The problem with Jackson, Mississippi — and America

OPINION:

If you want a vision of America’s future, look no further than Jackson, Mississippi. My family and I have lived in Jackson for more than 10 years. We are not tucked away in a gated community, insulated by private security and high-priced homes.

We live in a quiet neighborhood bordered by large pockets of homelessness, drug use and human trafficking, facilitated by proximity to Interstate 55. It is not the worst part of town, but also not the best.

And we have seen it all: constant boil-water notices — so common that the courtesy calls stopped long ago; brown, wormy bathwater; unreliable or nonexistent trash collection; dangerous, pothole-ridden roads; poor drainage that causes flooding; frequent blackouts (as I write this, we are going on our seventh day without electricity); and uncertain police protection.

Jackson is approaching what political observers call a “failed state.” A failed state is one in which the government no longer functions.

Jackson is not quite there, but whenever there is any kind of strain on the system — bad weather, political squabbling or even a big football game — the city has trouble providing even the most basic services.

If you think Jackson is unique, look to Texas, where the power grid has been unable to handle extreme winter or summer temperatures. (As one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world, Texas’ predicament is ironic.)

Or look at Seattle, where violent protesters took over part of the city for almost a month.

Or Washington, where Congress’ inability to govern or even balance the budget has empowered the executive branch to run the country by means of executive orders, emergency declarations and agency guidance documents.

These are all signs — electrical grids faltering even with an abundance of resources on hand, politicians refusing to let the police do their job, legislative bodies incapable of actually governing — that America, too, is failing.

The state of Mississippi is doing its best to bail Jackson out, providing enhanced law enforcement and infrastructure assistance. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn have also tried to address the city’s water problems.

Residents just want things to work. They don’t want to move. They want their city back.

But Jackson is not making a comeback. A comeback would require a “conversion,” a literal turning away from the old and turning toward a new way of doing things.

Conversions can happen all at once. With cities, however, they seem to proceed more incrementally.

New York experienced a conversion of sorts when it started policing petty crimes, realizing that criminals who aren’t held accountable for smashing in windows will graduate to theft, rape and murder.

New Orleans experienced a conversion when the state of Louisiana transformed nearly all of the city’s public schools into public charter schools.

Both cities have since reverted to their old ways.

Jackson could do similar things — increase its police presence, conduct basic upkeep on water treatment facilities, invest in better road materials and maintenance. I have waited for these things to happen for a long time.

Sitting here in the Mississippi heat, I realize my hopes are misplaced. The city’s leadership, and the companies, contractors and cronies who benefit from this leadership, don’t particularly want to make things better — and they may well want things to get worse.

States fail when politicians — like Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador or the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez — choose to increase their power by increasing dysfunction. People crave certainty, meaning a bad solution is usually perceived as better than no solution.

By permitting violence to grow and government services to degrade, such political leaders take advantage of the need for certainty by promising to make things better for those who support their cause. For the clients and loyalists and insiders, life gets a little — and sometimes a lot — better.

For everyone else, it gets worse.

Likewise, American lawmakers have ignored, or made worse, so many problems for so long that it seems we are experiencing an intentional decline.

Take welfare. We all know it is better for people to work than to be on the dole. Yet federal welfare-to-work requirements have been consistently weakened over the years.

Or consider immigration. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan promised “to control illegal immigration” in exchange for amnesty for 3 million people. Multiple amnesties have occurred since then, and the border situation is worse than ever.

Or look at the recent debt ceiling negotiations, which resulted in modest spending cuts in exchange for no limits on government borrowing for the next two years.

Small changes made now could help reverse course. Forget paying down the debt — how about just following a budget?

Or how about using our military and financial resources to secure our own border instead of pouring money, men and weaponry into defending someone else’s?

Or how about building up the middle class instead of gutting it with policies that discourage work and marriage?

In a failed state, things stop working because people with the skills and desire to make things better are prevented from doing so. Sometimes these people are removed from their jobs and replaced with incompetent loyalists.

Sometimes they leave of their own accord in search of a better life elsewhere.

Jackson, Mississippi, leads the United States in population decline. Crime, corruption, incompetence and hopelessness are driving people away.

How long will it be before America suffers the same fate?

• Jameson Taylor is director of policy for AFA Action. He led the effort to pass the 15-week abortion ban that resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade and is also responsible for helping pass best-in-the-nation welfare-to-work reform in Mississippi.