Except, as you note, they send people to congress, like every other southern state. The pre-FDR democrats and modern GOP know that control of the country is via the south. It’s exactly why Nixon used the “southern strategy” to get those voters angry about the Democratic shift on race.
You might not be aware, but Abrams and her various pro-democracy groups did not assume that diverse ATL won them the state. She deployed a state wide strategy that nearly won her the governorship and did hand Biden, Warnock, and Ossoff victories. She got out the vote all over the state, not just in ATL and other cities.
why should we let oligarchs dictate our democracy?
That doesn’t mean it’s beyond change.
People have to make that happen. Again, ATL wasn’t always the bastion of economic development and culture that it is today. That was made to happen.
And places like Natchez are clearly attempt to turn that around with ideas like this one, to attract new people and build the basis for shifting that.
None of us here plan on letting it be momentary. Abrams and the groups she works with have laid the ground work for permanent change. We’ve got representatives at the federal level that reflect more progressive values, and now the trick is shifting the legislature to do the same.
Maybe not. But I have reasons to suspect it.
I was basing that on 2 things, upthread comments describing the segregation re: public vs. private schools and the upthread comments highlighting that the required minimum house price for this “deal” is well above the area median. Those and the typical voting demographic breakdowns made me think I’d end up in a largely conservative white neighborhood.
Others have made excellent points about how we can be a force for change, and I agree with all that. But I wasn’t basing my comment on stereotypes about the south. Heck, I’m lonely in my northern New England neighborhood, luckily there is a broader community around. But I wouldn’t choose to buy in such a neighborhood again, if I were moving today.
If I were moving to Natchez, I’d want to buy so I’d live closer to like-minded people.
And that can all change tomorrow with passage of the John Lewis Civil Rights Act. If it’s illegal on the federal level to disenfranchise voters and gerrymander a state, Mississippi can flip within one election cycle. If you look at the population rather than the current representation, there’s no reason it shouldn’t. Half the state are minorities. Young people there trend progressive. There’s more potential in Mississippi and Alabama than in the rural mountain and plains states.
Mark Twain’s Life on The Mississippi has some great stories about his riverboat pilot days. The most interesting parts for me were his digressions about where the river was when he started working on it, compared to where it was when he revisited it as a passenger when he was older. It apparently slithers about quite a bit, creating all kinds of trouble for map makers.
And that can all change tomorrow with passage of the John Lewis Civil Rights Act. If it’s illegal on the federal level to disenfranchise voters and gerrymander a state, Mississippi can flip within one election cycle.
Have you looked at a MS congressional map? There are only about 3MM people in the whole state. It’s not especially gerrymandered, or at least not enough to support a successful challenge.
57% of the electorate there voted for Trump. And fighting for that state would take resources that would be better spent in higher-value target states that have more attainable margins (Georgia, Texas (which Trump only one by 5.7%), Florida, Ohio).
I admire what I think they’re trying to do and agree that the “dumb hicks” narrative is benefiting nobody. So, my question wasn’t meant to characterize anything there nor the Mayor himself. I was curious what had triggered the Facebook algorithm or whether there was an actual complaint. That’s it.
I wasn’t aware of this author Charles M. Blow and I want to read that book. Thanks for these and for your take on him. Natchez is also home to the first synagogue built in Mississippi (1843). The community is mostly gone but there’s a backgrounder here and in this video:
What good could possibly come of this? If you want to write a place off thats fine, but then have the decency to get out of the way of those of us that don’t.
I have family in Mississippi and have spent a lot of time there and am familiar with Natchez and the surrounding area. You are stereotyping the state to a huge degree. OK, so you don’t like what you’ve seen there. That doesn’t mean that its the same everywhere else in the state or more importantly that it has to be that way in the future. Mississippi has changed a great deal and will continue to do so. Nothing good, and lots of harm come from justing writing it off and trying to get others to do the same
There are a limited amount of resources available for engineering political and societal change in states and communities. You say it’s changing, but I don’t really see it. I mean, they just sent Hyde-Smith to the Senate.
I would not be willing to spend any of my resources on Mississippi. There are better uses for those resources. Am I stereotyping by doing this? I mean, maybe? But triage is a thing. Low population states with high Trump margins aren’t a great place to spend time or money. I’d be more willing to donate time or treasure to scholarship funds to help smart kids escape Mississippi. And, as I said in my first comment, I absolutely would NOT want some well-meaning progressive to think “hey, six grand!” and then find themselves regretting the choice.
I’d pass on this offer because the higher cost of living and weather make it a no go, but I’ve heard lovely things about Natchez.
Have you tried to organize in Ohio? The state went 53% Trump. That may be a smaller percentage, but that is with extraordinary resources poured into every race. Part of the reason that Ohio has generally been a razor thin margin is that immense resources are poured in by both sides. Trump lost vote share from 2016 to 2020 (not by much, but some) in Mississippi. He gained in Ohio. Maybe, if a few of the canvassers hitting the least swingy, high turnout parts of Cuyahoga county, they organized in Mississippi, the state wouldn’t be so deep red.
Last time someone from my old home town visited the state of Mississippi, it was with artillery.* I don’t think they would appreciate my diehard Union sympathies.
“There are more progressive places than you’re imagining, and more progressive people.”
Any comments or observations coming from me on southern living are based on first hand experience, gleaned from a lifetime of living below the Mason-Dixon Line. As for these progressive southern places I should be “imagining”? Please enlighten me. I’ve lived in seven different states across the south and southwest. Still looking.
Then you are looking in the wrong places. There are famously progressive places in the American South. Austin, TX, Asheville, NC, Savannah, GA, Memphis, TN, Birmingham, AL, New Orleans, LA, etc.
You might want to look a little harder. Activists in northern/coastal cities still travel to places in the south for organizing training in Tennessee and Georgia. Some friends just got back from visiting a lovely LGBT intentional community.
