This stunt by the Tennessee Republican legislature is both evil and self defeatingly stupid
The Tennessee Republican state legislature was getting away with whatever it wanted, with no one paying attention. Their decision to try to expel these three Democrats on false grounds is one of the dumbest, most self defeating political moves of all time. Now EVERYONE is paying attention.
Smart corrupt politicians know that if you want real power, you seize it while no one is looking, and you exercise it when no one is paying attention. Only complete morons would think that a highly visible stunt like this will somehow make them more powerful.
Trump inspired so many bombastic morons to go into Republican politics, they’ve ended up with people in charge who think that political power is derived from reality show stunts like this.
This stunt ensures that every liberal and moderate in Tennessee will make a point of voting out as many of these Republican state legislators as possible. It ensures that nationwide money will pour into the Tennessee state legislature elections for the Democrats.
Tennessee is a red state. Republicans could have retained power there and kept quietly getting away with whatever awful things they wanted, for as long as they wanted, with no real scrutiny. All they had to do was not pull an attention-grabbing stunt like this.
Not only was this a terribly stupid idea, it’s falling apart in real time. After they expelled Democratic Rep. Justin Jones, a Black man, they tried and failed by one vote to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman.
Expelling all three of them would have been one of the stupidest and most self defeating political stunts of all time. This… is even stupider and more self defeating. I didn’t think they could top it. But they found a way.
These Republican morons have turned Justin Jones into a powerful martyr who will now lead the charge against them. They’ve painted themselves as blatant racists. And, by targeting Gloria Johnson but not expelling her, they’ve handed her a much louder voice within the legislature. She’s already calling them out for the racism of expelling Jones but not her.
By the way, Justin Jones can just turn around and run for his own seat in a special election, which he will win. He’s going to end up being a national star – and he’ll soon have his seat back, if he doesn’t instead decide to move on to bigger things.
Savvy racist politicians carry out their racism in a way that gives them a sliver of deniability with moderate voters. This is… the opposite of savvy. This is just so evil. And yet so self defeatingly stupid at the same time.
I keep thinking this Tennessee Republican legislature story has to be some satirical article from The Onion and that it can’t really be happening. I keep checking the news to make sure I’m not hallucinating. No one, who’s already in power, is this self defeatingly stupid in the name of trying to flaunt that power, are they? Apparently they are. I’m not even sure yet what this battle in Tennessee is going to look like, because Republicans are still digging a deeper hole. But whatever this battle ends up being, we’re going to fight and win it. Tennessee was never in play for the Democrats. Now it just might be.
