The Ten Commandments must be displayed in all public Louisiana classrooms under requirement signed into law

Lots of things. Some of the people involved in this might have even thought it all the way through. Some are just fanatics who haven't, but who will still benefit from all of this even though they're abjectly unintelligent. Others have weighed it though, and are happy to see the law signed.

What do they get?

• For now, just as many of them want, they get to enjoy having the 10C displayed.

• They get to enjoy the lauding they'll receive from their base for having pushed this requirement through.

• They get to enjoy the targeting they'll receive from opponents. They're basically requiring those who aren't in their base to out themselves (by objecting). This enables them to in return target those opponents (especially political opponents such as opposing legislators or candidates) and whip their base to attack those individuals or groups.

• They get to distract and obfuscate their opposition. There's only so many topics and targets that can fill up the political spectrum. The people, social media, actual political operatives, anyone engaged on the political battlefields ... they only have so much bandwidth. There's only so much time in a day, so much money to pour into ads and protests and lawsuits and organizations and so on. Moves like the 10C in classrooms throws one more piece of chaff up to distract and diffuse opposition.

• It doesn't cost them anything personally. Their campaigns, their donors, their side of the political aisle, doesn't have to invest their own funds into opposing it. Lawsuits cost money. Since this 10C move is a state thing, state funds will defend it in court and throughout the appeals process. It's literally free political capital for them, which worsens the chaff aspect for the opposition.

• It takes time for even a successful opposition campaign to take place. It could easily be a decade for this to work through the courts, because courts have no interest in moving in a timely fashion. There could be lots of reasons for this, and it's technically a separate discussion, but the bottom line is overturning this will take years. All while the 10C are prominently displayed in the classrooms.

• During that time, even if it does get overturned, they get to enjoy knowing they're pushing the 10C in the face of a generation. Literally. A decade long court case is basically the entire school career of some kid who's in first grade come this fall. That kid could be a senior, or even have graduated, by the time the courts eventually decide to stop fucking around and agree it's a violation of church/state separation.

• And finally, the horse might talk. They might get the ruling they want, and the courts could allow them to continue to display the 10C in the classrooms. Which just doubles down on basically every single one of the other favorable points above for them.

Again, not everyone involved in this process was clever enough to realize or recognize all or even most of this. Some of them are just a face, someone who knows how to shake hands and charm donors at Party Mixers. Or they might merely be a greedy opportunist, and nod along with whatever so long as they get votes and bribes non-stop.

There are some politicians who stood up for this thinking nothing more than "I'm a God Fearing Right Wing Christian Nationalist in good standing and this is my sworn duty. To push back against the foul atheists and heathen unbelievers however I can. That's why I'm behind this law, which simply displays the Ten Commandments to every schoolchild so they can grow up appreciating them."

There are legislators who voted for this, donors who nodded favorably for it, political staffers who helped move it through the process, who are nothing more than a Yes person. Who genuinely are unintelligent enough to think about it beyond "My God Good, My God should be Your God, This Makes That More Likely."

Fanatics, in so many words. Someone who's drunk the Kool-aid.

But the political operatives, the sharks, the backroom wizards and cigar smoking calculating experts ... they've figured all those key points out and more. And not casually. They likely dialed down enough to have good estimates of how long the courts might take foot dragging, how much it'll cost, how many news cycles they'll get to enjoy seeing consumed by this law each week, each month. And so on.

Remember: regardless of whether you agree or disagree with this 10C thing, it's ultimately a social issue. A distraction from the actual business of the country. Or the state in this case.

It's like abortion, or gender, or sexuality. It keeps the focus off things like wage or housing inequality, off lack of healthcare, off poverty and hunger, off rebalancing the tax-code or implementing wealth taxes. It ties up the media, political opponents, and the public at large in arguing about this instead of something that's far more likely to make a concrete difference in ordinary citizens' lives.

Every news cycle spent arguing about social issues is one more that doesn't highlight how the poor continue to get poorer while the rich continue to get richer. It consumes chat rooms and social media threads and pulls focus from charity and celebrity statements.

For example, how many celebrities started talking up their positions (against or for) abortion after Roe v Wade was overturned? They perhaps could have used an interview or awards appearance or any moment of publicity to highlight hunger or lack of housing or flat wages or high inflation. Not that all would, but they could have.

Instead, most of them were consumed by "how dare they ban abortion." Just like social media was consumed by the same sentiment. Just like how a lot of non-Right people in Louisiana, and (hopefully if you are Right) some who aren't in that state, will be consumed and distracted by this 10C thing.

Bitching about Louisiana requiring the 10C to be in classrooms means less focus going onto issues that would impact wealth and how wealth moves. Makes it less likely anything of meaningful consequence will change that while people are hot and bothered and pouring time and resources into overturning the 10C law.

And, regardless of how that works out, the fanatics will just tee up several more issues that are basically the same thing dressed up differently. Some social issue the Right's base wants, that will either annoy or enrage Centralists, that will enrage Leftists ... and keep them from dialing down on something like wealth inequality or lack of healthcare access.

They'll have the time. Everyone's distracted with the last handful of social issues, so there's no real rush in packaging up a few more to be on deck whenever one of the old ones is finally seen off.

So the rich keep getting richer. Which is exactly what they want from their bought and paid for politicians. To not rock the boat so the flow of money continues to fill wealthy ponds. Who has time to care about how thirsty poor people are since the river of wealth never streams past them so they can sip some? We have to beat back this 10C thing, and guarantee non-gendered bathrooms, and stop them from banning library books, and roll back their abortion bans, and ...., and ...., and ...

It's not about not caring about a social issue. It's about figuring out ways to not play the game your opponent wants you to play. If they pick the game, do you think they pick a game where a loss hurts them? A game where they don't know how to play, or have to play at a disadvantage?

And it's about understanding what issues could make other issues less dangerous. Banning abortion, for example, even in cases where it's medically necessary to safeguard the mother's life, is absolutely terrible. Evil.

But if most people in the country weren't too poor to travel to a less regressive state to seek needed medical care, the abortion bans would be less dire. Right now, with so many people living paycheck to paycheck, one minor incident away from their lives exploding into a major disaster, the abortion bans are crippling. If most women knew that, if the worst happened, they could simply take a round trip plane ride to a modern state and receive the medical care they need ... the abortion thing wouldn't literally be life or death.

It'd just be the fanatics being evil dickheads.

But with so many people crushed so far down on the wealth scales that they couldn't reasonably afford to take steps to lessen the impacts of things the Right Fanatics are implementing, these asshole moves skew more to a critical side than they would otherwise.

It robs Peter and Paul to ensure neither of them can affect Judas' riches. Just Win Baby.