While all eyes have been laser-focused on the open call for bad performance art this week, in Nashville, Tennessee, another critical test for democracy is underway. At issue is the recent protest by three state Democratic lawmakers, who any minute now, could be expelled after demonstrating their support for gun control. Their actions, which included leading chants from the chamber, were considered to be "disorderly" and could result in the GOP-controlled state assembly kicking out the three Democrats.
The move would be extraordinary: Only two Tennessee House members have been ousted since the Civil War.
My colleague Garrison Hayes is on the scene in Nashville where he spoke to one of the three Democrats, Rep. Gloria Johnson, who decried the fast-moving efforts.
"I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it's terrifying to me that we're in this march to fascism," she told Garrison. "And it seems like the Tennessee supermajority is leading the charge."
It's all chilling stuff, especially ghoulish and cruel considering that the three lawmakers were supporting gun control measures in a country where gun violence is relentless, in a state that recently witnessed a bloody assault at a Christian school. My colleague Kiera Butler, while lamenting Republicans' refusal to take action, considers the efforts to harden schools with methods that don't involve arming school officials. It's a compelling argument, one that pushes back against the reflex to dismiss implementing school security measures, such as lockdown drills, as we hopelessly wait for lawmakers to do something outside the performative expulsion of duly elected representatives.
—Inae Oh
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