For all the GOP’s talk of “political retaliation” against their presumptive presidential candidate, the real retaliation unfolded on Thursday on the front lines of the fight for gun safety in Nashville, Tennessee. Following a tragic shooting at the Covenant School in the city that left six victims dead, including three adults and three nine-year old children, more than 1,000 students marched on the Capitol building during a session of the state’s House of Representatives. The students, in the tradition of the Parkland and MSU students, went to protest the state’s utter inaction on gun safety in the wake of these shootings.
It is as you said the other day; as the legitimacy of GOP power dissolves, their efforts to retain it are becoming ever more desperate.
Because they now have the issue of abortion as an albatross around their neck rather than the galvanizing rallying point it was pre-Dobbs, they have had to ramp up such other culture wars issues as they can find in order to appease their ever-shrinking-but-increasingly-truculent base. All that they can find are LGBTQ issues, CRT, guns, and Trump's legal woes. There isn't a public policy worth printing in the batch.
“Nearly 1,400 people die each year in Tennessee by guns”
Why the passive “die” instead of “are killed”?
Dying is a thing that happens in the normal course of events for us all. “Die each year by guns” puts this in the realm of “die each year from cancer”. It makes murders sound like an unfortunate fact of existence rather than the violent violation of a person that it is.
It’s akin to saying “Six people lost their lives in a mass shooting” (careless people, misplacing their lives like that) instead of the vastly more accurate “Six people were murdered...”
We need to stop talking about shootings as if they were something the victims did, or something unfortunate that just happened to happen to them, and acknowledge shootings are a deliberately act of violence done to them.
I’m 62. And, I feel it’s time for all the young voters to vote out these old fart politicians. They are lost and intentionally ignorant of the real meaning of our Constitution. Please, please encourage all your young friends to vote, and even run for office if that’s their passion. We need you to come into the fold and make much needed changes to save our Democracy. WE NEED YOUR VOTES NOW.
How does this legislature have the power to disenfranchise the voters? I hope they pay dearly for it, you ignore the will of the voters at your peril, and there is a tipping point. Only hope this is it. Pretty rich for the party that has nothing to say about the Mean Girl Caucus heckling the President during the State of the Union decides to outright eject members of the other party who are doing something similar.
Born and raised in TN but do not live there now (and will not until things improve). Very impressed with the two young men (the two Justins!). Can't wait to see how they continue to work for justice.
The GOP playbook is to lie, grab for power, and punish those who object. Look at Desantis’ ongoing war with Disney-he’s now threatening to inflict more hotel taxes and tolls for roads to further punish them. His craven thirst for absolute domination is sick and frightening to behold. The Republican supermajority he inflicted on Florida with gerrymandering and bowing to wealthy conservatives is ruining this state. My fear is that as his numbers shift downward nationally, he’ll shore up his ridiculous ego by imposing more authoritarianism here. HE CAN NEVER ATTAIN THE OVAL OFFICE. He is a clear threat to democracy.
With regard to North Carolina, what about the will of the voters? All of a sudden a blue candidate from a blue district flips? How is that representative democracy. Those voters sent that rep there to advocate on their behalf not caucus with the opposing party with opposing viewpoints. I get its easy to only see this from one side but ultimately it's the voters who lose. Kristen synema is a great example of this. She ran on platforms that she has abandoned. Those voters entrusted her to carry the flame of those policy positions to DC. She has abandoned them and the voters. That is cruel and borderline antidemocratic. We know her days are numbered because of this, hopefully voters see the error of their ways and replace these people with better candidates.
So much to unpack here. The GOP has been taking lessons from dictators in Russia, Turkey and Hungary. It's not surprising conservatives are taking over to have their own dictatorship here. This is how it starts.
My niece is first grade teacher in Nashville. She grew up in Greenwich, CT and taught 1st grade on the UWS before moving to Nashville for her husband's job. She said she almost cried when the kids in her class asked her why she didn't have a lot of books in their classroom. She said her colleagues who are members of the LGBTQ+ family, are afraid to post on their social media accounts and one of her gay colleagues said he won't even hold hands with his partner just in case he's seen by a student's family. For someone coming from liberal areas like CT and NYC, she said thankfully Nashville is progressive, but it's still really bad. She's been out there protesting when she can, but she thinks there will come a time where they will get fired if they attend any protests or speak out. It's just awful. I can't believe there are no laws to prevent the GOP from just doing away with Democrats.
There’s a sea change in the US. Gen Z and Millennials are more diverse, believe in social justice, and are sick of allowing a small set of people to control politics, the economy, and their lives.
I wrote about it often in my Substack, Roots of Change. The rise in extremism and the GOP’s blatant attempts to subvert democracy are attempts to silence younger, progressive, and diverse generations. They can only hold back the change for some time, they can’t stop it completely. Wisconsin and Chicago elections are great examples of that.
It is as you said the other day; as the legitimacy of GOP power dissolves, their efforts to retain it are becoming ever more desperate.
Because they now have the issue of abortion as an albatross around their neck rather than the galvanizing rallying point it was pre-Dobbs, they have had to ramp up such other culture wars issues as they can find in order to appease their ever-shrinking-but-increasingly-truculent base. All that they can find are LGBTQ issues, CRT, guns, and Trump's legal woes. There isn't a public policy worth printing in the batch.
“Nearly 1,400 people die each year in Tennessee by guns”
Why the passive “die” instead of “are killed”?
Dying is a thing that happens in the normal course of events for us all. “Die each year by guns” puts this in the realm of “die each year from cancer”. It makes murders sound like an unfortunate fact of existence rather than the violent violation of a person that it is.
It’s akin to saying “Six people lost their lives in a mass shooting” (careless people, misplacing their lives like that) instead of the vastly more accurate “Six people were murdered...”
We need to stop talking about shootings as if they were something the victims did, or something unfortunate that just happened to happen to them, and acknowledge shootings are a deliberately act of violence done to them.
I’m 62. And, I feel it’s time for all the young voters to vote out these old fart politicians. They are lost and intentionally ignorant of the real meaning of our Constitution. Please, please encourage all your young friends to vote, and even run for office if that’s their passion. We need you to come into the fold and make much needed changes to save our Democracy. WE NEED YOUR VOTES NOW.
How does this legislature have the power to disenfranchise the voters? I hope they pay dearly for it, you ignore the will of the voters at your peril, and there is a tipping point. Only hope this is it. Pretty rich for the party that has nothing to say about the Mean Girl Caucus heckling the President during the State of the Union decides to outright eject members of the other party who are doing something similar.
I have already read many accounts of this "showdown" in several online publications. This one is by far the clearest and most thorough. Thank you!
Born and raised in TN but do not live there now (and will not until things improve). Very impressed with the two young men (the two Justins!). Can't wait to see how they continue to work for justice.
The GOP playbook is to lie, grab for power, and punish those who object. Look at Desantis’ ongoing war with Disney-he’s now threatening to inflict more hotel taxes and tolls for roads to further punish them. His craven thirst for absolute domination is sick and frightening to behold. The Republican supermajority he inflicted on Florida with gerrymandering and bowing to wealthy conservatives is ruining this state. My fear is that as his numbers shift downward nationally, he’ll shore up his ridiculous ego by imposing more authoritarianism here. HE CAN NEVER ATTAIN THE OVAL OFFICE. He is a clear threat to democracy.
With regard to North Carolina, what about the will of the voters? All of a sudden a blue candidate from a blue district flips? How is that representative democracy. Those voters sent that rep there to advocate on their behalf not caucus with the opposing party with opposing viewpoints. I get its easy to only see this from one side but ultimately it's the voters who lose. Kristen synema is a great example of this. She ran on platforms that she has abandoned. Those voters entrusted her to carry the flame of those policy positions to DC. She has abandoned them and the voters. That is cruel and borderline antidemocratic. We know her days are numbered because of this, hopefully voters see the error of their ways and replace these people with better candidates.
We need a national boycott of Tennessee. I don’t spend my money in any red states.
So much to unpack here. The GOP has been taking lessons from dictators in Russia, Turkey and Hungary. It's not surprising conservatives are taking over to have their own dictatorship here. This is how it starts.
And this from ‘conservative’ Republican snowflakes who moan about cancel culture. #potkettleblack
My niece is first grade teacher in Nashville. She grew up in Greenwich, CT and taught 1st grade on the UWS before moving to Nashville for her husband's job. She said she almost cried when the kids in her class asked her why she didn't have a lot of books in their classroom. She said her colleagues who are members of the LGBTQ+ family, are afraid to post on their social media accounts and one of her gay colleagues said he won't even hold hands with his partner just in case he's seen by a student's family. For someone coming from liberal areas like CT and NYC, she said thankfully Nashville is progressive, but it's still really bad. She's been out there protesting when she can, but she thinks there will come a time where they will get fired if they attend any protests or speak out. It's just awful. I can't believe there are no laws to prevent the GOP from just doing away with Democrats.
And again, we see a bunch of aging white men at the podium pretending to be righteous.
Very Happy to See Chris Murphy in the fray! And yes this is very much retaliation
Boycott everything related to this state! Fight back!
The youths won’t stand for the GOPs corruption.
There’s a sea change in the US. Gen Z and Millennials are more diverse, believe in social justice, and are sick of allowing a small set of people to control politics, the economy, and their lives.
I wrote about it often in my Substack, Roots of Change. The rise in extremism and the GOP’s blatant attempts to subvert democracy are attempts to silence younger, progressive, and diverse generations. They can only hold back the change for some time, they can’t stop it completely. Wisconsin and Chicago elections are great examples of that.