“We Are Still Here, and We Will Never Quit”

This past Thursday, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, two Black Democratic lawmakers, were expelled by a Republican supermajority in the Tennessee state House of Representatives for peacefully protesting gun violence in the chamber last week as thousands rallied at the Capitol to demand gun control after the Covenant elementary school shooting in Nashville.

A vote to expel Rep. Gloria Jones, their white colleague who joined them in solidarity, failed.

“They thought by expelling us they would silence us, they would silence our movements that we’re part of, but in fact they’ve amplified it, because the nation can see how racist they are. The nation can see how retaliatory and absurd and authoritarian they are,” said Jones on Thursday.

Yesterday, Justin Jones was interviewed by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman.

The interview, of 24-minute duration, is a must-see. Not only does it allow Jones to eloquently share his thoughts on his expulsion and its deeper significance, but it also features some of the inspiring testimonies and dramatic exchanges that unfolded on the House floor. Overall, Jones calls the incident “a public lynching” targeting the two youngest Black lawmakers in the Legislature.

The video of Democracy Now!’s interview with Justin Jones is followed by a number of progressive perspectives on the ousting of both him and Rep. Justin Pearson.

Decorum means that one’s speech must be appropriate to the speaker, the subject matter, the audience, and the occasion. That means that if you witness a bloody murder, decorum dictates that you scream bloody murder.

For years in this country we have witnessed the bloody murder of children in our schools. Kids decapitated by blasts from AR-15s. Silence is not decorum. Silence is complicity.

The young legislators who were expelled in Tennessee were not engaging in insurrection. Reports I have read suggest an interruption on the House floor of a few minutes, not an attempt to subvert the democratic process or to overturn a valid election.

Those who engage in civil disobedience know and accept that their actions will have consequences. But Republicans in the Tennessee House went way beyond enforcing House rules. They were using the protest as a pretext for a grossly disproportionate penalty, driving members of the opposing party out of the legislature, in effect overturning their valid election by their constituents.

– McAuley Hentges
via Facebook
April 7, 2023

Above: Justin Jones carries his name tag after the vote to remove him from the Tennessee House of Representatives. (Photo: Reuters/Cheney Orr)

Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives are furious and out for revenge. Two Black Democratic members and a [white female] Democratic [member] had confronted them – and embarrassed them – over their unwillingness to do anything about the slaughter of Tennessee’s children in that state’s schools.

To punish them and teach women and other young Black men – who might think of being too troublesome in the legislature – a lesson, the GOP ran a pathetic Kangaroo Court for the world to see. And got their revenge.

. . . Revenge as a political philosophy is rooted in violence: the domination of the many by a few, whether the main instrument of that domination is personal physical violence, the violence of great wealth and political power being used to destroy one’s enemies, or unjustified violence inflicted by the state under color of law.

But at its core, revenge is rooted in physical violence, intimidation, and murder. It’s war brought into politics and governance. Vengeance like this has its own power and its own attraction. The media is drawn to it, making it attractive to Republicans as a way of bringing together their followers.

Insecure, frightened men (and the occasional woman) participating in revenge-fueled violence find a sense of agency, of individual power and meaning, a sort of orgasmic release from a life of ordinariness and political impotence.

And make no mistake: the GOP has become the party of revenge and political violence.

Revenge is the cardinal characteristic, the logo, the brand identity of fascism. Every fascist movement in history has lifted itself to power on the scaffold of revenge against an “other” they claim have stolen from them or persecuted them.

Rightwing media revel in the language of revenge. They dehumanize the victims of their violence with words like “invaders” and “vermin” and “illegals” and demand revenge for the lost jobs, integrated schools and neighborhoods, and other insults they imagine.

To justify the violence at the heart of their movement, they also squeal a phony claim to victimhood: wealthy Republicans claim Democrats are trying to take their tax dollars. They fear gays are trying to groom their children. They pretend teachers are indoctrinating their youth in socialism. Revenge, they say, is their only option.

Over the past four decades, as this revenge-fueled movement has arisen in America and taken over the GOP, more than three-quarters of all politically motivated murders have been committed by rightwing often-Republican-aligned terrorists who invariably claim they’re rightfully seeking revenge.

Republicans justify their violence as necessary to get revenge against those they say have assaulted their faith, their families, and the “identity” of their homeland. They will tell you it’s the unfortunate last-ditch “necessity” provoked by the Democrats and dark-skinned or queer “others” who “threaten our way of life.”

In reality, revenge is not the fascist’s final, last-gasp option: it’s their first.

– Thom Hartmann
Excerpted from “Tennessee GOP
Show That Revenge Is Fascism’s First Instinct”
Common Dreams
April 7, 2023

There is no justification for ousting two legislators who were protesting with and for their constituents. That two Black men were expelled for standing up against the murder of children – but not their white counterpart – says it all. People are dying because Republicans want to put politics over the lives of the people they represent. They ask for safety for themselves, but not for school children, and they’ll sacrifice the lives of our loved ones for their lobbyists.

Now is not the time to be on the sidelines. We better fight back before it’s too late.

– Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
Quoted in Jake Johnson’s article,
“‘Fascism, Full Stop’: Progressives in Congress
Condemn Expulsion of Tennessee Democrats”
Common Dreams
April 7, 2023

Thank you, Tennessee, for introducing us to these two young men, the two Justins. My goodness, I would have never known about these leaders without your desire to ELEVATE them. Yes, elevate them. You thought you were expelling them, but you have raised them up. It is no coincidence that their names are so close to the word – justice.

On this Good Friday, this is scripture in action. Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

What the enemy meant for evil, God turns to good!

– Victoria Christopher Murray
via Facebook
April 7, 2023

Related Off-site Links:
Justin Jones Has Gotten Himself Into “Good Trouble” Again – William Spivey (Medium, April 7, 2023).
Tennessee GOP Goes Through With Absurd Purge of Anti-Gun House Dems – Eileen Grench (The Daily Beast, April 7, 2023).
Tennessee Republicans Tried to Silence Three Democrats Over Guns. They Turned Them Into National Figures – Josh Marcus (The Independent via Yahoo! News, April 7, 2023).
Ousted Tennessee Lawmaker Justin Jones Vows to Keep Fighting for Gun Control – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 6, 2023).
Jones Says He Will Fight “Unconstitutional” Expulsion as Reinstatement Votes Loom – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, April 7, 2023).

UPDATES: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Returns to Capitol After Nashville Council Reinstates Him – Cynthia Abrams (NPR News, April 10, 2023).
Countering “Miscarriage of Justice,” Metro Nashville Council Reappoints Justin Jones – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 10, 2023).
Tennessee GOP Tried to Stem Tide of Progress – Instead, They Unleashed a Tsunami – London Lamar and Svante Myrick (The Progressive, April 11, 2023).
County Board Reinstates Expelled Democratic Lawmaker Justin Pearson to Tennessee House – Adrian Sainz (AP News via PBS Newshour, April 12, 2023).
Reappointed Justin Pearson Vows to Fight on Against Tennessee GOP That Expelled Him – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 12, 2023).
Both Black Tennessee Lawmakers Have Been Reinstated After Being Expelled by GOP – Bill Chappell and Katie Riordan (NPR News, April 12, 2023).
“Rising Tide of Fascism”: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Warns of GOP’s Growing Embrace of Authoritarianism – Democracy Now! (April 28, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jelani Cobb: Quote of the Day – September 4, 2022
• “Come for the Racism, Stay for the Autocracy”
• William D. Lindsey: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2022
• “How Can One Overreact to a Mortal Threat to American Democracy?”
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking Democracy
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• “We Must Challenge the Entire System”

Opening image: Rep. Justin Jones (front) and Rep. Justin Pearson raise their fists as Republicans prepared to vote to expel them on Thursday, April 7, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Cheney Orr)