To understand why this happened, it's important to understand that there are essentially two Souths – and that the two rival Republican primary candidates were appealing to the bifurcated memories, visions, and images of Mississippi that continue to divide.
Having served in the senate for decades, Cochran had fairly good relations with the African-American community. But make no mistake; this was a marriage of convenience. His team wisely concluded he couldn't win solely among Republicans, so they would take advantage of the state's open primary system and expand the voter universe to include Democrats.
Likewise, Democrats, reasoning this was the only way their vote would matter (since Republicans typically win, statewide) tacitly agreed to play kingmaker. And it worked!
From picking cotton to picking senators, Mississippi's African-Americans have come a long way, even if their political muscle was used to boost a man whom many Democrats would, no doubt, see as the lesser of two evils. And Cochran's efforts were aided by virtue of having the perfect nemesis. Tea party challenger Chris McDaniel might have motivated conservatives, but he also reinforced negative stereotypes about angry, reactionary, southern politicians.
"There are millions of us who feel like strangers in this land, an older America passing away, a new America rising to take its place," Mr McDaniel averred during a speech in June, reported by The Associated Press.
The problem? Not everyone yearns for that bygone era.
"They're on the news saying, 'We want to go back to the good old days.' Good old days for who?" Carl Brown, a black 44-year-old pastor told the New York Times.
On top of it all, a conservative group backing Mr McDaniel pledged to deploy "poll watchers" on his behalf. This was ostensibly to challenge Democratic voters who might be disqualified from voting – but the move unintentionally evoked powerful memories of intimidation and black disenfranchisement in the South last century.
The vast majority of conservative Republicans – even in the Deep South – are, of course, not racists. In many ways, they are the most desperate to live in an utterly colourblind society, where free markets and family values benefit all Americans.
But perception is reality, and perceived insensitivity has consequences, as Mr McDaniel has now discovered to his cost.
So perhaps a warning is in order. If voters are turned off by your economic philosophy or core principles, there may be no way around that (and, indeed, it's reasonable to say that Mr Cochran's penchant toward fighting for big government "pork", no doubt, helped him appeal to some Democrats, even as it turned off free market conservatives).
But when it's not your policies – but instead, your style and rhetoric about the "good ol' days" – that viscerally turns off voters; well, perhaps it would be wise to adjust that.
Sadly, things might get worse before they get better. Angered that Mr Cochran's team played the race card in order to turn out black voters, and convinced that voting irregularities occurred (Democrats were allowed to vote in this Republican run-off, but only if they had not previously cast a ballot in the Democratic primary), Mr McDaniel has refused to concede, and is now weighing options for a legal challenge.
Unfortunately, the premise of his argument can be read as a desire to keep blacks from voting in Republican elections. That may not be fair, but nevertheless, that is how it will be interpreted.
Perhaps Republicans should actually rejoice at the notion blacks are voting for old, white Republicans again? While it would be silly to assume this unique situation is a harbinger of things to come, much of life is habit.
Presumably, once you've crossed the Rubicon – once you've voted for a Republican once – doing so again would be less difficult – less absurd.
"Black folks went out and voted for a Republican. That's history," said Floyd Smith, an African American quoted in that same New York Times story.
Indeed it is.
Matt K. Lewis is a senior contributor at The Daily Caller website in Washington, DC
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1m7Vfl4
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