Online Petition Calls for Speaker of the Tennessee House to Resign
Florida Educators Pushing Back on Desantis' "War on Woke"
There will be political successes down the road for Democrats, including in parts of deep red states, for which credit can be given to the "Tennessee three." Tennessee's house speaker, Cameron Sexton, took the opportunity provided by a protest that descended on the state capitol building to try to expel three Democrats from the already veto-proof state house of representatives. What he and his fellow Republicans did will go down in history as one of the most politically stupid moves they could have made.
Their attempted expulsion of the three Democrats did more, politically, to advance the cause of common sense gun control than any Democrats in the legislature have been able to do. Expelling the two young, black men, but not the white woman, made them look pitifully racist. The lack of any acknowledgement or denial of that, especially on Sexton's part, was a huge political mistake. Trying to equate the protest at the capitol in Nashville with the violent, rebellious insurrection in Washington on January 6, 2020 was laughable. And trying to shift the focus away from the pressure put on the Republicans in the legislature for Tennessee's lax, virtually non-existent gun control laws, which were responsible for the deaths of six people on a Christian school campus in Nashville, was about as unsuccessful as possible as a political move.
Lots of Talk and Not Much Action Will be the GOP Response to the Shooting, Protests and the Response
A petition, organized by a Christian group called "Faithful America," has gathered more than 20,000 signatures online, calling for Sexton's resignation. I don't expect him, or any Republican in the legislature, to acknowledge any opposition, since it is a symbolic act, and is not likely to get the desired result. But it is clear that they feel the pressure. The governor is actually using language that indicates he might be interested in signing some kind of "red flag" legislation. It's not likely that they will actually get around to passing anything that would actually do any real good, but Republicans have been good at making it look like they are responding when they are not.
I don't think the pressure from this particular shooting is going away. I've always said that Republicans will click their tongues and offer thoughts and prayers to shooting victims until one of the victims is a family member, relative, or even the child of one of them. Then, they will get off their rear end and do something. This shooting was, by any measure, on their turf. It happened in a Christian school operated by a conservative, fundamentalist Evangelical church, in a predominantly white, segregated neighborhood of Nashville. Several prominent Tennessee Republicans, including the wife of the governor and one of its senators, have close connections to individuals at the school where the shooting occurred, including at least two of the victims. These weren't just nameless faces in some overcrowded public school. At least one Tennessee legislator has or recently had children enrolled at this school.
The Faithful America petition hammers on two points, including what they call an attempt to "silence black and progressive opponents and to distract from from demands for gun control." So they bring both racism and gun control to the front of the table once again. I don't expect Sexton to pay much attention to this, at least, not in public. Tennessee's legislative seats have been heavily gerrymandered, though the disadvantage of that was seen last week, when two supervisor boards with the responsibility for filling vacant legislative seats voted overwhelmingly to send these two gentlemen back to the seats they came from.
These are the kinds of issues that motivate voters. And they are the kind of thing that flip partisan majorities, not everywhere, but potentially in enough places to change the direction in which things are now headed. Here are two young, African American men, both Christians themselves, one a student in the state's most prestigious divinity school, Democrats, standing up for fellow Christians who experienced a horrific shooting attack on their school, and for the safety of school children all over the state, against a repressive, shameful group of heavy-handed, oppressive Republican legislators.
Educators in Florida are Throwing Up Legal Blockades to Desantis' "War on Woke"
They are fighting back in Florida.
Bryn Taylor, a graduate student at the University of Florida, makes note of attempts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion advocacy at the state's colleges and universities, saying that doing so will result in being taken back from social progress. She is president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida and a member of a diversity, equity and inclusion council at the University.
"Why don't you want your base to become educated?" she asked. "Why don't you want your citizens to have the best access to the best schools in the world?"
The specific, "Stop Woke" act of which Taylor is speaking has been blocked by the courts. Desantis is counting on appeals in what he calls "more conservative" appellate courts to reverse the blocks. But the longer this goes on, the better the chance of the opposition, much of which is found on Florida's numerous college and university campuses, to organize, get their information in front of the courts and hopefully keep this draconian, backward, socially regressive legislation from ever being enforced.
Frankly, I think what Desantis and the Florida legislature are doing is sowing the seeds of their own demise. Desantis wants to throw his name in the hat and make a run for the Presidency, but this message is already suppressing the interest voters might have in him. Frankly, I think this will be the pathway for Democrats to get themselves in control of the state of Florida. It has awakened the sleepy activists down there. Disney is pushing back. The educational community is organized and working together and they did get this into the courts. We'll find out if Florida judges have integrity and if not, we'll find out how much Florida voters value their freedom.
It Must Be More Than Talk
People must vote, in every election, even at the local level, from where a lot of this ideology emerges. Democrats who live in deep red counties and districts are still Democrats, and their heading to the polls is vastly important, even if their votes won't overturn the majority in their area. There are places where support can make the difference in the margins, as well. Did you know that Ruben Gallego actually outraised Kyrsten Sinema in the most recent cycle of fundraising, to take a senate seat back that Democrats in Arizona won? He's the kind of guy to watch, who makes a difference. So do legislators like the two young men in Tennessee, now on the national stage and with more power and influence than they had before they were expelled.
We just had a local election in our area, for city council and school board. I went to two candidate forums, one for each. I asked one question of each candidate, "Do you believe the election in 2020 was stolen?" At the school board forum, one of the candidates asked me what did that have to do with the local school board. I said, "your answer tells me everything about you that I need to know."
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