Exactly what it is that makes Mississippi this nation’s armpit, Numero 50 baby!
It started with a group of de-slaved nabobs in the Delta determined to hold on to their morally bankrupt pre-civil war way of life, where tactics like political disenfranchisement (as in the rest of the State) were excellent ingredients for keeping the populace under educated and in poverty. Throw in a proclivity for electing every government position down to dog catcher and not only do we march to the beat of a different drummer here we’re marching down the middle of the drainage ditch instead of the parade route. Mississippi does lead the nation in the export of human capital.
So as the only state that elects our transportation commissioners shouldn’t we expect the double self dealing along with the senseless squander of taxpayer dollars? Good job Brownie! In keeping with the recently musically based slabbed theme I’m moved to song. This one is dedicated to Butch Brown: (The rest of you keep shaking your heads thanking God we’re here tending to last place.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idDOW8JeR04]
All of the Southern States, but particularly the smaller ones have had this problem. Some of the issues go back to the time before emancipation. West Virginia being so willing to secede from VA when they had a chance, and the very shaky alliance small white farmers and emancipated slaves in North Carolina in the late 1890s speak to a class based hostility that has been a subtext of Southern culture for a long time.
IMO Mississippi’s close proximity to LA is what makes it exceptional. It’s that little bit of extra Cajun spices.
Remember Russell we’re an exporter of human capital. BB “Sixty” Rayburn is a Mississippi guy who moved over the line as a young man. He once told me a great story from his childhood about how many head of cattle it took to garner a parden out of Gov Theodore Bilbo.
In the end I think the difference is in Mississippi the state and local pols tend to spread the money around a bit more. That is unless you are a Highway commish.
sop