By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you have been reading about how Tennessee Republican legislators on Thursday expelled two Black Democratic Tennessee state representatives and fell one vote short of sending away a White Democratic colleague, hold on. Tennessee’s ride is going to get rougher.
Will this raucous overreaction to loud words in Tennessee spill over into South Carolina’s Statehouse where former Gov. Mark Sanford once carried two piglets across the capitol’s lobby as a stunt to highlight pork-barrel spending? Probably not. Establishment Republicans here have their own problems to deal with – the rowdy Freedom Caucus of about 20 Republican firebrands who don’t want to play by the rules. In the last couple of weeks, you haven’t heard much from these conservative S.C. zealots. But they’re surely camouflaged on the outskirts, probably planning their next political guerrilla policy attack.
Meanwhile, what’s happened in Tennessee is troubling for a democracy already stressed by a former president’s selfish foibles and political lemmings more interested in headlines and power than getting something done. The Tennessee House’s antics have horrible optics for smug Republicans there. The explusions look racist – they got rid of the Black “troublemakers” but seemed to protect the longer-serving White incumbent. Even worse: it kind of feels like something that would have gone on in the German Reichstag of days gone by.
So let’s break it down. Following the March 27 murders of three students and three teachers at a Nashville Christian school, hundreds have rallied at the Tennessee capitol to demand tougher gun laws to curb future mindless shootings. Students, teachers, activists and parents have demanded action, which Republicans, who have a supermajority in the House, don’t want to deal with. They like their guns and don’t want anyone to question gun laws.
But that’s frustrating to people who want change. So three Democrats picked up a bullhorn last Thursday and used it on the Tennessee House floor. While they essentially brought the spirit of protesters inside, they were exercising their First Amendment rights on the floor, albeit loudly. The powers that be, however, didn’t like that. It was a breach of decorum, they said. And it embarrassed them. So they mounted the eventually successful effort to oust two of the three ringleaders, a tool used only a few times in the past (and not for loud words on the floor during a session.)
In doing so, Tennessee’s House Republicans have created more future headaches. Not only have they further divided their state – and a country – already split by partisan tribalism, but they humiliated themselves. Their hotheaded overreaction – to people using words as weapons who were frustrated by permissive laws to allow real weapons to kill people – made heroes of the Tennessee Three as real leaders who stood up to GOP tyranny.
Don’t bet against Tennessee’s two expelled Justins – Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson. We doubt they will sit idly. It’s a pretty safe wager they’ll run for their now-vacant seats, be reelected by an overwhelming majority and be back in the House chamber next year.
So what does that eventually mean for the House GOP in Tennessee? In the end, they have accomplished little, other than generating a potential resurgence among Democrats and independents fed up with insider baseball, partisanship and continual kowtowing to the NRA, big business and the culture wars. House Republicans won’t go away quietly, but this may be the start of a downfall.
And maybe you can now see why the S.C. GOP will want to stay as far away as possible from what’s gone on in Tennessee. South Carolina’s Republicans will likely work to clean up its party’s own house (no pun intended) instead of worrying about what Democrats say – with a bullhorn, or not.
Andy Brack, recognized as the state’s best columnist in 2022 by the S.C. Press Association, is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com.
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