Here's a little something for you to roll around in your head for a while: the Walmart Corporation has decided that Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi currently in a runoff with Democratic candidate Mike Espy, is by word and deed too racist for Walmart to support...in Mississippi.

It seems that, two weeks after Hyde-Smith made her infamous comment about a "public hanging," Walmart made a $2,000 contribution to her campaign. Subsequently, she was caught on video urging the suppression of votes from Mississippians she finds inconvenient, and she was revealed to have accepted a $2,700 donation from a noted white-supremacist loon named Peter Sieve.

All in all, too much for the good folks from Bentonville. From NBC News:

The retail giant announced its decision to withdraw its support from Hyde-Smith in response to actress Debra Messing, who tweeted about the issue on Monday. "Hi Debra. Completely understand your concern. Sen. Hyde-Smith’s recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations," the company said in a tweet.

MANDEL NGAN Getty Images

There is one fact that too many progressives and Democrats were late in learning: most American corporations, even the biggest ones, are essentially lazy and cowardly. They stumble into public-relations disasters and then they are easy to frighten once they're stuck there. Any organized pressure can pretty much make them do anything at that point—including looking lazy and frightened in public. Consider that Walmart's customer base in Mississippi has a very large and active minority segment without whom Walmart wouldn't make nearly as much money as it does there. So, wham-bam, the news about Walmart's donation to Hyde-Smith hits the media and, within a day, the retail behemoth cuts her loose.

There's no question that Hyde-Smith, like Trent Lott before her, has played footsie with the unreconstructed human flotsam of American apartheid. (Read Will Bunch about her background and birthplace to understand why might be.) Ever since the Republican Party took up that mantle in response to the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement, it simply was what you did to get elected in the South. Now, though, there's a serious material risk for doing so. One private Republican poll has Espy within five points. If it's true, and I have my doubts about it, then I'm not sure how he makes up even that margin.

But the Republicans are nervous. If they lose a Senate seat in Mississippi, having lost one in Alabama last year, the inescapable conclusion will be drawn that the Dent-Atwater South has cracked entirely, and that a new order truly is coming to birth. Even if Espy only comes close, that might be enough, too.

Update (4 p.m.): If you're interested in the Mississippi race, you can catch the only debate of the runoff cycle Tuesday night. Ms. Hyde-Smith is trying to arrange that the debate take place entirely in the Phantom Zone, but it's still scheduled to stream at 8 p.m. EST. It won't be Chiefs-Rams, but you might want to tune in to see if Ms. Hyde-Smith comes out in Confederate drag.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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