Adults in the Room

When you consider the sorts of things that matter to Democrats and Republicans in Mississippi government, it's easy to definitively pick out the adults in the room.

While Punxsutawney Phil Bryant peeked out of his office today looking for the federal government's shadow, he followed the same trodden path of many discredited, discriminatory, Mississippi governors before him, saying:

Because these decisions are better left to the states, and not made at the point of a federal bayonet, Mississippi's public schools should not participate in the president's social experiment.

Perhaps this sort of language keeps Bryant's appetite for "states' rights" satiated, but it's the sort of distraction that has led to the habitual failure to acknowledge the real issues facing our state. It's the sort of attitude that has directly contributed to the collapsing bridges and roadways, failing schools, and dying hospitals.

Now in 2016, Bryant finally has the genetic makeup he prefers in the House and Senate, and his legislative cronies (slash Gubernatorial farm team) Speaker Gunn and Lieutenant Reeves have offered up the economic package they've always wanted:

A complete short on public services, with miscalculations to boot. They had plenty of money for more corporate tax cuts, but not enough for basic functions of our state. And if that's not enough, they didn't even give themselves enough money to fund the stuff they did approve.

So, today, when Legislative Democrats reached out to Governor Bryant to call a special session directed at solving our devastating mental health crisis, we can all imagine that none of them held their breath. But that doesn't mean they aren't right for doing it, and it doesn't mean they don't deserve a round of applause.

Because at least someone is acting like an adult.