Before we melt down about Philadelphia, MS, remember that the Neshoba County fair is the biggest annual political event of the state. If Hillary were going to campaign in Mississippi in July, that's where she would have gone.
Still a disgrace that Trump apparently supports our "flag" though.
That may be true to the residents of Mississippi, but, outside the state, the Neshoba County fair has only one major significance.
Every single Mississippi politican, white or black, Republican or Democrat, no matter how conservative or liberal, campaigns at the Neshoba County Fair. I can't imagine that many people outside the state knowing that the Neshoba County Fair exists without knowing that fact.
Trump Jr. (and lots of other Republican politicians) should certainly be condemned for the things he said there, but no one should ever be condemned for going there, because there is no more natural place in Mississippi to go. The fact that it's in the same county as the civil rights murders is a coincidence.
If campaigning in Mississippi could have been explained based on
normal political calculations, you would have been right. Obviously every MS politician should go the largest country fair in the state: nothing wrong there, and if it happened during the primary season so would be the case for the presidential candidates. But campaigning in MS makes no sense in a national general election. So, it can only be explained in terms of the message it sends outside of the state. Since it is hardly believable that Trump wants to send a message that he is desperately losing everywhere and is not even taking MS for granted, we have to look for some other plausible message. Nobody outside of MS has heard of Neshoba County fair. But the few people elsewhere who have heard of Philadelphia MS have heard about it in reference to a horrible racists crime (and, likely, only in reference to that). Unfortunately, this is the only plausible meaning of this campaign message that comes up to mind. It does sound like a dog whistle directed
outside of MS. Like a quite call to KKK for help.
You might not like the reputation your state has in the rest of the world, but that's the reputation.
