JACKSON — “Nation should follow Mississippi's conservative example,” read the headline in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal for a guest column written by Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Frank Bourdeaux.
Extolling Gov. Tate Reeves and the Republican legislative leaders, the article highlights some good things happening in Mississippi. Just what you would expect from a political party leader.
Of course, he didn’t tell the whole story, ignoring bad things, those examples the nation would not want to follow.
This is my favorite hyperbole from the article: “While those in Democrat-run states and municipalities continue to face debilitating shutdowns and mandates, conservative-led states — including Mississippi — are rising to the occasion and producing real results for their citizens.”
Interestingly, data published by Wallet Hub shows Republican-led states far more dependent upon federal spending than Democrat-led states, with Mississippi the second-most dependent behind Alaska.
Also, while our state economy has grown, unemployment has dropped and new capital investment has surged, as Bourdeaux highlighted, average annual wages remain the lowest in the nation and grew at a rate 20% slower than the nation as a whole. That leaves Mississippi still with the highest poverty rate of all states with one in every five persons below the poverty line and one in every four on Medicaid. We also still have the nation’s lowest workforce participation rate.
No mention was made of our dismal overall health rankings, limited access to health care, terrible infant mortality rate and high number of uninsured persons. Nor was there any mention of our still hugely underfunded road and bridge programs, perennially low educational attainment level, or costly and structurally unsound public employees’ retirement system.
Then, there are those pesky federal investigations and court orders impacting our prisons, child support services, mental health care, welfare services and more that have popped up under conservative Republican leadership.
No doubt the positive things Bourdeaux mentioned will make some things better for some citizens. But, as The Greenwood Commonwealth opined, “things won’t get significantly better when the needs of workers on the bottom are ignored.” Likewise, Mississippi will never be an example for the nation to follow so long as the conservative Republican way is to ignore the serious, systemic problems that hold many Mississippians back.
Speaking of Republican leadership, entrepreneur and philanthropist Jim Barksdale called on Sen. Roger Wicker to step up and pass legislation to retain more foreign-born, American-university-educated professionals.
In another Daily Journal guest column, entitled “Congress can stop the STEM brain drain,” Barksdale said, “The STEM workforce is getting thinner in America at the same time Congress has limited the number of green cards and temporary visas for international graduates who would desire to remain in the U.S. long-term. America educated these graduates; why are we trying to export them?”
Hopefully, Sen. Wicker can heed Barksdale’s plea and get something positive done.
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. — Matthew 25:40
- Bill Crawford, of Jackson, is a Republican former state lawmaker.
