Cochran’s win in Mississippi: what does it mean?
I hadn’t closely followed the Mississippi Republican primary, even though I certainly had been aware that it involved a Tea Party candidate, McDaniel, challenging the incumbent Cochran. I tend to follow the old Buckley adage to support the most conservative candidate I think is viable—that is, who actually has a decent chance to win in the general. But I also know that can be very very hard to determine.
But I also am strongly against open primaries such as Mississippi’s, where members of the other party can cross over and influence the election. I’m especially stumped when I try to understand what the results of such an election might mean. How many Democrats voted in Mississippi yesterday, and why, and how did it influence Cochran’s win and McDaniel’s defeat, and what does that tell us for the future of the Republican Party? Darned if I know.
Josh Kraushaar has given it a go:
There was clear evidence that Cochran’s attempt to boost Democratic African-American turnout paid off in a big way. In Jackson’s Hinds County, where two-thirds of the population is black, Cochran won 73 percent of the vote, 7 points higher than his performance in the primary. Turnout was up significantly in heavily African-American counties in the Mississippi Delta, like Quitman, Sharkey, Humphrey, and Coahoma, where Cochran increased his primary-election margins over McDaniel. Over 347,000 voters cast ballots in the runoff, a higher total than in the primary””marking the first time in 30 years that has happened in any Senate race…
During the runoff, Cochran made overt appeals to the state’s sizable African-American electorate, including several television ads featuring the senator campaigning with black voters. The New York Times reported that the leading pro-Cochran super PAC, Mississippi Conservatives, paid African-American leaders to get out the vote for the senator in the runoff.
Black voters in Mississippi are not ordinarily conservative nor are they even Republican. Like most black voters everywhere in America, they are Democrats and Obama supporters. So if Cochran’s victory is really due to their support—and I assume it is—it tells us nothing about the Republican Party and its voters except they’re stupid enough to allow an open primary.
The rationale for an open primary, however, is that (a) it’s hard to make a primary truly closed, since people can usually change party affiliation anyway prior to a primary, although most people won’t bother; and (b) the general election features voters of both parties, so you want a candidate who appeals to both parties in the end. That latter philosophy sounds good on the surface, but in today’s extremely polarized politics it has begun to be suicidal, because voters from the opposing party can use the primary not to choose a candidate for whom they might actually vote, but to instead choose one for the purpose of sabotage. It would be nice to think that black Democratic voters in Mississippi crossed over because they’re actually fed up with Obama and the Democratic Party, and that Cochran’s appeal to them may have caused a real crossover to the right rather than merely a strategic one to harm the right, but until I have some proof of that I see absolutely no reason to believe it.
Meanwhile, Cochran probably increased the enmity conservatives have against him by using a somewhat cynical ploy to attract Democratic voters and win. This probably won’t help him in the general. Nor will McDaniel’s challenge to the results.
I hate these intra-party fights. I understand them and know why they happen and that they represent a very real practical and philosophical split within the party, but I hate them because I see them as a chance for the left to win in the end.
Seems like it was a pyrrhic victory, burning those in the primary whom he needs to vote for him in the general election.
This run off shows the Rinos will do whatever it takes to alienate the base if it means staying power.
I’m surprised they didn’t use the Joe Biden claim, they (the tea party) want to put you back in chains.
“What does it mean?”
It means the RNC just spent a lot of money to tear off their own right arm. They just purchased themselves a gaping wound. A GOP that will enlist Democrats to interfere in a Republican primary no longer deserves my support. Until now I never even considered staying home on election day. That is what the GOP won yesterday.
The mainstream GOP seems intent on committing suicide. They have failed to hold this lawless administration accountable.
They have supported immigration reform with amnesty that would guarantee a permanent minority status.
And they have routinely pissed on the Tea Party and conservative base.
If this continues we will see the formation of a third party.
I oppose open primaries, too. Primaries, and even open primaries, are a relic of the 19thy Century Progressive era. Those days saw the acceptance of a great many bad ideas.
We do not have party registration in Texas. You are not a “Registered Democrat” or whatever. However, when we vote in a primary, our voter card is stamped, “Voted Democrat” or “Voted Republican.” Then, in the runoff, anyone who voted in the other party’s primary is turned away. With computerized voter rolls, it is even easier. That can stop some of the cross-over voting. If there is a big cross-over in the initial primary , of course, there is nothing anyone can do. This would also be true, if a Democrat did not even bother to vote in his party’s first primary. However, these crossovers are much more common in run offs, when most nominations have been settled in the first round, so one loses nothing in the runoff.
If Democrats signed the voter lists in the Republican runoff, I am unsure what can be done, other than prosecute the voter for fraud, which I have seen happen, but only to Republicans, since their votes are secret. Still, this is a possible area of reform, like voter ID, which could change the results of many elections in the future. (If we ever have a future)
The establishment GOP called the Tea Party racists. They sent out fliers saying as much. There were robo calls sent out. Karl Rove, John McCain, and the rest of the establishment have really kicked us in the gut, and they want us to turn around and vote for them?? I would vote for a Democrat first, as at least I know that they are standing up for what they believe in, and not stepping on their own people just to keep themselves in the luxury that our taxes pay them.
wendy:
I understand your anger. What I do not understand (or support) is this “I’ll vote for a Democrat” business. Cutting off your nose to spite your face is never a good approach.
Could you link to one of those flyers? I’d like to see one.
KLSmith:
See my response to Wendy.
That’s so cute, neo. You actually think there are two parties! And with different philosophies! When the eGOPs call for the Dems to vote for ‘their guy’, Cochrane, the game is rigged and We the People are the losers.
Let. It. Burn. It’s going to burn with or without either our assistance or our opposition.
The soap box doesn’t work. The ballot box is broken. The only thing left is the ammo box.
Our Forefathers would not only be reloading by now, but would have been counting up the enemy’s dead, the enemy being our own Government and its unaccountable bureaucracy. Sure, Obama wants an insurrection, wants violent conflict. But so what? At this point, doing nothing will get the same result as taking on the government. Better to die on one’s feet than to be a slave to this corrupt and unlawful government.
“Cutting off your nose to spite your face is never a good approach.”
But that’s exactly whatCochran has done in his quest to win the primary. He alienated Republican voters by encouraging Democrats to cross over and vote for him.
In addition, he or an organization associated w/his campaign sent out flyers saying that his Tea Party opponent was working to suppress the black vote. He’s feeding the Lefty meme that Republicans are racists, but all this does is fuel the hatred and distrust of the Republican party, the party for which he is now the candidate. It makes no sense.
Here’s the flyer:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/381187/flier-got-thad-cochran-elected-john-fund
It does not tell us anything about the Republican Party? Oh come on. It shows the GOP establishment is against tea party principles. It shows they want big government. Get real.
RickZ,
I think our hostess is well intentioned but perhaps a little culturally and geographically challenged. She doesn’t understand the anger and frustration and the feelings of betrayal that we conservatives here in flyover country feel.
There is an obscure little piece written by a T. Jefferson that expresses it well. To paraphrase; when a political entity no longer represents my interest. Indeed acts contrary to those interest. Then I not only have a right but a positive moral responsibility to throw that entity aside and seek recourse through another entity.
IIRC, Democrats who voted in their primary are prohibited from voting in this round.
I’d bet my last dollar that many Democracts violated this.
If so, then McDaniels has a case for a re-vote.
The next time the RNC, the RNCC and the RNSC call and want money, I am going to tell them to go elsewhere. The Washington insiders have no business picking winners and losers in a primary.
That flyer is enough reason for Mississippi republicans to not vote for Cochran. The cockroach has come out into the light and needs to be squashed. That would send the gop establishment a clear message.
I don’t think staying home is the same as voting for a Democrat. Used to make that argument myself. After 2012, I see they have the data to figure out how many disaffected stayed home.
I think this also obviously only applies to people whose vote actually matters. There aren’t many purple states and only about 40 congressional seats are truly in play.
If someone can explain why I should support a party that supports the Democrat’s immigration policies, let me know. The establishment “reform conservatives” are back on the big govt, compassionate conservative bandwagon. Yeah, cuz we didn’t just try that one president ago.
I think the different factions in the party have irreconcilable differences. The GOP just showed me the door. Screw them.
Neo, Drudge has that flyer on its site.
It was sent to black democrat districts. It is a horrible mass of lies.
“……. I see them as a chance for the Left to win in the end.”
News flash – they already won. All we’re doing is arguing over whose turn it is to hold their finger in the dike.
I must confess: I’m not in flyover country, I’m in NYC with my own self-professed commie mayor, Bill de Bolshevik.
On the way out the building this morning, I had a brief but enlightening, and scary, conversation with another tenant whom I’ve only seen but never really spoken with before. He’s from Russia. He told me that 20 + years ago, he told people the US was finished. They thought he was crazy back then. Even he admits that without what once was the US, the world has no hope. He sees it like I see it: We are in the middle of a communist revolution. As we parted, I told him we were counter-revolutionaries, a term he quite easily understood. He laughed and agreed with me.
He knew more about our government than many born here, especially the LIVs, a/k/a the Free Shit Army. He agreed that the media is a propaganda organ, or as I said, ”In Izvestia (the news) there is no Pravda (truth) and in Pravda there is no Izvestia.” Quite surprised him that I knew that quote. He acknowledged that he didn’t know what to do nor where to go with this country gone and he, like myself, think it’s over. At this point, to throw off the communist shackles of a unaccountable bureaucracy gone wild is going to take serious bloodshed. I guess we’re both going down with the ship, but on our feet.
It has been a-building for a right good while now. The political volatility is accelerating. When you have rotten black pimps like Elijah Cummings Obama and Holder and white obscene prostitutes like Lerner and Koskinen joined by weaselworms like Biden Cochran and McCain in sabotaging the Constitution, it is OVER. It only remains to light the fuse.
RickZ:
As I never tire of pointing out, the editors and reporters of Pravda and Izvestia told lies and spread propaganda for fear of being sent to the gulag.
The American media do it willingly. These people are evil. Once the SHTF, they will be prime–and legitimate–targets.
You take a side, you’re along for the ride.
If I lived in Mississippi, I would absolutely vote for the Democrat in November.
The GOP establishment not supporting conservative candidates is bad enough, but that incendiary race-baiting propaganda is way over the top. They need to be taught that they will pay a heavy price for that behavior.
The old Buckley adage is old. Basically, two generations old. The Founders would not have embraced it when new. It is posturing, a failure to stand up straight. It is political science, itself a term that should make us all puke. It is for the conciliators. It gives us the Cochrans. As ye sow, so shall ye also reap.
Yep. On top of that, Russians knew Pravda and Izvestia were full of lies and learned to read between the lines. Here, the propaganda is swallowed hook, line and sinker. The only thing missing is the gaff.
I think part of the problem is that there is still a large segment of the population, the elderly, who get their news information from the Big 3, and they trust them. Why? I have no idea except maybe habit. It’s also probably as a result of not being able to even think about Brian Williams or Charlie Gibson or Scott Pelley lying to them, both by commission and omission; after all, they look so nice and speak so well (hmm, where have I heard that before?). Many still can’t grasp that Uncle Walter Cronkite, the commie, lied his ass off after Tet in 1968 when he authoritatively declared ‘the war is lost’; Tet was a major US victory.
RickZ:
Your sarcastic tone is unjustified. There are indeed two parties, with different policies.
They are both bad in many ways, but they are actually quite different, and one is in fact better for the country than the other. These are the main differences:
Democrats will appoint extremely liberal judges who will make very liberal decisions that you will detest, and which will change your life and compromise your liberty. Republicans will appoint some judges who will disappoint you and who will sometimes vote with those liberal judges, but most of their appointments will be of less liberal (and even conservative at times) judges who will act as a stop if there are enough of them. This is very, very important.
Democrats will weaken us on the international scene and tear down our military. Republicans will make some mistakes on the international scene, but in general they will defend us far better.
The welfare state will advance much more quickly under Democrats, although it will still advance under Republicans.
There are other differences, but those are the main ones, and numbers one and two should be important to you. I have lost patience with the “plague on both their houses, both their houses are exactly alike” point of view you are expressing here, and which many other people express as well, here and elsewhere.
I would have preferred to send a more clear, direct message to the establishment in the form of a bullet through Haley Barbour’s skull, but I’ll settle for a different message:
I don’t want to play around with losing too many Senate seats, so I’ll only advocate that conservatives in Kentucky need to vote for the Democrat Grimes there instead of McConnell.
I’d love to see the look on his face if he realizes he bought Cochran’s seat with his own.
P.S. With corruption this open, can assassinations be far behind?
That flyer that Cochran’s people spread around is only slightly more subtle than this Democrat classic from the 19th century.
Four words for you: The Dread Pirate Roberts.
But neo, that’s the point. There is no real difference now between Democrats and Republicans, historical differences notwithstanding. Both parties are for big government. One party will take us down the road to Perdition faster than an EBT card used to buy crack and beers or play some slots at an Indian casino. The other party will occasionally tap the brakes, but still keep their foot on the gas pedal. Have you seen the Republican House use their Constitutional Power of the Purse at all to reduce our bloated and overreaching government? Even after all the scandals? Of course not, it’s not in their interest, the People be damned. Remember: Orange Weepy Boehner mocks and disparages at every opportunity the very people, the TEA Party, who handed him the Speakership in 2010. Remind me again what’s the difference between our two major parties?
If this MS election has not shown you that the eGOPs are all about protecting the members of their club, not the will of the people, I don’t know what will.
It’s time for The TEA Party to morph into a new and separate party, The Conservative Party. The Whigs died allowing the Republican Party to arise. The same thing will happen to the Republican Party, allowing a Conservative Party to arise from its ashes.
By the way, the link in my 6:55 pm comment is to an outstanding short story. I’ve linked it before. If you’ve never read it, please do so.
RickZ:
But the Dread Pirate Roberts is EXACTLY what I was referring to when I wrote that some would disappoint and/or vote with the liberals. But if Democrats were appointing all the judges, there would be no Scalia, et al on the conservative side to counter them. For example, Ginsburg is almost certainly retiring soon. A Republican president in 2016 would probably get to replace her. That could tip the whole balance of the court in a more liberal direction. Roberts doesn’t always vote with liberals, and so you would get much more conservative decisions as a whole.
Just because you’re mad at Roberts you’ve lost sight of your ability to add numbers and to see what’s happening here, and how truly destructive your attitude is to your own cause. I simply cannot understand that in an intelligent person.
And I see your completely fail to deal with my second point, about foreign policy. That’s probably because you have no answer to it.
Just those first two are enough reason to support Republicans rather than Democrats, if the Republicans happen to be the nominee. You can support whomever you want in the primary; in fact, I would have voted for McDaniel in that primary. But once he’s out, I would vote for Cochran without any hesitation, for the reasons just mentioned—I want a Republican Senate. Otherwise, you are signing the death warrant of your own causes, and it won’t take long, either.
And your repeating “both parties are the same” doesn’t make it so. Even as far as the welfare state goes (which was only one of my three points), fast and slow are hardly the same.
rickl:
Does anyone actually know who put out the flyer? It wasn’t an official campaign publication of Cochran’s, and I did a little research and found no one who laid claim to it.
Which makes me slightly suspicious. Could it possibly be a leftist psychop meant to sow more dissension among Republicans? I’m curious to know if anyone knows more on that.
rickl:
As for voting for Democrats—oh yeah, that’ll teach the Republicans. It will also screw you, me, and this country.
My further comments detailing what I’m referring to are here and here.
neo-neocon Says:
June 25th, 2014 at 8:04 pm
I’ve thought of that, too. It’s a possibility and I’m not discounting it.
But we know for a fact that Cochran’s people were targeting black Democrat voters, and that’s exactly the sort of rubbish they’re used to seeing from the Democrats.
(“psychop” definitely should be a word. 🙂 )
kit:
I know; I saw the flyer, and I’ve researched it trying to see where it originated. See this for my question about the possible significance of that.
neo,
I would suggest that you are making your argument to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. It isn’t the commenters here, or at PJ Media, or Hot Air, or any of the other conservative leaning sights that is the problem. They are simply responding to the actions of the GOP establishment.
It is the GOP establishment that is responsible for the actions we saw in Mississippi yesterday.
It is the GOP establishment that is pushing immigration reform that would give the Dems a permanent majority and make possible all of those things you dread.
It is the GOP establishment that have been silent witnesses to the growing list of abuses by Obama.
It is the GOP establishment that is attempting to silence TP and conservative voices such as Cruz, Lee, Palin, and McDaniels.
It is the GOP establishment that is alienating their base voters and making a Democratic majority more likely.
parker:
I repeat: who put out the flyer? See my comment here.
There is absolutely no disclosure of origin on the flyer. It’s certainly possible Cochran or his supporters is behind it. But there are other possibilities.
If anyone can find who actually put it out, I’m very interested to know.
kaba:
I understand the anger and frustration. I don’t think a good reaction is to help the left, however. See some of my comments in this thread.
Also, I keep wondering who put out that flyer.
Steve:
I meant the win in an open primary doesn’t tell us much about the Republican voters in the Mississippi primary, if the primary was an open one and many Democrats voted and influenced the outcome. I wasn’t meaning to say it told us nothing about the bigwigs in the party itself, or nothing about the campaign.
Reread the original sentence.
Lizzy:
I’m not saying I support Cochran or think what he did is right. Indeed, he is cutting off his nose to spite his face if he implied McDaniel and/or the Tea Party is racist.
That doesn’t mean that WE should cut off OUR noses to spite our faces. Two nose-cuttings does not make a face with a nose, if you get my meaning.
Again, I ask a question: do you know who put out that flyer? I have found not one scintilla of information to tell me. It was not Cochran’s official campaign. It is not signed by any organization at all, not a PAC or anyone else.
Perhaps Cochran was indeed behind it. But I would like to know. Because when I first saw it, it immediately occurred to me that it is the sort of thing the left would put out for two purposes: the first is that they didn’t want to face the possibility of McDaniel; they’d rather work with Cochran, so anything that would help nominate Cochran they would favor. The second is that making the right think Cochran put it out would sow tremendous dissension within the party and hurt Cochran in the general if he had won the nomination. Win/win for the left.
So I welcome any information about who put out that flyer.
If Cochran or those associated with him didn’t put out that offensive, divisive, and slanderous flyer, shouldn’t they be shouting it from the rooftops today?
All I hear is crickets.
Typical political tactics. It’s deniable. Nobody saw nothin’. Just like the IRS e-mails.
But neo, Roberts didn’t vote with the liberals: He decided that a tax the administration argued was a fine was really a tax. He made shit up on the fly in true lefty fashion. Roberts didn’t disappoint: He threw away Constitutional law. He was supposed to judge the case based on the arguments made before the Court, not assume something not in evidence.
As for foreign policy, Bush screwed the pooch when he strayed from being the C-in-C and into religious philosophy territory with his ‘islam is a religion of peace’ politically correct BS. Again, what’s the difference between the two parties? PC kills absolutely.
Plus, you can’t nation-build without first nation-destroying. That’s a sucky reality, I admit, but it is the truth. Unless a country suffers pain, what we hand them will be spat upon, as happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.
neo, I do appreciate that you are still fighting the good fight, believing there is a difference. But since 2010, I beg to differ. How many Republican senators voted to make a tax cheat the Secretay of the Treasury? Corker, Cornyn, Ensign, Graham, Gregg, Hatch, Shelby, Snowe, and Voinovich. Or how about Republicans voting for the racist Holder as AG? Alexander, Bennett, Bond, Chambliss, Collins, Corker, Graham, Grassley, Gregg, Hatch, Isakson, Kyl, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Sessions, Snowe, Specter and Voinovich. Or how about Republicans voting for the war fraud Kerry for Secretary of State? The list of those who didn’t vote for Kerry is easier: “The vote was 94-3 in favor. The two senators from Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, all Republicans, were the only no votes.”
The eGOPs are not my friend based upon their willingness to roll over and play dead. Again, they only care about their little club, not what’s best for the People. They’ve given up without ever fighting the unconstitutional usurpation of powers by the Executive branch. The Opposition Party is supposed to be an opposition party standing on the principles of that party, not a reach around party. But Republicans have no principles worth mentioning, at least none as shown by example.
neo,
I’m not about to vote for any Democrat; or at least any Democrat who might actually win the nomination of their party. But as I’ve said before I’ve been a faithful GOP contributor and voter for the last 34 years. Now I’m being told to sit down, shut up, and please send another $500 by that same GOP.
Having an R beside your name is no longer sufficient to earn my vote. Voting indiscriminately for the SOB’s only encourages them to do more of the same. I want a candidate who is unashamedly conservative and votes that way.
Do you really think that with all of the actually competitive races that they are desperate to win in 2014, that the Dems would waste their money in deep red Ole Miss? OKaaaay.
The RNC and Haley Barbour were actively supporting Cochran. McCain went to campaign for him, the Chamber of Commerce gave him a ton of money./
Jeez people, get a grip. It really was just that awful what the GOP did down there. Painting your own party as food stamp stealing racists. But I’m supposed to pretend that slimy behavior is only a little bit worse than what the Dems do.
neo:
Just to clarify, I live in Pennsylvania, and I have no intention of voting for Democrats in November.
I said that if I lived in Mississippi, I would, after last night.
I always vote gop. If I lived in Mississippi I would want McDaniel to run as an independent so I could vote for him. But if this is not possible I would never vote for the cockroach; I would vote for
RickZ:
I know what he did. “Voting with the liberals” was shorthand; he wrote the majority opinion. I thought his reasoning in that case was outrageous and dreadful and I’m in complete agreement about that, and wrote about it at the time.
However, that doesn’t change what I’m saying. If you want an entire Court composed of liberals, keep voting for Democrats when you don’t like the Republicans. But I think that is destructive, as I’ve explained, and why.
I said awhile ago that I thought the Republican Party was becoming like the “conservative” or “right” parties in Europe. All they want is a seat at the table of power, and they have no intention of opposing the centralized State.
But it has happened much faster than I expected. The GOP establishment is now an active enemy of individual liberty, limited constitutional government, and free-market capitalism. They just give lip service to those principles at election time. They really just want to enrich their own cronies and maintain as much power for themselves as possible.
There is now very little daylight between them and the Democrats.
Oops, I am adjusting to using a tablet…. to finish up, I would vote for every other repub, but never for the cockroach. What would it matter? If a dem takes the seat from Cochran it would revert to repub in 2 years.
Btw, my daughter gave me the tablet because she felt sorry for me carting my “huge” laptop whenever I visit her. I like the size and light weight of the tablet but I’ve yet to master to touch screen ‘keyboard’.
Neo & Co.: you all need to listen to this radio ad the Cochran supporters aired to get the Dem. black voters to vote for him in the Republican primary runoff.
This is filthy politics: http://preview.tinyurl.com/mecfypp
Wow.
The important point is that the GOP establishment opposed Reagan in 1976 and 1980.
They are pulling out all the stops to make damn sure that no new Reagan emerges today.
But even when Bush nominated conservative judges, for example, the Dems fought tooth and nail and had quite a few forced to withdraw. And let’s not discuss the Borking of Robert Bork or the hell Clarence Thomas went through in his nomination process. When was the last time this Republican minority forced a Dem choice to withdraw? 9 Republicans voted for ‘the wise Latina’, Sonya Quotamayor, a dim bulb if there ever was one. And 5 voted for Kagan. I didn’t hear much about any fight put up. No, it was the Roll-Over Party once again.
Just once I’d like to the Pubbies fight tooth and nail. Even on the filibuster, McCain called those fighting government waste ‘whacko birds’. Democrats march in lock-step, with hob-nailed boots on. Pubbies have spines of Jell-O. Pubbies forfeit without even trying. That’s what makes me angry. And then they have the nerve to ask for my money and my vote.
There were 2 radio ads that Mark Levin played this evening (one of which you can hear at the link above), hammering the same message as the flyer but adding even more inflammatory accusations. You can hear them on his website for free.
So it looks to me like the flyer wasn’t some freelance incendiary effort: they’re all singing from the same sheet.
Here’s that flyer, courtesy of the Rush Limbaugh website:
“Tea Party Intends to Prevent Blacks From Voting on Tuesday —
“According to the Clarion Ledger, Chris McDaniel & the Tea Party plan to prevent Democrat voting in the Senate runoff on Tuesday between Thad Cochran and Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel.
“We know the Tea Party uses ‘Democrats’ as code for ‘African-Americans.’ Don’t be intimidated by the Tea Party.
“Let’s turn out for all Mississippians and vote for Thad Cochran. Thad Cochran works for Mississippi.
“Mississippi cannot and will not return to the bygone era of intimidating black Mississippians from voting. We must rise up on Tuesday to have our voices heard on who will represent Mississippi in the US Senate.
“VOTE THAD COCHRAN.”
This is the flier that was sent out in Democrat districts and counties that told them the purpose of Chris McDaniel and the Tea Party was to prevent them from voting.
Beverly:
It’s the same with the radio ad as with the flyer: it doesn’t mention who made it or who bought it. See my question about the flyer here.
I would wager it’s the same group or an allied group as the one which made the flyer. And we have no idea who they are.
The radio ads, for the link-shy, have black women reading scripts that the evil “Tea Party” wants to end ALL the government programs (food stamps, welfare, etc.) “that our families depend on.” And accuse McDaniel and the Tea party of being racists.
It’s like the 1930s, when the Democrats in the Deep South ran the (almost entirely black) southern Republican Party as their own fiefdom and auxiliary, even renting busses to send them to the RNC. (Dad told me about that one.)
Beverly:
I repeat my question.
Do you understand why I’m asking? Have you read my new post?
Well, I saw Haley Barbour in NYC a few weeks ago, and he was evidently furious with the Tea Party; his tone and demeanor were that of a member of the Ancien Regime whose land rights were being challenged by peasants. Going by his tone, his excoriation of the Tea Party, he was throwing down the gauntlet and declaring open war on conservative Republicans.
It was shocking, actually.
Beverly:
He can be angry at the Tea Party, but that does not mean he was behind the flyer or behind the radio ads.
I’d love to see the video of Barbour and see what I think of his demeanor. Do you have a link? I’ve seen other videos of him re the Mississippi race and his demeanor was fine, but I certainly haven’t seen them all.
But did Cochrane disavow them, call them false and despicable? Acquiescence by silence is approval through fiat.
Remember how when Cantor lost, Boehner apologized to Cantor’s family, felt sorry for them? Really? Nowhere then did I hear the words ‘time to get behind the nominee’. Nope, never spoken. The TEA Party hurt the eGOPs’ feelings. And with Cochrane, they were not about to let that happen again, whatever it took, as we saw.
” I see [intra-party fights] as a chance for the left to win in the end.”
1) No intra-party fight = left wins
2) intra-party fight = conservatives have some chance to win
First, the GOP establishment must be brought down. Working through the system will not work. They have stifled conservatives since the 80s. Personally, I won’t vote for a democrat, but I will never vote for a RINO again. This “we have to support the GOP or the left will take over the SCOTUS” argument will keep conservative down forever AND give the left the ultimate victory without there ever having been a fight.
RickZ:
To tell you the truth, condemning the flyer would be just as suspicious as not condemning it. If Cochran was behind it and put it out clandestinely, he would be likely to condemn it and deny it. I have no idea whether he addressed the topic or not, but I would still love to know who or what actually did put it out.
There is just something about it that made my gut immediately say “The left.”
I could be wrong. I certainly don’t know. But that’s what I think so far.
I am not a Cochran supporter, as I already said.
RickZ,
“Just once I’d like to the Pubbies fight tooth and nail.”
Exactly.
Yes, it might be a false-flag operation.
But I think the real question is, how do we get the establishment Rinos to make a starboard course correction?
I’m thinking of Milton Friedman’s cheerfully cynical admonition that you can’t count on electing “good” men and expecting them to do the right thing — you need to set up the game so that it BEHOOVES our manifestly imperfect fellow bipeds to do the right thing.
We’re looking at a structural problem. There are too many incentives for corruption, pork-distributing, graft, and self-dealing, and not enough incentives for them to be upright All-American patriots.
The Founding Fathers had this figured, ergo the separation of powers to pit the scorpions against each other. Now that they’ve figured out how to join forces, we need another solution.
Ideas?
RickZ:
Have you looked at my new post on this?
This is the job of a Breitbart or O’Keefe, Neo. Opposition research. Something Republicans don’t seem to use any money on.