The racist lord of the White House construction site campaigned in person for Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. He blessed her with his ultimate accolade, declaring that she was "100 percent MAGA."
He had some grounds for believing that was true. She'd once posed with a Confederate rifle while wearing Confederate regalia, in a photo captioned "Mississippi history at its best!" That was 100 percent MAGA.
While representing a state that led the nation in lynchings - 654 between 1877 and 1950 - she'd posed with a white rancher at a campaign event and declared that if the guy "invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” That was 100 percent MAGA.
She'd once joked - excuse me, "joked" - that perhaps college kids in Mississippi shouldn't have access to the ballot box: "There’s a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who...maybe we don’t want to vote…Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think that’s a great idea." Voter suppression is 100 percent MAGA.
And she'd blocked a well-qualified Black man from ascending to a federal judgeship. That too was 100 percent MAGA.
But hang on, everybody!
Last night, when it was clear she'd lost her Senate seat to that same well-qualified Black man (he'll be the first Black senator in Mississippi in 150 years), here is what she said: "Our campaign has worked tirelessly to ensure every legally cast vote was counted, and that the people of Mississippi received a fair and transparent election. While this is not the outcome we worked for and hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters. i want to congratulate Scott Colom."
Well. That is NOT 100 percent MAGA.
If she was 100 percent MAGA, she'd be bellowing that the election was "rigged," and that "bad things happened" in the cities. She'd be peppering the state courts with worthless lawsuits. She'd be inspiring her most unhinged followers to stalk and dox the public servants who counted the provisional ballots. She'd be summoning white rabble to storm the state Capitol.
But no. She bowed out the way it has always been done, with respect for the democratic process. How about that, folks: Continuity of government at a profoundly historic juncture. Even southern MAGATs refuse to parrot Trump’s performative fascism. Another shaft of sunlight has lit up our benighted land
