Yes, but... Even when the Tennessee Three are all back in their seats in the legislature, what comes next for democracy? They will be marginalized, the two young Black men will be forced to run again, and marginalized again when they win. Can the Tennessee legislature welcome back two young Black men and one white supportive woman? Is the Tennessee legislature ready to listen to the voices of the constituents of the Tennessee Three? Is there any hope in the foreseeable future for any gun legislation to be debated, let alone pass? Yes, I believe that democracy can work, but I'm not sure how many decades it will take for districts to be redrawn so that voters' voices can actually be heard in in the legislature in Tennessee.
I respectfully disagree; the leadership they will provide will not be defeated for this country and these young people have had more than enough fear and violence! They are ready to vote the friends of the killers out of office. My foundation Inspire2Vote has registered "nonpartisan" 105,000 young high school seniors all across the country to vote and I assure you they are ready for leadership in 2024. We have just merged with a fabulous group of Harvard students who are working to register young voters in 2,700 high schools; please click on www.turnup.us and support this optimistic leadership going forward. It's time!
Agreed! And thank you for your efforts ! Young voters are fed up. And they are showing up. And TN is not so red - they are gerrymandered. Republicans cracked Nashville to gain this super majority. They had to cheat. The majority are not being heard. And they are speaking out. Things are changing. And as women are nearly dying without the ability to make healthcare decisions regarding their pregnancy they are joining the young people. There will be a tidal wave. It is already happening.
The speaker, Cameron Sexton, May be in some trouble for fraudulently claiming to be living in Crossville and collecting a much higher per diem when he actually lives in Nashville. Courtesy of Judd Legum and the TN Holler
Respectful disagreement is good. : ) So is registering people to vote. The League of Women Voters has, for years, been registering high school students to vote. In addition to voting, though, we need to encourage young people to run for office. Maxwell Frost is in his 20s, as are the two Justins, so we know that when they run, they can win. Maybe some of your Harvard students can challenge our current state reps and state senators and turn the MA legislature blue.
In my local school board election coming up, we have a young woman Haley Taylor Schiltz running. She’s the youngest graduate from SMU law school and she’s amazing! At 20 years old she is our best hope. There are only two seats open and we’re getting out the word to vote for her and one other reasonable candidate. The young voters are here and I hope more run for office. We have to overcome the christo fascist wave!
We have a legislature in MA that votes the way the leadership does, in both the House and the Senate. Check out Act On Mass to see how resistant our leadership is to letting us know how committees vote. Why are progressive bills (e.g., Medicare for All, the Safe Communities Act) reintroduced year after year without any hope of passage? Yes, Warren and Markey are on the the progressive side, but read some of what Healey says and does. Pretty centrist. Are our legislators Dems? Yeah. Blue? Maybe pale blue. Progressive? Not very much.
Thank you for your civic engagement and for getting young people registered to vote. I'm great at knocking on doors but terrible at registering voters because I'm super partisan and can't keep my mouth shut. Lol
I don't know many hs age kids, but I do know a few hs teachers, so I send the link to them. I see that they pay hs kids $100 for 2-4 hours of work and that could be very appealing to them. Thanks, ira!
Love this. Please post about it on PACEsConnection.com. Democracy is the anti-trauma. People need and deserve voice and choice. Political subterfuge in the form of gerrymandering and trying to keep the people silent is the true Damndemic. Thank you for your amazing work. Please do post about it! Join (it’s free) and post and please connect with me on LinkedIn. Carey Sipp
Betsy, I would note, because state legislatures are subject to regulations of Congress, were the Freedom to Vote Act—that, among other provisions, mandates fair voting maps—to pass, we’d see an end to votes being diluted through partisan gerrymandering. You might recall, in January, 22, the legislation passed in the House, but was blocked in the Senate by Manchin and Sinema, who, along with the 50 Republican Senators, filibustered the bill.
Accordingly, were Democrats, in 24, to retake the House, pick up 1 Senate seat, and hold the Presidency, the federal regulations, from which states would not be exempt, would become law.
Kathy, Aside from working for Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, whose campaign is focused on representing the interests of a wide range of voters, I am banking on two factors: 1) Sinema has grown increasingly unpopular among all Arizona voters and 2) She’s not sufficiently conservative, given the demographics of Arizona’s mostly far-right Republican voters.
Jeri, Because the 24 Senate map favors Republicans, we’re seriously going to have to mobilize to hold onto our incumbents. Additionally, we need to get behind Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego if we’re to have 50 Democratic Senators receptive to modifying, if not abolishing, the Senate filibuster, ultimately, to move legislation to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
Frank, Considering the 24 Senate map favors Republicans, we’re going to have to seriously mobilize just to retain our incumbents. Beyond that, we need to get to work to insure Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego wins Arizona’s Senate seat. Only then will we have 50 Senators (Harris being the 51st vote) receptive to modifying, if not abolishing, the Senate filibuster to allow legislation to move to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
Maria-Elena, In my view, re-taking the House and holding the Presidency will be a less formidable challenge than retaining the Senate, whose map, in 24, favors Republicans. Rather than repeat myself, I would note my reply to Frank Loomer, part of this thread, establishes a plan for seating 50 Senators receptive to modifying, if not abolishing, the filibuster to move legislation to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
It will be up to all the Americans who decide to leave their comfort zone and become visible. Whether you were visible in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, the fight for democracy has no time stamp. Across the Nation, there needs to be voices heard and people seen demonstrating ¨enough is enough¨ . We need gun reform. We need Roe v Wade back in place. We need Acts that penalize those who lie to the public (like the Fairness Doctrine). We need stricter guidelines for running for office. You need to at least know how the government operates, know the names of all the states, know the branches of government and who is responsible for what, ....
I fear that you are right, Betsy. Tennessee is a deeply red state and the redistricting has made it difficult for any Democrat to win anything. But, it is good to see that they will be back and have the people behind them!
The city of Knoxville is blue but the surrounding county not so much. Shelby County is largely dem. The city of Nashville was also. Now the legislature is punishing Nashville by getting in the city’s business to break it. I think there may be hope that this time the legislature went too far. To see a blatantly demeaning “speech,” Google “Andrew Farmer Justin Pearson” and watch. It made me cringe.
People like me who live where this would and could never happen should see this video to understand where parts of this country are politically, socially. They should listen to the difference in quality of mind between one representative who *thinks* he has the power and thus entitled to his hubris, and another who does not only have the real power, the moral power, but the right and the duty to stand and fight and the duty to fight regardless. Without people like Justin Pearson this is one way democracy gets stamped out.
Well said, Potter. Thanks for posting the full speeches by both Farmer and Pearson. Farmer's demeaning and disparaging remarks made me cringe, too. But Justin Pearson handed it right back to him brilliantly and with clarity. As has been said, therein lies our hope — with our youth.
Yes, what Farmer did unknowingly ( stupidly) was to hand Pearson an opportunity. He was more than ready. These people,Farmer and those who who bolster him, should be shamed. With awareness and shame, hopefully they will be unseated.
I hope you are right. My husband's sister lives in Chattanooga (we almost moved there too many years ago). She and her husband always despair how red their city is. In retrospect, I'm happy that we stayed in Michigan, bad weather and all!
The good weather's coming! And Michigan people worked very, Very, VERY hard to get into place an independent redistricting committee. It worked...and now for the first time in decades Dems control the legislature (not by much, but enough) and the offices of the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. We will have no-reason absentee voting, extended days to vote....and the abortion ban was overturned. Gun safety legislation is coming.
Yes, we Michiganders have worked hard for many years to make positive changes in our state and we finally have a leadership team in Whitmer, Nessell, and Benson (plus the House and Senate majorities) to really enact these positive changes. It has been a LONG time coming! We LOVE "Big Gretch"! Plus, I-94 is getting fixed!
Twenty-seven years we lived in Livingston County duking it out with the Repub hierarchy. They had votes coming from 60% of the county population. Intelligence, they were shy on and a few of us backed them up with our commentary.
Of course, we move south to AZ and the state changes. It must be because of something I said. I had to be the instigator. I love reading about Mallory McMorrow putting Lana Theis in her place. It was great theater. The latter and I had gone a few rounds in dialogue along with her forerunner Hune.
I have seen the evil up close, where Beto got creamed by the cheating bastards. This time, I hope (hope not yet dead in Texas), that the evil has jumped the shark this time. May 2024 give us back our humanity. Deport Rupert, dump chump, resurrect the real Jesus, and call the cult MAGAts what Ike proved to the Germans that they had been worshipping - the devil and his disciples. The civil war needs to be won for real this time…
To hear the the republicans sat silent is heartbreaking. It is so indicative of a mindset unwilling to even consider change. The lack of gun laws of almost any kind is unconscionable.
Nobody says it will be easy. The USA has been slipping toward oligarchy for quite some time. Corporate powers are deeply entrenched. We are in rough seas, but we are not drowning. Not yet. Young men like the Justin's and strong women like Gloria. And millions of young people coming up are our captains and we are their crew. We have, some of us at least, fought and led. Now we support them and speak and sing and work with them to reach the promise of America that has never yet happened: Equality and Justice for All.
I was distressed by the “both sides-ism” of the, I assume, official, comment from Shelby County. It can be paraphrased as, “He lost his head in the heat of the moment”. That is to say, it was a grievous error. The rest was weak sauce.
No, no, no. More, not fewer of these “transgressions” are needed. Each one is the blow of an axe chopping down a rotting tree. Civility is not the response that is needed when there are horrors stalking the land, one of them obviously being the current American fetish to strip away any and all gun restrictions. Legislators need to fear when the next bitter protest will erupt and what boundaries of decorum it will cross.
North of Tennessee four unsuspecting people were shot to death in a bank yesterday, probably within a few hours of Justin Johnson reclaiming his seat while being ignored by the Legislature’s troglodytes. Maybe more people will feel the urgency of this moment.
It is now after 1:00 p.m. here in the west and already some things are happening for good in Tennessee. There may be a breakthrough in gun laws being changed there.
Glad the fascists lost a round, but they'll be back to trash democracy again soon enough. Democrats must learn to fight better, longer, harder, and with more desired results, or we will be out of power again soon.
Hahaaahaaa.. Craig..and those fascist-dickheads are 'our' fascists, elected by all of 'us' the American people(s) and those of TN. So let's call em "R"-fascists.... RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR..RRRRRR..RrrrRRR%&$rrrrrRRgaggRR##^}rrrrrrghh.ahhh FASssshits. There!! Whew.., finally got it out Craig.. whew! I feel better now.
Democracy can work! The people’s voice matters!
Yes, but... Even when the Tennessee Three are all back in their seats in the legislature, what comes next for democracy? They will be marginalized, the two young Black men will be forced to run again, and marginalized again when they win. Can the Tennessee legislature welcome back two young Black men and one white supportive woman? Is the Tennessee legislature ready to listen to the voices of the constituents of the Tennessee Three? Is there any hope in the foreseeable future for any gun legislation to be debated, let alone pass? Yes, I believe that democracy can work, but I'm not sure how many decades it will take for districts to be redrawn so that voters' voices can actually be heard in in the legislature in Tennessee.
I respectfully disagree; the leadership they will provide will not be defeated for this country and these young people have had more than enough fear and violence! They are ready to vote the friends of the killers out of office. My foundation Inspire2Vote has registered "nonpartisan" 105,000 young high school seniors all across the country to vote and I assure you they are ready for leadership in 2024. We have just merged with a fabulous group of Harvard students who are working to register young voters in 2,700 high schools; please click on www.turnup.us and support this optimistic leadership going forward. It's time!
Agreed! And thank you for your efforts ! Young voters are fed up. And they are showing up. And TN is not so red - they are gerrymandered. Republicans cracked Nashville to gain this super majority. They had to cheat. The majority are not being heard. And they are speaking out. Things are changing. And as women are nearly dying without the ability to make healthcare decisions regarding their pregnancy they are joining the young people. There will be a tidal wave. It is already happening.
The speaker, Cameron Sexton, May be in some trouble for fraudulently claiming to be living in Crossville and collecting a much higher per diem when he actually lives in Nashville. Courtesy of Judd Legum and the TN Holler
Respectful disagreement is good. : ) So is registering people to vote. The League of Women Voters has, for years, been registering high school students to vote. In addition to voting, though, we need to encourage young people to run for office. Maxwell Frost is in his 20s, as are the two Justins, so we know that when they run, they can win. Maybe some of your Harvard students can challenge our current state reps and state senators and turn the MA legislature blue.
In my local school board election coming up, we have a young woman Haley Taylor Schiltz running. She’s the youngest graduate from SMU law school and she’s amazing! At 20 years old she is our best hope. There are only two seats open and we’re getting out the word to vote for her and one other reasonable candidate. The young voters are here and I hope more run for office. We have to overcome the christo fascist wave!
The MA legislature is already blue. So is the MA governor. We have two progressive senators here, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.
We have a legislature in MA that votes the way the leadership does, in both the House and the Senate. Check out Act On Mass to see how resistant our leadership is to letting us know how committees vote. Why are progressive bills (e.g., Medicare for All, the Safe Communities Act) reintroduced year after year without any hope of passage? Yes, Warren and Markey are on the the progressive side, but read some of what Healey says and does. Pretty centrist. Are our legislators Dems? Yeah. Blue? Maybe pale blue. Progressive? Not very much.
DOJ needs to investigate all the repugnants in congress who were involved with J6 and removed!
If everyone doesn't vote, how can the word democracy have any meaning?
I have said for years and continue to say " if you don't vote, you have no right to complain".
Australia REQUIRES everyone to vote or else you are fined!!!
Can one of these three (TN) run for Congress?
"Now you're talkin'!!!
Young people have had enough. They are angry that we have ignored the Climate Crisis and that we have let guns be more important than their lives.
Thank you for your work on this. And turnup.us is inspired!
Thanks Bill please pass on the turnup info to your friends!
Spreading the word about turnup.us
https://billalstrom.substack.com/p/winning-with-youth
I donated to turnup. Thank you for letting us know about this.
Thank you for your civic engagement and for getting young people registered to vote. I'm great at knocking on doors but terrible at registering voters because I'm super partisan and can't keep my mouth shut. Lol
Fear and violence - GOP specialties of their menu. They THRIVE on negativity. Pathetic.
I don't know many hs age kids, but I do know a few hs teachers, so I send the link to them. I see that they pay hs kids $100 for 2-4 hours of work and that could be very appealing to them. Thanks, ira!
But what happens when the repugnants states are all gerrymandered??
Just donated!
Already donated last week! I’m so excited to see what these new voters can do to turn our Country back toward DEMOCRACY! ❤️
Love this. Please post about it on PACEsConnection.com. Democracy is the anti-trauma. People need and deserve voice and choice. Political subterfuge in the form of gerrymandering and trying to keep the people silent is the true Damndemic. Thank you for your amazing work. Please do post about it! Join (it’s free) and post and please connect with me on LinkedIn. Carey Sipp
Betsy, I would note, because state legislatures are subject to regulations of Congress, were the Freedom to Vote Act—that, among other provisions, mandates fair voting maps—to pass, we’d see an end to votes being diluted through partisan gerrymandering. You might recall, in January, 22, the legislation passed in the House, but was blocked in the Senate by Manchin and Sinema, who, along with the 50 Republican Senators, filibustered the bill.
Accordingly, were Democrats, in 24, to retake the House, pick up 1 Senate seat, and hold the Presidency, the federal regulations, from which states would not be exempt, would become law.
Will donate my last dime to have one more REAL Dem senator
Hopefully Arizona will get rid of Kyrsten Sinema.
She is registered as I so will get some, or many, Republican votes.
Kathy, Aside from working for Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, whose campaign is focused on representing the interests of a wide range of voters, I am banking on two factors: 1) Sinema has grown increasingly unpopular among all Arizona voters and 2) She’s not sufficiently conservative, given the demographics of Arizona’s mostly far-right Republican voters.
Jeri, Because the 24 Senate map favors Republicans, we’re seriously going to have to mobilize to hold onto our incumbents. Additionally, we need to get behind Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego if we’re to have 50 Democratic Senators receptive to modifying, if not abolishing, the Senate filibuster, ultimately, to move legislation to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
Yes, things have to happen in the Senate to push through filibuster proof majority or just get rid of the filibuster.
Frank, Considering the 24 Senate map favors Republicans, we’re going to have to seriously mobilize just to retain our incumbents. Beyond that, we need to get to work to insure Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego wins Arizona’s Senate seat. Only then will we have 50 Senators (Harris being the 51st vote) receptive to modifying, if not abolishing, the Senate filibuster to allow legislation to move to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
I’ll keep donating and I’ll hope but that’s a lot of “ifs”.
Maria-Elena, In my view, re-taking the House and holding the Presidency will be a less formidable challenge than retaining the Senate, whose map, in 24, favors Republicans. Rather than repeat myself, I would note my reply to Frank Loomer, part of this thread, establishes a plan for seating 50 Senators receptive to modifying, if not abolishing, the filibuster to move legislation to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
It will be up to all the Americans who decide to leave their comfort zone and become visible. Whether you were visible in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, the fight for democracy has no time stamp. Across the Nation, there needs to be voices heard and people seen demonstrating ¨enough is enough¨ . We need gun reform. We need Roe v Wade back in place. We need Acts that penalize those who lie to the public (like the Fairness Doctrine). We need stricter guidelines for running for office. You need to at least know how the government operates, know the names of all the states, know the branches of government and who is responsible for what, ....
Yes, but...these days of rapid communications and alert journalist might be the nemisis of those Southern confederate bullies.
From your keyboard to God's ( whoever's ) eyes.
I fear that you are right, Betsy. Tennessee is a deeply red state and the redistricting has made it difficult for any Democrat to win anything. But, it is good to see that they will be back and have the people behind them!
The city of Knoxville is blue but the surrounding county not so much. Shelby County is largely dem. The city of Nashville was also. Now the legislature is punishing Nashville by getting in the city’s business to break it. I think there may be hope that this time the legislature went too far. To see a blatantly demeaning “speech,” Google “Andrew Farmer Justin Pearson” and watch. It made me cringe.
thanks -I did find the "Temper Tantrum". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Halw3xpd_Tc
People like me who live where this would and could never happen should see this video to understand where parts of this country are politically, socially. They should listen to the difference in quality of mind between one representative who *thinks* he has the power and thus entitled to his hubris, and another who does not only have the real power, the moral power, but the right and the duty to stand and fight and the duty to fight regardless. Without people like Justin Pearson this is one way democracy gets stamped out.
Well said, Potter. Thanks for posting the full speeches by both Farmer and Pearson. Farmer's demeaning and disparaging remarks made me cringe, too. But Justin Pearson handed it right back to him brilliantly and with clarity. As has been said, therein lies our hope — with our youth.
Yes, what Farmer did unknowingly ( stupidly) was to hand Pearson an opportunity. He was more than ready. These people,Farmer and those who who bolster him, should be shamed. With awareness and shame, hopefully they will be unseated.
Long-time organizers that both Justin's are helps a lot!
Is that not insulting?
I hope you are right. My husband's sister lives in Chattanooga (we almost moved there too many years ago). She and her husband always despair how red their city is. In retrospect, I'm happy that we stayed in Michigan, bad weather and all!
The good weather's coming! And Michigan people worked very, Very, VERY hard to get into place an independent redistricting committee. It worked...and now for the first time in decades Dems control the legislature (not by much, but enough) and the offices of the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. We will have no-reason absentee voting, extended days to vote....and the abortion ban was overturned. Gun safety legislation is coming.
Yes, we Michiganders have worked hard for many years to make positive changes in our state and we finally have a leadership team in Whitmer, Nessell, and Benson (plus the House and Senate majorities) to really enact these positive changes. It has been a LONG time coming! We LOVE "Big Gretch"! Plus, I-94 is getting fixed!
Twenty-seven years we lived in Livingston County duking it out with the Repub hierarchy. They had votes coming from 60% of the county population. Intelligence, they were shy on and a few of us backed them up with our commentary.
Of course, we move south to AZ and the state changes. It must be because of something I said. I had to be the instigator. I love reading about Mallory McMorrow putting Lana Theis in her place. It was great theater. The latter and I had gone a few rounds in dialogue along with her forerunner Hune.
Good to read this
What a great story to shout from the rooftops, Ann!
Colette My thoughts of Tennessee include:
1) Tennessee volunteers fought bravely but could not dislodge Col Joshua Chamberlain and his 20th Maine from Little Round Top at Gettysburg;
2) The locale of the Scopes trial in which William Jennings Bryan debated Clarence Darrow on evolution;
3) By one vote Tennessee was the decisive state in approving the admendment giving women the vote; AND
4) Red necks in the Tennessee General Assembly vastly outnumber the sensible citizens., though there are some urban streaks of blue.
I have seen the evil up close, where Beto got creamed by the cheating bastards. This time, I hope (hope not yet dead in Texas), that the evil has jumped the shark this time. May 2024 give us back our humanity. Deport Rupert, dump chump, resurrect the real Jesus, and call the cult MAGAts what Ike proved to the Germans that they had been worshipping - the devil and his disciples. The civil war needs to be won for real this time…
To hear the the republicans sat silent is heartbreaking. It is so indicative of a mindset unwilling to even consider change. The lack of gun laws of almost any kind is unconscionable.
Every change starts somewhere …
Nobody says it will be easy. The USA has been slipping toward oligarchy for quite some time. Corporate powers are deeply entrenched. We are in rough seas, but we are not drowning. Not yet. Young men like the Justin's and strong women like Gloria. And millions of young people coming up are our captains and we are their crew. We have, some of us at least, fought and led. Now we support them and speak and sing and work with them to reach the promise of America that has never yet happened: Equality and Justice for All.
I was distressed by the “both sides-ism” of the, I assume, official, comment from Shelby County. It can be paraphrased as, “He lost his head in the heat of the moment”. That is to say, it was a grievous error. The rest was weak sauce.
No, no, no. More, not fewer of these “transgressions” are needed. Each one is the blow of an axe chopping down a rotting tree. Civility is not the response that is needed when there are horrors stalking the land, one of them obviously being the current American fetish to strip away any and all gun restrictions. Legislators need to fear when the next bitter protest will erupt and what boundaries of decorum it will cross.
North of Tennessee four unsuspecting people were shot to death in a bank yesterday, probably within a few hours of Justin Johnson reclaiming his seat while being ignored by the Legislature’s troglodytes. Maybe more people will feel the urgency of this moment.
"Is there any hope in the foreseeable future for any gun legislation to be debated, let alone pass?"
As far as I can tell the answer is no.
It is now after 1:00 p.m. here in the west and already some things are happening for good in Tennessee. There may be a breakthrough in gun laws being changed there.
Glad the fascists lost a round, but they'll be back to trash democracy again soon enough. Democrats must learn to fight better, longer, harder, and with more desired results, or we will be out of power again soon.
I fear, sometimes we'll have to descend to their level & fight dirty. Hopefully briefly.
Republicans are nasty humans, or at least they look human.
Hahaaahaaa.. Craig..and those fascist-dickheads are 'our' fascists, elected by all of 'us' the American people(s) and those of TN. So let's call em "R"-fascists.... RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR..RRRRRR..RrrrRRR%&$rrrrrRRgaggRR##^}rrrrrrghh.ahhh FASssshits. There!! Whew.., finally got it out Craig.. whew! I feel better now.
Freedom of expression unobstructed. 1 victory at a time.