The Arkansas Senate election is now over*.

Arkansas Democratic [mc_name name=’Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000590′ ] argued that the federal government’s desegregation of Arkansas’s largest public school in 1957 was an “unwilling invasion” that took “a local problem out of the local authorities’ hands” and led to deep suspicions of democracy in the state, according to a copy of his college thesis obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Written in 1985, the 30-page paper—which also suggested that the state’s Democratic Party was hindering economic progress, and attributed policies such as welfare and the Equal Rights Amendment to “wild-eyed liberals”—could add to Pryor’s difficulties as he fights to protect his seat from Republican challenger [mc_name name=’Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’C001095′ ].

Gee, you think?  Pryor went on to declare that desegregation was the reason why the Democratic party went on dominate Arkansas politics for the next generation or so; in point of fact, he compared the Little Rock school desegregation to the American Civil War.  Whether or not this moves the needle among white Arkansas Democrats or not is one question (one hopes that it does not in fact appeal to them); but nationally… seriously, folks?  The DSCC is actually going to keep supporting financially a candidate who thought that the US government made a tragic mistake in making sure that the Little Rock Nine were able to go to a whites-only high school?

And let’s not even bring up the fact that this thesis of Pryor’s argues mightily that the Democratic party’s single most favorite piece of political mythology – the so-called ‘Southern Strategy’ – was and is a lie told to the credulous, given that in Arkansas the Democratic party continued to dominate the state for decades.  Oh, wait, I just did bring that up.  My bad.  Guess we’ll see just how poorly the Democratic party thinks of its own base…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: OK, I’ll admit it.  I will enjoy mightily watching Democratic apologists try to explain why Mark Pryor could casually urinate all over the Democrats’ narrative like this and expect to get away with it, mostly because his daddy was a Senator, too.  It should be a hoot.

*OK, OK, it’s been over for a while now and Tom Cotton is going to win.  But this event counts as a moment of clarity.