A Political Earthquake Just Struck Tennessee. What’s Next?
Written by Robert Donati, Future901 Treasurer
Before an earthquake, massive amounts of pressure build up over the span of years. When the pressure becomes too great it overcomes the natural friction of the tectonic plates holding things in place. What happens next varies - sometimes it just jostles the furniture; other times, it will make the Mississippi run backwards and permanently alter the landscape.
Tennessee has been under one party rule for over 12 years now. During that time, those of us that have sought to address our state’s problems have felt the effect. GOP rule has been an effective bulwark against progress on a host of issues that people care about. Tennessee remains one of only 10 states not to have accepted Affordable Care Act Funds to expand Medicaid (Tenncare). Our schools remain neglected. Our for-profit prisons are full to bursting, yet nothing is seriously done by the state to push economic development in the most crime-afflicted areas. Tennessee remains a state where funding disproportionately comes from working folks (through sales and property taxes) to the benefit of our state’s wealthiest (no income tax).
Tennessee pressure has only increased from there. Not happy with the status quo, the Tennessee GOP has increasingly sought to make the state into some sort of testing ground for whatever reactionary agenda item boils out of a Koch-funded think tank. “Conservatism” in the sense of holding on to traditions or a way of doing things can no longer be said to apply to Tennessee. Instead, the GOP zealots of today are pushing hard to change the state, making it more regressive, more cruel.
One of the areas most fetishized by the new GOP zealots are guns. To be sure, Tennessee has always had a culture of gun ownership. Plenty of folks enjoyed hunting or used weapons for protection. But the past decade has been so much different. It used to be that we would talk in the South about “responsible gun ownership” as a good thing. However, the TN GOP decided somewhere along the way to just to get rid of the “responsible” part.
Don’t want to prove your competency at handling that concealed handgun? No problem.
Want a weapon of war used repeatedly in mass shootings around the country (again without permitting or safety training)? No problem.
Do you feel personally threatened by the government being able to take guns away from the mentally unstable through red flag laws? No problem.
Law by law, the TN GOP has taken us away from our traditions of personal responsibility and the results have been horrific. Between 2011-2020, gun deaths skyrocketed 48% in Tennessee, homicides increased 103% and suicides increased 20%. As of 2020, Tennessee now averages 1,273 gun deaths and 2,220 gun injuries annually. Guns have passed cars to be the leading cause of death among children and teenagers.
Yet, quoting statistics minimizes the profound cultural impact, particularly on young folks. The average member of the Tennessee General Assembly grew up and went to school in a vastly different environment than today’s students. The current degree of fear of gun violence was not part of their school experience. The average 60 and 70-year-old legislator did not have to sit in his elementary-school classroom and think about how they could survive if some deranged lunatic came in with two legally-purchased weapons of war and started shooting. Tennessee children and Tennessee teachers must plan for this today. And parents are left powerless to help. So, with movement not possible because of extremists, gerrymandered maps and big money donors, the pressure builds.
The Covenant School shooting was horrific, but it was also grotesquely familiar. We have all watched these mass shootings play out. On a smaller scale we all know people that have been the victims of gun crimes.
It was thus equal parts normal and obscene that Rep Burchett declared that “We’re not gonna to fix it.” It surprised nobody that Speaker Sexton’s response to three dead children was two minutes of silence before moving about business as usual. After all, for Tennessee, what could be more usual than children dead of violent crime?
Much has been written about the leadership of the Tennessee Three: Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson. They deserve their laurels. We at Future901 are nothing but proud about our early endorsement of Justin Pearson in his recent election. These three expertly tapped into the political will of a demographic that had been held down, abused, and ignored year after year. In the end, the mere sound of a megaphone was all that was needed to shatter Speaker Sexton’s fragile ego and trigger a political earthquake, decades in the making.
As the dust settles, now what?
First and foremost, people must understand HOW Sexton and his predecessor Glenn Casada kept progress at bay even as the majority of Tennesseans cry out for common-sense gun laws. They have ruthlessly drawn maps to concentrate Democratic voters in a handful of overwhelmingly blue districts while allowing Republicans district maps where they can gain the most seats possible. One glaring example, Nashville/Davidson county was gerrymandered last year so this overwhelming Democratic area is now represented by several GOP Congressmen.
The tough truth is that fighting this isn’t going to be easy. Returning Justin Pearson and Justin Jones to the Legislature is fantastic. Yet, we must understand that we are only returning them to act as representatives in districts that the GOP ALLOWED to exist. The GOP needed places to hyper-concentrate Dem voters to make the gerrymandering possible.
To effect change will mean putting new people into positions of power. Which brings us to why Future901 exists.
We are working to get strong candidates to step up and run in State House and Senate districts throughout Tennessee. We try to get those candidates the funding and support they need to run and win.
For most of the last decade, the national Democratic party has simply not had any interest in getting the resources to Tennesseans trying to flip these districts. That has changed over the last few weeks. One of the most hopeful things to come out of all of this is that perhaps the flow of resources might now go to activists in Tennessee trying to make change.
What can you do?
Keep engaged and informed about what is happening in Tennessee
Keep pushing the news about Tennessee’s machine politics into view of “blue state” folks that have a desire to help, but don’t know where
Adopt a Dem State House or Senate District. Help find a strong candidate and encourage them to run. Raise money. Phone/text bank for them. Be regularly involved in that district.
Follow the lead of leaders like the Tennessee Three. We have a feeling this won’t be the last we hear of them.
Please donate to Future901 so that we can fund candidates to take on GOP opponents in flippable “red” districts. These aren’t red districts, these are purple districts where discouraged Democrats gave up voting. Future901 is working to change that.
Written by Robert Donati, Future901 Treasurer