Although no real good can come out of it, I continue to be both rivetted and repulsed by the ongoing devolution of American society. Everywhere one looks, it is apparent that political leadership inspired by vision and integrity is close to extinction, replaced by demagoguery and pandering to America's basest elements. Indeed, it seems the powers-that-be barely make even a pretence of respect for democracy anymore.
The states are leading the charge in this race to the dictatorial bottom, and the most recent example is a profoundly disturbing one: the ouster of two state representatives from the Republican-led Tennessee House. This anti-democratic action, a convergence of America's love of the gun and hatred of racial minorities, has the attention of the world.
Two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives have been expelled while a third member was spared in an ousting by Republican lawmakers that was decried by the trio as oppressive, vindictive and racially motivated.
Protesters packed the state Capitol on Thursday to denounce the expulsions of Reps. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson and to advocate for gun reform measures a little over a week after a mass shooting devastated a Nashville school.
Following their expulsion – which House Republicans said was in response to the representatives’ leadership of gun control demonstrations on the chamber floor last week – Jones and Pearson called for protesters to return to the Capitol when the House is back in session on Monday.
Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is White and wasn’t ousted, slammed the votes removing Jones and Pearson, who are Black, as racist. Asked by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota why she believes she wasn’t expelled, Johnson said the reason is “pretty clear.”
“I am a 60-year-old White woman, and they are two young Black men,” Johnson said.
According to GOP leadership, Jones and Pearson were expelled because they broke “several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor.” Worth noting is that the expulsion is only the third in the state since Reconstruction, the period that followed the Civil War.
Of course, it is hard not to see the real reasons behind the expulsions: the strong influence of the gun lobby which has made a fetish of never saying "sorry," even when so many young, innocent lives have been lost to school shootings. The other reason, of course, is, as Gloria Johnson stated, racism.
Without doubt, the biggest victim of all is democracy:
On “CNN This Morning,” Jones said, “I think what happened was a travesty of democracy because they expelled the two youngest Black lawmakers – which is no coincidence – from the Tennessee state legislature because we are outspoken, because we fight for our district.”
Jones described the session as a “toxic, racist work environment,” and said he spoke out because the House speaker ruled him out of order when he brought up the issue of gun violence. “If I didn’t know this happened to me, I would think that this was 1963 instead of 2023,” he added.
Only in Amerika, eh? One fervently hopes and prays that remains true.
