This story has almost everything. Racism. Fascism. Guns. Transgender. Everything except justice. This feels like a convergence of so many different threads and we may look back on it as a tipping point.
AOC predicted this:
For those who haven't been following this story, when thousands marched on the Tennessee legislature in the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting, they were supported by Democrats Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson.
Here's
one description of what they did:
Quote:
During the protest, Johnson, Jones, and Pearson — who represent Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis, respectively — went onto the House floor amid a legislative session and led protesters in the upper gallery in chants like “Gun control now,” using a bullhorn. Republicans had said that this behavior was disruptive and warranted expulsion. The Tennessee Constitution gives both chambers leeway in determining how they punish their members, though expulsion has only typically been used for unique and serious violations, like bribery and sexual misconduct.
In this case, Republicans argued that Democrats had broken multiple House rules including speaking without being recognized and crowding the House clerk’s desk. Speaker Cameron Sexton noted that Democrats violated principles of “decorum and procedure on the House floor,” and went so far as to compare the gun control protest misleadingly with an “insurrection,” rhetorically linking lawmakers’ peaceful protest at their workplace with rioters’ deadly break-in at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The three Democrats had already been stripped of their committees following their participation in the protests.
(Johnson, by the way, filed a failed resolution to expel Republican David Byrd, who was accused of sexually assaulting teenagers. A recorded phone call has him apologizing to one of his accusers for unspecified actions.)
Republicans, with a super-majority, chose to expel two of the three members of the Democratic Party for violating decorum. Coincidentally, the two members expelled are black men, while the one who was not is a white woman. Why? Gloria Johnson has a theory:
Here's what the expelled members had to say:
This should be interesting:
Blatant racism and anti-democracy. Convince me I'm wrong. I dare you.