“Normally, we just get coverage for natural disasters,” said Joseph Parker, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Good news, Mississippi! This is your week. On Tuesday, the state had the most dramatic election of this primary season, and we are all looking your way. Actually, we are fascinated to know exactly what you had in mind.
Voters dealt a stunning rebuke to their courtly Republican senator, Thad Cochran, who is famous for his ability to direct federal cash in Mississippi’s direction. Cochran, who’s been in office since 1978, failed to win the necessary 50 percent of the ballots cast. Now he’s headed for a messy runoff with a fiery state legislator who opened his campaign by announcing: “For too long we’ve been addicted to federal monies.”
In my state, not voting means we get the government we deserve. In Mississippi, it doesn’t matter if you vote or not. If you happen to be a minority, or align yourself to the left of the GOP gerrymander, your vote won’t undo the status quo. Nothing, short of a miraculous change in voting laws at the federal level, will unlock the gerrymander system. Nothing, short of a miraculous sea change in the political conviction of a majority of white voters there can change the radical conservatism in that state.
In my state, not voting means we get the government we deserve. In Mississippi, it doesn’t matter if you vote or not. If you happen to be a minority, or align yourself to the left of the GOP gerrymander, your vote won’t undo the status quo. Nothing, short of a miraculous change in voting laws at the federal level, will unlock the gerrymander system. Nothing, short of a miraculous sea change in the political conviction of a majority of white voters there can change the radical conservatism in that state.