Fetch The Smelling Salts-- There Is Still Racism In Mississippi Politics

Minnesota and Mississippi each has two Senate elections in November. In Mississippi, Senator Roger Wicker is up for reelection. In June he easily put away a Trumpist primary challenger Richard Boyanton 83-17%. The primary drew 157,170 voters, compared to just 87,931 in the Democratic primary, which resulted in a runoff between Howard Sherman (31.79%) and David Baria (30.98%)-- 713 votes separating them. In the runoff the following month Baria beat Sherman 58.6% to 41.4%. Baria will face Wicker in November.

Wicker, something of a mainstream conservative, was lucky. Very well-known neo-fascist Chris McDaniel had jumped into the primary against him early but switched races when Thad Cochran announced he would resign. Governor Bryant appointed state Agriculture Secretary Cindy Hyde-Smith, another mainstream conservative, who McDaniel saw as a much easier target (even though someone, presumably McConnell, persuaded Trump to endorse Hyde-Smith). That election, also on November 6, will be a non-partisan jungle primary with Hyde-Smith and McDaniel running as well as Democrat Mike Espy, a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and some guy named Tobey Bartlee.

OK, let me explain how this one works-- no party primaries and no party labels on ballot. To win 50% is needed-- which isn't going to happen, mandating a November 27 runoff. The winner serves the remainder of Cochran's term, which means they'll be running in 2020. Imagine in we wake up November 7 and control of the U.S. Senate will be determined by the November 27 runoff, presumably between Hyde-Smith and Espy!

I'm sure you know Mississippi is a very red state-- PVI is R+9, so not as red as, for example, Kansas, Kentucky, West Virginia and Louisiana, all of which something do elected Democrats. In 2016 Trump beat Hillary 700,714 (57.9%) to 485,131 (40.1%). The last time Mississippi went for a Democratic presidential candidate was when Jimmy Carter ran in 1976.

As of the June 30 FEC reporting deadline McDaniel had raised $3,516,916, Hyde-Smith $1,653,930 and Espy $408,236. The U.S. Chamber off Commerce had already spent $2,100,000 bolstering Hyde-Smith and battering McDaniel. A Mason-Dixon poll released April 10, shows that Hyde-Smith would beat Espy 46% to 34% but that Espy would beat McDaniel 42% to 40%. That may or may not be predictive of what could actually happen on November 27 with control of the Senate hanging in the balance, but for Espy to have have any real shot at this, McDaniel has to beat Hyde-Smith. That doesn't look likely, but he's definitely appealing to the absolutely worst instincts of the Mississippi far far far right... which is pretty powerful in that state. So how does that appeal manifest itself? Let me count the ways; no let me show one example from Friday when McDaniel was taping a segment for Morning Joe. Watch:



He defends his anti-hip hop statement (by blaming UC Berkeley) and defends his support for the Confederate flag (by blaming democracy) but when panelist Eddie Glaude pushes him on how he's going to convince the 38% of Mississippi voters-- African-Americans-- that he doesn't pose a danger to them. Notice that his blatantly racist response drew immediate and sustained booing from the live audience. Now why would anyone boo this?

"I’m going to ask them, after 100 years of relying on big government to save you, where are you today? After 100 years of begging for federal government scraps, where are you today?"

Remember, that was specifically a question about black Mississippi voters. I wonder what he would say about these white Mississippi voters, McDaniels' base. Listen to the questions and answers carefully, especially when they get to the guy with the dental problems... I'm talking about the state of Mississippi. We’ve been dead last for 100 years. And what happens is, if we keep dependent on that economic model, we’re always going to stay last."



In August, McDaniel tweeted to his followers that "In light of all the political correctness and leftist hysteria, I'm curious about what you think: How should Robert E. Lee be remembered? McDaniel has less than 13,000 twitter followers but his question generated nearly 140,000 votes-- probably not the ones he was expecting or hoping for:

UPDATE: Intruder In The Dust (1949)

Keep in mind, this was filmed in Faulkner's hometown, Oxford, Mississippi. Skip turned me onto it and explained why it's so hard to find: "Perhaps that's because in the film the N-word is frequently delivered with all the dehumanizing nastiness the term was created for. I recently saw a DVD in a DC library and checked it out. The film is a stunner. It’s a great time-capsule of life then."