Rep. Raymond Crews identifies as a conservative Christian. Or as I call him, a conservative extremist. 

He doesn’t waste a moment trying to prove it by any means necessary.

How might you ask?

By making sure that Louisiana children are exposed to a deadly virus during school, signing a petition to remove the mask mandate and quarantining rules.

Standing pat in his campaign of COVID misinformation despite numerous medical experts patiently explaining the obvious to him. (Yes, the Pfizer vaccine is FDA approved. Yes, the Pfizer vaccine is available in Louisiana. No, nobody in Louisiana has died from the vaccine.) 
Ensuring that businesses that “discriminate” against the gun industry don’t receive state contracts.

Being instrumental in the death of bills to raise the minimum wage, arguing that raising the minimum wage (by as little as $2) would “make Louisiana worse off.” 

Further arguing that women deserve to make less money than men because they don’t work as hard.

Crews’ dedication to his “conservative” values even called for him to revive Louisiana’s Don’t Say Gay bill after it failed to garner enough votes in the House Education Committee. Because the state clearly has nothing more important to worry about than making sure teenagers don’t know that their teacher is gay.

He was also a leading voice in advocating against legislation that would have banned the barbaric practice of conversion therapy saying that it was a “restriction of free speech.” Crews wanted to know why the bill didn’t include provisions to protect straight people from being forced to become queer.

These are just a few of the various tirades that Crews has engaged in during his years in the legislature and there are plenty more.

The unifying factor between these bills is not their conservative intent but the lack thereof.

Crews and his peers in the legislature continue to use the Bible and their supposed conservative values as an excuse to push their mean-spirited ideologies on the people of Louisiana.

Members of the Legislature are charged with improving the lives of the people of this state, but Crews and too many of his colleagues are far more interested in pushing national culture war legislation that does nothing but embarrass those of us yearning for a future for Louisiana.

People like Crews are the reason that Louisiana has a brain drain, the reason why young people refuse to stay in the state.

It’s as simple as that.

My generation is on track to be the most diverse and educated generation yet, and extremist political antics are not something that we take well, considering we are also an increasingly progressive generation that hasn’t clung onto the hateful tactics of Crews and company.

If we want a future for Louisiana, we need less people like Raymond Crews in power and the longer we wait the more other states will pass us up using talent generated at universities like LSU.

Crews is an ever-increasing embarrassment to Louisiana’s people and its promising youth.

Despite Crews’ antics, clearly a desperate bid for media attention, his Republican colleagues are no less despicable in their actions.

Raymond is simply the ringleader of the increasingly powerful and horrifically vocal fringe, and he must go.

Only then can Louisiana begin the path to prosperity.

Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication senior from Baton Rouge