Louisiana will be electing a new governor in the coming days. I don’t blame you if you weren’t aware of that fact. The presidential circus has dominated the press, and rightfully so. The leader of the free world is far more important than the governor of a state whose claim to fame is that there’s a time of year when girls will take their top off if you give them a 15 cent bead necklace. That being said, Louisiana is a microcosm of the country as a whole, and thus what happens there could be indicative of what will happen to our country as a whole. Current governor Bobby Jindal entered office with a budget surplus and left with over a billion dollar deficit. Regardless of how it happened, Louisiana is now in big trouble economically. You would think that voters would be clamoring to see can turn that situation around, but that is not the case. The same old tired issues are trotted out instead: gun control, abortion, gay marriage. John Bel Edwards, the Democrat in the race says little about the economy and a lot about how David Vitter, the Republican, used to buy a lot of prostitutes. While that is certainly juicy information, it’s classic hide the ball amongst the politicians. No real issues are discussed, and a lot of promises are made without any actionable plan to be able to back them up. Non one has a real plan to solve the state's economic concerns. Despite that, Vitter seems likely to win. Will he spend Louisiana into an even deeper hole if he picks up his hooker habit again? I hope he’d at least be smart enough to not use state funds. If nothing is done, public universities and colleges will have to start shutting down. Thousands of jobs will be lost, people will tighten their belts, consumer spending will decrease, and real estate is likely to take a big hit as well. The university system is a huge driver of the economy, and as it crumbles so too will many other industries. If it becomes the norm for states go from surpluses to deficits, and for the electorate to then keep that party in office, we are going to have issues. The whole point of the political process is to promote change, but it’s supposed to be toward promoting the wellbeing of everyone, not just a select few who stand to gain from insane tax breaks. If one party can let things go to hell and a handbasket and there are no repercussions, then is our system broken? And if our political system is broken, can our economic system be far behind? This applies across party lines. Just because the Republicans screwed up Louisiana doesn't mean Democrats aren’t screwing up California as we speak. Legislators across the land are not being held accountable for their actions, which is leading to huge money issues all over the country. The economy can only take so much strain before in snaps. A total failure of Louisiana's economy could portend doom for far more people than reside in the Bayou State, and it could be a harbinger of things to come.