My Name Is Ron, and I'm a Recovering Legislator

My Name Is Ron, and I'm a Recovering Legislator

Author: Ron Gomez

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2006-11

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0595416535

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Ron Gomez is a journalist as well as a veteran of three terms in the Louisiana House of Representative. Here he reports on the humor and theatrics, successes and failures of Louisiana's system of government.


The Party Is Over

The Party Is Over

Author: Robert Mann

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2022-02-16

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0807176982

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For decades, the Louisiana political scene has been a source of interest and intrigue for scholars and casual observers alike. In recent years, the state’s political, economic, and environmental challenges have drawn sustained attention from regional and national media. Observers have typically focused on Louisiana’s distinctive political culture, including jungle primaries, colorful candidates, and tolerance for scandal. However, recent shifts have eroded the state’s unique political character, aligning it with national political trends of partisan realignment, political polarization, and outside influence in state and local elections. The Party Is Over brings together top scholars, journalists, and policy analysts to investigate these recent shifts in institutions, politics, and policy and situate them in the context of national politics. Both accessible and thorough, the volume offers an informed and reliable foundation for those new to Louisiana’s political culture and for long-time observers seeking new insights into recent developments. Contributors recognize the challenges posed by the new politics and point toward opportunities to leverage the state’s cultural and economic strengths to build a better Louisiana.


Voting and Political Representation in America [2 volumes]

Voting and Political Representation in America [2 volumes]

Author: Mark P. Jones

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2020-02-24

Total Pages: 827

ISBN-13: 1440860858

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Examines voting trends and political representation in the United States today—with a special focus on debates over voting rights, voter fraud, and voter suppression—and election rules and regulations, including those related to gerrymandering, campaign fundraising, and other controversial subjects. Do average Americans have a voice in Washington? Are they well-represented, or are they marginalized? Do elections reflect fundamental democratic institutions and values, or are they tarnished by voter suppression, voter fraud, gerrymandering, or other factors? To what extent do America's elected officials reflect the diversity of race, religion, gender, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, and political views of the wider American population? This encyclopedia explores all these questions and more. It examines important mechanisms and laws shaping political representation in America in the 21st century, such as term limits, gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and "direct democracy" (ballot initiatives and referendums); and the degree to which various demographic groups are represented in state and federal legislatures, from Latinos and senior citizens to atheists and residents of rural states. It also explains the basis for escalating concerns about both voter fraud and voter suppression.


Modern American Extremism and Domestic Terrorism

Modern American Extremism and Domestic Terrorism

Author: Barry J. Balleck

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2018-06-01

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 1440852758

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Highlighting a breadth of American individuals and groups that engaged in extremist behavior across history, this book provides a succinct, concise overview of extremist behavior in the past and examines today's increasingly common incidences of hate and extremism. Since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, extremist and hate groups have seen a resurgence on the American political landscape. Members of these subgroups within the American population have become concerned that the America that they have always known is fading into oblivion, with a majority of individuals in these groups holding fiercely anti-immigration views and adhering to the belief that the United States should not admit large numbers of any group that is not white, Christian, or predominantly European. Others believe that the principles and precepts of the U.S. Constitution have gone by the wayside and that drastic measures are required to protect the underlying tenets that were the essential elements of the Constitution and many of "their" nation's founding principles. How did these individuals come to feel this way, is it possible to bring these impassioned extremists back into the fold, and if so, how? This book provides comprehensive, illuminating, and sometimes disturbing insights into the individuals, groups, and events that have illustrated "extremist" behavior in post-World War II America. Ranging from the anti-communist rhetoric and activities of the John Birch Society, to the radical socialist ideals of the Black Panthers, to the goals of a "pure" America articulated by white nationalists, this book documents the various extremist elements that shaped the second half of the 20th century as well as the first two decades of the 21st century. Readers will grasp how events in the histories of individuals and groups as well as perceived injustices have lead to the incidences of hate and extremism in American society. The encyclopedic entries of the book are specifically written to accessible to readers without specific knowledge of extremism, political science, or sociology.


Blowing Smoke

Blowing Smoke

Author: Michael Wolraich

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2010-10-12

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0306819376

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HAS AMERICA LOST ITS MARBLES? Television sensation Glenn Beck warns of White House plots to institute fascism, communism, and other terrifying “isms.” Radio titan Rush Limbaugh charges that a racist Obama regime encourages black schoolchildren to beat up white kids. Evangelical luminary James Dobson frets that Christians will be arrested for thought crimes and people will be allowed to marry donkeys. Protesters in knickers and colonial-style hats march on Washington with signs that order Hitler-like caricatures of President Obama to return to Kenya. As madness reigns, pundits, politicians, and cab drivers debate the source of the hysteria. Some blame ignorance; some blame racism; some blame the economy. After poring over mountains of political screeds and heedlessly subjecting himself to countless hours of Fox News, author Michael Wolraich discovered the secret formula that turns ordinary men and women into fire-breathing, smoke-blowing, right wing maniacs. It’s “persecution politics” . . again. In Blowing Smoke, Wolraich documents, dissects, and deconstructs the myths that underlie the right’s growing reliance on the politics of persecution, from Joe McCarthy to the Tea Party movement. In the process, he delivers an original and compelling hypothesis with penetrating insight and blistering wit. At turns hilarious, disturbing, and edifying, Blowing Smoke is a must-read account of modern American politics.


Garbage Gumbo

Garbage Gumbo

Author: John W. Sutherlin

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-09-16

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0761873511

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Garbage Gumbo is an account of what can go wrong when incompetence, corruption, and greed replace environmental protection. This is another example of what makes Louisiana politics so intriguing to some and disappointing to others.


White Robes and Burning Crosses

White Robes and Burning Crosses

Author: Michael Newton

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1476617198

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With its fiery crosses and nightriders in pointed hoods and flowing robes, the Ku Klux Klan remains a recurring nightmare in American life. What began in the earliest post-Civil War days as a social group engaging in drunken hijinks at the expense of perceived inferiors soon turned into a murderous paramilitary organization determined to resist the "evils" of radical Reconstruction. For six generations and counting, the Klan has inflicted misery and death on countless victims nationwide and since the early 1920s, has expanded into distant corners of the globe. From the Klan's post-Civil War lynchings in support of Jim Crow laws, to its bloody stand against desegregation during the 1960s, to its continued violence in the militia movement at the turn of the 21st century, this revealing volume chronicles the complete history of the world's oldest surviving terrorist organization from 1866 to the present. The story is told without embellishment because, as this work demonstrates, the truth about the Ku Klux Klan is grim enough.