Impressions from then and now …

Forty-three years ago when I first began writing a weekly political column, several focused on the new Republicanism emerging in Mississippi as portrayed by party leaders. They described a surging party intent on building a strong two-party system in Mississippi.

A strong two-party system was the goal of long-time party builder Clarke Reed. “From now on the best man will win no matter which party he belongs to,” he said.

He had just turned the party chairmanship over to “young, handsome Laurel attorney Charles Pickering,” the lone Republican in the Mississippi state senate. Pickering was seen as “a young, aggressive force for good government in Mississippi.”

“No tunnel-vision reactionary,” I wrote, “Pickering speaks of Republicanism that retains its commitment to fiscal responsibility but which addresses itself to the needs for charity and opportunity for the poor.”

“Two Thursdays ago, State Republican Chairman Charles Pickering and GOP leader Gil Carmichael spoke to an NAACP gathering in Jackson,” I wrote later. “Their visit typifies the GOP commitment to include blacks in the Mississippi party.”

At that time I was the young editor of a weekly paper in Tallahatchie County, but also the GOP county chairman. I was among many young Mississippians tired of the stagnant, prejudiced, one-party domination of Big Jim Eastland’s Democratic Party.

Zip ahead 43 years and what do we find?

One party domination sticks out the most. The concept of a strong two-party system has faded from Republican rhetoric. Reed’s “best man” wins concept is far less important than party label, as it was back then. Indeed, the dominant GOP base of voters today much resembles that of Big Jim’s Democratic Party.

Back then, too, Speaker Buddie Newman, a staunch Eastland ally, wielded autocratic control over the Mississippi House of Representatives. Today, Speaker Philip Gunn does much the same. He controls major legislation with an iron fist and similar lack of transparency to Newman’s.

The concepts of “good government” with “fiscal responsibility” that addressed “the needs for charity and opportunity for the poor” seem gone with the wind. That focus has given way to the old ways of “political government” and “fiscal favors” with token crumbs for those in need. Nothing, perhaps, depicts this better than Gov. Tate Reeves’ call last week for more tax cuts in the face of huge needs in health care and schools in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing crises in our prisons and hospitals, continued critical needs for road and bridge repairs, and so on.

The fervor for a strong-two party system among early Republicans 43 years ago was tangible. One of those early Republicans from east Mississippi contended that one-party domination of Mississippi government was similar to communist party domination in Russia.

Those leaders, today, would chime in with cartoonist Walt Kelly’s swamp character Pogo, who quipped in 1970, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” – Proverbs 27:1.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.