Vic Stelly is the Devil

Amazing that this one piece of moderately reasonable tax reform is remembered as the worst thing ever to happen to Louisiana. It's certainly an indicator of how nutty things have become in this state over the past decade but I think it's a mistake to describe the ascendance of right wing orthodoxy as a growth in "partisanship" as AP reporter Melinda Desaltte does here.

Meanwhile, as partisanship grew in Louisiana, the tax changes -- which had been led by Republicans and approved with overwhelming bipartisan legislative support -- became a flashpoint to determine who is a fiscal conservative, with anyone who supported the Stelly Plan deemed liberal.

"That's what's so funny. It was not a conservative versus liberal idea. It's not like it was a big liberal tax increase handled by Democrats. It was handled by Republicans," said Stelly.

Lawmakers in 2007 voted to reinstate itemized deductions eliminated under the Stelly Plan. A year later, lawmakers rolled back the income tax brackets to before the enactment of the Stelly Plan.

Stelly said he still believes the plan was a good one, and every so often he writes a letter to newspapers or calls a radio talk show to defend it.

"Would I change anything? I wouldn't change a period or a comma," he said.

Is this what happened? Did "partisanship" really grow in Louisiana between 2002 and 2008? Sure, in some sense, we can describe the new situation as more "partisan" if we understand that to mean more purely and radically Republican. Isn't it more accurate, though, to write in an article like this that the balance of power shifted significantly toward a more conservative Republican politics? Why can't Deslatte just do that? Writing "as partisanship grew" disguises the true nature of the situation by suggesting the existence of a counterbalancing power concentration on the radical left in Louisiana which is simply ludicrous to even ponder.

For some reason, though, if a moderate position suddenly becomes "too liberal" for the political palate, it can't be because the center has ratcheted rightward. It has to be the result of too much "partisanship" the inference being that "both sides" have failed once again to "get past the polarization and get something done" as Clancy Dubos recently chirped. There must be some style guide to conventional bullshit journalism that demands this be so.