I have no choice!

The election handouts have begun around my town in (ultra conservative) Mississippi. The county I live in is @89% white and @99.99% Republican. Democrats have zip, zero, zilch chance of winning any electoral post, not even dogcatcher. So no Democratic or Independent candidates even bother to run. It’s just too expensive to fight against an entrenched “right-wing”, conservative, Republican majority of people in my district who seem to be more interested in preserving the status-quo rather than analyzing the issues and possibly voting outside their traditional party affiliations. I don’t know which they fear more, their neighbors, their families or their church. (I always thought that voting booths were private and my ballot was secret. I’m not silent about my Progressive political beliefs either.) It appears that group political affiliation to southerners is as important as saying you belong to the human race as long as it’s white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. This makes “preaching to the choir” a more meaningful statement to me.

“The Blind Side”, a movie starring Sandra Bullock and Kathy Bates, is based on a true story about Michael "Big Mike" Oher, an African-American kid, adopted by a white couple Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, who graduated from Old Miss and went on to play pro football in the NFL. It takes place in the conservative southern state of Tennessee. Kathy Bates character “Miss Sue” is “Big Mike’s” tutor and offers this disclaimer to the Tuohys before she begins to work for them: "Ms. Tuohy, there is something that you should know about me. I don't usually tell many people but I feel that it is something you should be aware of before you hire me. ("Uh, what is it?") I'm a Democrat." That statement sums up the political atmosphere across the southeast.

So. when the air gets sucked out of any local election by closed-minded conservative citizens so that the other party doesn’t even bother to run, it takes away MY choice. This has been going on for over 50 years and probably won’t change for at least another 50 years. Every election cycle has a large turnout so that the Republican candidates can be rubber-stamped into office. The only “choice” we have on the ballot in most elections here is “which” Republican gets into office. So every election cycle I take all the election literature hung on my doorknob, mailed to me, or handed out at the local Kroger and file it unceremoniously in the circular file next to my desk at home. I still go to the polls just in case some brave Democrat or Independent decides to run for “Dogcatcher”.