Micah, as 2015 winds to a close, and Louisiana families across the state look forward to a new year and a new era in state politics, it’s important to look back and remember the scale and the scope of the LAGOP’s failures these last twelve months. While their collective obstructionism, cronyism and dysfunction have encompassed a range of issues this year — we’ve narrowed it down to the Top Ten:

  1. Failed the test of governance: giving in to Bobby Jindal’s absurd demands to pass the SAVE act money-laundering scam, surrendering their power in the legislature to serve the agenda of out-of-state power brokers like Grover Norquist.
  2. Failed to sustain a viable run for the GOP presidential nomination, with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s vanity campaign collapsing with a whimper after wasting his time and taxpayers’ money for most of the year.
  3. Failed to retain their stranglehold on the governor’s office, with Sen. David Vitter’s arrogant, fatally flawed gubernatorial campaign collapsing under the weight of scandal and suspicion.
  4. Failed to coalesce behind either of their presumptive leaders, with savage, unhinged attacks within their own party and rabid intrapartywarfare turned against their own candidates.
  5. Failed to expand access to healthcare this year, denying thousands of working Louisiana families badly needed services — all while sending our tax dollars out of state to pay for healthcare in other states.
  6. Failed our mothers, sisters and daughters: blocked the passage of legislation that would guarantee equal pay for equal work, and lift Louisiana out of the bottom rankings for gender pay inequality.
  7. Failed to represent and protect all Louisiana citizens equally, attempting to legalize discrimination with the tourism-killing HB 707 bill. In the process, also failed to protect Louisiana’s reputation as a hospitable, business-friendly state.
  8. Failed to respect workers’ rights, attempted to ram through legislation touted by corporate backers as a “fatal spear” into the heart of working families.
  9. Failed the test of leadership: despite their majority in both houses of the legislature and their control of the governor’s office, Louisiana Republicans presided over a legislative session marked by abject failure and ineptitude. The Frankenstein budget scrapped together in the final minutes of session has already begun falling to pieces.
  10. Failed the moral test of service, devoting time and staggering amounts of resources to advancing the pet causes of shadowy corporate interests, while our state’s education system, our criminal justice system, and basic infrastructure were left to ruin.

2016 is already looking better because of all the things Louisiana Democrats have been fighting for. Happy Blue Year!