Late in his second term as governor of Mississippi, Kirk Fordice delivered a State of the State speech where he was not interrupted a single time by applause.
The House chamber in the state Capitol was as quiet as a church mouse on a Sunday morning.
By the time Fordice delivered the State of the State address sans applause, a series of events had occurred making it clear he was cheating on First Lady Pat Fordice. Those events culminated with a near-fatal car wreck the governor suffered in November 1996 while returning to Jackson after sneaking away to visit another woman in Memphis.
Kirk Fordice, governor of Mississippi 1992-2000The Fordice State of the State speech in the late 1990s, juxtaposed with President Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union address, crystallizes the political change that has occurred in the last quarter of a century.
Modern-day politicians, at least Donald Trump, can survive many more scandals than they could during the era of Kirk Fordice.
Fordice was a blunt spoken, in-your-face politician, and was immensely popular, especially among a growing Republican base of voters who had revered him as the party’s first governor of Mississippi since the 1800s.
For much of his gubernatorial tenure, hints of Fordice’s marital infidelity had been ignored, especially by the Christian right that embraced him.
But by the time of that fateful State of the State speech as the evidence piled up of Fordice’s indiscretion, no one was willing to stand up for him on that quiet January day in the ornate chamber of the Mississippi House as he spoke uninterrupted.
It should be noted that Fordice’s combustible tendencies, often berating both his allies and his enemies, might have contributed to those attending the State of the State not displaying any support for the governor.
The president also has a penchant for exploding in anger at those loyal to him and those who are not. In short, the president has said and done things that would have doomed politicians in a past era – a not too distant era, such as the era when Fordice served as governor of Mississippi. Trump, on the other hand, remains popular among Republicans.
For instance, as Trump recently delivered the longest State of the Union speech in modern American history, he was repeatedly interrupted by thunderous applause by his Republican supporters.
True, Democrats sat quietly and a few heckled him, as has also occurred in recent years with Republican lawmakers when past Democratic presidents delivered their State of Union addresses. Many other Democrats simply did not attend Trump’s speech.
Still, the support of loyal Republicans, both politicians and non-politicians, to Trump has not wavered and did not as he delivered his State of the Union address.
The president’s missteps or misdeeds are far too many to count. They include multiple claims of sexual misconduct, including bragging of sexually assaulting women, being found guilty by a civil jury by a preponderance of the evidence of sexually assaulting a woman, being accused of sexual assault by countless others. He infamously belittled the late Sen. John McCain for serving as a prisoner of war after his airplane was shot down in Vietnam. Trump was forced to close his charity endeavors after they were found to be a scam. The list goes on and on.
There is evidence that Trump was sleeping with a porn star.
Still, nowhere is the support for the president stronger than right here in Mississippi among many Republican politicians and non-politicians. It is of note that right here in the heart of the Bible Belt not that many years ago people were so troubled by the conduct of a Mississippi governor that they sat quietly as he delivered his State of the State speech.
Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice’s Jeep Grand Cherokee is shown to the public Tuesday, Nov. 12, 1996, at the Mississippi Highway Patrol Headquarters in Jackson, Miss. The State Highway Patrol had refused access to the sport utility vehicle that Fordice was driving when he crashed off a north Mississippi Interstate one week earlier. The 62-year-old governor, who remained in intensive care days later, said he did not remember anything of the accident. Credit: AP Photo/Dan LohAnd what did poor Kirk Fordice do to deserve their disdain?
The 60-something Fordice ended up leaving his wife, not for a younger woman, but for a woman who had been his high school sweetheart.
Granted, that is nothing to be proud of, but compared to what is tolerated nowadays by Mississippians, especially by Mississippi politicians, Fordice’s scandal was fairly tame stuff.
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