As always, the GOP goes with what works, get votes. While the Democrats clutch pearls and wring their wrists, “Whatever shall we do?!”

Y’all ever been to Mississippi? How about Louisiana, AKA, “At least we’re not Mississippi! We’re #2!”

Such beautiful states, such beautiful people. Guess most of you won’t believe that. Easier to believe they’re all hate filled, racist rednecks (Despite the shitloads of black people living there.) Fits the memes around here, fits the zeitgeist. Gets upvotes, and the same one-liner comments.

These people are in desperate straits. Lashing out, listening to anyone who promises to heal their pain. And their pain is real, and their pain is a liberal punching bag. But hey! Perfectly safe to trash those people! They’re subhuman and it’s all their own fault! (Do not bag on any other group of poor people on this globe. Those people are victims, not their fault.)

I don’t know how we break them free from animals like this governor. They’ve been caught in a downward spiral since the Civil War. I drive through and see the wealth disparity. I talk to people I meet in the lonely backwoods gas stations. I see the love and community, and yes, community between blacks and whites. (I could go on about that last bit, but you won’t believe me.) The suffering I see breaks my fucking heart.

I cried my eyes out when Katrina hit. Cried and wept and raged for my neighbors. (I had just got through Hurricane Ivan.) Did you know southern MS took it in the teeth and New Orleans was merely collateral damage? I cried for all of them. Fuck me, I’m weepy now.

If you give a shit about America’s poorest, and how they feel, where they’re at:

https://www.youtube.com/@PeterSantenello

Give it a spin. I warn you, his videos are not cutesy little clips. He goes there, he asks hard questions, he talks to the sorts of people most of you have never met. Takes some time to intake.

Or, just make some more snide comments about us dumbass Southerners, feel righteous and superior, and go about your day.