OT: Mississippi population

[Will James]

Do you think Ross Barnett would be a Democrat today? You might want to google "Southern Strategy" if you are are wondering where the lineage of the old MS Democrat Party is now.



The point is, the "old Democrats" are still running the show, they just wear a different jersey now.

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

That is such an outrageous slander but because the targets are mostly white it is allowed to happen. "Oh you Repubs are the racists now". Libel and Slander.

Ross Barnett wouldn't be elected today because the Democrats have thankfully moved away from those policies. He most certainly wouldn't be a Republican.

Also, the Southern Strategy is another myth that you uneducated, repeat talking points losers point to. Nixon and Reagan had LANDSLIDE strategies, the South dutifully went back to the Dems and Clinton until 2000 when those issues were long gone. But keep spreading the big lie.

 

[dorndawg]

Yeah boy, the South (especially Deep South) just loved Clinton. Some of you people don't have enough sense to walk and fart at the same time.

1996 electoral map:

 

[johnson86-1]

I don't think it's a democrat/GOP issue. Our GOP congress just had one of the most controversial sessions in our states history while basically accomplishing nothing of real substance. The biggest problem, to me, lies in the fact that no one seems to want to focus on changing the image of our state (whatever that may take) to lure good businesses to want to set up shop here. Good business demand a good work force. A good work force demands good compensation, which means a lot in generating a stronger local economy (also increased tax revenues so small Towns don't have to starve local businesses to fix roads and schools). That also brings higher-caliber students into our education systems, which can do wonders to our education system.

It all starts with jobs. Jobs jobs jobs. Give people a reason to move here and spend their money here and send their kids to our schools. That goes well beyond a democrat/republican issue, to me. It's a competence issue.

Basically no companies set up somewhere because of image. Mississippi's image doesn't hurt it nearly as much as the fact that new employers have to wonder whether they will be able to find enough workers that can pass a drug test and show up to work on time to staff their company.

 

[dudehead]

That is such an outrageous slander but because the targets are mostly white it is allowed to happen. "Oh you Repubs are the racists now". Libel and Slander.

Ross Barnett wouldn't be elected today because the Democrats have thankfully moved away from those policies. He most certainly wouldn't be a Republican.

Also, the Southern Strategy is another myth that you uneducated, repeat talking points losers point to. Nixon and Reagan had LANDSLIDE strategies, the South dutifully went back to the Dems and Clinton until 2000 when those issues were long gone. But keep spreading the big lie.

Be careful with your obvious power to deny and rationalize; that could be deadly in other aspects of life. Good day.

 

[HardyStreetAlumniClub]

You think Mississippi has problems? hah. Some of you just simply don't know how good you have it.

I've lived in 6 other states and every one of them has monumental problems. Sure, there are many blighted and less desirable places to live in Mississippi but I'll take "our problems" over most of the places I've lived in the past. My dollar goes farther here than it does in any other state I've lived in. By the way, Ohio ******* sucks. I guess Mississippi is what you make of it, but I'm pretty damn happy here.

My golf game is terrible but I still only paid $50 to play on a very nice course this weekend.

But I guess we get a bad rep. over the birthday cake law. Sorry we offended everybody.

 

[Hump4Hoops]

I can't fully believe that even YOU believe all of that garbage.

Ross Barnett ran on a platform of segregation, fought against civil rights, was the son of a civil war vet, and was a preacher himself. If he were alive today he'd be in cahoots with the most far-right of republicans, likely tea party.

 

[Hump4Hoops]

That's not really a complement.

My dollar goes farther here than it does in any other state I've lived in.

I mean, my dollar goes a hell of a lot farther in rural Mexico, but there's a reason.

 

[HardyStreetAlumniClub]

But I wasn't comparing it to rural-Mexico. I was comparing it to other places I have lived. And being that my dollar goes farther here, I don't understand how that could be a bad thing.

Look if you want to ***** and moan about Mississippi that's cool, but there are many people who are making a good living in this state who will defend it.

 

[johnson86-1]

Ross Barnett ran on a platform of segregation, fought against civil rights, was the son of a civil war vet, and was a preacher himself. If he were alive today he'd be in cahoots with the most far-right of republicans, likely tea party.

This is just ignorant. If you were going to play ridiculous hypotheticals, Ross Barnett would still be a democrat. He's just tamp don the racist stuff and probably even give lip service to civil rights, just like numerous democrats have done. It's not like Ross Barnett was a civil libertarian that just couldn't resist the voting with democrats because he liked the racism. He was a statist, new deal democrat who was also a segregationist. Just because democrats (thankfully) finally got around to driving racism from the public facing parts of the party doesn't mean he would suddenly not be a democrat, which is pretty obvious when you look at the hundreds and probably thousands of racist democrat politicians that stayed in the party even after they were no longer able to promote segregation openly.

 

[ronpolk]

You think Mississippi has problems? hah. Some of you just simply don't know how good you have it.

I've lived in 6 other states and every one of them has monumental problems. Sure, there are many blighted and less desirable places to live in Mississippi but I'll take "our problems" over most of the places I've lived in the past. My dollar goes farther here than it does in any other state I've lived in. By the way, Ohio ******* sucks. I guess Mississippi is what you make of it, but I'm pretty damn happy here.

My golf game is terrible but I still only paid $50 to play on a very nice course this weekend.

But I guess we get a bad rep. over the birthday cake law. Sorry we offended everybody.

There is a lot of truth to this. I've only lived in 2 states (Florida and MS). I've lived in Tampa, Fort Walton Beach, Starkville and Madison. There are certain parts of MS that I wouldn't live in such as the delta, anywhere near meridian, anywhere north of Madison but south of Oxford, just to name a few. However, I have a pretty good quality of life in Madison. I live in a great neighborhood for a great price comparable to what that would cost me in Tampa. Madison has great schools and I'm within driving distance to some nice places (Nola, Florida beaches). I enjoy it here. I do miss pro sports and some concerts that are in the Tampa area but I don't miss traffic and 50% of the population speaking Spanish.

Miss the beaches too!

 

[Hoover Dawg]

But I wasn't comparing it to rural-Mexico. I was comparing it to other places I have lived. And being that my dollar goes farther here, I don't understand how that could be a bad thing.

Look if you want to ***** and moan about Mississippi that's cool, but there are many people who are making a good living in this state who will defend it.

I will defend it too. Vehemently. I love Mississippi and want to live there eventually. I just want the population and economy to grow, and hopefully Mississippi State benefits from it. I don't think anyone here truly wants to tear down Mississippi, they just don't understand how to truly make it better. A lot probably don't even realize the population issue, which is why I created the thread.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

.....and I'm within driving distance to some nice places (Nola, Florida beaches).......

Great post but I want to highlight the above, as it illustrates another point. Most people in Mississippi do indeed go out of state for their entertainment, thus middle class dollars exiting at an alarming rate. Hardly anybody is bringing in dollars. Of course, I don't particularly have a good handle on the business climate.....there may be tons of money being pulled in corporately. I certainly hope that is the case.

 

[o_fredgarvin]

Wasn't the whole point of this discussion started by Sirmon not moving his family here? And the greater philosophical question, what does it take to make Starkville more attractive to people who have no connection to MS other than their job. I think most of us from Mississippi have great affection for it. But if we want to attract top notch talent, we have to make it more attractive, not brow-beat them as to why they should settle for what it is.

 

[lanceharbor7]

Author Greg Iles of Natchez had a great quote regarding Mississippi Politicians.

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2016/06/08/voters-overwhelmingly-elect-grennell-next-natchez-mayor/#

"We have had hard times in this town (Natchez) and this state. The Legislature has been digging a hole, burying us in the prejudice of the past, hanging out a sign that says 'Closed for Business.' In the Legislature, it's 1957, but on the Bluffs of Natchez it's 2016."

This was in regards to Natchez electing its third black mayor. I was born in Jackson, spent time in Columbus and most of my formative years in Natchez. When I moved in 1983 to Natchez, it's population was around 30,000. It's now less than 16,000. The entire manufacturing base is gone. I go back a lot, but it's just so depressing. The only people left either have family money/business (dwindling), are Doctors or Lawyers or are just getting by. I now live in Upstate, South Carolina which is absolutely booming and it's so amazing and refreshing to watch. Especially considering how SC was absolutely destroyed by NAFTA and it's entire textile industry destroyed. SC and Mississippi are very similar states, yet SC has found a way to reinvent itself as a manufacturing hub.

And back to another point Mr. Iles made regarding Amazon filming a series based on his latest trilogy of books, originally he thought there would be a good shot at having it filmed in Natchez and the surrounding area, which would be a huge boost to the local economy. Now that the religious freedom act was passed, he says the odds just went way in the favor of Georgia. Mississippi can't get out of its own damn way.

The other board has a couple of threads on Starkville and Columbus, and how to improve their plight. This got me thinking and I came across this article:

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...pulation-dictates-mississippi-power/85952168/

As you can probably infer, I do not live in MS, but I am from there. Sort of a pervasive problem with the state essentially losing population as compared to neighboring states. Most people may not think or care about this, but you should, if you care about MSU.

I don't, however, know how to rectify the problem, short of convincing Chinese companies to build a bunch of factories here. We got 50% of the state that wants to keep it the way it is so they personally can profit. Not enough eyes for the big picture. MS taxes are fairly high too.

First thing to do seems to be to improve the few urban areas that we do have. I also think this isn't a town problem, it's a state problem.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

The 'Sip is doomed, encourage your kids to do to college out of state. In 50 years the entire state will be Greenville. When the same populace that elected Chokwe Lumumba and Tony Yarber (a man who couldn't afford to pay his $90k mortgage) mayors of Jackson, and keeps electing the Stokes to various positions, starts influencing state-wide elections, it's going to get a lot uglier.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

The 'Sip is doomed, encourage your kids to do to college out of state. In 50 years the entire state will be Greenville. When the same populace that elected Chokwe Lumumba and Tony Yarber (a man who couldn't afford to pay his $90k mortgage) mayors of Jackson, and keeps electing the Stokes to various positions, starts influencing state-wide elections, it's going to get a lot uglier.

This will certainly happen if the population trends continue the way they are. White students are already a minority in statewide elementary schools. I am sure someone will call me racist but in MS the voting lines pretty much fall along racial lines.

 

[Palos verdes]

Mississippi should have just been left to nature.

 

[johnson86-1]

That would require an educated population. An educated population might get ideas of it's own, such as un-electing these idiots that presently govern us. A lowly educated population is easier to control. Our politicians don't want people who think well, just mindless robots who'll go out and perform what few jobs they manage to entice here.
it seems to me that our political leadership has an attitude of "we're just po' lil ol Mississippi and we'll be happy to take whatever you can give us at whatever cost we need to pay" Just look at the incentives we throw at some of these big business to get them here. Try suggesting a bond issue on educational funding or maybe road improvement and folks raise holy hell. Bond issues to lure big business - not a peep. Even though we taxpayers are the ones on the hook for paying these bonds off.

This is just crazy talk. Our elected officials aren't sitting in backrooms plotting ways to keep people uneducated. Our officials aren't that smart to begin with, but even if they were, it would still benefit them to have a more educated populace. Plenty of places with a relatively educated workforce are still completely unable to stamp out corruption in state and city gov't. California has an incredibly corrupt government but still has plenty of educated workers.

And the fat that we throw tons of money to businesses looking to relocate here is a sign that our leadership is extremely focused on economic development. I don't necessarily agree with the way they go about it, but I understand that offering incentives is something they know how to do that gets results. And if there was something similar that worked for education, you'd see bond bills soar through. But people don't want to dump even more money into schools that are dysfunctional when it's not a lack of money that makes them dysfunctional.

And how many states have you been to with better roads than Mississippi? We have pretty good coverage to being with from interstates, with I-55, I-20, I-59, I-10, and then we spend a good bit of state money on roads. It would be better if hwy 49 south of Jackson was restricted access, and it would be nice to have a restricted access east-west corridor in the northern part of the state (hwy 82? although I don't know what options there would be to connect to in Ark/AL), but overall our roads are in good shape as far as economic development goes. Is there a town you're thinking of that's prime for development that is hurt by a lack of access to four lane roads?

 

[sayit]

Remove the stars and bars from the official state flag

Tough to remove something that isn't there...there is no "Stars and bars" on the Mississippi flag.

 

[dorndawg]

What are they gonna do, make us somehow worse than 50th out of 50?

And, since I can only infer the "populace" you're inferring is black people, given the examples you cite - you do know they already get to vote & influence in state-wide elections, right? Hell, they're even voting for the President these days!

 

[thatsbaseball]

In 50 years the whole damn country is gonna look like Greenville. When the majority of the electorate is on entitlements, the borders are left open AND we have leadership (Rep and Dem) that NEVER puts America first.....it`s looking more and more to me like it`s over for this country as we know it and our spiral into being just another third world country is assured. The problem is there is really no other place to go that I know of.

 

[Will James]

This will certainly happen if the population trends continue the way they are. White students are already a minority in statewide elementary schools. I am sure someone will call me racist but in MS the voting lines pretty much fall along racial lines.

I think 89% of whites voted Romney and 96% of blacks for Obama.

Obviously shows white racism*

 

[Hoover Dawg]

In 50 years the whole damn country is gonna look like Greenville. When the majority of the electorate is on entitlements, the borders are left open AND we have leadership (Rep and Dem) that NEVER puts America first.....it`s looking more and more to me like it`s over for this country as we know it and our spiral into being just another third world country is assured. The problem is there is really no other place to go that I know of.

Haha, yes, if there is any good news, it's that it's happening everywhere. MURICA!!!!

 

[Hoover Dawg]

I think 89% of whites voted Romney and 96% of blacks for Obama.

Obviously shows white racism*

Jokes aside, no way that is true. Whites are 63% of the country. If they went 89% for Romney he would have won.

However, many people said that many Christians simply did not vote, due to Romney being a Mormon.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

What are they gonna do, make us somehow worse than 50th out of 50?

And, since I can only infer the "populace" you're inferring is black people, given the examples you cite - you do know they already get to vote & influence in state-wide elections, right? Hell, they're even voting for the President these days!

I think he meant, "winning" state-wide elections. Ie., when Bennie Thompson or similar equivalent is governor. You already know this but I suspect you're a trolling liberal.

 

[Will James]

Jokes aside, no way that is true. Whites are 63% of the country. If they went 89% for Romney he would have won.

However, many people said that many Christians simply did not vote, due to Romney being a Mormon.

Stats for Mississippi, not the country at-large since the whole damn topic is about.............. Mississippi

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I think he meant, "winning" state-wide elections. Ie., when Bennie Thompson or similar equivalent is governor. You already know this but I suspect you're a trolling liberal.

This could come a lot sooner than 50 years, easy to estimate birth rates and such, but much harder to anticipate the "brain drain" to places to such as Nashville. I believe the worse things get here, the faster we lose our best and brightest. I tell my kids not to plan on a future here, it's gonna get ugly when someone like Kennuf Stokes is elected governor.

 

[catvet]

I was raised in Mississippi and lived in Tennessee and Texas until I came home. Folks talk about problems, but unless you live here, why even mention change. I came back because it's home and those other states had deep seeded isdues just like we do. I graduated at Charleston High on the edge of the Delta. In 9th grade there were 212 students and I graduated with 98 others. In that short span we had over 50% drop out. These were kids that didn't care about an education and neither did their parents. That is the main issue in the state: poverty of education. I got an great education because I wanted it. Others saw no value in it and it doesn't matter how nice the schools and facilities are if you don't care. We spend right at 70% of the state's income on education, and it makes no difference. It isn't our flag, our leaders, our geography, it's a group of folks who would rather be kenneled by the Federal masters than have a career. You can't make people want to do better.

 

[msu84grad]

When the same populace that elected Chokwe Lumumba and Tony Yarber (a man who couldn't afford to pay his $90k mortgage) mayors of Jackson, and keeps electing the Stokes to various positions, starts influencing state-wide elections, it's going to get a lot uglier.

I have to disagree about Lumumba as Mayor. Until he died he really seemed focused on improving the city. He got a sales tax passed to fix the intrastructure that the present City Council has really screwed around through red tape. I was one of the remaining white part of the community who thought he was going to make things worse due to his radical past. But honestly I felt Jackson really lost a great deal of potential when he died. Now we are back to do-nothings on the Council with that fat idiot Stokes acting as spokesman there literally is no chance. I am only here because of an ailing widowed father, but otherwise I would be moving out as well.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Kids growing up without a father in the house is huge problem and likely is the root cause of much of the crime, poverty, lack of respect for authority and failure of our educational system. Unfortunately, MS has a higher percentage than any other state and that trend will likely continue.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

Kids growing up without a father in the house is huge problem and likely is the root cause of much of the crime, poverty, lack of respect for authority and failure of our educational system. Unfortunately, MS has a higher percentage than any other state and that trend will likely continue.

Bingo. We want to blame lack of educational spending and other things but bottom line it's the erosion of the family unit.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

This could come a lot sooner than 50 years, easy to estimate birth rates and such, but much harder to anticipate the "brain drain" to places to such as Nashville. I believe the worse things get here, the faster we lose our best and brightest. I tell my kids not to plan on a future here, it's gonna get ugly when someone like Kennuf Stokes is elected governor.

Theoretically 20 years, when the children being born today (white minority) are of voting age.