On Eve Of GOP Primary, Missisippi’s Incumbent Senator Thad Cochran Successfully Courted Large Voting Bloc He’d Routinely Mistreated
On the eve of the primary this poster appeared at goat meeting places throughout Mississippi.
Michael Matthew Bloomer, June 24, 2014
On the eve of Mississippi’s GOP primary, longtime and embattled Senator Thad Cochran reached out to a group of voters who heretofore rarely voted in a GOP primary. Locked in a battle with a foaming-at-the-mouth Tea Partier, state Senator Chris McDaniel, the six term Senator Cochran was forced to ask for votes from a group he had by any standards treated with disdain. It worked. In a metaphorical turnabout, their votes pushed him through the fence to victory.
According to exit interviews, the more than 1,500 Mississippi goats eligible to vote provided near unanimous support and thereby provided the cushion Senator Cochran needed in an oh-so-close election.
“Hopefully,” one supporter ruminated, “if he wins another term in November he’ll lead us from the front rather than push us from behind.”
When one thinks of Mississippi one does not often think of goats, despite their consistently excellent performance on state high school intelligence tests. As a group, however, they share a history of abuse, particularly those not fortunate enough to move away from rural areas where daily tribulations still abound. One need not relate that sordid history. Senator Cochran himself, the night before the primary election, spoke for the first time of his own experiences as a young man. In a tone of deep regret and apology he asked for forgiveness and urged goats everywhere to “forgive and forget.”
Goats, as we all know, are gentle creatures. Who cannot recall their first childhood pet so popular among parents because of their loving dispositions? And once again, for Cochran, they demonstrated those characteristics that place them among nature’s kindest. Putting aside the past they voted in numbers never recorded in Mississippi, and sent Mr. Cochran forward to the November election against his Democratic opponent Travis Childers and third-party Reform Party candidate Shawn O’Hara.
Will “GOat Mississippi” turn out for Senator Cochran again in November? The paradoxical answer offered by a highly placed steering group activist? “Hell no, whaddya think we’re stupid? We’re all in for Travis Childers!” One can only marvel at the workings of a Mississippi goat’s mind.
