are the result of carefully-planned corruption of the political process by a very wealthy few.
"When you have one family spending more in an election that either major party, brothers and sisters, you are no longer living in a democracy. You're looking at oligarchy."
Tonight's crowd at the Pontchartrain Center was not Louisiana. It was largely New Orleans, and the lighter and better off of New Orleans, plus diehards who drove in from Lafayette and Mobile. They were also far from the Sportsman's Paradise average intelligence. I doubt I've ever been in any crowd where "We need new Glass Steagal legislation!" was a boffo applause line.
Among those 5K or so tonight, there was not a new vote to be had. All were there for Bernie and none on any fence. You wow five thousand in a town you've never heard of in a state you'll never win. Why, exactly?
First, because it's worth it, in hard, cold political calculation. Rent on the hall, police details for security and traffic, plug the holes with volunteers and the campaign might have spent 25 or 30 thousand on this, for opening slots in local and national TV, front pages on both state dailies and a ripping social media bump. Cheap by any standard.
Second, the model is portable. A moderately but consistently funded campaign (like Sanders') can keep this show on the road as long as the principal can do the act, and the senator looked like he had a good bit of road in him tonight. He worked the rope line backwards and forwards, offering every selfie asked.
Lastly, win or lose, Sanders is putting his moderate money and health and skills where his mouth is and rebuilding the once-indomitable 50-state strategy. Every stop he makes in an improbable state like Louisiana, every five thousand believers he can meet and inspire in 2015 are five thousand seasoned, trained, drilled and tested organizers next year.
Brian Eno once remarked that, while the Velvet Underground's first album only sold 30,000 copies, everyone who bought one went on to start a band. I would be happy to see the senator have a similar effect.