Tennessee Republicans vote to test out tyranny today (Update: They really did it)
Tennessee Republicans have expelled two young Black lawmakers, failed to expel their white compatriot. For protesting gun violence.
these are the kinds of officials the Republican Party is fielding in Tennessee these days.
Rep. Pearson is on the floor now.
Rep. Johnson addresses the racist elephants in the room.
In something of a shocking moment, Republicans fail to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson for standing up for children. Sound on!
Just going to leave this here.
Another update as the Tennesseans who respect the concept of a representative democracy rally around Justin Jones.
In what is being correctly called “a historic act of retaliation,” the Republican supermajority in the Tennessee legislature voted 72-25 to expel Democratic Rep. Justin Jones from office.
Whether or not Reps. Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson will be expelled remain to be seen. As the Tennessean notes “An expulsion does not disqualify a former representative from running for office, which could mean one of the expelled lawmakers could be appointed interim, run for reelection and be reseated in the General Assembly within months.”
Here is Rep. Justin Jones presenting what the real issue in Tennessee is for Republican legislators.
The Republican Party continues to find new lows. The most profound depth of conservative hypocrisy is its unwillingness to do anything to diminish the public health crisis created by guns. The most recent tragic school shooting—at a Nashville Christian private school on March 27, which left three 9-year-old children and three staffers dead—has once again exposed the perils of living in an environment governed by impotent Republican lawmakers.
Tennesseans, joined by the nation as a whole, have long demanded that their representatives do something of substance about gun safety legislation. Before the mass shooting at the Christian Covenant school, the only bit of Republican legislation around guns was when their right-wing Gov. Bill Lee signed a law in 2021 to lessen gun safety with a permitless carry law into existence.
The first and only responses from Tennessee Republican lawmakers like Tim Burchett have been literally, "We're not gonna fix it." The result is that students and teachers, and anyone with a moral compass not set to “greed,” have been lifting their voices in protest while putting their feet to the pavement.
There have been nonstop protests at the Tennessee state house in Nashville since the shooting. On Thursday, three Democratic lawmakers face an egregious vote by the Republican supermajority to decide whether they are expelled from office. This tyrannical threat comes after Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson joined in protests on the floor of the state house, calling for any meaningful gun safety legislation.
RELATED STORY: Tennessee Republicans compare gun protest to Jan. 6, move to expel Democratic lawmakers