That didn’t take long, but it was so satisfying to watch. I can only imagine what it was like to feel. Days after House member Justin Jones was expelled from his seat in a disgusting display of racism, he was back, having been unanimously appointed to fill his own vacancy by the district board.
He signed in, got his badge and desk nameplate back, and was ready to go. His partner in crime, congresswoman Gloria Johnson met him in the hall, and they exchanged a WWE bear hug. Then it was arm-in-arm through the double doors, where the gallery immediately lost it. Jones pumped his right fist in the air, and Johnson pumped her left. They slowly took a victory lap of the aisle ringing the well, careful to stay off.
An then it was over, only not. The first thing Jones did was to ask for time, which was granted. And then Jones took his revenge, saying something like, I want to thank the people. THIS is what justice looks like. Last week wasn’t justice, but this is what it looks like. And I want to thank you. Not for what you did last week. But every new generation needs a visual reminder of just how long and hard out struggle has been, and how much further we have to go. So that you for uniting the next generation for the struggle. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
This is a total humiliation for not only the Tennessee GOP, but for the national GOP. We learned that when stupid wants to go on a political vacation, it goes to Tennessee. These halfwit rednecks were intimidated by a couple of young, energetic, well spoken and motivated black men. And to put them in their place, they were willing to make martyrs out of them.
Only these dung stompers couldn’t even do that right. Instead the let the district commissions do an end run around them and reappoint the two back to their seats, and now instead of martyrs the Tennessee GOP has created the state politics version of a couple of Nelson Mandela’s. They stirred the Tennessee African American community to new heights, and Jones and Pearson will only ride that wave, to the dismay of the Tennessee GOP.
Because it doesn’t stop there. Tennessee is safely gerrymandered simply because the minority votes are tightly packed into the large cities. The problem is that the suburbs and exurbs of these cities keep growing. And a good portion of those new voters are younger, more upwardly mobile white voters, who consider themselves more liberal. And even the more traditional conservative white voters tend to consider themselves to be racially liberated. Let’s see if any scales fall from some of those younger moderate conservative eye going into what will likely be considerably tighter swing districts in 2024.
And that same syndrome will energize the rest of the country too. Every budding social activist campaign needs a gonzo slogan or bumper sticker, and The Tennessee Three is a sure fire winner. Black activists nationwide will use them as an example as to just how much further there is to go. African Americans already had a couple of pretty good reasons to show up in 2024, like the 1st African American female Vice President, and the first African American female Supreme Court justice. But what happened in Tennessee last week was a racial bare knuckle shot to the mouth. And there are few things more motivational than a good knock in the mouth.
But here’s the really funny part. The Democrats have a secret weapon. If Traitor Tot can ever get his head far enough out of his legal *ss, The buzz and sensationalism around The Tennessee Three is something he won’t be able to resist bloviating on. After all, right now they’re more interesting and newsworthy than he is, so of course he’s going to have to take his cheap swings, and in doing so, piss everybody off even more. Don’t touch that dial.
