Tuesday, Mississippians will go to the polls to determine the outcome of numerous local and state elections, including who will be our governor.
On one hand, you can vote for truck-driver-turned Democratic-Party-nominee Robert Gray, a candidate so obscure, so apparently without credentials, that even his own party had no idea who he was during the primary.
On the other hand, you can vote for incumbent Republican Phil Bryant, who has spent 30 years in politics.
It’s not much of a choice, is it?
Based on his record, his stated views and his vision for Mississippi, everyone should vote for Bryant.
Unless you are:
One of the 160,000 Mississippians, mostly from “working poor” families who might have had access to Medicaid were it not for Bryant’s refusal to expand the program based on the false premise that “we can’t afford it.”
The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation has projected that between 2014 and 2019, Mississippi would receive nearly $9.9 billion in federal money for Medicaid expansion, while the state would pay $429 million. That’s $1 from the state for every $23 from Uncle Sam. Medicaid expansion would mean an unprecedented growth in jobs in the medical field, which means in immense boost to the state’s economy far exceeding the costs of expansion to the state.
One of the 61,000 Mississippians currently enrolled in “Obamacare” for whom premiums are inflated simply because Bryant refused to allow a health-care marketplace that would have created more competition among insurers and driven down costs. Allowing the marketplace would have cost the state nothing. Bryant rejected the marketplace for reasons that are purely based on political ideology.
One of the people who believe the current state flag is a divisive symbol but also know that Bryant has objected to a change in the flag because a majority of people voted to keep it 14 years ago.
When the Ole Miss student senate voted to remove the flag from campus, Bryant dismissively called the student association vote an “emotionally-driven” decision.
One of the Mississippians who don’t own gas/oil stock or work for big oil interests. When gas prices were going down, it was Bryant who told his Big Oil cronies at a convention in Ohio last October, “‘Darn! I hate that oil’s dropping, I hate that it’s going down. I don’t say that out-loud, but just to those in this room.” We all hear you, Governor. We know where — and with whom — you stand.
One of the parents of almost a half-million public school students who believe that ALL our children should have the resources necessary to attain a quality education. Bryant has lobbied actively against Initiative 42, which holds the Legislature accountable for funding education according to its own law (MAEP, passed in 1997).
One of the people who realize the tax cuts Bryant favors are irresponsible when our bridges are dangerous, our roads are in disrepair and most state agencies operate on razor-thin budgets.
One of those people who believe a worker has a right to have some say about his working conditions through organizing as a union, something Bryant, has fought against at every turn. In 2014, he signed three bills into law that greatly encroach on the ability of workers to unionize. As we have seen, Bryant embraces the will of the people when it comes to things like state flags, but not when it comes to the workplace.
One of those people who have noticed Bryant says the state can always afford things that help big corporations but can never afford things that help the common man, the governor who said he “wished he could have given more” to one company for whom he helped arrange more than $100 million in tax breaks and incentives.
One of those people who understand that virtually every improvement in the Mississippi economy is a byproduct of the improvement of the national economy and that every statistic Bryant claims as proof of his success, when measured against the national average, is lower, often substantially lower.
Aside from those people, of course, everybody should vote for Bryant.
If the people of our state really voted in their own interests, it’s likely we would have a truck driver as our next governor.
It could be worse.
In fact, it already is.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
election Phil Bryant Slimantics
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