The Tennessee Three’s expulsion is a frightening echo of Jan. 6

On Thursday evening, a Republican supermajority in the Tennessee state house voted to expel two Democratic state representatives, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones. Their supposed offence was participating in a nonviolent protest for stricter gun laws after the recent mass shooting at a Nashville school. In the days following the protest and leading up to Thursday’s legislative session, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton compared the largely student-led protest to the Jan. 6 capitol insurrection. Sexton’s reference to one of America’s darkest days is as ironic as it is misplaced.

There are certainly connections to the Jan. 6 insurrection and this week’s events at the Tennessee state house. But Sexton and his fellow Tennessee Republicans fail to realize they are the ones making the connection through a continued assault on American democracy. That connection began before Jan 6 and has continued through Thursday’s Tennessee House session, with many points in between. It is seeped in hypocrisy and shrouded in racism.

White grievance has become the ideological fuel powering the Republican Party. While it has always existed in some form, the current brand is as loud and unabashed as ever. Its public display began with the rise of Donald Trump as a candidate during the 2016 presidential election cycle and surfaced openly during the August 2017 events in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Jan. 6 America witnessed arguably the most egregious and violent expression of white grievance yet. The country has since seen multiple flashpoints, both prolonged and discreet, which have created a straight line leading to the Tennessee State House.

This week’s events are just the latest instance of Republicans seeking to limit democracy. More than 330 bills in state houses across America are designed to restrict voting rights. These bills are rooted in a white nationalism that rejects the principle of equal access to the civic processes and institutions that are the bedrock of American democracy. In Jackson, Mississippi, a Republican-led state legislature has sought to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters by carving out a space where they are free to appoint judges themselves, subverting the will of tens of thousands of a mostly Black electorate. In Missouri, the majority white Republican Legislature is trying to put St. Louis’ police department under state control. And congressional Republicans have tried repeatedly — and at times successfully– to overrule Washington D.C.’s city council.

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Tennessee lawmaker who narrowly escapes expulsion speaks out April 8, 2023 / 05:11

All these dynamics were reflected in the actions of Tennessee Republicans. Their expulsion of Jones and Pearson sought to undermine the tens of thousands of voters who duly elected both of them to office. A third member of the state house who also participated in the protests, Gloria Johnson, was considered for expulsion but ultimately not removed. Pearson and Jones were the state house’s two youngest Black members. Johnson is White.

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These anti-democratic efforts extend beyond restrictions on voting and representation. The ongoing fight against critical race theory and the whitewashing of American history being taught in schools is yet another example of how post Jan. 6 white grievance has waged another battle in America’s changing landscape. Even the Dobbs decision reversing the longstanding precedent of Roe v. Wade has a place in the conversation in subverting democracy by stripping women of the right to make decisions about their bodies and health care.

The Tennessee state house’s actions were just the latest instance in a series of continuing events with roots in Charlottesville that escalated with a major occurrence on Jan. 6, and strung together through a sentiment that has no regard for American democracy. Regardless of political affiliation or ideology, there is no space where we can purport to care about democracy and not be outraged by the removal of representatives Pearson and Jones. Fundamentally, silencing the voices of opposition as part of debate borders on the line of an autocracy.

Our challenge is whether we are willing to understand that this is much greater than what happened to the “Tennessee Three.” Fighting this anti-democratic movement requires recognizing its interconnectivity and calling out its spread, regardless of where we live. Where we lack the courage to address these ills and confront the spaces where they are allowed to thrive, we become complicit enablers and share in the responsibility of eroding America’s democracy. These are not discrete unrelated happenings that only affect a few deep-red states. We are watching the execution of a blueprint that is being adopted at state and local levels in all pockets of the country. To believe that those of us who live in progressive areas will be unaffected is foolish. Tennessee is not the beginning and without immediate action, it will not be the end.