Another blow to Tennessee Republicans
The modus operandi of the GOP in recent years is to see how much anti-democratic activity they can get away with – whether in broad daylight or cover of night. The Tennessee GOP has been overwhelmingly anti-democratic for some time, but they’ve managed to avoid bringing attention to themselves by never having to pass actual legislation for things like a mass shooting when the general public has begun demanding that more be done after these unnecessary attacks which only American citizens have to worry about.
Not only did they lose when their supermajority in the state senate expelled two senators who were reinstated this week, but now the state senate is being investigated by the DOJ, as per the request of Democrats in the US Senate in an open letter.
Republican apologists haven’t really worked at constructing a narrative to fit what was a fairly blatant power grab – the will to simply eject representatives that their opposition voted for. The investigation will take some time, but we should use that time to remember that while there are things that elected representatives can do, the recourse for doing so can and should take time.
It’s also a reminder that as much as we sometimes call for the expulsion of radical Republican House members in US Congress, this isn’t a feasible process to undertake. What we have to do is remove the levers of power from them by outvoting them in every election.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making