Every now and again events take on a life of their own. No one can predict when these will occur. After the fact, nobody can say why this particular incident was such a turning point. You know that a seamstress named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white man in December of 1955. It has been said that that was the birth of the Civil Rights movement.

Yesterday in the Tennessee State House was another such seminal moment, when the GOP supermajority voted to remove Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both POCs and Gloria Johnson, the third member of the Tennessee Three managed to retain her seat by a single vote.

Today Kamala Harris got on Air Force Two and went to Tennessee and Joe Biden invited the Tennessee Three to the White House. CNN:

The last-minute trip shows how much focus the Biden administration is placing on this issue and gun control broadly. Previously, Harris was scheduled to have no public events on Friday.

President Joe Biden spoke with the three Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion to thank them for their “leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values” and invited all three to the White House, according to an administration readout from Friday evening.

In a late-night statement on Thursday, Biden called the expulsion of the two lawmakers from the state’s House of Representatives “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent” and criticized Republicans for not taking greater action on gun reform.

“Rather than debating the merits of the issue, these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel duly-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” the president said. “A strong majority of Americans want lawmakers to act on commonsense gun safety reforms that we know will save lives. But instead, we’ve continued to see Republican officials across America double down on dangerous bills that make our schools, places of worship, and communities less safe.”

The Tennessee Three broke no rule, either of the legislature or of common civility. The GOP supermajority was motivated by ingrained racist leanings and by a desire to defend the use of AR-15s because that is the GOP policy.

My sense of this is that the ball just got rolling. I see this as becoming major. The day may come when we thank this legislature for doing for us what hundreds of mass shootings in the United States could not do. Nashville is different. Something is going to happen with gun control, finally.

Kevin McCarthy refused to answer questions about Nashville. Mitch McConnell is still in silent running mode. And the billionaire criminal defendant who is the Republican party’s banner holder is utterly useless. The GOP is sailing blind and rudderless, like a ghost ship. This is the kind of moment when all the elements align for good and things can change.

This is a Rosa Parks moment. I feel it in my bones.

 

 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t doubt that this will be significant and there’s a very good chance it will turn out to be huge. It would be in any case but the silence today from national GOPer and especially leaders is deafening. I’m glad to see our side from President Biden and Vice President Harris on down is filling the void left by GOPers regarding this blatant, shameful act by the TN House.

    Sadly, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say tragically I really don’t see the visceral reaction of horror even from a large share of Republicans that will galvanize real, and swift (the only way I think it can get done) on meaningful gun control without an Emmit Till moment. Never having had kids I can only, but never every fully imagine the gut wrenching thoughts that go through any parent’s mind when a child is suddenly lost for any reason. And for Till’s mom? I’m an old white guy so there’s a whole additional set of factors adding to her grief I will never fully understand. But here’s the thing: When she was advised to have a closed casket, she made a truly courageous decision. Even cleaned up and partially “rebuilt” the devastation rendered to Till during his murder shocked this nation.

    Yes, it would take still more shocking images including news footage of Bull Conner’s fire hosing and setting dogs on peaceful protesters, and Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettis Bridge to name two seminal events the country couldn’t ignore but I’m told (I’m “only” sixty five) the images of Till in newspapers around the country did in fact shock this nation and make a lot of people for the first time start, even if only to themselves confront an awful truth.

    So it is with gun violence and in particular school shootings. I truly hate saying it but I think it’s going to take the kind of courage and determination Emmit Till’s mother summoned, having pictures of their children’s shattered bodies with the pools of blood around them to FINALLY force action. REAL action. I don’t know how a parent can summon that type of resolve, especially in the face of other family members who would object and the inevitable avalanche of vile comments that will rain down on them by people inspired by RWNJ media. It’s a terrible, tragic think to believe is necessary and to hope some parent(s) can bring themselves to do it but that’s what it will take. Not a Rosa Parks moment, but an Emmit Till one.

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  2. I certainly hope you are right, however, we have heard the “this time it’s different” line after each school shooting/protest.
    It is becoming the left’s version of “thoughts and prayers”.

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