General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWith runoff over, Cochran says no to Voting Rights Act.
After Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi rebuffed his Tea Party challenger with the help of black Democratic voters, voting rights activists appealed to him with a question: Will you now help southern black voters by supporting a fix to the Voting Rights Act, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision gutting a key provision?
For now, the answer appears to be No, if a statement sent my way by a Cochran spokesman is any indication.
The Supreme Court decision nixed the requirement that certain states and localities with a history of voting discrimination submit election changes to the federal government. Since then voting rights advocates have pushed lawmakers to patch the hole with new legislation reviving that section, but Republicans havent budged, apparently because they think the current VRA does enough against discrimination, which advocates vehemently dispute.
Cochrans reliance on black voters to survive has led voting rights advocates to ask him to become the first Republican Senator to support the fix. Steve Benen points out that it has zero GOP co-sponsors. As Rick Hasen notes, Cochran has only paid lip service to voting rights, and becoming the first GOP Senator to support it in Mississippi, of all places would be an important gesture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/27/trolling-of-thad-cochran-on-voting-rights-fails-to-get-desired-effect/
edhopper
(33,463 posts)would actually have voted any different than Thad.
Has he ever supported anything worthwhile?
Rowdyboy
(22,057 posts)and this is how he repays them? I believe it will help stir anti-Cochran enthusiasm in the black community and hopefully lead to a higher turnout to vote against him in November. He's still a strong favorite but that could change.
Cochran has supported debt limit increases over most of his career and has had a few bipartisan votes (very few in his 42 year congressional career) but his tea-bagger opponent is far worse for the state.
Cha
(296,731 posts)Here's hoping, Rowdyboy~
CTyankee
(63,882 posts)Cochran is an ungrateful bastard. I am furious.
And you thought he was something different? It's in his dna.
CTyankee
(63,882 posts)dhill926
(16,302 posts)hmmmm .hope folks are pissed and try to take his cracker ass out in Nov.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)either way you are dead
malaise
(268,639 posts)I'm shocked at the surprise
3catwoman3
(23,940 posts)...absolutely shocked. Fetch my smelling salts.
Cha
(296,731 posts)donco
(1,548 posts)especially if we get a good Dem candidate to oppose him.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)The thought of another TP member in Congress was too scary to live with. McDaniel appears to be more radical than Cruz.
totodeinhere
(13,056 posts)because he was too much of a nutcase even for Mississippi that would have been sweet.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)JI7
(89,237 posts)conservative than some of the other states which result in teabaggers losing the GE .
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Mississippians made the right move this time. BTW, I think the soccer games caused McDaniel supporters not to show up and vote.
totodeinhere
(13,056 posts)two evils. The people of Mississippi and other red states deserve better than that whether they know it or not.
ecstatic
(32,641 posts)I'm sure nobody is surprised by Cochran's position, but activists should continue to put him on the spot because GOP attacks on voter's rights gets democrats to the polls like nothing I've ever seen. Travis Childers (the democratic challenger) might have a real shot since Cochran already pissed off the tea party wing and democrats are energized.
herding cats
(19,558 posts)This was never about Cochran becoming a better human and by extension a better politician. This was simply a swipe at the Tea Party by the Republicans and a few Democratic voters. The majority of people who voted for him across the aisle knew this wasn't going to change him, or how he politics. They did it to keep out the devil they didn't know. Which scared them more than the one they do.
This is a reality of red state politics a lot of people in blue or purple states will never be able to grasp. Sometimes you're screwed no matter what. The only real choice you're given is in who is doing the deed.
The actual good news here is that these voters learned their votes can have power. So did several people who've never bothered to vote in their lives. An organized Democratic ground party can use that in the future. My hope is the Democrats on the ground there will learn and grow from this opportunity. Which it appears some are from this article.
calimary
(81,085 posts)will show up again in November - to teach him a lesson.
But I think this is spot-on, as far as your analysis, herding cats. I'd bet that most Dems who went out to vote for cochran did so ONLY because a teabagger in that seat would be even worse than what they're already familiar with, from cochran. Better the devil you know - indeed. I'd bet that was what was at work here.
With another teabagger in the Senate, we'd never hear the end of the gloating and the exaggerated misrepresentation that ted cruz would be spinning. It'd give him a wing man, and that's the LAST thing we want! Especially since there are those who characterize mcdaniel as even a bigger ding-dong than ted cruz is. A choice between "stinks" and "fuckin' sucks." I guess "stinks" takes it, then. Poor Mississippi! You get shit for choice here. Either way, you lose. And the rest of us do, too, unfortunately.
DAMMIT, if EVERY DEM WHO COULD - DID VOTE - we'd have this thing. Okay maybe not in Mississippi, but there are dozens of other states where we could put the bad guys AWAY for a good long time.
herding cats
(19,558 posts)I hope they bring their friends and family out to vote with them. Their votes do matter. Which is one of the biggest lies the GOP relies on in red states to keep Democrats from the polls. "You're never going to win, so why waste your time?"
If we could motivate our base to vote, some red states would turn purple in one election cycle. Seriously, one election cycle.
I agree, poor Mississippi. They're so used to being served crap on a plate and being told they have to like it, they don't know there's anything other than that anymore. At least this once they kept an even worse senator out of office. If I lived there, and I was able to, I'd have even held my nose and voted for Cochran in this one instance. Which is something I'd have never thought I'd say in my lifetime!
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)or what passes for liberal here, will be voting for Cochran's Democratic opponent in the general. We all voted for Cochran in the GOP primary to knock the teabagger out. Cochran and all Republican's here know that, and he isn't likely to budge on this. There's nothing liberal about Cochran; never has been. He's just not insane.
Rowdyboy
(22,057 posts)for a Republican primary ballot. I'm 60 and I've never voted in one of their primaries yet-its just too much. Thank God for the 20,000 or so Dems who saved Cochran's worthless ass-they have my respect for their sacrifice.