Opinion

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant doesn't have to manufacture problems

The governor should give it a rest.

To hear him tell it, he is under siege by an angry mob of progressives for signing House Bill 1523.

"About 60 days ago," he said at a speech at the Family Research Council, "all of the secular, progressive world had decided they were going to pour their anger and their frustration -- their friends in the media willingly joining with them to bring all that they could upon the governor of the state."

(Quick fact: The majority of people in Mississippi and the United States identify as Christians.)

But the governor wasn't finished.

"How dare them," he said. "How dare them."

We can only hope Bryant's victim card has finally worn out. He certainly slaps it on the table whenever he's criticized.

It's not the media's fault he was pressured by conservatives to OK a law that was drafted outside the state.

The media told him it was a bad idea that would lead to costly litigation and would make it tougher for the state to compete in a very competitive tourism market (New Orleans to the right of us, Gulf Shores and Florida's Emerald Coast to the left).

But he soldiered on.

Bryant said he was trying to protect circuit clerks from being forced to issue licenses for same-sex marriages.

That, Governor, is not a problem in Mississippi.

Enrollment cuts at Mississippi Math and Science School because of state budget cuts is a problem. The chronic short-changing of the rest of our school systems is a problem.

The diaspora of some of our best graduates is a problem.

Mississippi's chronically high unemployment rate is a problem.

The state's heavy dependence on money from a federal government the governor and his colleagues claim to distrust and dislike (except when it comes to handouts) is a problem.

In Mississippi, 60 percent of our counties are defined as Persistent Poverty Areas (counties that have more than 20 percent of the population living below the poverty level for at least three decades). That's a problem that has bedeviled governor after governor.

That problem wails for this governor's attention.

But our governor is distracted by his make-believe war on his values.

It's past time for him to get to work on the real problems.

This editorial represents the views of the Sun Herald editorial board. Opinions of columnists and cartoonists are their own.

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