The angry Senators

One thing every candidate running for Senate in Louisiana seems to agree on is voters are angry.

It’s the third Independence Day in a row that will mark the unofficial kickoff to major campaigns for elective office in Louisiana. This time around, the candidates are noting an angrier tenor among voters — harsher questions, fewer smiles. Maybe it’s vitriol from the presidential race, or fear from a series of terrorist attacks, or an economy that has rebounded only in parts of the country.

“It is all tied together,” Fleming said, pointing out Brexit, in which indignant British voters chose to exit the European Union. The vote upended political leadership in the United Kingdom and threw international financial markets into chaos. The Brits, like many Americans, are unhappy with their government leaders and are taking their frustrations to the ballot box.

“The American people feel like Washington is completely disconnected from them, just the same way the people of Great Britain feel disconnected,” Fleming said. “That’s the same feeling we’re seeing here in Louisiana.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. All I can think of is we have a really slow recovery” from the recession, Kennedy said.

Maybe this is a leap on my part but one imagines this is similar to what Senate and congressional candidates are experiencing "on the ground" in races across the country this year. It makes for an interesting contrast with the Presidential election where the only viable candidate certainly inevitable winner is an avatar for every status quo element voters on both the right and left are so angry about.

What an interesting contrast the new President and Congress will likely have in their perceived mandates come next year.