Dominated by conservative politicians, Mississippi has the lowest tax burden in the nation but ranks fourth in per capita federal aid. Mississippi is also a leader of the GOP effort to gut Medicaid but ranks first in the percentage of its Medicaid program that is funded by federal matching funds.
Seriously, WTF???
It gets worse.
In a state that wants to repeal "Obamacare," Mississippi leads the nation in a number of health care problems. It has the highest rate of heart disease and the second highest rate of diabetes in the country. Mississippi's cardiovascular disease mortality rate is the highest in the nation. Some counties in Mississippi rank among third world countries when it comes to life expectancy-they have the shortest life expectancies in the nation and many Mississippi residents suffer from a lack of health care access (some counties don't even have hospitals). It is ironic that the states suing to prevent the implementation of the Affordable Care Act are the ones whose residents need it most. Still, Republicans poll best in places where healthcare is worst.
And yet they are so stubborn as to refuse the solutions that would certainly help them.
Here's another bit of irony.
When it comes to education, adults in Mississippi have the highest rate of low literacy in the nation. On the National Assessment of Adult Literacy conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, 30 percent of adults scored "Level 1" (less than fifth-grade reading and comprehension skills). In 2011, only 21 percent of Mississippi eighth graders scored proficient in reading and 19 percent scored at least proficient in math.
So, the state whose policies are dominated by Republican politics has positively horrid statistics when it comes to education. Could it be that there are reasons other than the communist takeover of our schools that are more significant?
Ms. Pelosi offers this video as an explanation as to why the state continues to vote Republican.
Wow.
14 comments:
If only those ignorant fucks would do as you enlightened, noble leaders tell them do. Tsk, tsk.
You just have no idea what C.S. Lewis was talking about, do you?
I think it has a lot to do with the rigidly classist society that dominated the South for centuries. There seems to be an idea that people must know their place. There's always a tremendous sense of outrage when someone of a lower class gets something that is perceived as undeserved, and an overwhelming desire to slap them down and give them what they've got coming. But there's complete passivity when the rich and powerful take more than their due.
It's a carry-over from the feudal system, but was made manifest during slavery, when the utter destruction of self-worth was necessary to maintain the slave mentality. It permeated all levels of society regardless of race in the South, but in the North things like trade unions sparked a more egalitarian society.
You can still see it with many people today: conservatives are outraged over "welfare queens," but completely unfazed that the wealthy don't pay their fair share in taxes and get oodles of personal benefits from their corporations paid for by corporate tax breaks and deductions (for example, corporate boxes at football games).
Conservatives like to say they believe in upward mobility and that one day they'll get rich. And no doubt some really do believe this. But almost by definition conservatives are deeply vested in a severely rigid social hierarchy, in which one must pay obeisance to one's betters while sticking it to one's inferiors. It is the natural order of things.
In other words, many conservatives don't truly believe that all men and women are created equal.
As always, juris, you completely miss the point. It's not "doing as I would tell them." It's doing what is in their best interests based on facts. For whatever reason, they don't have all relevant information so how can their decisions be grounded in rationality? Now you know why I am a teacher.
Of course, the bigger issue here is what would happen if their aid was cut off. As the base moves further and further to the right, that's what their advocating, right? There's an awful lot of dishonesty going on here and I think the chickens are going to come home to roost fairly soon.
It's doing what is in their best interests based on facts.
No, it is about what you perceive to be their "best interests". You perceptions/assertions are not facts. You keep asserting that you know what they should think, do, believe - rather than even attempting to understand what they actually do think, do and believe.
The only thing more astounding than the egotistic excess of making this pronouncement is the absolute ignorance of what you are doing. It sure does lay to waste your assertions about how fucking reflective you are - you are reflective like a mirror.
Whenever posts appear that advocate people vote based on their Best Interests, I always remember how many times we are told on here that we live in a community, that we should spread the wealth and that we should make sure others are taken care of. Am I supposed to vote on my own interests or the interests of my fellow man?
Actually, if you do the latter, you accomplish the former. Much to the contrary of the fantasy, we are not a nation of rugged individualists who only get ahead by looking out for themselves. That may have been true in 1840 but it isn't now.
In M's fantasy world, everyone would vote just like him because he clearly knows what is in the best interest of all people including himself.
Dammit, I forgot this and it is so appropos.
Leftie intellectuals spend a lot of time analyzing the “false consciousness” that keeps American workers voting for Republicans who (in the view of the intellectuals) support anti-worker policies. We don’t hear nearly as much from these incisive social thinkers about the false urban consciousness that keeps voters supporting policies and politicians that have ruined the cities, but there you are.
Ah, yes...the "Detroit is Afghanistan" narrative. I've got a few posts about that coming up, juris.Stay tuned...
I'm sure you have a scheme to blame all of Detroit's woes on Republicans from the South.
Detroit is a mess. California is a mess. There are no Repubs in charge of either of those. You of course will find a way to blame it on Repubs rather than consider placing any blame on Dems. It is your way. It would be more interesting if you weren't so predictable.
Oh, delicious!
A couple weeks ago Mark said I was cynical to say that welfare capitalism was a vote buying program.
Now here is Mark bemoaning some people who won't vote for the people who give them the most welfare capitalism. I can almost feel Mark's stomping tantrum as he whines 'we paid them to vote democrat and they won't! It's not fair!'
They cognitive dissonance is strong with this one.
You know, Guard Duck, over the last few months I've come to the conclusion that perception...as in warped perception...is one of the key root causes of why the right is so fucked up. You ascribe to the left a series of gross mis-characterizatons combined with out and out lying all of which are fine examples of the high level of propaganda to which you so easily succumb. As usual, it's a more apt description of what the right does...
What you completely fail to understand is that I'm happy to pay taxes so the people in Mississippi can get federal aid. They need it as they are the poorest state in the nation. They are surviving thanks to welfare capitalism and despite the heavy hand the GOP wields in the state. Do you seriously think that myself or the Democrats (especially with the head of their party being a black man) would hope to turn Mississippi blue with a pay off?
My point in this post was to show how frustrating the willful ignorance is down there. I'm going to hunt around and find the full clip (if possible) and show you and everyone else some real examples of cognitive dissonance. Another part of the clip shows a man railing against the federal government in one breath while claiming that he "deserves" his food card in another. All of this with the hope that someday the GOP will deliver for him.
And I just found and it's up...
http://markadelphia.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-is-mississippi-so-conservative.html
Anybody who thinks the toothless old man is representative of much at all is a bigoted twit in a bubble who doesn't actually know much about Mississippi. Rather like Germans I know who think they understand America because they read newspapers and have watched Dallas, Baywatch, Miami Vice, and popular movies. With some of them, there's no point even trying to point out where their assumptions are off-base. They're educated, knowledgeable people and what could I possibly know about it? Thankfully, most aren't like Mark, but there's always some who's prejudices will not swayed.
HideousAmerican
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