When I read last week that Gov. Phil Bryant had picked state Rep. Andy Gipson to fill the vacancy of commissioner of agriculture and commerce, my first reaction was, “Good, at least it will get him out of the Legislature.”
Not only was that uncharitable, but it also was probably unfair.
True, there have been several issues over the years in which I have disagreed with the Rankin County Republican, mostly notably his reactionary position on guns.
Most every session since his election in 2008, Gipson has been in the forefront of loosening up gun laws in Mississippi as a response to gun violence. He has unfortunately been mostly successful at it.
This past session was one of the few times he lost on this issue, when the university presidents, their athletic directors and even the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference ganged up to help kill a Gipson-authored bill that would have stopped the schools from banning firearms at athletic venues.
Gipson, I wrote earlier this year, “won’t be happy until there is a handgun in every back pocket or purse of every non-felon in this state.”
I still believe that to be close to the case.
He also has had a tendency to invite lawsuits against the state by pushing conservative social legislation that bucks U.S. Supreme Court rulings on issues ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion.
Although I personally agree with him that life begins at conception, I know that the current majority on the U.S. Supreme Court does not. As a lawyer, he knows it, too. Thus, pushing through laws that further restrict abortion rights in a state with already some of the toughest restrictions and the lowest frequency of abortion seems to be designed more for political gain than anything.
But then an article in the Clarion Ledger about Gipson’s promotion reminded me of some legislative actions he has taken that required both courage and compassion, and definitely were not catering to his conservative base.
He championed in 2014 reforms to the criminal justice system that further encouraged and empowered judges to use alternatives to incarceration, such as drug courts, when sentencing. The legislation also lowered the penalties on minor drug offenses, which in the past had sent a disproportionate share of young black men to prison.
During the recently completed legislative session, he authored a bill — passed unanimously in both chambers and signed last week by Bryant — to stop cities and counties from locking up low-income people who truly can’t afford to pay their fines. That law will hopefully end the shameful practices that have created the modern-day equivalent of debtors’ prisons in this state.
So, how do you square Gipson’s ultraconservative stands on some issues with his progressive stands on others?
I’m not sure you can, other than to acknowledge that none of us are as single-minded as we are often judged by those who don’t really know us.
We all are a mixture of good and bad, both in our personality traits and our ideas. No one has a monopoly on wisdom, and sometimes the best ideas come from the most unlikely of places.
Maybe that’s a timely point to make this Easter season, when the followers of Jesus Christ are asked to remember that he died on the cross not only for those who were in his inner circle but for all mankind. Christianity is a faith that asks its followers to be inclusive, starting with being open to those with whom you think you have little in common.
When Bryant announced his appointment of Gipson as agriculture commissioner, the governor evoked the possibility that he was putting his colleague on the same path that another governor, Kirk Fordice, set Bryant on more than 20 years ago.
Like Gipson, Bryant was a member of the House of Representatives at the time, and Fordice moved Bryant over to the executive branch by making him the state auditor. The appointment significantly raised Bryant’s public profile and eventually led him to two terms in the Governor’s Office.
Gipson will have to demonstrate that he’s got more progressive in him than he’s got reactionary before I’ll start hoping for a repeat. I’m going to try to be open to the possibility, though.
