Today is mid-term election day in America. We will know the results soon enough for some, and not soon enough for others, depending on how we feel about the accuracy of the vote or only counting the ones that vote like we do. This morning I went to my regular polling place and was greeted by the regular faces. There was no one there with an AK-47 and riot gear to ensure that there is no massive voter fraud or that I don’t do something crazy like give a voter a bottle of water. There was no one in the parking lot writing down tag numbers or filming my activities in the name of freedom. There really wasn’t much to vote for in our part of the world. Of the ten candidates I voted for, only one even had an opponent, and that particular election was only an exercise in democracy because the winner was a foregone conclusion. Running on the Democratic ticket in th//ese parts may mean a guaranteed trip to the general election, but it also means an almost guaranteed trip to the losers’ bracket.
Voters in this part of the world are nothing if not loyal, regardless of what the candidates say, do, or plan to do once they are chosen by the party to be the anointed ones. The party will tell the candidates what to say, the voters will vote for those people without questioning anything, and nothing will look any different on the next day. Why? Because the same people have been in control of everything in Mississippi for so long, we can’t imagine that there is an alternative. We don’t even think logically about it anymore. We just keep allowing politicians to come up with problems created by the “other side” that don’t exist because the “other side” has not been in power to make any laws during most of our voting lifetimes. We are literally as mad as we can be at politicians who had absolutely no influence over the state of affairs we are in. It sounds silly when you say it out loud, so let’s just not talk about it.
This is an opinion column, but one thing you can bet on is that if I bring you an idea, it will be well-vetted by more than a Facebook meme or a sound bite. Let’s take a look at what you’ve been told to believe compared to the truth. If we go by statistics, you likely believe that crime is a major issue and it’s all the fault of liberal Democrats who love criminals and hate babies. It’s easy enough to see why you would think that. It’s all you hear about on your news channel. Chances are, you would assume that the murder rate is skyrocketing in New York, Illinois, and California. It seems that way if you watch the news and listen to politicians. I bet that you didn’t know that those three states are not even in the top ten murder rates. I bet you didn’t know that eight out of ten of the highest murder rates were in states that overwhelmingly vote red in every election. I bet you didn’t know that the state with the highest murder rate in America is Mississippi, followed immediately by Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee, none of which are controlled by Democrats. Mississippi’s murder rate is nearly 400% higher than New York’s, more than 250% higher than California’s, and about 120% higher than Illinois’s. Regardless of the actual truth, every one of the “Make America Great Again” states will vote to make America great again, again. And, as I said earlier, nothing will change, again, just like it didn’t last time.
As a staunch Independent, I don’t pull for either side, I pull for what’s best for the people as a whole, based on the actual truth. Neither of these concepts seems to matter at all to either major political party or their loyal supporters. All they care about is remaining in power and keeping you scared to death of their opponents.
Healthcare, social security, education, and other quality of life issues have become secondary to the real threat: the illegal immigrant that’s coming to slaughter you in your bed and steal your overpriced Thanksgiving turkey on his way to vote in your name. Women in the Mississippi Delta are giving birth on the side of the road trying to get to a hospital that hasn’t been closed, but at least they aren’t getting free healthcare on the side of the road, right?
Mississippi needs to take a serious look at what we are getting for our unwavering loyalty to those we blindly choose over and over again. We think that somehow things are going to be different this time. Freud said that this behavior is the definition of insanity, and he was right. It is like the old Alcoholics Anonymous analogy of the man who beats himself in the head with a hammer every day and can’t figure out why he keeps waking up with a headache. If we would just put down the hammer, we could wake up to something different than the headache of perpetual last place. But we won’t. Because in Mississippi, we love our hammers.