Tennessee Republicans miscalculated badly when they expelled two Black Democratic lawmakers from the Tennessee Legislature for breaking rules of decorum. It was an absurd overreaction with shades of authoritarianism. Now the previously unknown pair have a national platform and have become a cause célèbre. Well played, Republicans.
"This is the democracy that changes the status quo," he said. “But we’ve got news—the status quo needs changing and the status quo needs you, so today we march and we’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep pushing, because we believe that this is what democracy looks like.”
“I wasn’t elected to be pushed to the back of the room and silenced,” Pearson wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times today. “We who were elected to represent all Tennesseans—Black, white, brown, immigrant, female, male, poor, young, transgender and queer—are routinely silenced when we try to speak on their behalf. Last week, the world was allowed to see it in broad daylight.”
“Republican-led statehouses across the country are proposing and passing staggering numbers of bills that serve a fringe, white evangelical agenda that abrogates the rights and freedoms of the rest of us,” he continued. “[W]e have a nation in pain and peril.”
To law maker Pearson: Well done, sir. Well said. To the Tennessee Republicans: IDIOTS!!!
Don't you just love these stupid Republicans!
Yes…
Spot on!
"This is the democracy that changes the status quo," he said. “But we’ve got news—the status quo needs changing and the status quo needs you, so today we march and we’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep pushing, because we believe that this is what democracy looks like.”
“I wasn’t elected to be pushed to the back of the room and silenced,” Pearson wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times today. “We who were elected to represent all Tennesseans—Black, white, brown, immigrant, female, male, poor, young, transgender and queer—are routinely silenced when we try to speak on their behalf. Last week, the world was allowed to see it in broad daylight.”
“Republican-led statehouses across the country are proposing and passing staggering numbers of bills that serve a fringe, white evangelical agenda that abrogates the rights and freedoms of the rest of us,” he continued. “[W]e have a nation in pain and peril.”
Thank you for this.
Such a heartfelt and great indicator that not all are racists in Tennessee- tho’ unfortunately, I know quite a few….
It was beyond authoritarianism, racism bigotry, ignorance were at work as well.
Haha!