In Mississippi much has been made of the slim victory of Thad Cochran over Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel. Hailed as another reason to write the epitaph of the Tea Party movement in the United States, the victory has been instead a lesson in dirty politics and to what lengths the establishment will go to hold onto power.

At first, the fact that Cochran edged out McDaniel in the hotly contested Mississippi Republican Senatorial  primary seemed like a classic come from behind win for the career politician. Cochran, who won by less than 1% of the vote despite being behind in the polls, was trumpeted as if he had given McDaniel a royal shellacking. While the media was celebrating the death of the Tea Party and the establishment patting themselves on the back, a very different story started to unfold.

All evidence seems to show that Cochran had colluded with the Democratic Party to steal the election. Democratic Party operatives worked on Cochran’s behalf to set up call centers and contacted black Democrats and urge them to vote for Cochran. In a state where a person can vote in whatever primary he chooses, regardless of party affiliation, the move was legal. There are also those who claim that Cochran and his Democratic allies paid voters to vote and that many of votes cast were illegal. Given the out in the open underhanded tactics used, it would not be surprising if some covert ones were used as well.

With merely a 6700 vote margin, in an election that saw 375,000 votes cast, the results hardly resembled a major triumph. However, the lengths that were gone to in order to garner that slim margin of is victory is truly noteworthy. Approximately 40,000 of Cochran’s votes were from Democrats, votes garnered with the help of out of state Democratic Party operatives. They were brought in to help Cochran get enough cross party votes to swing the primary his way.  What he promised them to get that level of assistance is not known. That voter irregularities, (IE: illegal votes) and bribery may have been involved only adds to the disgusting nature of the politics involved.

The truth is the win, if you can call it that, was achieved without honor. Cochran for his part can’t claim he is the candidate the Republican Party chose, for he is not. The Party faithful voted for McDaniel but were disenfranchised by a strategy so shameful it would of made Richard Nixon blush. That the Republican Party establishment is celebrating this victory and defending the tactics used shows them to be hollow men, empty shells whose souls had to vacate in order to make room for their greed. More interested in power for power’s sake, Cochran, the Republican establishment and their Democratic Party co-conspirators have worked together to defeat their common enemy, the American People.

“The Conservative Mind”

If you like this Pass this on