Tuesday evening, Mississippi University for Women held a candidates forum for the four men who are running to fill the unexpired, one-year state senate term of the late Terry Brown.
After listening to the candidates, I was reminded of a proposal once made by Mark Twain, who suggested that all monarchs be replaced with cats. If the same could apply to state government, we might do well to consider sending a cat to Jackson on Nov. 4.
I know this may sound a little harsh, so let me quickly say that all four of the candidates — Bill “Doc” Canon, Bill Gavin, Bobby Patrick and Chuck Younger — seem like really nice, well-intentioned guys. I’m pretty sure every one of them would help you out of a ditch if you ran into one, although I suspect Canon would first inform you of how the ditch was first funded, mostly likely, during his previous stint in the Legislature. Patrick wouldn’t pull you out of the ditch, but would tell you funny ditch stories until the tow truck showed up. Gavin and Younger will agree that it was not good for people to be stuck in ditches, but that it does happen sometimes.
That was the whole problem with this debate. Everyone was far too agreeable. It was a pattern that emerged almost from the start. Under the format, a question was posed to a candidate and then the other three candidates were given time for a rebuttal. The only problem was that the first candidate’s response was either so superficial or irrelevant that the other candidates found it difficult to disagree.
“I pretty much agree with what he said,” was generally the opening line of the rebuttals.
Candidates were questioned on a variety of topics, including funding for K-12 education, higher learning, the minimum wage, industry and jobs, taxes and crime.
Generally speaking, all of the candidates favor funding schools, provided there is money for it, of course. And if there isn’t? No one proposed an answer for that very real possibility.
The candidates appeared to have no real ideas, and that was the single disappointing aspect to the debate.
These candidates have had weeks to consider what it is they want to accomplish as a state senator. You might think a serious candidate would have a clear idea of what he wanted to get done in Jackson and lay out a strategy to achieve those goals. But there was nary an idea offered. Apparently, the candidates intend to just show up and be carried along with the tide. When given an opportunity to discuss a problem, they hemmed and hawed and offered nothing. Cats are likely to be just as effective.
Asked about the making a choice between tax cuts and funding programs, Younger responded: “I’m not even going to go there.” Gee, Chuck, that pretty much settles the issue. Thanks.
Really, the audience of roughly 100 didn’t seem any more inspired than I was, until it was Canon’s turn to answer a question about what to do about gun violence in Lowndes County.
“It means we need more guns,” Canon said, eliciting the first and only sustained applause of the evening. Take from that what you will.
Fortunately, there were no questions about drownings (solution: more water) or car accidents (solution: more cars).
It was a position that the other candidates found little fertile ground to attack, so instead they used their allotted time not to talk about the causes of gun violence in Lowndes County, but what absolutely, positively is not the cause of gun violence in Lowndes County – gun control.
It was sort of like going to the doctor with an illness and listening to him talk about what you don’t have. You’re no better off than you were before.
Younger was last to speak on this subject. He noted that he not only was opposed to gun control, but that he had recently paid his membership dues to become a “lifetime member” of the NRA. “And they are already calling me and asking for more money,” he grumbled mildly.
There was one other trend I noticed. Each of the candidates seemed to base their responses, in part, on random conversations that had just had earlier in the day, which implies, if nothing else, they are inclined to listen.
Canon even went farther, saying that the idea that people are sent to the Legislature to do what they think is right is, in fact, wrong. “You are sent to the Legislature to do what the people who send you there think is right,” he said. Ponder that for a moment.
Now that the debate is over, it is difficult to say which candidate would best serve our interests. All would do their dead-level best, I am sure, but it’s really a matter of which four old white guys who all have the same ideas should get the job.
And based on Tuesday’s debate, it’s hard to choose from among them, although I will not be at all surprised if there isn’t one write-in vote for “Whiskers.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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