I have been rarely been so ambivalent about an election as I am about today’s Republican Senate primary in Mississippi. Incumbent Thad Cochran is 76 years old and has been serving in the U.S. Senate since late-1978. As you might expect from a man from the Deep South, he has a very conservative voting record. But he’s also what is known as an “appropriator,” which means that he isn’t the kind of guy to lead a government shutdown. He’s willing to appropriate money for programs and engage in horse-trading, and we need more Republicans like him in Congress, not fewer.
If you’ve never much noticed Senator Cochran, that’s because he isn’t a bomb-thrower and he doesn’t go on television to trade barbs or aggrandize himself. He has a stately manner and he goes about his business like a professional. For all of these reasons, the Tea Party base of the Republican Party has no love for him, and they’re backing his neo-confederate primary opponent, state Senator Chris McDaniel.
If Chris McDaniel replaces Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate it will be a real loss, and it will send an ominous message to the Republicans who remain in Congress that they cannot legislate or appropriate funds without imperiling themselves.
On the other hand, it’s possible that McDaniel could lose a general election against the likely Democratic nominee, former U.S. Representative Travis Childers. I wouldn’t expect Childers to be helpful to the Democrats on any vote where he was actually needed, but he could keep control of the Senate in Harry Reid’s hands, which would be quite valuable.
As Cochran scrambles to try to save his seat, he’s been going hat-in-hand to the African-American community, which is immense in Mississippi. If he wins, he will owe them and could be helpful in repairing the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. In contrast, McDaniel is good friends with the Sons of Confederate Veterans. To give you an idea about the political leanings of the Mississippi SCV chapter, in 2011 they launched a campaign to have the state issue Nathan Bedford Forrest license plates. Forrest is most famous for his early role with the Ku Klux Klan.
If I knew for certain that Travis Childers would beat Chris McDaniel it would be easy for me to root for a McDaniel victory tonight. But even that outcome, which is the best on offer, would come with some serious downsides, since it would further intimidate any Republican who is tempted to be reasonable.
I tend the think the GOP’s greatest enemy is itself. Let it shine in all its glory. Let us not cling to the false hope that there is any pragmatism, patriotism, or populism left in the GOP. McDaniel is today’s GOP. The Tea Party is today’s GOP. The sooner middle America realizes this the better.
Will they realize it, though?
Oh sure. Eventually when someone that can’t be ignored in the public sphere effectively stands up to the bullies. Not going to be Democratic neo-liberal-cons.
Will add that at the moment there doesn’t seem to be an individual of the stature required to point out the obvious. As the madness increases, the requisite stature for calling it madness will also increase. i.e “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Stature is also not a static state. For example, back in 2002-3, Colin Powell could have stopped the mad rush to the Iraq War by publicly stating that there was no case for war. Today, nobody gives a shit what Powell says.
My concern is if this McDaniel guy wins he could have 2 or 3 terms ahead of him. This is Mississppi after all, not a swing state. I’d rather Cochran win.
I’m not sure what ‘owe them’ really means, absent a way to collect on the debt.
Fuck Cochran.
He’s been no friend to practically any progressive cause. Even when he’s protecting HIV programs, he does it to prevent an implementation of “Obamacare”.
Let McDaniel win. Let the bomb throwers have MS.
Trotsky was right. It won’t get better till it gets worse.
What exactly does “rooting” do in politics?
A Thad Cochran victory only helps if there is massive and measurable, even Presidential-level, African-American turnout. That would give the right-wing Republicans (and Cochran as well) a Hobson’s choice. It would also make a Blue Dog scramble to preserve a taken-for-granted part of his base.
I find it interesting to watch as a possible strategy.
Okay maybe its because I was REALLY into the Civil War as a kid, but I don’t think Nathan Bedford Forest is MOST famous for his Klan founding activities.
He is in the South.
I used to have a weekend place in Pulaski. Most of the people there didn’t even know what his rank in CSA was. They sure knew what he started though.
Interesting example of when more facts/data leads to less knowledge. May be less rare than we would assume.
I would say his cavalry mobility would be more famous but I avoid the south so it could be as you say.
I’m a lifelong Southerner and history major and I don’t recall anyone ever making a big deal about Forrest’s affiliation with the KKK. The latter was something most folks were fearful and wary of, including us white ones. I remember that Forrest was most discussed as a leading Confederate military figure of great skill and undoubted physical courage.
For people who actually READ history (or write it) you are absolutely correct.
For the rest? Not so much.
Should also be noted that eventually the Klan’s actions became too much even for Forrest though obviously it was a distance of degree, not kind.
Mississippi is the definition of Red State Welfare. They want to vote against the man who has been bringing them the money they need to survive? Fine. Let’s see how long it takes them to realize what a bad idea that is. Some people only learn the hard way.
In a lot of ways, I agree with this.
If Republican House and Senate members want to shrink the Federal Government, the first thing that Dems should be doing is making sure that the Red states where these trashbags are elected from are at the top of the list to have their funds cut.
I graduated from highshcool in MS when Trent Lott, then Senate majority leader, spoke at our quite small school. With Thad Cochran you had a relatively small state with the number 1 and perhaps number 3-5 senators in the US. One of the most potentially powerful combinations a state of our size has had in Congress.
Even then, post Contract of America, people were talking about term limits in MS as a way to fix government. I just couldn’t fathom it. Didn’t they understand the years of federal funding the state needed to catch up with the rest of the country?
The US could decide to actively fix its lagging states, such as MS and LA, either directly or targeted by class in a new war on poverty, by tripling the money we spend there on education, infrastructure, and job creation. It would take 30 years to make a dent.