Erick, I share so many of your sentiments in your piece. That said... you said, “There must be some consequence. I am just not sure what it should be.”
Must there be? Let’s look at the specifics with Cochran. Undoubtedly, his campaign turned to things detrimental to Republicans and to Republican principles, and he won. He won using the perqs of incumbency. He won with pork both delivered and promised. He won with a boatload of campaign cash. He won by smearing a large section of his party’s voters with lies.
But he barely won. He needed all of that, plus a military background he used to better effect than before, to barely win. He needed all of that, against an opponent who had serious flaws as a candidate, to barely win.
And he is old.
The type of Republicanism he exhibited or represents is on its deathbed in Mississippi. Take away the incumbency, the influence of delivered pork, the campaign cash connections developed over decades, and a candidate-just-like-Cochran loses that primary. Take it all away- because time is going to, relatively quickly. In other words, the battle was lost in Mississippi, but the war there is already won. We will get Senators there more in tune with the voters. All we lost was some time, but time is on our side.The consolation prize is that we will get a Senator who will help us dislodge Harry Reid. That is not a small thing.
Instead of searching for immediate consequences, why not search for immediate opportunities? While the methods used to bringing black voters into the primary electorate were odious, it does not follow therefore that we must attack them for turning the primary.
My career is now in retail, and the hardest sale to make to a person is always the first one.
The new voters may have believed some lies, but at the same time they pulled the trigger for him knowing he is a Republican and knowing his voting record. Say what you will about Cochran, but he votes with the GOP an overwhelming majority of the time. That shows that the majority of the GOP agenda is not seen as show-stopping to these crossover voters. They weren't voting to help the Democrat win, they were voting to help Cochran-- a Republican-- win. We have first time customers here. Instead of focusing on consequences for those who treated us like crap, let’s focus on converting first time customers into long-term customers.
I follow quite a number of black Republicans and black conservatives, not of the celebrity type. It does not take much talk to realize that they see incredible tone-deafness on the right with regards to how to engage black voters. Bemoaning the crossover voters, who apparently mainly were black, is unlikely to change their perception.
We’ve been handed an opportunity here. Let’s expose the lies that have been told about who we are and for what we stand. Let’s convert some of these new voters. It will not be easy. In fact, the only sale harder to make than the second, is the first. But regardless that it was done at our expense, the first sale was made. Set the record straight, and make the sale. Always be selling. Always be closing.We will convert only a percentage, but the message that will be sent is a powerful one: we are going to win, and we are going to transcend the lies.
