Elections tend to bring out the worst in Ms. Ladd as she writes in the British Guardian newspaper what she really thinks of Mississippi:
As I sat in my office at the Jackson Free Press on Tuesday – Mississippi's primary day – I looked out into the newsroom, where the vast majority of our staff members and nine summer interns are under 30 (and most are Mississippi natives). Some attend or have attended historically black colleges and universities, others Mississippi State and Ole Miss; the youngest ones go to either a private, majority-white academy or a public, majority-black Jackson high school.
To a person, they are driven, passionate, talented and willing to work hard to bring progress to Mississippi and its citizens. But I don't think a single one of them gave a damn about what happened in that much-discussed US Senate primary, in which Senator Thad Cochran and the Tea Party upstart Chris McDaniel appeared headed to a run-off.
I really didn't give a damn, either.
The problem with this year's primary is the same one that progressive Mississippians – and a modern wave of progressive Southerners – face nearly every time we go to vote, especially in congressional and statewide elections: there is no one we want to vote for, no one who excites us, and certainly not a single candidate who inspires us.
In fact, most every candidate on the ballot is either an establishment conservative (a Republican like Cochran), a far-right conservative (a Republican like McDaniel) or a politician who plays a conservative on TV and, all too often, in office (a Democrat).
We're told to, wink-wink, vote Democratic today because a Democrat like the pro-NRA, anti-abortion Travis Childers (on the off-chance that he wins after his primary victory Tuesday) will help hold the Senate majority – and maybe-just-maybe he will act more progressive once he's a senator and doesn't have to run all the time....
Or, we're urged to vote for Cochran because at least he's not as bat-shit crazy as McDaniel (which is true).
I, for one, am tired of holding my nose to vote for a pretend-Republican who may or may not serve my interests and work to preserve my rights – especially when the poseurs keep losing to actual Republicans anyway ... and maybe now the Tea Party. But Democratic reticence to even acknowledge the existence of an increasingly progressive electorate with even a moderate candidate is an insult to progress-minded Mississippians.
It's those Mississippi Democrats who frustrate me the most – not to mention the national Democrats who treat our state like flyover country, with nary a thought about putting any real money or faith into progressive candidates here.
So we get Democratic gubernatorial candidates who try to out-pray and out-gay-bash Republicans on the campaign trial – and lose. We get state lawmakers who play procedural games to try and trick Republicans into voting down abortion bills (but who mostly won't say out loud anything about the rights of women to manage their own health decisions). And our only current statewide elected Democrat, Attorney General Jim Hood, runs so "tough on crime" that he will never dare to question the death penalty – even in cases such as that of Michelle Byrom, in which judicial and prosecutorial actions eventually got her conviction overturned by the majority-GOP Mississippi supreme court.
Democrats: the deep south deserves better candidates than you're willing to give us. And, even more vitally, all the young (and some older) people who have started to stay here in Mississippi – to fight for choice, to defeat the "personhood" amendment (yeah, we did that), to speak out against racism, to put stickers on their businesses supporting LGBT friends and family members, and to face boycotts as a result – all of them deserve candidates who aren't dumb, dumber, or just pretending to be.
And younger Mississippians are different – just as they are across America. Back in 2004, exit polls showed that under-30 voters in Mississippi led the South (including over Florida and Georgia) in terms of the percentage who voted for John Kerry over George W Bush (and that was Kerry). Obviously, the trends have continued, as has the movement for young people to stay here rather than flee.
But Southern politics are stuck in an age-old cycle. Our politicos seem to still believe that the only people who vote in our state are white wingnuts and religious zealots who spread hate rather than love of their neighbors. So everyone – from Cochran to McDaniel to the "Democrat" Childers – panders to those voters. It's the same people fighting for the same pool of voters, with at least one foot stuck firmly in a dark past.
Meantime, Democrats keep losing here, and Mississippians stay poor with fewer health-care options – and those we do elect, such as Gov Phil Bryant, continue to make us look like a bunch of greedy bigots.
But here's the thing: we're not. I have a front-row seat to what is really happening in Mississippi, and we've helped nurture smart, loving progress through this newspaper for more than a decade. From my desk, I look down on City Hall, where – while people chose between Kang and Kodos at the ballot box – the Jackson City Council passed the state's eighth municipal equality resolution, which pointedly including the rights of LGBT citizens.
Oh, and don't just write off "evangelicals" either – many of our progressives are people driven by their faith to pursue progress in the ways that matter to our state. Recently, we published a special issue on gay activism in the state in which many businesses bought ads to tell LGBT customers "We Don't Discriminate: If You're Buying, We're Selling" – just as they do with stickers in their windows. The man who started the now-national campaign is a local conservative Christian, Mitchell Moore, whose faith does not allow him to hate on gay and lesbian people.
It's time for Mississippi and the South as a whole to stop playing small and instead demand political candidates that don't limit our potential, don't assume that we're all bigots or homophobes, and who allow us to show the world what is really happening here.
It's also time for politicians to stop treating us as if we haven't changed. Many of us have.
Now, they need to.Rest of essay
Read the comments. They are interesting. Whats funny is Ms. Ladd likes to call me a misogynist and this blog a hate site. This story makes it clear who hates everyone in Jackson.
By the way, Ms. Ladd likes to claim she is a promoter of social justice. When the Hinds County Board of Supervisors tried to avoid holding a primary last year, where was she? Did she say one word about Graham, Hunter, and Stokes trying to deprive citizens in Districts 2 and 4 of their right to vote? When the Board appointed two black replacements giving the board an all-black composition in a county that is 30% white, did she say a word? Just a few simple questions as I must have missed the outrage in her publication.
Watch out for Madame DeFarge's. One can never be pure enough in his ideology for them.
34 comments:
If you choose to live in Mississippi, you put up with the politics. It's like the humidity.
"The Democrats" do not "give" us candidates. Is Ms. Ladd actively involved in the state Democratic party? If so, let her tell us about it. If not, then ....
Didn't bother to read all of her ramblings, but unfortunately for Ladd she lives in a conservative state. A person who ran on the Ladd platform would get killed, and would not get any money.
It's no different than a Republican in California. I'm sure they would be more moderate or liberal than I am, but I'd be smart enough to understand the state.
Especially when your idea of a perfect candidate is a known Marxist and neo-Confederate such as Chokwe Lumumba, Junior or Senior.
Ladd is a nut who has thrown in her lot with racists like Lumumba.
But that doesn't change the fact that a lot of twenty- and thirty-somethings (including Republicans like me) are alienated by this anti-gay nonsense. The future of the GOP in this state is people who don't want to pass on massive debt to their kids, but also don't really care if two guys have a weeding ceremony at the Ag Museum.
"A person who ran on the Ladd platform would get killed, and would not get any money."
Now you've done it. She is going to accuse you of making violent threats. Because she's crazy like that.
She has a point. If AAs would actually VOTE, 20% of the white vote would win statewide every time.
Ladd needn't worry for long. Our public education system is pumping out more liberals each year. It shouldn't take too many more generations for her utopia to become a reality.
Clearly, there are extremists on both sides of the political spectrum. In Mississippi we seem to have more than our fair share of these folks who share a common philosophy that the 'end justifies the means' ---from the TP nuts like the folks involved the the nursing home and court house break-in scandals to Ms Ladd.
There needs to be more opportunity for honest debate, more accountability, and less finger-pointing. Our forefathers created a democracy, with clear separation between church and state, and freedom for our citizens to reach informed conclusions---not a country where churches have lobbyists and media rags have people like Ms Ladd, framing 'their truths' in such a way that folks with a differing opinion are attacked or demonized.
Amazing to watch the leftist and TP folks using exactly the same intimidation tactics and inspiring folks to fight- hate-discriminate against others that do not agree with them.
"social justice" is a contrived misnomer. akin to affirmative action. their sole component is based upon the notion that 2 or more wrongs make things right.
It's not about equality, it's about balancing a subjective metric of equality by artificially creating an imbalance to off-set a perceived imbalance.
the idea of being fair and equal opportunity is replaced with ends justifies the means and equal outcome.
the reason why progressives, such as ms ladd, do not find candidates they like, is because it's impossible. you can't fabricate a progressive that will appeal to everyone, by the very nature of populism. until you can brainwash everyone to think the same way, like the same ice cream, drive the same car, etc.... populism will always ebb and tide... hence why progressives will always trying to find someone more progressive.
Ms. Ladd, look at our history since the 1900s. Since Senators became directly elected, the structure of the Republic has steadily move further away from being of the People and for the People, to a popularity contest won by the ones that raise the most money.
Progressivism has eroded the American Dream, well intentioned or not. government can't change human nature and progressives' notion that some people are better gods over others, therefore should enforce their ideology onto others through the government has killed liberty
I for one am glad she got published in an international publication. It gives the whole world a chance to comment on her work in a forum that she can't moderate or control. Reading the comments are better than reading the article.
Posting here a great comment from the many comments @ the link:
BoredCynic -- "I don't give a damn and that is why I wrote an entire article about me not giving a damn.
Did I mention that I don't give a damn? Please read my article so that you know why I don't give a damn."
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Donna's "I'm-an-expert-about-Mississippi-and-a-2004-exit-poll-proves-it" column. Then DonnerKay emphatically states "Obviously, the trends have continued."
If you're keeping score that is a foul out to the first baseman and the 13,742nd puff she's taken from the same cigarette. You've come a long way baby!
Pretty racist. Assumes all blacks think and vote alike.
with clear separation between church and state
Show us where our founding documents make that "clear separation".
If I were her, I would give a damn.
If CM wins this thing, and we get 30 years of this guy in Washington, the black community in Mississippi will build a statue to Thad Cochran for how much they got from the man prior to 2014.
As Chairman of Appropriations and Agriculture, how many BILLIONS of food stamp money have come to Mississippi in the past 40 years that wouldnt have with someone like CM in office.
Personally, I don't really give a damn myself. But why the blacks of Mississippi dont simply defies explanation.
Holy Shit. June 5, 2014 at 12:41 PM must be the President of All Citizens for Mississippi.
One of the highlights of my day is to hear or read the delusional ramblings of a libtard. Gods little prank was to create these special needs people to make everyone else feel better about themselves.
She should run for office, then she would have somebody wonderful to vote for.
I like to remind Donna the Benevent that MS was run by democrats until 3 years ago.
Muskrat, Winter and the gang are the ones who led us to poverty and kept us there.
Poor girl. She's been scribbling away for over a decade now, and all she's done is polarize and drive people away. When it comes to reasons why the Mississippi Democratic Party can't field decent candidates anymore, the JFP might just be Exhibit "A."
Just kidding. The JFP is as irrelevant as tits on a boar hog.
I love this comment from a Guardian reader:
Perhaps is the reason your progressive movement is not gaining more traction in Mississippi has to do with your transparent contempt for your fellow citizens. In this short piece you describe the residents of your state as "bat-shit crazy," "dumb," "dumber," "bigots" and "homophobes," to say nothing of your insinuations of racism and gay-bashing. Civil discourse this is not. If you remain completely unwilling even to try to understand the good-faith beliefs of the conservative majority in your state, you will likely not make much headway in persuading them. You might try smiling once in a while too. (I am guessing here.)
She can't moderate the comments.
Don't you know that's driving her even crazier.
There's more comments under the Guardian article than all the comments at the JFP since May 10th. Sho-nuff.
Wing Nuts on the far right and Moon bats on the far left. Neither side understands they are both Bat Shit Crazy.
Dear Donna:
you can be part of the problem, or part of the solution..your rantings are not the solution.
Thank you 5:00. They will never admit that you must get 51% of the 60% in the middle. Phucking eternal fools. Purity does not work. Duh.
Aren't black Mississippians more conservative on abortion and gay rights than white Mississippians? I want to say I read that poling somewhere.
If so, then Childers seems like the right kind of candidate (excepting the fact that he's white).
The Democrats have five times more factions than the Republicans do. We used to put 16 people at the head table at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner to make sure every base constituency was represented. Everybody that went through the unification of the regulars and the Freedom Democrats understood the fragility of the coalition that held together in state races until Mabus blew it up by applying a purity test - measured by who gave him money - and sent the rest of the old God and country populist Democrats to the other side. In fact, what used to be the Wallace Democrats and became the Reagan Democrats are now a lot of the Tea Party Republicans.
Donner must have read your comment 4:28.
Narcissist Donna: I don't identify with any political party (don't even really like the concept), so perhaps it's easy for me to take this stand in an international newspaper. But the response has been overwhelmingly positive, especially from southerners; my Twitter feed and Facebook post on it are filled with cheers. It's as if everyone wanted to say this, but didn't quite know how to say it out loud. But I said it. Read more here, post under The Guardian piece if you want (many great comments of various positions), and then come on back and talk about it here on southern soil.
9:21 had a insider angle. You schooled me. Mabus and Barbour might have destroyed both of the state parties here.
If she doesn't like it here why doesn't she run to get the opportunity to change it, or move to Detroit or Chicago? Why doesn't mississippi help her out and have an open primary so the democrats really wouldn't have a chance? A vote culminates the ideals of the majority. Right the republicans or the more conservative democrats have the majority. You've got to change the voting class and actually have those willing to vote and take action. It's like they want to be given a hand out to get ahead; i.e. Wanting to block voter id and social justice.
Didn't Donner say that Detroit didn't have an alternative like the JFP? Move to Detroit Donna. Your echo chamber would be so much bigger there.
Please refrain from talking about Donna like that. Don't you know:
She's from Neshoba County.
She went to Columbia.
Although the civil rights era was over, she pretends she marched with MLK.
She lived in NYC.
She cried when Dick Molpus cried.
She mentors young progressives who cling to her every word of her imaginary civil rights struggle.
She never had a racist thought.
What a Mississippi treasure.
THIS is what's wrong with Mississippi, ignorance at the top!
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2014/04/30/cnns-tapper-spotlights-democratic-rep-thompsons-uncle-tom-blast-clare
Post a Comment