One of those ideas is raising the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour. One might think that southern states like Mississippi would be opposed to that, since the many Republicans they have sent to the Senate and House are dead set against raising the minimum wage by any amount (and some would even abolish it) -- but that would be wrong. The people of Mississippi actually favor raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour by a 17 margin (54% to 37%).
That probably shouldn't surprise us, since the state has as many low-wage workers (making at or slightly above minimum wage) percentage-wise as Texas does (which leads the nation in minimum wage workers). The real surprise comes in the second and third charts -- which concern granting equal rights to those in the LGBT community.
A whopping 66% (including a slight majority of Republicans) say employers should not have the right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation (38 points higher than those who would support such discrimination). And a plurality of 49% think gays/lesbians should have legal rights equal to those of married heterosexual couples, either through marriage or civil unions (with 21% supporting legal marriages and 28% supporting legal civil unions). About 45% oppose those equal rights.
Social change is happening, even in the Deep South. The ideas that workers deserve a livable wage for full-time work and that the LGBT community deserves the same rights that other Americans enjoy are sweeping this nation -- and even the reddest states are starting join in the fight for social justice.
The charts above were made from a recent Public Policy Polling survey (taken between November 15th and 17th of 502 Mississippi voters, with a 4.4 point margin of error).
I have lived in TX and am now living in MS (no, I'm not a masochist) and I would say that TX is about 10% more conservative than MS. I would still be living in TX if they didn't have such patriarchal rules and laws like a woman must put her maiden name as her middle name on her driver's license and her medical records must be filed under her husband's name unless she is single, etc. Anyway, I hope I can hear the words 'Governor Wendy' soon and I might just think about moving back to TX...unless MS raises its minimum wage to $10/hr.
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