Mississippi has some great things going for it. Great barbecue, superb seafood. Hell, Mississippi-born Brett Favre gave Wisconsin a Superbowl and years of fun football. But as much as I love Mississippi pulled pork, I love the opportunity to get an excellent education from passionate teachers at an affordable price even more.

As exquisite as Gulf seafood is, I would much rather have a state where if you work hard and do your due diligence, you will be able to live in relative prosperity. As much as I love Favre and winning Super Bowls, I would much rather live somewhere where women are empowered and treated as equals. Even though Mississippi is interesting, their politics are not ideal and should not become Wisconsin politics.

Unfortunately, many of the policies that have caused Mississippi to fail on multiple levels are being instituted in the state of Wisconsin. From cutting funding for education, to ensuring that workers hold no power, Wisconsin has already started to walk down a dangerous political path.

$250 million cut to UW System remains as Assembly passes state budget

Historically, states like Wisconsin have excelled in helping their citizens move up the social ladder. Even within my (short) lifetime, I have seen firsthand the proud traditions of social justice and a willingness to go the extra mile for our neighbors and communities.

As a lifelong Wisconsinite, I truly believe that we are a fine people with a great tradition. We helped begin a progressive movement that ushered in a new age of prosperity not only in Wisconsin, but all over the country. We helped build world class infrastructure, education systems and a Wisconsin we could all be proud of.

There was an understanding between us that if we helped each other out, everyone could get ahead.

But these ideas appear to have gone out the window with the rule of our current majority party. It is heartbreaking to watch Minnesota, our rival state, succeed on political, economic and social levels, while we regress toward the policies of some of the least successful states in America.

Politically speaking, is Mississippi really where we want to be? Low wage jobs, high poverty rates and reckless policy that ignores the poor and caters to the rich have all contributed to this political disaster of a state.

The disturbing fact is, when you dive into the details of the state, you find that they hold an agenda eerily similar to Wisconsin today.

Right-to-work laws have recently been strengthened even further in Mississippi with the passing of three new laws. Gov. Scott Walker has made Wisconsin a “right-to-work” state.

Mississippi is one of the lowest education spending per pupil states. Wisconsin has cut money from higher education and slashed the rights of teachers.

In 2014, Mississippi women made almost $10,000 per year less than men. Walker and state Republicans just repealed equal pay laws for women in Wisconsin.

Now, I obviously understand that a shift all the way over to Mississippi’s long trend of political calamity would border on impossible in a northern industrial state with progressive strongholds like Madison and Milwaukee. But given the way things are going, we are certainly on our way.

Walker and the recently redistricted state Republicans have taken the ball and run so far to the right that I assumed moderates in the state would not follow. Unfortunately, three election wins in four years have proven that either a little more than half of the voting population of the state doesn’t understand the agenda that Walker and his cronies have set forth, or they understand and agree with it.

In the case of the latter, I think we have to ask ourselves if we want to be with the likes of Mississippi at the bottom of state rankings in almost all economic categories.  

This is alarming stuff. But we can avert this free fall. We can stop electing a governor who only panders to the far right; we can stop electing politicians who want to make our universities third-rate and speak up as government transparency laws are repealed.

This is a public service announcement from a lifelong Wisconsinite and lover of good cheese and great beer. There are so many things we could do to fix this mess. At the rate we have been “Mississippi-fying” our state, it will already take years to fix this all. But if that’s the case, let’s start today. 

Connor Touhey ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and history.