Mississippi- Stuck On Stupid...And Built To Stay That Way

When you make Texas look like a titan of intellectual rigor, you have to know you're in BIG trouble

Idiots are of two kinds: those who try to be smart and those who think they are smart.

• Raheel Farooq

Mississippi is one of the few states I’ve never been to, so I’ll admit to flying blind in my commentary here. That said, I did live in Texas for a hair over a decade, and the Lone Star State’s (unofficial) motto is “Thank God for Mississippi.” So, using Texas as a ruler, imagining Mississippi as significantly worse is…disturbing.

And yet, there it is. While (White) Mississippi’s Republican politicians have little interest in actually fixing things that might make life better for its Black residents, they also want to keep poor Whites scared and stupid. Sound familiar?

You might've noticed that we're living through a gun violence nightmare in America, and it's the kind where you want to move but you're paralyzed. That's just the NRA holding you down. There's literally been a mass shooting every day this year. However, Republican politicians still act as if guns are just the coolest things ever.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is running for re-election next year, and he declared his candidacy with a video where he does nothing but shoot people, like the unhinged person who shows up at a bank, hospital, or your child's school.

The Team Tate Twitter account declares, "We're back!" but that's not entirely true: The video actually features Reeves's stupid round face slapped on Clint Eastwood's body from the 1960s spaghetti westerns Eastwood made with director Sergio Leone (known as the Dollars movie trilogy).

Take a look. It's simultaneously stupid and scary.

Yeah, it’s every bit as stupid as it is scary, but hey, welcome to the Magnolia Dumbass State, eh??

This isn’t a race where a Republican incumbent and Democratic challenger are going to spend the campaign civilly debating opposing ideas. No, this is going to be a campaign where Gov. Tate Reeves concentrates on keeping his base both terrified AND stupid…because that’s what got him elected in the first place.

And civility is for losers and Liberals, anyway.

You can't dismiss the video as goofy fun, a simple "metaphor" for an elected leader who stands up against bad actors (who are all brown). During a campaign rally last week, Reeves cemented the divisive rhetoric. This isn't a political race where opposing viewpoints are debated, and voters make an informed decision about who best to lead them. No, Reeves, like most Republicans today, casts the election as an existential struggle against good and evil.

“My friends, this is a different governor’s campaign than we have ever seen before in our state because we are not up against a local-yokel Mississippi Democrat, we are up against a national liberal machine,” Reeves said Wednesday at his kickoff event in Gulfport. “They are extreme. They are radical and vicious. They believe welfare is success. They believe that taxes are good and businesses are bad. They think boys can be girls, that babies have no life, and that our state and our nation are racist.”

Almost none of that is true. He can't directly challenge his Democratic opponent Brandon Presley, who's perfectly normal and Elvis's cousin, so he whips up his supporters in a frenzy over some diabolical liberal cabal that kills babies.

Yes, in no time at all, Reeves will be accusing Democrats of pushing for no-fault abortions up to the moment of birth. Never mind that at no time have Democrats EVER advocated for that. Nonetheless, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) insists it’s a plank in the Democratic platform (it’s not, but who needs the truth when innuendo will do?), so Reeves should be on board soon.

As for calling Democrats extreme, radical, and vicious, it seems as if someone’s been reading Josef Goebbels a wee bit too much. He’s accusing his opposition of wanting to do the very thing Mississippi Republicans have already been doing.

It’s called “deflection,” Governor.

“They think they can teach all of us Mississippians a lesson,” Reeves went on, perhaps inspired by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's "craven bully's idea of a tough guy" speaking style. “They do not like who we are and they do not like what we believe. They look at all we have accomplished as conservatives and they hate it. They see our progress on education and the economy and they want to stop it. You see, a successful, thriving, growing Mississippi does not work for them, not if it is also a God-fearing, family loving and truth-believing, hard-working conservative Mississippi … They want Mississippi to be the butt of their jokes … They want to kick Mississippi around, and you and me are simply in their way.”

Mississippi is ranked at the absolute bottom for education and health. It's at 49 out of 50 for its economy and quality of life, so maybe that's Reeves's idea of "progress." Or he's just a liar who's not-so-subtly suggesting that fancy-pants liberals and brown people in general are "out to get" decent (white) Mississippians.

Of course, “progress” is a relative term when you’re at the bottom and looking up at the rest of the country. When compared to other states, Mississippi might as well be a Third World country (if you get out of the cities and into the countryside, much of it is).

Mississippi is a state that might work well for already-wealthy White Conservative Christian heterosexual patriots, but not many of the benefits trickle down to the rest of the population. And yes, Tate IS “just a liar who's not-so-subtly suggesting that fancy-pants liberals and brown people in general are "out to get" decent (white) Mississippians.” Because he has nothing else to offer Mississippians.

Sadly, his not-so-subtle lies undoubtedly work among White Conservative Christian heterosexual Mississippians.

Reeves is only 48 but he stands on the shoulders of giant racists. They didn't have any solutions for average Mississippians, but they vowed to defend (white) Mississippians' way of life against "them." Republicans like Reeves still tell their supporters, "You might not have a pot to piss in, but I'll stand up agains those elitists who are laughing at you."

Sad to say, this probably still works.

Reeves is all about protecting the interest of good, God-fearing, White Conservative Christian heterosexuals, because that’s what’s got him elected. It’s also what’s going to get him re-elected. Keeping them scared and stupid is the best (and only) way he knows to do that…because it’s not as if he has an unbroken record of successes to run on. Mississippi still sits at the bottom of too many measurements of social progress.

Success? Well, when you’re 49th out of 50, does “success” lie in not being 50th?

And, yes, racism is the basis of Reeve’s lack of concern for the Black population of Mississippi. Neither he nor his White Conservative base wants their tax dollars going to improve the lives of Black Mississippians. They’re quite happy with a two-tiered social system in which many Blacks live in what’s effectively a Third World country.

Sure, the Stars and Bars may have been removed from the state flag, but the attitudes behind the Stars and Bars remain strong and unlikely to change. Many of the achievements of the Civil Rights Era haven’t yet trickled down to poor Black hamlets in rural Mississippi. And if Gov. Reeves wins re-election, that’s not going to change under his watch.

The reality is that the odds of a Democrat winning the Governor’s race in Mississippi hovers somewhere between slim and none. If there’s one thing Mississippi’s Republicans do well, it’s keeping under-educated, Fox News-addicted White Conservative Christian heterosexuals scared and stupid…and Blacks from the polls altogether.

Gov. Reeves’ campaign commercials notwithstanding, he could campaign wearing a loincloth and still win handily. Then again, no one needs to see Tate Reeves in a loincloth.

OMG…just the thought of that is enough to send me running for the eye bleach….