and Mississippi has finally ratified the 13th amendment! http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/18/mississippi-finally-officially-ratifies-amendment-banning-slavery/ Keep it classy Johnny Reb
interesting trivia: the current House in the MS legislature is the FIRST which has a Republican majority since reconstruction. And thus it's the first time the GOP has controlled House, senate, and governor all at once. so...um...draw your conclusions...
As with everything else, MS is slow when it comes to partisan politics at the local level. Those "Democrats" were the same type that controlled the South before Nixon. They really didn't have much to do with the DNC. Also, the voting on ratification was completed in 1995, so if you want to play Clyde's donkey-elephant game, it was the donkeys who ratified it. The 13 year delay seems due to bureaucratic ineptitude.
Dixiecrats! Mnnnnehhhhh! But then look at how they react to black conservatives. Nope. Still Dixiecrats.
Fine Print: They ratified it in 1995, but never sent it to the Federal Register until now. Kinda waters it down. :/
So it took them 130 years to ratify it, and another 18 years to find enough stamps in the back of a drawer somewhere in order to mail it. If anything, that emphasizes the nature of the problem...
Well, when you consider the fact that slavery only existed in the Southern US and only from the years 1861-1865, then I guess its only logical.
yes and no. The cultural voting habits that kept the Dems in power were those built up in the pre-civil rights era...BUT a Black Republican politician in MS is basically unheard of (and gets miniscule portions of the vote when nominated) and a Democrat who scorns the black vote is a Democrat who's out of office quick. Further, those Democrats who did get elected post-Reagan especially, did a LOT of posturing in ways that would have been Republican on the national stage (for instance, Travis Childers, who succeeded Roger Wicker in our district briefly after the Republicans nominated a complete disaster of a candidate, was indistinguishable politically from a Republican except in those few places where the party leadership demanded he get in line) The reason it took so long for things to change in Jackson is really simple - ALL the local offices in rural areas are by default Democratic. if you try to run as a Republican or Independent for Sheriff or Supervisor you're usually doomed before you start. Which means all those vboters vote in the democrat primary which means the candidate for legislature, no matter his views, is more likely to run as a Democrat. It has taken over 30 years for that pattern to erode. My conclusion? this sort of thing is symbolic posturing that really serves no necessary purpose.
