Scruggs Nation, Day 48: looking ahead, and looking way ahead

A common sentiment among many of the people I have communicated with in Mississippi is hope, hope that despite the embarrassment of the ongoing investigations and revelations, a new and better future awaits. I think this accounts for much of the vehemence that we are seeing as more allegations come to light -- a desire to storm the Bastille, and tear it down so that no stone is left standing on another. In this view, a good chunk of the state's legal and political system has long since fallen into the hands of an oligarchy that operates as a law unto itself while perverting the authority and means of the state, simultaneously using this power for its own ends to steamroll opposition while maintaining a surface appearance of legitimacy to cover its tracks and allow itself to functio