Posted on 06/30/2014 4:38:08 AM PDT by Kaslin
Incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran’s successful game plan, which drove his run-off victory over Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel for Mississippi’s Republican Senate nomination, was unconventional.
But most incredible was the success of this game plan – to reach out to liberal black churches and get Democrat black voters to turn out and vote for Cochran – despite being executed in broad daylight.
Soon after Cochran lost to McDaniel in the primary, necessitating a run-off because McDaniel fell short of getting 50 percent of the vote, papers reported the intent of Cochran’s team to turn out black Democrats to overcome the thin margin by which Cochran lost.
McDaniel knew exactly what to expect. The Cochran campaign told him. Yet he remained a spectator through it all. His counter strategy was no counter strategy and just continue what he was already doing. Appealing just to Mississippi’s conservative white electorate.
Sitting in the White House today is the most left-wing president in the nation’s history, elected twice without winning the white vote. I have written about the demographic changes taking place in the country and the need for Republicans to talk about limited government and traditional values to non-white Americans.
If this is true about the nation as a whole, it certainly is true in a state like Mississippi whose black population, at 40 percent of the state, is the largest in the nation. Half this black population is poor.
Cochran’s forces dumped money into liberal black churches, communicating that he is their champion because of the government pork he’ll continue to bring into the state.
But a news flash for McDaniel, which he should know, having served as a state senator, is that not all blacks are liberals. In Mississippi’s huge black population are many conservative black pastors who want freedom for their flocks. They know that black poverty is not about government money.
A few of these conservative black pastors in Mississippi are part of the national pastor network of my organization, CURE.
Former NFL star Brett Favre made an ad for Cochran in which he talked about Cochran getting “…critical funding for our schools.”
But in the latest Quality Counts report from the publication Education Week, Mississippi is rated 51st in the nation, among 50 states and Washington, DC, in K-12 student achievement.
The report continues, as reported in Mississippi Business Journal, that “Mississippi ranked among the lowest 10 states in providing young people a chance for success in life, financing schools and improving teaching.”
If the success of Mississippi’s schools was about “critical” funding from the federal government, why are they the worst in the nation?
The main victims of Mississippi’s dismal schools are black children.
In a Pew Research survey of last October, 25 percent of blacks expressed favorability toward the Tea Party, just 6 points less than whites.
But the McDaniel campaign seemed clueless that there were potential allies in Mississippi’s huge black population to counter Cochran’s liberal assault.
It is pathetic that some commentators are actually writing that Cochran’s government plantation appeal to blacks shows how Republicans can reach this community.
In a scene early in the Oscar-winning film Patton, General Patton, who was sent to take command of the demoralized American troops in North Africa in the early days of World War II, is shown looking through field glasses, watching a tank battle which would become America’s first victory in North Africa. He studied the tactics of his adversary German commander Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. As he watched, Patton bellowed out “ Rommel, you magnificent b------, I read your book!”
Thad Cochran laid it out for McDaniel – he gave him his book - but McDaniel chose not to read it.
There are plenty of black conservatives who understand that big government politicians – Democrats or Republicans – hurt their communities. They just need Republican candidates to recognize they exist.
In a three-week campaign dash, you go for the most bang for the buck - in McDaniel’s case, it would be known GOP voters who did not show up in the primary. You don’t waste time going after an unknown factor.
What does that mean by 'outreach" Is the conservative message not something that can stand alone? Specifically how do you 'outreach'? You aren't suggesting we use race are you?
‘I think people aren’t reading what Parker is saying.
She seems to be saying that there’s an untapped vein of Conservatism within the Black community, and McDaniels screwed up by not appealing to these Conservative blacks on Conservative issues.
I’ve read the article twice, and that sure seems like what she’s saying.
She’s NOT making the argument that McDaniels should have done things to flip the Black votes that went for Cochrane, but that there were Black Conservatives who didn’t vote that he could, and should, have targeted.
That’s fair, in my opinion. I know, am friends with, a number of Black Conservatives. They all say that the GOP, Conservatives and Tea Party would see a significant increase in support if they’d actually do a good lrvel of outreach. Parker cites stats showing that 25% of Blacks think favorably of the Tea Party. Does anyone not know what kind of impact it would have if we could get that 25% out and voting for our candidates?’
The essence of this argument is that blacks are stupid. Not mildly stupid, but sack of hammers stupid. I.e.: w’out ‘outreach’ they cannot figure out that Democrats are the party glorifying every aspect—even the nastiest, most unsafe ones—of homosexuality, while not merely safeguarding but also ***glorifying*** baby killing. They cannot see for themselves that Dems are rabidly anti-God—despite that vulgar display of Christian-hatred at the Dems’ own convention. It goes on and on.
Who on earth is that stupid? It’s an insane, insulting argument. I used to be a Dem. No one, but No One, ‘reached out’ to me. I DUH figured it out for myself. As I was drifting toward conservatism, the Dem party had the peddle to the metal in their race toward Moonbat-Idiot-Far-Left-Lunacy (loonacy works just as well). I didn’t need a single person to enable me to see this. All I had to do was read as much of a major newspaper ea day as I could tolerate. The truth jumped off the pp and grabbed me in a hammerlock.
Why do so many people—including some blacks—assume black people/other blacks cannot do likewise? They most assuredly can. & trust me, they know. They KNOW the Dems are the party of Homosexuality, baby-butchery, sexual debauchery & Christianity-hatred. But they vote Dem anyway. ‘Outreach’ is not going to change that. It is their decision. Just as, at one time, it was my decision. I could have gritted my teeth—or simply closed my eyes—to the leftward lurch of the Dem party, & gone on voting ‘D’ indefinitely. But I didn’t want to. The moonbattery got to be too much for me. I walked away & never regretted it.
Blacks could do the same if they wanted to. They don’t want to. Unlike me, they have an affinity with the Dem party that has no bearing on social conservatism. & if you need someone to tell you what this affinity is, look no further than Cochran’s ‘outreach’ to blacks. He persuaded hardcore, dyed-in-the-wool lifelong Dems to vote GOP—illegally—one time & one time only. (In Nov. they’ll revert to form.) He pushed every one of their buttons. Those buttons mean far more than any ‘outreach’ conservatives can mount.
& that is way this article is an insulting waste of time.
GMTA.
Senator McDaniel campaigned to ALL Mississippi with one message to ALL, Conservatism, which is what is needed to save America. Cochran had a mixed message that was lost on Conservatives, his was I’m conservative as in the obligatory slogan, I’ for the 17 trillion debt as long as my buddies get their fair share and you’all owe me. To the democrats his campaign said here’s cash walking around money to vote against that rascist klansman who wants to keep you from voting, and the RNSC provided the money to do this. Apparently to democrat leaders he and the republicans owe them very large sums of public money for their projects around the state in payment for their votes. The naacp also says that rescending Voter ID should also be part of the payment. When Cochran loses I’m sure the democrats will pay up for the republicans in appreciation for the senate seat.
There are conservative blacks anywhere, and I agree with you that the GOP should make more of an attempt to reach them. I was working the phones in the first Bush campaign when I got a call from a black man (who literally said he was calling where nobody could hear him because his family would jump all over him if they heard) asking us to come and put up door hangers in his neighborhood or hand out flyers. The response from the person in charge was a shrug, and then she said it would be a waste of brochures. So there’s definitely a problem.
However, the “outreach” that Cochran did was offering Federal freebies to a population that clearly thinks it’s incapable of doing anything for itself and that all good things come from the Federal government. Politicians have always offered pork - getting a construction project or some other project for their districts in order to provide jobs, for example - but the Dem/GOP-e approach to blacks is now the equivalent of offering fistfuls of cash to individuals: in other words, bribery.
It’s hard to compete with this, and furthermore, McDaniel would not have had the time to cultivate and build a conservative black voting bloc even if it were possible.
I’m using outreach in the same way that a lot of Tea Party members want GOP/Conservative candidates to conduct outreach to them.
It’s not that Conservative Blacks are stupid. Its that, facing condemnation by their own community for their beliefs (identity politics at work), Republicans/Conservatives just ignore them.
As far as playing to race, you know I don’t really have much of a problem with Conservative outreach being centered on the idea that the Liberals are manipulating them in a racist manner in order to keep them on the Democrat plantation. Do you?
This wasn't a case of not reaching out to blacks. It was a case of not reaching out to Democrat-only black voters to subvert a GOP Primary.
There is a difference, Star.
The black conservatives probably voted for McDaniels the first time around, and since we are not lawbreakers, they would have refused to vote in the runoff.
The big problem is that we are trying to teach a history lesson when it is lunchtime.
It was the black demonrats who voted in both primaries
“The big problem is that we are trying to teach a history lesson when it is lunchtime.”
Possibly the most astute thing said about this whole election.
Oh I don’t have a problem with it as long as what is good for one is good for all and whites need to start acting accordingly.
Unlike many in here you actually read what she wrote and did not jump to unnecessary conclusions
Pandering is pandering. So only black liberals vote Democrat? Really? I know a lot of white idiots that vote democrat because their granddad liked FDR. We just are surrounded by a lot of STUPID people of all colors.
Yes, I know. I was remarking about why those who voted for McDaniels did not vote again, like the Democrats did.
‘It’s not that Conservative Blacks are stupid. Its that, facing condemnation by their own community for their beliefs (identity politics at work), Republicans/Conservatives just ignore them.’
I converted from a liberal Dem to a conservative Republican in the bluest of blue states, MA. I did not know a single conservative/Republican in the entire state. Every person I knew was a liberal Dem. Conservative Republicans are DESPISED in MA. They are outcastes & rejects. No Republican or conservative reached out to me before or after my conversion. I went it alone.
A black person could do the same if they wanted to. Or, if peer pressure was too great, they could confine their conservativism to the voting booth. We would see the difference in electoral outcomes, & it would be significant.
But they don’t want to vote Republican. They want to vote Dem, for reasons that Cochran spelled out with letter perfect efficiency. For that reason, it’s past time for people like Parker to stop dangling the ‘they’d vote for you if only you’d do more outreach’ carrot in front of conservatives. It’s a fraud. A hoax.
& still some fall for it.
The black democrats, who voted in the democrat primaries did nothing illegal. The illegally came about when they voted also in the Republican primary
It’s not really a matter of “competing”, because Parker isn’t suggesting that McDaniels should have gone after the Liberal Black voters that swung the election to Cochrane.
She’s talking about drumming up an additional 6-7,000 votes by going to known Conservative Black parishes (such as those that are a member of her CURE network) and making a direct appeal based not on bribes and payoffs but on Conservative principles.
The only good argument against this, as just mentioned above, is a political calculation that in a short turnaround election where there isnt enough time to go elsewhere, there could be better returns by going other places.
It’s a legitimate argument, but I’m not sure I really buy it. If McDaniels was smart he should have been going there during the primary campaign, when there was enough time. Doing so might have even given him the majority necessary to beat Cochran outright and avoid a runoff.
Here is a little anecdote to illustrate how blue MA is. When I said I didn’t know a single conservative Republican, I was including the people in the church I attended. In fact, the pastor was one of the three ‘spiritual counselors’ who attended Bill Clinton post-Monica. This same pastor had earlier announced from the pulpit that Bill Clinton was innocent. Now granted, the elders ambushed him afterward & said ‘No more politics from the pulpit’. So maybe one or two of them was a closet Republican; I don’t know.
But anyway, that is how liberal the state was/is. So don’t give me peer pressure. I had that in spades. Nevertheless, if you get sick & tired of far left moonbattery, you convert regardless. I’m living proof.
You know, Reagan had a great story about how some group had come to him for his support on an issue (can’t remember which one) and were surprised when he readily gave it.
They asked him, “Why now, why didn’t you support us before?”. His response was “This is the first time I’ve been asked.”
Congratulations that you found your way to Conservatism all on your own. But please understand that there are people who need Conservatives to come to them and say “Hi, I’m _______. I’m a Conservative running for office and I believe in small government, lower taxes,liberty, personal responsibility and freedom. I’d like to have your vote, can I please have it?”
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