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Klan-like negation was the intent of the Tennessee House [1]

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Date: 2023-04-11  

As pleased as I am about Representative Jones and imminently Representative Pearson being reappointed to their seats, what is being missed is that they and we should not be forced to see those reappointments as victories. These brilliant young men have been forced to waste energy and that of their constituencies recovering positions that were theirs in the the first place. They were duly elected and in so doing had the right to their seats, failing egregious criminality. That the massively morally and legally compromised TN-Rs made up new rules to abuse these men should come as no surprise. Suddenly making up rules that apply only to Black people is the R/Confederate way. Regardless of the expulsion not keeping the Justin’s from their seats, the Rs have actually succeeded in what was most important to them, which is to force intelligent Black men (people) to jump through additional hoops to receive what should have been theirs in exactly the same way as White men. Just another version of forcing Black people to correctly guess the number of jellybeans in the jar before voting.

What the Rs have done is fraudulently engineer the tenure of these men to label them as asterisk representatives. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the reappointments are interim ones and they will need to run for their own seats again in a bullshit special election. White representatives do not have to do this. I have no doubt that some NEW “rule” gets trotted out to reduce their current voting opportunities pretending ‘interim appointments apply only to NON-voting issues’ or some made up shit like that. It’s not even separate but equal. It is overtly separate but reduced. That was the designed message.

What is even more insidious is that far too many of those supporting the Justin’s are going to miss this because the nuance of this transparent attempt at racial negation is best recognized through personal experience and Black people have plenty. The Justin’s know what the intent was — to make them LOOK and FEEL belittled, minimized, narrowed, denuded. When you honestly recognize that you don’t have that lived experience and find that you are struggling to understand why Representative Johnson was not also expelled, the reason is built in as part of the strategy. The R’s absolute intent was to put a blinding spotlight on their different treatment of a White woman. The Rs had no need to expel ANY Democrats. They have a gerrymandered super-majority with enough votes to pass whatever they want on a whim. In this case, the whim they wanted was to illustrate their figurative live-and-death power specifically over Black men.

The Justins are too strong and too accomplished to have to play the game of the Confederates, and will not overtly live that engineered experience, but make no mistake, it was the intent to intimidate them. It is our responsibility to begin to not loudly, but blaringly trumpet the newly overt reality of who Rs now choose to be. Not with euphemisms or poorly understood discussions of the erosion of democracy. Rs are waging Klan-level warfare. It is intentional. It is overt. It is designed to break the spirit of people that every R in the state legislature considers nothing but interfering slaves. Every single person who voted for expulsion must now be labeled a member or supporter of Ku Klux Klan policies. They have earned that. Let them directly defend it. Pull back one nanometer from direct accusation.

We need to stop pulling back on language and surrendering labeling. No more polite and ridiculous “my friends across the aisle” insanity. That needs to stop right now. No more “they should be ashamed.” Every place Democrats have power we need to push for that power to be exercised to the absolute limit and if necessary beyond until a legitimate court says no. We are not competing with “conservatives.” They are “conserving” nothing. Stop using this term. They are due no polite respect. We are in a pitched battle with the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t give them cover by considering Rs anything else at this point. Call them the Ku Klux Klan. What Tennessee proved is that Rs are proud of who they have become and are working daily to build a country where they can say it themselves.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/11/2163330/-Klan-like-negation-was-the-intent-of-the-Tennessee-House

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