So what Republicans will have achieved... Nothing other than raising the profile of the two Justins and giving them a much louder voice than they would have ever gotten in such a short time had the Tennessee legislature not acted in such an anti-democractic and openly racist way.
I don’t think the TN Republicans were thinking of greater gains. I think they many of them were actually angry and saw this as payback towards what they believe as political persecution over Trump and Jan 6 rioters. I think many others pandered to that anger and felt it would help them keep their majority and that their base might punish them if they didn’t do anything. This of course does nothing to help them with swing voters and will affect Republicans far from TN. TN’s legislative districts though are so gerrymandered that if they don’t go to extremes they risk being primaries by someone more extreme.
Perhaps. One good thing that might come from this is that it will cause other Republican houses to think twice before attempting these shenanigans. The fame and rise in stature was created by the Republicans. They were the ones who elevated these young lawmakers to the national stage and gave them a much larger voice and national platform.
Near the end I was surprised to see they do just a voice vote to kill bills or get them out of committee. How the hell can you not even count the actual votes? That fat b*stard at the end didn't even wanna talk about it. Tennessee as corrupt as ****.
Nothing to see here, just going further down the road to fascism... Tennessee move to cut Nashville council in half blocked by judges The Democratic-leaning city of Nashville's Metropolitan Council will get to keep all 40 of its seats for now, under a temporary decision issued Monday by three state judges. The ruling stymies an effort by state Republican lawmakers to cut the council in half after it blocked the the 2024 Republican National Convention from coming to the Music City. Nashville has operated under a combined city-county government system with 40 council members since 1963, when leaders were wrestling with consolidating the city and surrounding county as advocates worked to ensure Black leaders maintained strong representation there. The new statute at issue would require Nashville to craft new council districts by May 1, a deadline city officials say is unreasonable. Three state court trial judges — one from Nashville, one from Shelby County and one in Athens, Tennessee — agreed, saying there is a "compelling public interest in preserving the integrity of the Metro election process that is already underway." Nashville government officials who sued have argued that changing the council's makeup now will throw this year's elections into chaos, in part because it would require redrawing district boundaries after more than 40 candidates have launched campaigns. Monday's ruling blocked the requirement pending the lawsuit's outcome. "The Court finds the implementation of the Act and its reduction provisions at this late date results in upheaval of the election process, risks voter confusion, and potentially comprises the integrity of Davidson County's August 3, 2023 general election," the judges wrote. Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones returns to the chamber following unanimous vote by Nashville council to reinstate him Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's office is defending the state against the lawsuit. His spokesperson, Elizabeth Lane, said the office is still reviewing the decision. Wally Dietz, the law director for Nashville's city-county government, which is seeking to overturn the new law, said in a statement that Nashville officials are "grateful that the court issued an injunction based on its unanimous finding that Metro is likely to succeed on our claim that the Legislature violated the Constitution by changing the rules for Metro alone in the middle of an election." The state law, which only applies to city or city-county governments, would cut Nashville's combined council to 20 people. No other Tennessee city or city-county government has more than that. If a metro government can't make the changes in time for the next election, current members' terms are supposed to be extended for one year to accommodate the changes, and the next four-year term would be reduced to three. The election cycle would then return to once every four years. City officials have said the scheme violates the state Constitution. A quarter of Nashville's council seats are held by Black members, half by women and five members who identify as LGBTQ+. Tennessee's GOP-dominated Statehouse passed the law halving the number of seats earlier this year, one of many proposals Republicans have introduced to upend Nashville politics. One bill would have renamed a portion of Nashville Rep. John Lewis Way to Trump Boulevard. That legislation has since been spiked for the year. Another measure would reconfigure police oversight boards in Tennessee and a third would block cities from using public funds to reimburse employees who travel out of state to get an abortion. Tennessee's abortion ban is one of the strictest in the nation. Some narrow exceptions are awaiting the governor's signature. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nashville-council-judges-tennessee-half-block/
They're fighting tooth and nail to maintain the old GOP status quo rather than shift their political stances to accommodate new conservative viewpoints that don't include crooked politicians, gun rights or anti-abortion zealots. They're in a house that's being eaten from the inside out by termites and it's eventually all going to collapse.
In Protest of the protestors and the hooligan representatives that acted very inappropriately ~ I have now stopped doing business in the Nashville metro area ! All landscape contracts have been terminated! ps I'm kidding - but I did stop serving the metro area last year -not for any political reasons so calm down lol
Yeah, I can’t believe Tennessee still allows the browns, the blacks, and the libtards to live in the state.
I disagree entirely. There is no required shift in political stance. Tennessee's demographics are so bleak for Democrats. Unlike other southern metro areas, the Nashville suburbs aren't rapidly changing party affiliation. Some areas are actually still trending Republican. And Memphis is flat out shrinking (and its suburbs are also pretty Republican). This isn't like Atlanta where all of the subrubs shifted 60 points over twenty years. In some cases, the Tennessee suburbs are more Republican than they were 20 years ago. Furthermore, African Americans make up a lower share of Tennessee's vote than other states in the Deep South so Democrats have limited upside there too. And lastly, Eastern Tennessee has been voting Republican since the end of the Civil War. It's the one weird anomaly in the South that has no history of voting for Democrats. And as a result, the entire eastern half of the state is just ruby red. Places like Knoxville and Chattanooga would normally produce huge amounts of Democratic votes in any other state but not Tennessee. Phil Bredesen couldn't win either county in 2018 and he's a 2 term Democratic governor. Biden lost both of those by over 15 points. Tennessee is just a hopeless state and Republicans can act like complete jackasses just because they want to. There's no political calculation required. This isn't like Georgia or North Carolina where Republicans act out of fear. This is just mean and spiteful behavior because Republicans can do this sort of thing with no consequence.
How does that GOP side work? What did they do during the 60s when the Civil Rights Bill was passed? I always assumed they switched parties like everyone else but this would obviously be different.
I think House Speaker Sexton is realizing he messed up because now he's being investigated by the media. Short version: He lists his permanent residence as a small retirement condo in his district. But he lives with his family full-time in Nashville ((a democrat district where he probably couldn't get elected). If true, this would be a violation of the Tennessee constitution. Kicker: Because he "lives more than 50 miles from Nashville", he gets paid a per diem of $313 for hotel and travel expenses every day. in 2022 he collected over $35,000 in per diem despite living in Nashville. https://tntribune.com/where-does-the-tennessee-house-speaker-actually-live/
What is amazing is that is much more serious violation than speaking into bullhorns about protecting children from guns. Yet some of those on the right are much more upset that there were representatives speaking into the bullhorn and being disruptive.
The Justins when asked where to donate to their campaigns, probably. "Hell we don't need donations. These GOP whackjobs have given us enough good press for 12 years of campaigns"
Old White men cheating to stay in power, in the old days, folks would just gather them up and chop off their heads.....seems that change is harder now. DD
