♪ Whoa, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of ♪
— Phil Ochs, “Here’s to the State of Mississippi”

An imprecise and ultimately dumb joke,* sent Uvular down a Phil Ochs YouTube rabbit hole.

Very little has changed in the Hospitality State** since Ochs in 1966 set lyrics like the following to a tune Billy Bragg later stole repeatedly:

♪ And here’s to the government of Mississippi
In the swamp of their bureaucracy they’re always bogging down
And criminals are posing as the mayors of the towns
And they hope that no one sees the sights and no one hears the sounds
And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown ♪

A ban on abortions after 15 weeks represents the latest assault on civil right perpetrated by the neo-Confederate janissaries in Jackson. Not wanted to get cucked, one supposes, South Carolina state house Republicans this very week introduced a secession resolution set to take effect if the federal government does anything to limit the ability to secede.***

So many more present day parallels suggest themselves, but just jump to Trump and that Jesushadist Pence. You will get there eventually, so cut out the militia, er, middle men.

An interesting echo in time that does merit recording resonates in the august-if-you-squint personage of Paul B. Johnson Jr., who served as lieutenant governor and governor of Mississippi from 1960 to 1968. A one-time progressive who made himself one of three Americans who voted for Adlai Stevenson in 1952,^ Johnson committed whole-hog to the segregation and oppression of lacks so he could gain and hold executive power.

For mostly cynical reasons, Johnson redeemed the smallest degree of his humanity by the end of his lone gubernatorial term, but how does one unlynch civil rights activists, unburn books metaphorically and literally, or reintegrate with polite society?

We need to answer those questions now more than ever. When the tea partiers and Trumpists no longer wield the reins of power like a scourge, will America spend 50 more years off the long arc bending toward justice? Can the concepts of liberal democracy, representative government, and civil liberties survive a hiatus of a half-century or longer?

Answers welcome below.

++++

*The Avocado!
**Even good ol’ boys enjoy ham-fisted irony wrapped in a magnolia-scented tourism campaign.
***This sounds damnably familiar, but the historical precedent escapes your benighted WPT host.
^Total does not include Adlai Stevenson.