A Liberal
Dose
April 13,
2023
Troy D.
Smith
“The
Tennessee Legislature Has Shot Itself in the Foot”
My apologies for anyone who was looking forward to my
promised exploration of the themes of the TV show Breaking Bad this week. I
have to postpone that until next time so I can address what happened in the
Tennessee legislature last week. You probably know what I’m talking about, as
it was all over the world news.
To summarize. Over a thousand people joined in a peaceful
protest at the state capitol on March 30, calling on the legislature to pass
gun control laws in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Nashville. Three
Democratic legislators joined in the protest, on the legislature floor,
interrupting proceedings. The three included two black men -Justin Jones of
Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis -and one white woman, Gloria Johnson of
Knoxville. For the violation of decorum, the Republican supermajority drew up
charges to eject the three from the legislature.
Let’s pause right there. Since the Civil War, only two
people have been ejected from the Tennessee state legislature -one for
accepting a bribe and one for sexual harassment. Multiple legislators (all in
the majority party) have escaped expulsion in recent years despite extremely
racist or sexually inappropriate comments and activities, in one case admitting
to child sexual abuse, and in another of urinating on the chair of a fellow
legislator who had said mean things about them on social media. So the idea
this was meant to protect “decorum” is a stretch.
No. This vote was meant to put the “Tennessee Three” -and
future legislators who might be vocal in their disagreement with the majority
-in their place. Even if you do agree that their behavior violated floor rules
and should therefore be addressed, the immediate and extreme act of expulsion
is clearly over the top and disproportionate to the actions they took. All
those incidents I mentioned above? In those cases, Republicans in the
legislature argued that expelling those members would strip representation away
from the voters who had sent them there, and that such an action should only be
taken in the most egregious cases out of respect for those voters. So what does
this action say about the respect the legislature has for voters in urban
areas, who tend to support Democrats? It says volumes. It says those voters do
not matter as much -and they, too, need to know their place.
Then we have the results of the vote. The two black men
were, in fact, expelled -while the white woman fell one vote short (and several
votes shy of her black colleagues) of the same fate. They kicked out the two
“uppity” young black men, but kept the middle-aged white woman. This, within a
month or so of trying to rename the street from honoring Civil Rights legend
John Lewis to honoring Donald Trump (just a couple of years or so after Lewis
died and it was named for him), and of making comments pining for the days
people could be lynched in Tennessee (both of those courtesy of our very own
representative, Paul Sherrell). They are no longer even trying to hide how they
really feel about people like Jones and Pearson, and the people who would vote
for them.
It was an incredibly bone-headed move. As I write this on
Easter Sunday, it is expected that on Monday Jones will be appointed by the
Nashville City Council to be his own temporary replacement until a special
election can be held, and Pearson will probably do the same. By the time this
column comes out they will probably both be back in their jobs.
But they have been given a worldwide spotlight. They have
become martyrs and heroes to millions. Young people in Tennessee are starting
to organize like never before, and thousands of new Democrats have been
created. The legislature has shot itself in the foot on a colossal scale.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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