Last week, Rep. Jon Lancaster, who has represented parts of Chickasaw and Pontotoc counties since 2019, announced he was switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, a move he said would give his constituents more effective representation in the Capitol where Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.

Lancaster’s defection hardly changes the calculus in the state’s power structure. That ship sailed 10 years ago when Republicans gained their supermajorities in the House and Senate, the culmination of 30 years in shifting political fortunes of the two parties in the state.

Instead, Lancaster’s decision to switch parties only confirms what we already know: Mississippi is a one-party government, one controlled by white legislators.

White Republicans now hold 77 of the 122 seats in the House and 36 of 52 seats in the Senate.

With Lancaster’s switch, that means there are only four white Democrats in the House and two white senators.

As it is with so many things in our state, our Legislature is now essentially segregated along racial lines and is dominated by white legislators. Since 2000, 12 white legislators who were first elected as Democrats now serve as Republicans.

What that means is that there is no meaningful Black/white coalition in the Democratic Party caucus. Black Mississippians have no effective voice in Jackson unless a new coalition can be formed across the aisle. To do that, Democratic voters face an unpleasant task which I’ll explain later.

One-party rule almost always leads to extremism, which is bad for fair-minded people, both Black and white. Over the past 10 years, our GOP-controlled government has taken us down a dangerous path of extremism, often defying the clear will of the people.

Why doesn’t our state have a medical marijuana program after voters approved it by an almost 3-1 margin in November? Why hasn’t the state expanded Medicaid for low-wage working men and women in the state when polls consistently show 60 percent of Mississippians support Medicaid expansion? Why did it take five years for the state to finally change its Confederate-adorned state flag in the aftermath of the Dylann Roof massacre at a South Carolina church? Why did Mississippi claim the dubious distinction of having the highest COVID-19 death rate in the nation?

There’s a one-word answer for all of those questions: Republicans.

I should probably qualify that by referring to them as extremist Republicans.

I do know some Republican legislators whose views are more moderate, less extreme, but they are careful in what they say and often go with the tide of extremism that dominates the Capitol as a means of self-preservation.

Even so, the loudest and most effective voices in the Capitol are the extremists. House Speaker Philip Gunn fits that mold. His efforts to eliminate the state sales tax — a tax that wipes out a third of the state’s income — will be his top priority when the 2022 session begins in January. If it passes it will be a blow the state will never overcome. Any hopes of adequately funding the services our people rely on will be gone for a long, long time, perhaps forever.

With a state Democratic Party that is now irrelevant, Democrats must adjust their strategy if they have any hope of turning the tide of extremism that has come to dominate our state government.

Democrats should vote in the Republican primaries. Because voters in Mississippi do not register by party affiliation, they are free to vote in either primary.

We saw an example of how that strategy works in 2014, when Democratic voters crossed party lines in the GOP primary runoff for the U.S. Senate. In that race, radical right-winger Chris McDaniel of Ellisville held a narrow lead over incumbent Thad Cochran after the primary election. In the runoff, Democrats joined Cochran’s Republican supporters to derail McDaniel’s challenge.

Until Democrats can rebuild the state party — something that will likely take years to achieve — the only real option is what most would consider choosing the lesser of two evils. Right now, Democrats cannot win, but they can have a real influence on who does.

Right-wing extremists like Gunn or Gov. Tate Reeves can be beaten. Moderate Republicans can win. That’s something Democrats still have some control over.

The message should be: Vote GOP in the primaries, Democratic Party in the general elections. In other words, hedge your bets.

It’s not the ideal situation, obviously.

But it’s the only option available to stem the tide of GOP extremism. Unless and until that happens, there is no hope for any across-the-aisle coalition that will protect the interests of Black Missisissippians and moderate/progressive whites.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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