The Mississippi GOP has near supermajorities in the statehouse and senate, controlling all eight statewide offices, both US Senate seats, and three of the state’s four Congressional seats. The last Democrat to carry the Magnolia State in a presidential race was Jimmy Carter. That was 1976.
But Ty Pinkins, a slim and energetic African-American lawyer, decided to challenge the GOP incumbent for a US Senate seat anyway. As the 50-year-old told me of his decision to take on Roger Wicker, “Don’t be afraid to walk in the tall grass. That’s how I started.”
Born to an unwed 15-year-old mother, Pinkins chopped cotton as a boy to help feed his family, a fate David Rushing, chair of the Sunflower County Democratic Party, says is typical of poor boys from the Mississippi Delta. “We don’t have many gutters in Mississippi,” explains Rushing, “but we have a lot of ditches.” For Pinkins, then, the tall grass was the only route out of that Delta ditch.
The first in his family to graduate high school, he struggled to pay for college. So, Pinkins left Mississippi for the tall grass of the US Army.
A 21-year military career gave him a passport full of stamps, three combat tours, a Bronze Star, and a job in the White House. After retirement, Pinkins earned not one but two law degrees from Georgetown University. He turned down the big money of a Washington law firm for the Delta.
Ty Pinkins in uniform (www.typinkins.com)
Back in his hometown, Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Pinkins published a memoir, 23 Miles and Running, and litigated hundreds of civil cases for the underprivileged. In 2021, he made national news by filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of fired black farm labourers, who had been replaced by white South Africans. Filing suit and testifying before Congress on the issue, he forced a settlement.
Taking note was Mississippi’s lone Democratic Congressman, Bennie Thompson. The chair of the January 6 Select Committee tapped Pinkins to run for the local school board. By the time Pinkins learned of Thompson’s desire, he had already publicly declared his candidacy for the senate seat. “The biggest problems are federal issues,” he tells me. “That’s what I’m interested in. Our state is last in everything that is good and first in everything that is bad.”
In theory, Thompson and state Democratic chair Cheikh Taylor promised Pinkins, the only Democrat to announce for the race, their party’s full support. But though he knew the contest would be an uphill struggle, Pinkins never expected a major hurdle would be Bennie Thompson — his own Congressman and the very politician to first have noticed his talents.
At first, his phone calls asking for endorsements went unanswered. Then, when his phone did ring, respondents attacked, apparently upset that Pinkins’ hadn’t followed Thompson’s advice and run for his local school board. As Will Colom, a prominent black Mississippi attorney and party donor allegedly told him: “You will lose. You are a loser. And you will always be a loser.” A young Mississippi state representative also phoned. “Who the hell do you think you are, getting your name on the ballot?” they yelled. “You need to go through us gatekeepers.”
Gatekeeper. The term shocked Pinkins. Party insiders refused to support him simply because, as he tells me, “I didn’t ask anyone, ‘can I please run?’” The candidate’s astonishment went beyond personal ambition. With its pungent whiff of machine politics, what Pinkins calls Mississippi’s “Gatekeeper Syndrome” is the very problem “preventing our democracy at the state level from blossoming.”
Not that everyone is surprised. When I asked Ralph Eubanks about gatekeeping he laughed. As the academic and writer puts it: “Welcome to poor ole beat down Mississippi.” To Eubanks, Gatekeeper Syndrome reflects the “way the Democrats think about their own state. It is learned helplessness. There are so many things that are broken that can’t be fixed that many just give up.”
“Giving up” would oblige Democratic elites to abandon their prerogatives in favour of building a competitive party. So to safeguard their position, Bennie Thompson and his colleagues have adapted the strategy of that classic wheeler-dealer: Richard Daley. Just like Chicago, Eubanks tells me, Mississippi is a place where you “have to work your way up through the system or you are jumping the line.” He adds: “It’s not healthy at all because it stops someone who has talent and drive with an inspiring backstory. You’d think ‘let’s get behind the brother and help him out’ but that’s not happening.”
“To safeguard their position, Bennie Thompson and his colleagues have adapted the strategy of that classic wheeler-dealer: Richard Daley.”
From the outside, Mississippi is ruby red. Outsiders assume that Democrats like Pinkins have zero chance. But with an African-American population of 40%, it’s the blackest state in the union. A reliable Democratic bloc, the African-American vote means Democrats can win with high black turnout and a quarter of white ballots. In 2023, Brandon Presley used that formula to come within 26,619 votes of the governor’s mansion.
White and black Mississippi Democrats can, and have, run competitive statewide races. But the problem isn’t at the top of the ballot. The issue, as Pinkins and others point out, are those gatekeepers, those machine politicians who think Mississippi’s Democratic Party belongs to them and them alone. No less important, gatekeeping means the bottom of the ballot stays empty.
In the same cycle as Presley’s 2023 near-miss, there were contests for all 122 of Mississippi’s statehouse seats. Yet in nearly half of contests, Democrats failed to field a candidate, a phenomenon that affects up-ticket races too. As Michele Hornish, the executive director of the Every State Blue campaign group explains, simply fielding a state representative candidate gives the top of the ticket a 1.5% vote boost. Running candidates across the ballot is also a barometer of a party’s grassroots health. As Scott Kleeb, a lead organiser with Rural Americans for Harris-Walz, admits: “For the last several decades Democrats have not been building at the local, county, and state level,” especially in rural states like Mississippi. Of the nation’s 3,143 counties, Kleeb says that Democrats have a chair in just 300.
To be fair, an increasing number of Democrats are prodding the system to change.
One example is Rickey Cole, a two-time Mississippi Democratic state chair and Pinkins’ campaign manager. Cole always intended to run a senate race while also re-building the state party’s grassroots.
Cole’s strategy was to organise Mississippi’s 82 counties and appoint a campaign leader in all 1,762 precincts. From there, Cole says, it’s “just math.” In 2020, after all, some 400,000 registered Mississippi Democrats failed to vote. This year, Cole needs to mobilise around 178,000. Once the party got organised, the path to higher Democratic turnout was easy. “In rural Mississippi,” Cole explains, “if you provide the matriarch of the family a list of folks who are sporadic voters, they can get to them.”
Many black Mississippi families are matriarchal (Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage)
As Kleeb warns, moreover, this comprehensive approach is the only viable path to a Democratic revival in conservative redoubts like Mississippi. “Institutions matter,” he says. “We can’t go from candidate to candidate. Every campaign can’t build an airplane from scratch every four years.”
But instead of endorsements and campaign cash, all Pinkins got was a cold shoulder. Mississippi’s African-American leaders — notably Mike Espy — refused even to meet, much less endorse. Appeals to the Congressional Black Caucus, Black Economic Alliance, BlackPAC, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Dirt Road Democrats all went unanswered too.
Behind it all was Pinkins’ former admirer: Bennie Thompson.
Mississippi’s lone Democratic Congressman is the political kingpin of the Delta, and the state’s black political establishment. Thompson earned national attention as chair of the January 6 Select Committee, but at home he squelches democracy as Mississippi’s lead gatekeeper. Pinkins tells me that “fear of Bennie Thompson” has resulted in only three of Mississippi’s African-American state senators and representatives endorsing him. Others supposedly tell him: “I can’t host a fundraiser for you because of Bennie Thompson.”
All the same, Pinkins persevered, and nearly two years on from his initial snub finally bagged a meeting with Thompson in May 2024. Much like their earlier interaction, Thompson was kind, heaping praise on Pinkins and promising his full support. “I commit to you,” he apparently said. “I will make a sizeable contribution to your campaign.”
Yet once again, Pinkins would soon find this apparent warmth vanish, like dew in the Delta sun.
Just days after their apparent reconciliation, the duo attended the Democratic State Convention. In an auditorium full of the state’s leading liberals, Pinkins awaited his promised endorsement. Instead, Thompson praised the white Brandon Presley as his “brother” and then promptly sat down. Audience members turned to Pinkins in astonishment. In July this year, at another Democratic gala, Thompson pulled the same stunt. Pinkins understood “that my own Congressman was clearly refusing to publicly support my candidacy.”
And in late August, at the Democratic National Convention, Bennie Thompson took his gatekeeping public. At a Mississippi state delegation breakfast, Thompson supposedly told 100-or-so party leaders that “we need to support our candidates but some of them need to earn it. He needs to work for the support. He doesn’t get to walk up to the head of the table and think he’s going to get our support.” The Congressman never mentioned Pinkins by name — but then again he didn’t need to.
Pinkins, for his part, has endured Thompson’s slights with grace, describing them as “the Congressman’s prerogative.” Not that he’s sat on his hands either, instead throwing himself into grassroots campaigning. Gradually, perhaps, Mississippians have understood he’s a different sort of candidate from the gatekeeper stereotype, not least in terms of race.
In the Deep South, most African-Americans run in majority-minority districts, developing little experience wooing white voters. Pinkins, by contrast, had spent two decades in the military, meeting civilians and leading soldiers from every walk of life. And like Georgia or North Carolina, Mississippi’s demography is changing. Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s scandal-plagued GOP nominee for governor, won his race for lieutenant governor on the backs of white votes. He may bring pizza to a porn shop, but he also reveals that white voters in 2024 are not what they were in 1965. He also shows that Southern whites are more open to voting for black candidates. For their part, Cole and Pinkins have eyed white Yankee transplants to Mississippi’s Memphis suburbs, as well as snowbirds, soldiers, and shipbuilders in towns like Pascagoula. In soliciting white votes, alongside the African-American base, Pinkins says he’s learnt that most voters crave the same thing. “They want someone they can trust,” he says. “They are so tired of politicians doing the same old things. We end that by meeting voters face-to-face.” Pinkins adds that Mississippians of all races are interested in aDelta boy like him “doing something unorthodox.”
In towns like Pascagoula, Pinkins transcends the racial divide (Rod Lamkey Jr /AFP via Getty Images)
More than that, meanwhile, Pinkins feels a moral obligation to take on people like Bennie Thompson. “Walking in the tall grass,” he says, “is doing what the average Mississippian can’t afford to do,People want politicians to have moral courage. They wonder: ‘Do you have the courage to the hard right or the easy wrong?’”
By going public about Thompson’s behaviour, Pinkins believes he is doing that hard right. Perhaps. But there’s still a way to go until the gatekeepers are vanquished. As Pinkins explains, one issue are those black Mississippian Democrats still unwilling to cause civil rights legend John Lewis called “good trouble”.
“There are a select few black men who, because of Gatekeeper Syndrome, are stopping progress in Mississippi at the federal and state level,” he says, after a heavy sigh. “Their reluctance to go against Bennie Thompson is holding back black Mississippians. We have a lot of officeholders who prioritise their personal power over the people’s interest.
At this point, Pinkins stops and exhales, before starting again. “We need to have the conversation. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
All the while, Cole and Pinkins believe their efforts will boost Democratic changes in a 2026 senate race against a weak GOP incumbent. They’re also looking ahead to Brandon Presley’s widely anticipated 2027 race for governor. But those efforts will be undone if Mississippi’s gatekeepers shoo talented candidates like Ty Pinkins from the ballot.
As for the former cotton chopper, David Rushing is clear. “He has my unequivocal support. He’s the real deal. He is not blowing smoke. I just admire him. He’s a bright star, and the future of the party if he doesn’t get frustrated by all this mess.”
But the tall grass is where Pinkins feels most comfortable. Like his own life, he sees it as the only way for Mississippi to move forward.
Jeff Bloodworth is a writer and professor of American political history at Gannon University
Sounds a lot like the California Republican party, but the situation is reversed. Some people would rather avoid actual political power and prefer to run a personal thiefdom because they don’t want the responsibility of governing, because they are expected to deliver it’d be held accountable, and thus avoid it because they would rather be in opposition. It’s where they can pretend to actually doing something important without actually trying or expected to deliver, All the while and join the benefits of their position.
Brett H
1 month ago
I’m pretty sure this happens all across the world and helps explain the terrible state we’re all in.
An important story. Too many people are in politics for the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, the good guys get frustrated and walk away. Good to see Pinkins pushing back.
He does seem to be the most influential gatekeeper of all right now. That will be over if he loses for a second time—not factoring in any refusal to accept defeat or resulting chaos & madness (on either side).
He is but this is not what this piece is about. The Dems would have a much better chance of taking the presidency next month if there were less dysfunction in their own party.
This is the same ‘ol, same ‘ol of the Democrat Party. The party leaders at the national level are also ‘gatekeepers’. Pelosi is the grand-gatekeeper of them all. The most fascinating story in John Heilebrunn and Mark Halperin’s book ‘Game Change’ (2010) was when Pelosi and Harry Reid called a little known Barack Obama into their office to put him in play against Hillary Clinton, who they couldn’t stand and whom they didn’t think could win. They were right on the last count. And as we all saw, Pelosi became instrumental in getting Biden to step down, waving the 25th Amendment in front of him or so it’s said…..
What is strange here?
Party leaders want someone on the ticket who can win?
I did not know they hated Clinton women (good for them) but it is normal in politics of whatever party.
OK, so article describe politics of Missisippi state as a bit parochial.
So what?
Guy was offered a chance of big job in Washington.
He chose instead crocodile infested swamp of Missisippi and now complains about his choice.
Not great show in terms of intelligence and decision making.
“Not great show in terms of intelligence and decision making”…first off I see no complaining. I see a man who made a decision to forego the perks of party politics in favour of supporting those in need. This shows me that he is a person of integrity and one who has an ethical compass…these attributes in my mind are those of a man who knows his mind, is intelligent and willing to make the uncommon decision…you obviously think that the a man who takes the “big job in Washington” is more intelligent, and that sucking up to power is the right decision.
UnHerd Reader
1 month ago
The assumption that democrats offer a reasonable path to move forward, when considering New York, California, Illinois, etc is questionable at best.
Many of them are doing fine.
Only 20% of African Americans live in poverty, but many whites do live in poverty, albeit at a lower overall rate.
Of the latter, should they be disadvantaged, because another group is slightly poorer?
Things like education, hard work, careful choices, stable families, and one’s individual work ethic do in fact matter. It should go without saying that both whites and persons of color are capable of those things. They do affect your circumstances.
Unless the government controls the economy, and therefore one’s life, because then hard work, talent, and responsibility matter little.
I lived in New York State for the first four decades of my life. I know of very few people who do better than their parents, and a large number of people who do far worse. I moved to Massachusetts for a far better job six years ago, but will probably move again to the South – costs of living are much less, taxes are far lower, and there are far more economic opportunities.
Perhaps it is. I don’t know enough to credit, or discredit Bloodworth’s or Ty Pinkins’s characterization of him. His “gatekeeping” sounds royally effed-up.
But who has changed the poverty and poor education outcomes much anywhere in Mississippi since the Civil War? Bennie Thompson is the one Democrat from a state with five Republican congressman and two GOP senators and he is the whole problem? C’mon.
“Things like education, hard work, careful choices, stable families, and one’s individual work ethic do in fact matter. It should go without saying that both whites and persons of color are capable of those things. They do affect your circumstances”.
i certainly don’t disagree with any of that. But many whites (and other) are languishing in poverty or dying of overdoses throughout the South, and not just in urban areas. Many people are flourishing in New York, California, and Oregon too. Some such people are insulated pseudo-liberal/progressives who take a mean view of people who think differently than them and don’t give back very much at all.
individual choice matters, but so do circumstances and real opportunity. There is a rampant selfishness and heartlessness in our nation and world today. That worsens the inequality and suffering that are part of the human condition itself. It’s not brand new—in fact I’m sure it’s older than recorded history—but it has surely reached a crisis point in recent years. We all pay for a society that is too angry and unkind toward neighbors and strangers—or even friends and family members!
Just wait till Democrats get power, the fall will be precipitous. There’s much evidence for that happening looking at Democrat controlled inner cities.
Fall from what? A great many residents of Republican-led areas already seem to believe they are living through an American Carnage in their streets and schools.
”Republican-controlled” cities like Dallas and Fresno (population over half a million) have major pockets of crime as well as poverty, addiction, and homelessness.
I agree that progressive strongholds like Portland and San Francisco (an hour to my north) are the biggest messes in many ways—though many still want to live there, not all of them bums and addicts.
These urban nightmare zones are not really being “controlled” at all. To a significant degree, Republican leaders bus their homeless addicts out of state, although they cannot exile all of them. Sometimes they smile for the cameras as they do this.
This situation is the fault of the whole society, not the conveniently charged fault of one party or belief system. (We can argue the balance, but it is not purely one sided). Our society is ailing, and no large group can say they are handling or responding to it well.
You don’t have to like them, but please love ALL your neighbors on this Sunday. I’m not saying you don’t; naïve as it may be; this is a general appeal.
I don’t know about Fresno, but Dallas itself is a Democrat stronghold. I live nearby and can attest to the fact that it is both dark blue in politics and a place you don’t want to be after dark.
Republicans are bad, but the Democrats have become so unhinged it is truly frightening. A decade ago, I could understand voting ‘D’. I truly cannot fathom voting D now as what they currently offer is almost pure hatred and evil. e.g. – they dress it up in virtue, but mutilating and sterilizing confused teenagers and children is not a validation of their feelings.
I would truly love to love ALL my neighbors this Sunday. However, I am struggling with the fact that many of them seem to be completely blind to the hatred and evil of their preferred political party and voting choices. I will gladly pray that their eyes are opened. However, I believe ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ does not apply when your neighbor pursues evil. This is the crux of the problem for me.
Of course it applies. Hate the sin, not the sinner. I don’t claim to live that every day, nor in full. Far from it. It is a scared aspiration; the ultimate tall order.
The hatred and evil you assign to masses of fellow citizens upon political grounds would diminish in size and onesideness if your own eyes were more open. You should pray for that too. I ask for my own eyes and heart to be opened. [end digital sermon].
I guess the mayor of Dallas switched to the Republican Party just last year, several years behind the conversion of Donald Trump, who may be one of the most materialistic and uncharitable people ever born. (I know this was an unforced error given the likely readership here, but he is the undeniable head of the whole party).
*You make a major error by connecting the Democratic Party en masse with mutilation and sterilization of minors. Surgical interventions for children are quite rare, and most Democratic voters and elected officials don’t endorse them.(I’d like to know what the general as well as by-party electorate thinks about hormonal treatments for minors, and under what circumstances. Many are too angry or self-certain to actually talk about it). It’d be about as fair for me to claim that all Republicans support letting women die with unviable pregnancies or forcing ten-year-olds to give birth or flee the state. That would also be a hyperbolic overreach based on real cases.
This mutual demonization has to stop. Saying that the Other Side forces that hatred and demonization out of you is a weak alibi—whatever side one may over-identify with. We’re all stuck on this ship together.
I have had a number of personal experiences lately which make it much harder to see your point of view that we are all in this together. The most salient of these experiences was having 3 of my 4 kids in a school and catching the activist teachers quite literally and deliberately hiding the awful nonsense they were teaching. It was only after we pulled our kids that they opened up about all the things the teachers were really teaching in the classroom because our kids did not want to lose access to their friend group. My wife was volunteering at the school on a weekly basis and we had lengthy discussions with these same teachers about trying to work around political differences. These and many other experiences have hardened my heart quite considerably. Saying the other side disgusts me is simply reality. I have tried so many times to reach across the metaphorical aisle and am tired of the absolute nonsense.
‘Gender reassignment’ hormonal treatments for children are only a very slight degree of difference from outright physical mutilation and I consider them just as demented. The hormonal treatments cause sterility 100% of the time and irreversible changes to many organs. This is not some minor thing like taking a prescription strength antibiotic.
Well I can sympathize with much of that and empathize with the rest, though I’m not in agreement on certain points. I agree that “gender reassignment”—even of the clothing and pronoun kind—has become a moral contagion, and it’s too far away from the source cause of gender dysphoria and depression in many of these kids. I personally think the drugs should be withheld until age 18–maybe 16 in a few cases, with parental consent—and not be used anywhere near so often. Gender surgery for minors, or at taxpayers’ expense (with the possible exception of true hermaphrodites) should not occur, in my opinion.*
But the idea that hormones cause sterility 100% of the time is wildly inaccurate. Where are you even getting that from?
I try to keep in mind that we all came through a very disruptive years-long period of isolation, distancing, and increased mortality—whoever or whatever we blame for that and on whatever grounds. I don’t think most of us handled it all that well, and most of us are still a little crazier, angrier, and sadder because of it. Excessive reliance on screens and divisive sources of information and entertainment sure aren’t helping us either.
I find it hard to feel kinship or neighborly feeling toward my perceived and real opponents too. It reminds me of a country spiritual lyric:
“Waiting for my call to glory / When I’ll know the good and true / Then I’ll learn to love my neighbor / Like He wanted me to do”.
You seem like a conscientious and good hearted person. Please don’t label and write off your fellow humans too easily, if only because it will be measured to us according to the measure we use ourselves.
Thanks for the exchange.
*I am also opposed to the extreme viewpoints, sometimes rising to the level of neo-progressive indoctrination, being advanced in some public schools. I’d note that there is an over-corrective reaction to this on the right, notably in Florida.
Teaching this cultural marxism is far easier than teaching Further Maths, Latin, Greek , French, German, and sports to high enough standard to play for county.
One can judge a secondary school by number of people who go on to read medicine, vetinary science, engineering maths, physics, chemistry, law, languages at top 5 university departments and those who play for country at sport or members of national orchestras.
In Britain the curtailing of entrance exams to Oxford and Cambridge and scholarships to other universities have caused standards to fall. The below connects to a 1983 Cambridge Admissions Exam fro maths. div > p:nth-of-type(3) > a”>Cambridge Admissions Tests 1983 | PDF | Inductor | Inductance (scribd.com)
The result is that people spend longer in education and more money and delay entering work and earning a salary. This is far more detrimental to poorer people than rich.
I know someone who completed 3 years of Physics at Cambridge in two years and a year of Electrical Engineering, when a degree was three years. Selection based on academic ability at 11 and rigorous schooling enabled very high standards to be achieved at a young age.The gentleman attended King Edward VIth School in Birmingham when it was free, now it is fee paying. div > p:nth-of-type(6) > a”>King Edward’s School, Birmingham – Wikipedia
Crime is far more detrimental to the poor who live in blocks of flats and park their cars on the street than wealthy who live in secure detached houses with expensive alarm systems. When the poor are burgled they lose a far higher proportion of their wealth and their insurance premiums, if they can afford them are a much higher proportion of their income, than the rich.
Thanks for the specifics. Don’t you think that weak moral character and perhaps insufficient “civicmindedness” also present a problem among elites, on both sides of the Atlantic? I wouldn’t think lack of education would be the chief fault for most of them, despite diminished standards and a rise in mis-education.
Good point that the law-abiding poor bear the brunt of property crime—at least as a percentage of their income and assets (if any).
Agreed, the decline in noblesse oblige by wealthy has made a bad situation worse. Money makes a plutocrat but not a nobleman. The experience of wealthy people fighting alongside poor in WW1 and WW2 brought home to them the horrors of poverty.
In WW1, 20% of the aristocracy was killed, 10% of officers and 5% of those from the ranks. Regiments were raised based upon locality so all fit men from a village or town fought and died together. Consequently people knew who were cowardly and courageous.
Churchill’s old school , Harrow has the record of the highest fatality rate of any public school in WW1, at 27%.
A friend of my Father who was a bomber pilot was shot down,then tortured by the SS for weeks and survived the death marches . After WW2 he became a local politician but stood down because of corruption. He said to me ” I did not fight for this “.
The desire by the wealthy who survived combat to build a better Britain was major cause of honesty and to spend money to improve conditions for the poor. Conservative Prime Ministers Churchill and Macmillan both believed that conditions needed to be improved for the poor to thank them for fighting in two world wars.
Moving and persuasive post. I feel there must be a way to achieve that level of common cause and noble sacrifice without actual warfare but can’t say that the evidence supports that too strongly.
{My Great Uncle was a Canadian who fought for Britain with the bomber squad. He was the only survivor after his plane crashed in 1940, was tortured for a time by the German whose farm he parachuted onto, and lost a leg. He lived into his mid-sixties and had several children.
My dad’s eldest brother, who died this year at 85, was a lifelong fierce lefty in one of the most right-wing places in Canada (Calgary area ranch and farm country). I went to the performance of a play written by him (my late uncle Larry) in his home town of Nanton, Alberta last Remembrance Day weekend*. Many extended family members that none from my branch had seen in decades came thousands of miles from Ontario to see it. It was like Larry’s last big night, and the play was a hit (helps when half the audience is family!). It’s a tribute to his uncle—my great-Uncle John the bomber-plane gunner—called Nobody’s Hero. But he was clearly a hero to my Uncle. To me too now in some real sense, though I never met him}.
They performed it at the the Aviation Museum in “downtown” Nanton, population 3,000ish.
Torture of aircrew by SS and Gestapo appear to have been covered up by Allies and death marches at end of war barely mentioned. The execution of those who escaped from Stalag III has been acknowledged- hence ” The Great Escape “.
Yes you have raised the perhaps the most important point of the 21st century in the Western World ” How does one allow wealth generation without the creation of effete spoilt brats (ESB) who have no loyalty, both to country and other people. These ESBs have no ability to defend freedom and pay others to protect themselves. The end of the Western Roman Empire was because the ESBs refused to die on the frontier defending it. ”
Perhaps some sort of national service undertaking the physical training of the Royal Marine Commandos or “P” Company for Airborne. Assault courses and long marches, carrying heavy loads across rough terrain in cold, wet and windy conditions in winter and blistering heat in summer.
Then spend 6 months as streen cleaner/ rubbish collectors.
In these conditions one’s parents wealth is immaterial.
After all the wealthy of the Middle Ages were knights who were trained to fight from the age of thirteen years or even younger.
The true meaning of aristocracy is power accorded to the best not the wealthy.
Thought provoking. Cheers.
*And no shortage of ESBs in any major party, tough-talking as many such may be. I know I come off like one myself at least some of the time, but I’ve actually seen some labor, volunteering, and hard knocks.
This is not unique to Mississippi. It’s the Dem’s MO and represents the new plantation. Take a look around. Dems run every major city with a significant minority population. As the article says, black dems represent every majority-minority district. Yet, nothing changes. As if nothing is supposed to change. Because change would threaten those in power. And people like Pilkins refuse to see that there is another party. Because he is stuck on the same plantation as those in large cities that continue supporting the same party while wondering why nothing changes.
The same thing happened to my aunt in VA. She was the Republican nominee for state senate, but she was an outsider who wasn’t the party’s preferred winner of the primary. They shut her out of all assistance for the election, preferring a Democrat to an outsider republican.
Rufus Firefly
1 month ago
An interesting story but unfortunately depressing as we are in the same boat here in North Carolina. If anyone’s interested in why rural white voters went for Robinson, it was because the Democratic party wittered on about climate change and net zero while Robinson spoke about urban sprawl and the need to take on the largest criminal organization in the state, the Department of Transportation.
John Taylor
1 month ago
The same thing takes place in Alabama, next door but worse. The Democratic Party here has essentially collapsed due to factions warring over the spoils, such as they are, with one faction taking the other to court. Until the Democrats unbuckle themselves from the clown car, they will deservedly remain marginal and insignificant.
There are so many vital stories in my nation that just aren’t being told. Thank you to UnHerd and Mr. Bloodworth for dragging this one out for us to see.
And not a word about Trump! Hallelujah!
In the UK Labour is stuffed full.of nepo MPs – Gould, Conlon, Falconer, Naish, Reeves, and on and on. It reduces trust and perpetuates the PPE (but know sweet FA about anything useful) clown show. Nepo elites are going to be very dangerous going forward – Alex Soros as a sample of one.
One could say that The Black Prince, Richard the Lionheart, Elizabeth I, Wellington, Richard the Lionheart nwere nepo babies. Richard challenged the whole of the arab army to single combat at the Battle of Jaffa and none took up his challenge.
When it was announced to Edward II, that his son was surrounded and fighting for his life he said ” Let him earn his spurs”.
The issue we we have is that we have an affluent effete class who have not earned their spurs. Their courage and competence has not been proved.
Many sons of the gentry and aristocracy serve in the armed forces, especially Guards, Royal Marine Comandos, Parachute Regiment, etc and the Special Forces. div > p:nth-of-type(2) > a”>Roland Walker – Wikipedia div > p:nth-of-type(4) > a”>Michael Rose (British Army officer) – Wikipedia
Both of the above are Guards and SAS officers.
Founder of SAS, David Stirling was a Scottish aristocrat.
It is not whether one is posh or has a title but whether one is prepared to die for one’s country. Title originates in about 850 AD because one was prepared to fight and die. The concept of knightly chivalry dates from about 1000 AD and may habe been introduced into Europe from the Beduin. The coat of arms is to identify one on a battle field.
If one looks at the creation of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions what was unique was that British aristocrats such as as the Duke of Bridgewater promoted talent, they recognised genius. James Brindley was chosen by the D of Bridgewater to design and build a canal to move his coal against the opinion of experts .
Both Thomas Telford and G Stephenson are rags to riches stories when landowners were still running Britain.
Jacob Bronowski, author of Ascent of Man said the Industrial Revolution was Britain’s Enlightenment.
Left wing middle class people do not want to accept how meritocratic is Britain as it undermines their argument of a rigid class system. In WW2 40% of pilots were sergeants, many were sons of dockers and miners who had entered the RAF for an apprenticeship and then been chosen to fly. Many were commissioned as officers. Yet in the USA a pilot had to be an officer with a college degree. Some Americans who did not have a college education jouined the RAF so they could fly.
Frank Whittle – Jet Engines, B Wallis- Ships to Swing Wing Technology; JR Mitchell- Spitfire; Joe Smith- Spitfire; Chadwick- Lancaster; Hives – Rolls Royce; de Havilland – Mosquito all left school at sixteen, started an apprenticeship and studied at night school to become engineers. Without these people the Nazis would have won WW2.
A college degree is required to be an officer and pilot in the US military today, but it wasn’t in WWII. My father never graduated from college and became a B-24 pilot in the US Army Air Corp via the cadet program. He stayed in the newly formed US Air Force and retired as a Colonel having never recieved a college degree. Enlisted soldiers can still become helicopter pilots in the US Army.
When did you Father enter the USAF? My comments are based upon statements made by American pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain in 1940.In WW2 far more people were commissioned from the ranks, than before it.
Charles Hedges
1 month ago
Typical of poor area run by Democrats/Labour. Politics supports a career, status and salary for small number of people of little ability. These people keep their careers only while the area remains poor. It is the case of the one eyed man is king in land of the blind. Once people become skilled well paid articulate courageous independent individuals able to support themselves, they have no need of state hand outs and so the power of the politicians who control these decline. This is why Democrats/labour hate the skilled well paid self- employed and owner of small businesses. Large businesses with a unionised workforce provide money and voting power so are liked by Democrats/Labour.
The Republicans/Conservatives do not like well paid skilled articulate courageous individuals who can demonstrate their incompetence, venality, sloth and cowardice.
Politics has largely become a competition between Republicans/Conservatives and Democrats/Labour competing to for the states resources.
Compare the Democrats in the above article with the words of JF Kennedy at his inaugaral address
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. div > p:nth-of-type(6) > a”>President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961) | National Archives
Ok, but since I know you to be a proponent of duty, tradition, and self-reliance who is not extreme or entirely partisan:
Can you point me to Tory or Republican led areas where the poor are doing a whole lot better? And if so: What are the key interventions or policies that seem to be working best?
I do not believe in tradition for tradition sake. One needs to define the tradition. For me it is the freedom to speak, act, innovate; to benefit from honest hard work and the willingness to train oneself to fight in order to defend freedom combined with a sense of fair play and humour. The ability of the British Empire to fight from June 1940 to June 1941 prevented the Nazis winning WW2.
State education tends to be better and crime lower in Conservative/Republican areas. Poor schools and crime drives out the aspiration classes and many businesses. Look what the 1967 riots in the USA did to middle class areas in cities like Detroit, they collapsed.
In the UK, grammar schools where selection is based upon passing exams at 11 or 13 enable more people from lower income areas to attend top 20 universities. Where Labour councils turned grammar schools into comprehensives in the 1960s and 1970s fewer pupils entered top 20 universities. Grammar schools either became fee paying or moved to areas where they were allowed. Where the grammar schools were in poor areas this greatly disadvantaged .
Manchester one of the best schools in Britain, was free as a grammar but became fee paying in order to prevent the Labour council turning it into a comprehensive. div > p:nth-of-type(5) > a”>Manchester Grammar School – Wikipedia
If one looks at Switzerland and Singapore which have no natural resources and S Korea which was poorer than Ghana in 1953, high quality technical education from apprenticeships to doctoral studies in engineering and applied science , a work ethic; painstaking attention to detail plus low crime rate has produced high standards of living.
It is simple; high standards of state education and low level of crime attracts aspirational families and poor education and high levels of crime causes them to leave. As Lenin said people vote with their feet.
As always, I appreciate your detail and plainspokenness (which I’m capable of, but don’t use too much).
I agree you don’t advocate tradition for tradition’s sake, but I think you do tend to idealise a time in Britain from about just before WWII until 1965, a period that I think started before you were born and ended when you were a teenager. But not for no reason at all. It was a great time in America too, especially if you were white and not actively at war. Though being 4F for bone spurs or whatever meant you’d miss out on the manly camaraderie and discipline.
Two points:
1) Democrat majority-voter and led areas have some of the best schools in the US, in places like Boston, Austin, and even San Francisco (which also has some of the worst, admittedly—great inequality within a few blocks is too much the norm here).
2) Places that tend Republican/Conservative, tend to have fewer poor people in them, true. Yet the money that is correlated with being more conservative is a huge factor in bringing better schools and less crime: it’s both the chicken and the egg. This is complicated by the rise of MAGA populism among rural whites in particular here, and many of the schools and living conditions are pretty terrible in those communities. Voting GOP may lessen regulations and increase opportunities for wealth accumulation, for example, but it doesn’t automatically increase bank accounts and education levels, of course.
Perhaps education is the main difference between the USA and UK. Labour abolishing grammar schools or making them go private has meant the opportunities for those who cannot afford to move or pay for private education, whether white or from an ethnic minority has become virtually zero. Comprehensives replaced grammar schools and have no no academic streaming,undermining excellence, competitive sports, education and low aspirations. To enter top 10 university Departments for Engineering, Maths and Physics, Further Maths A Level and STEP 2 or 3 are needed and these are hardly taught at any inner city comprehensive. Languages are hardly taught at all in comprehensives.
The abolishing of grammar schools in most of the UK, started in 1965 and was finished by 1975 and this has greatly reduced the ability of the non wealthy to enter the professional middle classes via top 20( and even more top 5 ) universities in Medicine, Vetinary Science , Law, Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Medical Sciences, Languages, Medivel History ( needs Latin and French ).
Labour MPs support the ban of grammar schools and then send their children to them or go private- H Harman, Rosie Duffield and D Abbott to name a few.
Those comprehensives which are adequate are usually ex grammar schools in very affluent areas, Dame Aice Owens being a good example.
As a distant observer of English society—through books, articles, film, tv, and conversation—I see England as a rather class-weighted society still. Not without opportunities to rise and thrive, of course, but perhaps a little less so than for people in the US working class and underclass. And I do mean a little, because to rise from the “hillbilly” underclass like JD Vance is rare here too. And y’all do have your famous footballers, actors, and musicians, etc. of ‘umble origins. (Again, I have no first hand knowledge of your nation).
Some say Americans have no class, which is an exaggeration. There is a posh hereditary class here, of the so-called Boston Brahmin sort: old money and an accent like FDR. You can’t really buy into it, at least not in one generation, but it doesn’t have the importance it once did. And we’ve always loved certain poor boys made good, like Abe Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Still, the hardscrabble Samuel Johnson was the toast of 18th-century London, and Thatcher’s dad was a shopkeeper.
Can you recommend a well-written book—fictional or factual—that deals with the English class or educational system?
Those who have an insight are Charles Northcote Parkinsons books – Parkinsons Law, Law of Profits and In- Laws and Outlaws, East West, and Naval History 1793 to 1815. A Bryant who was C Attlee’s and H Wilson, both Labour Prime Ministers, favourite historian, 3 volume History -Set in a Silver Sea, Freedom’s Island, Search for Justice. G M Trevelyan An English Social History covers from about 1380 to WW1. David Starkey Monarchy Series- on You Tube Ep 1 very important as explains difference between Anglo Saxon and Continental Europe monarchies after fall of Rome, Sam Smiles The Lives of Engineers, also book on Wedgewood. Sam Smiles Self help was called the manual of socialism By Keir Hardie , Founder of Labour Party, James Burke Connections and The Day the Universe Changed- good on Industrial Revolution. J Bronowski The Ascent of Man – good on Industrial Revolution. A Toynbee a Study of History Abridged version by Somervell.
Who knows England who only knows England- Kipling ? To appreciate what makes England different one needs to see what happens elsewhere in Europe. Magna Carta and House of Commons compared to France, Jaqueries Revolt compared to Peasants Revolt, make up of armies in 100 years war, Elizabethan England compared to Phillip II of Spain, English Civil War compared to French Revolution, Dissolution of Monasteries compared to treatment of priests and nuns in French and Spanish Civil War.s
Basically England managed social change with less violence( Orwell); started the decline of the feudal system earlier than others; the creation of a landowning trained and armed class – yeoman archers who were free but not knights; representative government including deciding on taxation – H of Commons from 1298, greater marriage between gentry and merchants than in other countries;greater upward mobility in Middle ages for example Sir Robert Knolles from yeoman to knight banneret, middle class under Elizabeth I and Industrial Revolution
If one looks at other countries the class system is more hidden. Spain vast estates still owned by aristocrats from Reconquista; Germany aristocrats descended from time of Frederick II, Hapsburgs from 980 AD, families in Venice owning palaces and being able to trace their lineage back to 700AD; to much of France run by the students of 14 Lycees and the Grandes Ecoles all in wealthy areas and requires years of study to enter and graduate.Few few poor from the banlieus graduate from Ecole National d’ Administration. If von , van de, di, da in name then of aristocratic origin. Look at who marries who. div > p:nth-of-type(5) > a”>House of Habsburg – Wikipedia div > p:nth-of-type(6) > a”>Hermann von Richthofen – Wikipedia
8 years of study and first major job at the age of 30 years.
I would suggest the new class barrier are the years of study required to enter best paying professions over and above minimum leaving age from top 10 ( or top 5 )universities. Poor people need to earn money. They cannot afford four degrees, two years of masters, perhaps a year overseas studying, internships and doctorates which often mean the first professional salary is not obtained until late 20s.
I would suggest upward social mobility has decreased since the 1960s- ending of night school to obtain degrees and chartership of institutions of engineers, decline of Merchant Navy which provided route of upward mobility; decline in size of Armed Forces which enabled people to be commissioned from ranks; decline in manufacaturing, closure of grammar schools, end of scholarships to top universities.
Upward mobility today largely depends upon reading a few subjects at 10 perhaps 20 universities which means living in affluent areas with good schools parents being able to afford feees for private schools and having university educated parents.
In fact John Major, Starmer, Rainer and Lammy went to mediocre universities or not at all and probably would not make it in most Continental Countries which recruit from Grandes Ecoles- Ivy League but with less scholarships.
The major benefit of the USA university education system are the large number of scholarships.
Thank you for the compact overview. You’ve given me a bit too much to follow up on at present, but that’s better than too little.
I watched many episodes of Burke’s ‘Connexions’ on public tv here decades ago (skimmed the print version too); a bit facile but informative and entertaining. I know some of the broad strokes of the history you outline and some of the details, but can tell I’m not seeing a very filled-in picture.
I intend to read Bryant and Trevelyan, both of whom I am aware of (in biographical sketches).
The burning world beckons. See you on the next board.
Burke- Connections and day,, plus J Bownowski are the few people writing about how technological innovation effects history which is usually ignored. The big question is why, where and when innovation occurs and what impact ? Why innovation of electronics and computing in California in 1960s and why did it not occur in 1940s Britain after the development of Turing and Flowers building the first electronic computers ?
Why is the Rennaissance largely a product of Florence not Milan, Turin, Venice, Rome, Paris ?
How can Mississippi become a centre of technical innovation ?
Yes, Burke’s emphasis on a confluence of factors, or fertile series of seemingly random connexions, was important and insightful. I admit I found his intensity and absolute tone a little off putting after a while.
Terry M
1 month ago
This is simply machine politics. It is absolutely non-democratic. The comparison to Richard Daley is appropriate.
The Dems have a national machine whereas Trump stands against the Republican machine and tries to run his own, much less disciplined, version of the machine. This is how they ousted Biden – Pelosi, the capo di tutti capi, told him she would cut off his funds and destroy his legacy. Even Jill got the message. Hence Kamala the airhead.
Hmmm let’s see, a president who doesn’t want to stand down….. At least no one got killed during Biden’s passing on power to Harris. Could Trump be threatened with his funds getting cut off and his legacy being destroyed? Nope because he’s a self obsessed, immature little boy.
‘he’s a self obsessed, immature little boy’. Thank you for adding such a deep and insightful remark to the conversation.
Ann Young
1 month ago
Can’t he stand as an Independent or do the Republicans and Democrats have it all stitched up across the USA?
Jae
1 month ago
The Republicans don’t appear to have helped black Mississippi much. But just wait to see what happens to the downhill trajectory once Democrats get a foothold. Their track record is abysmal.
Benny Thompson is not a man of good character, he’s not to be trusted. That’s clear from the handling of the J6 Committee. Evidence withheld and gross distortions of events were that committees MO.
Lisa Letendre
1 month ago
So, Democrats are just as guilty of ‘Gatekeeper Syndrome’ as Republicans. Fancy that.
Elites from both camps are ultimately ’Breaking Democracy’. But let’s have sympathy for Pinkins because those power hungry Democrats are getting in the way of such a hard working Southern Black man who has struggled all his life. Shame on you Democrats! Republicans would never, have never wanted to hang on to power so much that they would stand in the way of passing power on peacefully!
Martin Johnson
1 month ago
This would be an inspiring story, but for the fact that if elected Pinkins would quickly become just another sniveling toady for the war-mongering corporatist oligarchic anti-democratic Deep State national Democratic Party. Just like Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Bennie Thompson, John Lewis in his final years, and every other Democratic Party erstwhile voice for change has become in the Obama era.
Chuck Burns
1 month ago
It appears that the Black Democrats of Mississippi have an Elitist hierarchy just like the rest of the entitled establishment Elites.
David Kingsworthy
1 month ago
Jeff, an interesting read, however maybe you could have asked Mr. Pinkins whether he would consider defecting to the Republicans. The Dems there have locked in the “learned helplessness” whereas Republicans might welcome his ideas.
Sisyphus Jones
1 month ago
It’s amazing that what is never discussed is the absurdity of blacks in the south or anywhere else being treated as if they were born Democrats. I’m serious. How does the author have this discussion without addressing the reality that in a state like Mississippi, black candidates competing for Democrat and Republican seats would be good for the state and for both parties and for African-Americans in Mississippi? If you think that there are more Republican racists in the south than Democrat racists then, well, you’re not from the south.
Kent Ausburn
1 month ago
Pinkins should switch parties and run as a Republican. Republicans will see him as an opportunity to help break the stranglehold the Democrats have with Black’s in the state and support him. That is what is happening in other parts of the country, even some other southern states.
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SubscribeSounds a lot like the California Republican party, but the situation is reversed. Some people would rather avoid actual political power and prefer to run a personal thiefdom because they don’t want the responsibility of governing, because they are expected to deliver it’d be held accountable, and thus avoid it because they would rather be in opposition. It’s where they can pretend to actually doing something important without actually trying or expected to deliver, All the while and join the benefits of their position.
I’m pretty sure this happens all across the world and helps explain the terrible state we’re all in.
Amen.
Certainly is true in Seattle.
An important story. Too many people are in politics for the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, the good guys get frustrated and walk away. Good to see Pinkins pushing back.
And Trump is not Blocking the way for a reasonable republican ???
He does seem to be the most influential gatekeeper of all right now. That will be over if he loses for a second time—not factoring in any refusal to accept defeat or resulting chaos & madness (on either side).
He is but this is not what this piece is about. The Dems would have a much better chance of taking the presidency next month if there were less dysfunction in their own party.
This is the same ‘ol, same ‘ol of the Democrat Party. The party leaders at the national level are also ‘gatekeepers’. Pelosi is the grand-gatekeeper of them all. The most fascinating story in John Heilebrunn and Mark Halperin’s book ‘Game Change’ (2010) was when Pelosi and Harry Reid called a little known Barack Obama into their office to put him in play against Hillary Clinton, who they couldn’t stand and whom they didn’t think could win. They were right on the last count. And as we all saw, Pelosi became instrumental in getting Biden to step down, waving the 25th Amendment in front of him or so it’s said…..
What is strange here?
Party leaders want someone on the ticket who can win?
I did not know they hated Clinton women (good for them) but it is normal in politics of whatever party.
OK, so article describe politics of Missisippi state as a bit parochial.
So what?
Guy was offered a chance of big job in Washington.
He chose instead crocodile infested swamp of Missisippi and now complains about his choice.
Not great show in terms of intelligence and decision making.
“Not great show in terms of intelligence and decision making”…first off I see no complaining. I see a man who made a decision to forego the perks of party politics in favour of supporting those in need. This shows me that he is a person of integrity and one who has an ethical compass…these attributes in my mind are those of a man who knows his mind, is intelligent and willing to make the uncommon decision…you obviously think that the a man who takes the “big job in Washington” is more intelligent, and that sucking up to power is the right decision.
The assumption that democrats offer a reasonable path to move forward, when considering New York, California, Illinois, etc is questionable at best.
Fair enough. But how well is the general population doing in deep red states like Mississippi, Louisiana, or Alabama?
Many of them are doing fine.
Only 20% of African Americans live in poverty, but many whites do live in poverty, albeit at a lower overall rate.
Of the latter, should they be disadvantaged, because another group is slightly poorer?
Things like education, hard work, careful choices, stable families, and one’s individual work ethic do in fact matter. It should go without saying that both whites and persons of color are capable of those things. They do affect your circumstances.
Unless the government controls the economy, and therefore one’s life, because then hard work, talent, and responsibility matter little.
I lived in New York State for the first four decades of my life. I know of very few people who do better than their parents, and a large number of people who do far worse. I moved to Massachusetts for a far better job six years ago, but will probably move again to the South – costs of living are much less, taxes are far lower, and there are far more economic opportunities.
Bennie has been the state representative from the MS delta area a very long time and little has changed under his leadership. I find the article fair
Perhaps it is. I don’t know enough to credit, or discredit Bloodworth’s or Ty Pinkins’s characterization of him. His “gatekeeping” sounds royally effed-up.
But who has changed the poverty and poor education outcomes much anywhere in Mississippi since the Civil War? Bennie Thompson is the one Democrat from a state with five Republican congressman and two GOP senators and he is the whole problem? C’mon.
“Things like education, hard work, careful choices, stable families, and one’s individual work ethic do in fact matter. It should go without saying that both whites and persons of color are capable of those things. They do affect your circumstances”.
i certainly don’t disagree with any of that. But many whites (and other) are languishing in poverty or dying of overdoses throughout the South, and not just in urban areas. Many people are flourishing in New York, California, and Oregon too. Some such people are insulated pseudo-liberal/progressives who take a mean view of people who think differently than them and don’t give back very much at all.
individual choice matters, but so do circumstances and real opportunity. There is a rampant selfishness and heartlessness in our nation and world today. That worsens the inequality and suffering that are part of the human condition itself. It’s not brand new—in fact I’m sure it’s older than recorded history—but it has surely reached a crisis point in recent years. We all pay for a society that is too angry and unkind toward neighbors and strangers—or even friends and family members!
Just wait till Democrats get power, the fall will be precipitous. There’s much evidence for that happening looking at Democrat controlled inner cities.
Fall from what? A great many residents of Republican-led areas already seem to believe they are living through an American Carnage in their streets and schools.
”Republican-controlled” cities like Dallas and Fresno (population over half a million) have major pockets of crime as well as poverty, addiction, and homelessness.
I agree that progressive strongholds like Portland and San Francisco (an hour to my north) are the biggest messes in many ways—though many still want to live there, not all of them bums and addicts.
These urban nightmare zones are not really being “controlled” at all. To a significant degree, Republican leaders bus their homeless addicts out of state, although they cannot exile all of them. Sometimes they smile for the cameras as they do this.
This situation is the fault of the whole society, not the conveniently charged fault of one party or belief system. (We can argue the balance, but it is not purely one sided). Our society is ailing, and no large group can say they are handling or responding to it well.
You don’t have to like them, but please love ALL your neighbors on this Sunday. I’m not saying you don’t; naïve as it may be; this is a general appeal.
I don’t know about Fresno, but Dallas itself is a Democrat stronghold. I live nearby and can attest to the fact that it is both dark blue in politics and a place you don’t want to be after dark.
Republicans are bad, but the Democrats have become so unhinged it is truly frightening. A decade ago, I could understand voting ‘D’. I truly cannot fathom voting D now as what they currently offer is almost pure hatred and evil. e.g. – they dress it up in virtue, but mutilating and sterilizing confused teenagers and children is not a validation of their feelings.
I would truly love to love ALL my neighbors this Sunday. However, I am struggling with the fact that many of them seem to be completely blind to the hatred and evil of their preferred political party and voting choices. I will gladly pray that their eyes are opened. However, I believe ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ does not apply when your neighbor pursues evil. This is the crux of the problem for me.
Of course it applies. Hate the sin, not the sinner. I don’t claim to live that every day, nor in full. Far from it. It is a scared aspiration; the ultimate tall order.
The hatred and evil you assign to masses of fellow citizens upon political grounds would diminish in size and onesideness if your own eyes were more open. You should pray for that too. I ask for my own eyes and heart to be opened. [end digital sermon].
I guess the mayor of Dallas switched to the Republican Party just last year, several years behind the conversion of Donald Trump, who may be one of the most materialistic and uncharitable people ever born. (I know this was an unforced error given the likely readership here, but he is the undeniable head of the whole party).
*You make a major error by connecting the Democratic Party en masse with mutilation and sterilization of minors. Surgical interventions for children are quite rare, and most Democratic voters and elected officials don’t endorse them.(I’d like to know what the general as well as by-party electorate thinks about hormonal treatments for minors, and under what circumstances. Many are too angry or self-certain to actually talk about it). It’d be about as fair for me to claim that all Republicans support letting women die with unviable pregnancies or forcing ten-year-olds to give birth or flee the state. That would also be a hyperbolic overreach based on real cases.
This mutual demonization has to stop. Saying that the Other Side forces that hatred and demonization out of you is a weak alibi—whatever side one may over-identify with. We’re all stuck on this ship together.
I have had a number of personal experiences lately which make it much harder to see your point of view that we are all in this together. The most salient of these experiences was having 3 of my 4 kids in a school and catching the activist teachers quite literally and deliberately hiding the awful nonsense they were teaching. It was only after we pulled our kids that they opened up about all the things the teachers were really teaching in the classroom because our kids did not want to lose access to their friend group. My wife was volunteering at the school on a weekly basis and we had lengthy discussions with these same teachers about trying to work around political differences. These and many other experiences have hardened my heart quite considerably. Saying the other side disgusts me is simply reality. I have tried so many times to reach across the metaphorical aisle and am tired of the absolute nonsense.
‘Gender reassignment’ hormonal treatments for children are only a very slight degree of difference from outright physical mutilation and I consider them just as demented. The hormonal treatments cause sterility 100% of the time and irreversible changes to many organs. This is not some minor thing like taking a prescription strength antibiotic.
Well I can sympathize with much of that and empathize with the rest, though I’m not in agreement on certain points. I agree that “gender reassignment”—even of the clothing and pronoun kind—has become a moral contagion, and it’s too far away from the source cause of gender dysphoria and depression in many of these kids. I personally think the drugs should be withheld until age 18–maybe 16 in a few cases, with parental consent—and not be used anywhere near so often. Gender surgery for minors, or at taxpayers’ expense (with the possible exception of true hermaphrodites) should not occur, in my opinion.*
But the idea that hormones cause sterility 100% of the time is wildly inaccurate. Where are you even getting that from?
I try to keep in mind that we all came through a very disruptive years-long period of isolation, distancing, and increased mortality—whoever or whatever we blame for that and on whatever grounds. I don’t think most of us handled it all that well, and most of us are still a little crazier, angrier, and sadder because of it. Excessive reliance on screens and divisive sources of information and entertainment sure aren’t helping us either.
I find it hard to feel kinship or neighborly feeling toward my perceived and real opponents too. It reminds me of a country spiritual lyric:
“Waiting for my call to glory / When I’ll know the good and true / Then I’ll learn to love my neighbor / Like He wanted me to do”.
You seem like a conscientious and good hearted person. Please don’t label and write off your fellow humans too easily, if only because it will be measured to us according to the measure we use ourselves.
Thanks for the exchange.
*I am also opposed to the extreme viewpoints, sometimes rising to the level of neo-progressive indoctrination, being advanced in some public schools. I’d note that there is an over-corrective reaction to this on the right, notably in Florida.
Understanding is more important that agreement on all points. Thanks for thoughtfully engaging. Cheers!
Teaching this cultural marxism is far easier than teaching Further Maths, Latin, Greek , French, German, and sports to high enough standard to play for county.
One can judge a secondary school by number of people who go on to read medicine, vetinary science, engineering maths, physics, chemistry, law, languages at top 5 university departments and those who play for country at sport or members of national orchestras.
In Britain the curtailing of entrance exams to Oxford and Cambridge and scholarships to other universities have caused standards to fall. The below connects to a 1983 Cambridge Admissions Exam fro maths.
div > p:nth-of-type(3) > a”>Cambridge Admissions Tests 1983 | PDF | Inductor | Inductance (scribd.com)
The result is that people spend longer in education and more money and delay entering work and earning a salary. This is far more detrimental to poorer people than rich.
I know someone who completed 3 years of Physics at Cambridge in two years and a year of Electrical Engineering, when a degree was three years. Selection based on academic ability at 11 and rigorous schooling enabled very high standards to be achieved at a young age.The gentleman attended King Edward VIth School in Birmingham when it was free, now it is fee paying.
div > p:nth-of-type(6) > a”>King Edward’s School, Birmingham – Wikipedia
Crime is far more detrimental to the poor who live in blocks of flats and park their cars on the street than wealthy who live in secure detached houses with expensive alarm systems. When the poor are burgled they lose a far higher proportion of their wealth and their insurance premiums, if they can afford them are a much higher proportion of their income, than the rich.
Thanks for the specifics. Don’t you think that weak moral character and perhaps insufficient “civicmindedness” also present a problem among elites, on both sides of the Atlantic? I wouldn’t think lack of education would be the chief fault for most of them, despite diminished standards and a rise in mis-education.
Good point that the law-abiding poor bear the brunt of property crime—at least as a percentage of their income and assets (if any).
Agreed, the decline in noblesse oblige by wealthy has made a bad situation worse. Money makes a plutocrat but not a nobleman. The experience of wealthy people fighting alongside poor in WW1 and WW2 brought home to them the horrors of poverty.
In WW1, 20% of the aristocracy was killed, 10% of officers and 5% of those from the ranks. Regiments were raised based upon locality so all fit men from a village or town fought and died together. Consequently people knew who were cowardly and courageous.
Churchill’s old school , Harrow has the record of the highest fatality rate of any public school in WW1, at 27%.
A friend of my Father who was a bomber pilot was shot down,then tortured by the SS for weeks and survived the death marches . After WW2 he became a local politician but stood down because of corruption. He said to me ” I did not fight for this “.
The desire by the wealthy who survived combat to build a better Britain was major cause of honesty and to spend money to improve conditions for the poor. Conservative Prime Ministers Churchill and Macmillan both believed that conditions needed to be improved for the poor to thank them for fighting in two world wars.
Moving and persuasive post. I feel there must be a way to achieve that level of common cause and noble sacrifice without actual warfare but can’t say that the evidence supports that too strongly.
{My Great Uncle was a Canadian who fought for Britain with the bomber squad. He was the only survivor after his plane crashed in 1940, was tortured for a time by the German whose farm he parachuted onto, and lost a leg. He lived into his mid-sixties and had several children.
My dad’s eldest brother, who died this year at 85, was a lifelong fierce lefty in one of the most right-wing places in Canada (Calgary area ranch and farm country). I went to the performance of a play written by him (my late uncle Larry) in his home town of Nanton, Alberta last Remembrance Day weekend*. Many extended family members that none from my branch had seen in decades came thousands of miles from Ontario to see it. It was like Larry’s last big night, and the play was a hit (helps when half the audience is family!). It’s a tribute to his uncle—my great-Uncle John the bomber-plane gunner—called Nobody’s Hero. But he was clearly a hero to my Uncle. To me too now in some real sense, though I never met him}.
They performed it at the the Aviation Museum in “downtown” Nanton, population 3,000ish.
Torture of aircrew by SS and Gestapo appear to have been covered up by Allies and death marches at end of war barely mentioned. The execution of those who escaped from Stalag III has been acknowledged- hence ” The Great Escape “.
Yes you have raised the perhaps the most important point of the 21st century in the Western World ” How does one allow wealth generation without the creation of effete spoilt brats (ESB) who have no loyalty, both to country and other people. These ESBs have no ability to defend freedom and pay others to protect themselves. The end of the Western Roman Empire was because the ESBs refused to die on the frontier defending it. ”
Perhaps some sort of national service undertaking the physical training of the Royal Marine Commandos or “P” Company for Airborne. Assault courses and long marches, carrying heavy loads across rough terrain in cold, wet and windy conditions in winter and blistering heat in summer.
Then spend 6 months as streen cleaner/ rubbish collectors.
In these conditions one’s parents wealth is immaterial.
After all the wealthy of the Middle Ages were knights who were trained to fight from the age of thirteen years or even younger.
The true meaning of aristocracy is power accorded to the best not the wealthy.
Thought provoking. Cheers.
*And no shortage of ESBs in any major party, tough-talking as many such may be. I know I come off like one myself at least some of the time, but I’ve actually seen some labor, volunteering, and hard knocks.
ESBs largely run Western Society hence the success of Putin, Hamas, Bin Laden, Hezbollah, Houthis, Iran, China and N Korea.
We have become rather soft as a hemisphere.
This is not unique to Mississippi. It’s the Dem’s MO and represents the new plantation. Take a look around. Dems run every major city with a significant minority population. As the article says, black dems represent every majority-minority district. Yet, nothing changes. As if nothing is supposed to change. Because change would threaten those in power. And people like Pilkins refuse to see that there is another party. Because he is stuck on the same plantation as those in large cities that continue supporting the same party while wondering why nothing changes.
Do you mean a majority-minority population? Because Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Fresno, for example, are far from lily-white.
The same thing happened to my aunt in VA. She was the Republican nominee for state senate, but she was an outsider who wasn’t the party’s preferred winner of the primary. They shut her out of all assistance for the election, preferring a Democrat to an outsider republican.
An interesting story but unfortunately depressing as we are in the same boat here in North Carolina. If anyone’s interested in why rural white voters went for Robinson, it was because the Democratic party wittered on about climate change and net zero while Robinson spoke about urban sprawl and the need to take on the largest criminal organization in the state, the Department of Transportation.
The same thing takes place in Alabama, next door but worse. The Democratic Party here has essentially collapsed due to factions warring over the spoils, such as they are, with one faction taking the other to court. Until the Democrats unbuckle themselves from the clown car, they will deservedly remain marginal and insignificant.
Pinkins would flourish in state GOP.
Exactly what I was thinking.
There are so many vital stories in my nation that just aren’t being told. Thank you to UnHerd and Mr. Bloodworth for dragging this one out for us to see.
And not a word about Trump! Hallelujah!
Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!…nah, never mind.
In the UK Labour is stuffed full.of nepo MPs – Gould, Conlon, Falconer, Naish, Reeves, and on and on. It reduces trust and perpetuates the PPE (but know sweet FA about anything useful) clown show. Nepo elites are going to be very dangerous going forward – Alex Soros as a sample of one.
One could say that The Black Prince, Richard the Lionheart, Elizabeth I, Wellington, Richard the Lionheart nwere nepo babies. Richard challenged the whole of the arab army to single combat at the Battle of Jaffa and none took up his challenge.
When it was announced to Edward II, that his son was surrounded and fighting for his life he said ” Let him earn his spurs”.
The issue we we have is that we have an affluent effete class who have not earned their spurs. Their courage and competence has not been proved.
Do you think the UK could ever approach true meritocracy, surrendering a widespread fondness for “poshness” and title?
How should their mettle be proven and according to what standards? I’m asking in earnest.
”Nepo baby” is quite a funny term in context; that could apply to anyone in a line of royal or aristocratic succession.
The American elite seem more distinguished by wealth—inherited or not—and looks than their British counterparts. I’m not sure which bias is worse.
Many sons of the gentry and aristocracy serve in the armed forces, especially Guards, Royal Marine Comandos, Parachute Regiment, etc and the Special Forces.
div > p:nth-of-type(2) > a”>Roland Walker – Wikipedia
div > p:nth-of-type(4) > a”>Michael Rose (British Army officer) – Wikipedia
Both of the above are Guards and SAS officers.
Founder of SAS, David Stirling was a Scottish aristocrat.
It is not whether one is posh or has a title but whether one is prepared to die for one’s country. Title originates in about 850 AD because one was prepared to fight and die. The concept of knightly chivalry dates from about 1000 AD and may habe been introduced into Europe from the Beduin. The coat of arms is to identify one on a battle field.
If one looks at the creation of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions what was unique was that British aristocrats such as as the Duke of Bridgewater promoted talent, they recognised genius. James Brindley was chosen by the D of Bridgewater to design and build a canal to move his coal against the opinion of experts .
Both Thomas Telford and G Stephenson are rags to riches stories when landowners were still running Britain.
Jacob Bronowski, author of Ascent of Man said the Industrial Revolution was Britain’s Enlightenment.
Left wing middle class people do not want to accept how meritocratic is Britain as it undermines their argument of a rigid class system. In WW2 40% of pilots were sergeants, many were sons of dockers and miners who had entered the RAF for an apprenticeship and then been chosen to fly. Many were commissioned as officers. Yet in the USA a pilot had to be an officer with a college degree. Some Americans who did not have a college education jouined the RAF so they could fly.
Frank Whittle – Jet Engines, B Wallis- Ships to Swing Wing Technology; JR Mitchell- Spitfire; Joe Smith- Spitfire; Chadwick- Lancaster; Hives – Rolls Royce; de Havilland – Mosquito all left school at sixteen, started an apprenticeship and studied at night school to become engineers. Without these people the Nazis would have won WW2.
A college degree is required to be an officer and pilot in the US military today, but it wasn’t in WWII. My father never graduated from college and became a B-24 pilot in the US Army Air Corp via the cadet program. He stayed in the newly formed US Air Force and retired as a Colonel having never recieved a college degree. Enlisted soldiers can still become helicopter pilots in the US Army.
When did you Father enter the USAF? My comments are based upon statements made by American pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain in 1940.In WW2 far more people were commissioned from the ranks, than before it.
Typical of poor area run by Democrats/Labour. Politics supports a career, status and salary for small number of people of little ability. These people keep their careers only while the area remains poor. It is the case of the one eyed man is king in land of the blind. Once people become skilled well paid articulate courageous independent individuals able to support themselves, they have no need of state hand outs and so the power of the politicians who control these decline. This is why Democrats/labour hate the skilled well paid self- employed and owner of small businesses. Large businesses with a unionised workforce provide money and voting power so are liked by Democrats/Labour.
The Republicans/Conservatives do not like well paid skilled articulate courageous individuals who can demonstrate their incompetence, venality, sloth and cowardice.
Politics has largely become a competition between Republicans/Conservatives and Democrats/Labour competing to for the states resources.
Compare the Democrats in the above article with the words of JF Kennedy at his inaugaral address
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
div > p:nth-of-type(6) > a”>President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961) | National Archives
Ok, but since I know you to be a proponent of duty, tradition, and self-reliance who is not extreme or entirely partisan:
Can you point me to Tory or Republican led areas where the poor are doing a whole lot better? And if so: What are the key interventions or policies that seem to be working best?
I do not believe in tradition for tradition sake. One needs to define the tradition. For me it is the freedom to speak, act, innovate; to benefit from honest hard work and the willingness to train oneself to fight in order to defend freedom combined with a sense of fair play and humour. The ability of the British Empire to fight from June 1940 to June 1941 prevented the Nazis winning WW2.
State education tends to be better and crime lower in Conservative/Republican areas. Poor schools and crime drives out the aspiration classes and many businesses. Look what the 1967 riots in the USA did to middle class areas in cities like Detroit, they collapsed.
In the UK, grammar schools where selection is based upon passing exams at 11 or 13 enable more people from lower income areas to attend top 20 universities. Where Labour councils turned grammar schools into comprehensives in the 1960s and 1970s fewer pupils entered top 20 universities. Grammar schools either became fee paying or moved to areas where they were allowed. Where the grammar schools were in poor areas this greatly disadvantaged .
Manchester one of the best schools in Britain, was free as a grammar but became fee paying in order to prevent the Labour council turning it into a comprehensive.
div > p:nth-of-type(5) > a”>Manchester Grammar School – Wikipedia
If one looks at Switzerland and Singapore which have no natural resources and S Korea which was poorer than Ghana in 1953, high quality technical education from apprenticeships to doctoral studies in engineering and applied science , a work ethic; painstaking attention to detail plus low crime rate has produced high standards of living.
It is simple; high standards of state education and low level of crime attracts aspirational families and poor education and high levels of crime causes them to leave. As Lenin said people vote with their feet.
As always, I appreciate your detail and plainspokenness (which I’m capable of, but don’t use too much).
I agree you don’t advocate tradition for tradition’s sake, but I think you do tend to idealise a time in Britain from about just before WWII until 1965, a period that I think started before you were born and ended when you were a teenager. But not for no reason at all. It was a great time in America too, especially if you were white and not actively at war. Though being 4F for bone spurs or whatever meant you’d miss out on the manly camaraderie and discipline.
Two points:
1) Democrat majority-voter and led areas have some of the best schools in the US, in places like Boston, Austin, and even San Francisco (which also has some of the worst, admittedly—great inequality within a few blocks is too much the norm here).
2) Places that tend Republican/Conservative, tend to have fewer poor people in them, true. Yet the money that is correlated with being more conservative is a huge factor in bringing better schools and less crime: it’s both the chicken and the egg. This is complicated by the rise of MAGA populism among rural whites in particular here, and many of the schools and living conditions are pretty terrible in those communities. Voting GOP may lessen regulations and increase opportunities for wealth accumulation, for example, but it doesn’t automatically increase bank accounts and education levels, of course.
Perhaps education is the main difference between the USA and UK. Labour abolishing grammar schools or making them go private has meant the opportunities for those who cannot afford to move or pay for private education, whether white or from an ethnic minority has become virtually zero. Comprehensives replaced grammar schools and have no no academic streaming,undermining excellence, competitive sports, education and low aspirations. To enter top 10 university Departments for Engineering, Maths and Physics, Further Maths A Level and STEP 2 or 3 are needed and these are hardly taught at any inner city comprehensive. Languages are hardly taught at all in comprehensives.
The abolishing of grammar schools in most of the UK, started in 1965 and was finished by 1975 and this has greatly reduced the ability of the non wealthy to enter the professional middle classes via top 20( and even more top 5 ) universities in Medicine, Vetinary Science , Law, Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Medical Sciences, Languages, Medivel History ( needs Latin and French ).
Labour MPs support the ban of grammar schools and then send their children to them or go private- H Harman, Rosie Duffield and D Abbott to name a few.
Those comprehensives which are adequate are usually ex grammar schools in very affluent areas, Dame Aice Owens being a good example.
As a distant observer of English society—through books, articles, film, tv, and conversation—I see England as a rather class-weighted society still. Not without opportunities to rise and thrive, of course, but perhaps a little less so than for people in the US working class and underclass. And I do mean a little, because to rise from the “hillbilly” underclass like JD Vance is rare here too. And y’all do have your famous footballers, actors, and musicians, etc. of ‘umble origins. (Again, I have no first hand knowledge of your nation).
Some say Americans have no class, which is an exaggeration. There is a posh hereditary class here, of the so-called Boston Brahmin sort: old money and an accent like FDR. You can’t really buy into it, at least not in one generation, but it doesn’t have the importance it once did. And we’ve always loved certain poor boys made good, like Abe Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Still, the hardscrabble Samuel Johnson was the toast of 18th-century London, and Thatcher’s dad was a shopkeeper.
Can you recommend a well-written book—fictional or factual—that deals with the English class or educational system?
Those who have an insight are Charles Northcote Parkinsons books – Parkinsons Law, Law of Profits and In- Laws and Outlaws, East West, and Naval History 1793 to 1815. A Bryant who was C Attlee’s and H Wilson, both Labour Prime Ministers, favourite historian, 3 volume History -Set in a Silver Sea, Freedom’s Island, Search for Justice. G M Trevelyan An English Social History covers from about 1380 to WW1. David Starkey Monarchy Series- on You Tube Ep 1 very important as explains difference between Anglo Saxon and Continental Europe monarchies after fall of Rome, Sam Smiles The Lives of Engineers, also book on Wedgewood. Sam Smiles Self help was called the manual of socialism By Keir Hardie , Founder of Labour Party, James Burke Connections and The Day the Universe Changed- good on Industrial Revolution. J Bronowski The Ascent of Man – good on Industrial Revolution. A Toynbee a Study of History Abridged version by Somervell.
Who knows England who only knows England- Kipling ? To appreciate what makes England different one needs to see what happens elsewhere in Europe. Magna Carta and House of Commons compared to France, Jaqueries Revolt compared to Peasants Revolt, make up of armies in 100 years war, Elizabethan England compared to Phillip II of Spain, English Civil War compared to French Revolution, Dissolution of Monasteries compared to treatment of priests and nuns in French and Spanish Civil War.s
Basically England managed social change with less violence( Orwell); started the decline of the feudal system earlier than others; the creation of a landowning trained and armed class – yeoman archers who were free but not knights; representative government including deciding on taxation – H of Commons from 1298, greater marriage between gentry and merchants than in other countries;greater upward mobility in Middle ages for example Sir Robert Knolles from yeoman to knight banneret, middle class under Elizabeth I and Industrial Revolution
If one looks at other countries the class system is more hidden. Spain vast estates still owned by aristocrats from Reconquista; Germany aristocrats descended from time of Frederick II, Hapsburgs from 980 AD, families in Venice owning palaces and being able to trace their lineage back to 700AD; to much of France run by the students of 14 Lycees and the Grandes Ecoles all in wealthy areas and requires years of study to enter and graduate.Few few poor from the banlieus graduate from Ecole National d’ Administration. If von , van de, di, da in name then of aristocratic origin. Look at who marries who.
div > p:nth-of-type(5) > a”>House of Habsburg – Wikipedia
div > p:nth-of-type(6) > a”>Hermann von Richthofen – Wikipedia
8 years of study and first major job at the age of 30 years.
I would suggest the new class barrier are the years of study required to enter best paying professions over and above minimum leaving age from top 10 ( or top 5 )universities. Poor people need to earn money. They cannot afford four degrees, two years of masters, perhaps a year overseas studying, internships and doctorates which often mean the first professional salary is not obtained until late 20s.
I would suggest upward social mobility has decreased since the 1960s- ending of night school to obtain degrees and chartership of institutions of engineers, decline of Merchant Navy which provided route of upward mobility; decline in size of Armed Forces which enabled people to be commissioned from ranks; decline in manufacaturing, closure of grammar schools, end of scholarships to top universities.
Upward mobility today largely depends upon reading a few subjects at 10 perhaps 20 universities which means living in affluent areas with good schools parents being able to afford feees for private schools and having university educated parents.
In fact John Major, Starmer, Rainer and Lammy went to mediocre universities or not at all and probably would not make it in most Continental Countries which recruit from Grandes Ecoles- Ivy League but with less scholarships.
The major benefit of the USA university education system are the large number of scholarships.
Thank you for the compact overview. You’ve given me a bit too much to follow up on at present, but that’s better than too little.
I watched many episodes of Burke’s ‘Connexions’ on public tv here decades ago (skimmed the print version too); a bit facile but informative and entertaining. I know some of the broad strokes of the history you outline and some of the details, but can tell I’m not seeing a very filled-in picture.
I intend to read Bryant and Trevelyan, both of whom I am aware of (in biographical sketches).
The burning world beckons. See you on the next board.
Burke- Connections and day,, plus J Bownowski are the few people writing about how technological innovation effects history which is usually ignored. The big question is why, where and when innovation occurs and what impact ? Why innovation of electronics and computing in California in 1960s and why did it not occur in 1940s Britain after the development of Turing and Flowers building the first electronic computers ?
Why is the Rennaissance largely a product of Florence not Milan, Turin, Venice, Rome, Paris ?
How can Mississippi become a centre of technical innovation ?
Yes, Burke’s emphasis on a confluence of factors, or fertile series of seemingly random connexions, was important and insightful. I admit I found his intensity and absolute tone a little off putting after a while.
This is simply machine politics. It is absolutely non-democratic. The comparison to Richard Daley is appropriate.
The Dems have a national machine whereas Trump stands against the Republican machine and tries to run his own, much less disciplined, version of the machine. This is how they ousted Biden – Pelosi, the capo di tutti capi, told him she would cut off his funds and destroy his legacy. Even Jill got the message. Hence Kamala the airhead.
Hmmm let’s see, a president who doesn’t want to stand down….. At least no one got killed during Biden’s passing on power to Harris. Could Trump be threatened with his funds getting cut off and his legacy being destroyed? Nope because he’s a self obsessed, immature little boy.
‘he’s a self obsessed, immature little boy’. Thank you for adding such a deep and insightful remark to the conversation.
Can’t he stand as an Independent or do the Republicans and Democrats have it all stitched up across the USA?
The Republicans don’t appear to have helped black Mississippi much. But just wait to see what happens to the downhill trajectory once Democrats get a foothold. Their track record is abysmal.
Benny Thompson is not a man of good character, he’s not to be trusted. That’s clear from the handling of the J6 Committee. Evidence withheld and gross distortions of events were that committees MO.
So, Democrats are just as guilty of ‘Gatekeeper Syndrome’ as Republicans. Fancy that.
Elites from both camps are ultimately ’Breaking Democracy’. But let’s have sympathy for Pinkins because those power hungry Democrats are getting in the way of such a hard working Southern Black man who has struggled all his life. Shame on you Democrats! Republicans would never, have never wanted to hang on to power so much that they would stand in the way of passing power on peacefully!
This would be an inspiring story, but for the fact that if elected Pinkins would quickly become just another sniveling toady for the war-mongering corporatist oligarchic anti-democratic Deep State national Democratic Party. Just like Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Bennie Thompson, John Lewis in his final years, and every other Democratic Party erstwhile voice for change has become in the Obama era.
It appears that the Black Democrats of Mississippi have an Elitist hierarchy just like the rest of the entitled establishment Elites.
Jeff, an interesting read, however maybe you could have asked Mr. Pinkins whether he would consider defecting to the Republicans. The Dems there have locked in the “learned helplessness” whereas Republicans might welcome his ideas.
It’s amazing that what is never discussed is the absurdity of blacks in the south or anywhere else being treated as if they were born Democrats. I’m serious. How does the author have this discussion without addressing the reality that in a state like Mississippi, black candidates competing for Democrat and Republican seats would be good for the state and for both parties and for African-Americans in Mississippi? If you think that there are more Republican racists in the south than Democrat racists then, well, you’re not from the south.
Pinkins should switch parties and run as a Republican. Republicans will see him as an opportunity to help break the stranglehold the Democrats have with Black’s in the state and support him. That is what is happening in other parts of the country, even some other southern states.
It’s inevitable. Pinkins is probably right now in the process of discovering that he was a Republican all along.