DEMOCRACY, DECORUM, AND DUNCES

April 11, 2023

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776

THE FASTEST MEN IN THE WORLD

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos arrived at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, they were two of the fastest men in the world.  They were also black, and understood the challenges faced by our nation. Smith exploded past his competition in the 200 meter final to break the world record and win the Gold Medal.  Carlos was .3 second behind and won the Bronze. What they did next left an indelible mark on American history.

As the medal ceremony unfolded in the colosseum, Smith and Carlos approached the victory stand carrying their sneakers and wearing black socks, an acknowledgement of the poverty and injustice in black communities. Smith stood on the upper stair of the podium, just above Carlos and in recognition of his Gold medal status.  In keeping with tradition, the sashes holding the medals were draped over their heads. Our national anthem started playing and the American flag began to rise from the floor of the stadium. But instead of staring intently at the flag, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads in prayer, and raised their black-gloved clenched fists into the air.  Black! Proud! Silently Deviant! And the picture became the front page display in newspapers around the world!

Olympic officials were not pleased.  Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Olympic village and their medals were taken from them. And their actions brought greater attention to racial discrimination in sports and society.

THE TENNESSEE THREE

We witnessed a similar event in Tennessee last week when three duly-elected representatives–Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson— gained control of the Tennessee House floor and, with protesters in the gallery, shouted their outrage with the most recent mass shooting in Nashville and the refusal of the Republican-controlled government to take any action in response. Chants of “No Action, no peace” reverberated in the Chamber of the usually staid House, a place where the minority is largely ignored and always outvoted. 

The three legislators disregarded the Speaker of the House’s call for order, instead using a megaphone to speak to the crowd.  

Much like the response to Smith and Carlos 50 years earlier, the largely white majority labeled the protest an affront to the institution and a violation of House rules so egregious that it required expulsion from the body.  Not censure, not a slap on the hand, but expulsion! The body ultimately expelled only two of the three offenders, both young black men who represented urban areas of the state; the third, a retired teacher, survived by one vote, an interesting fact by itself.  And with that act, the Tennessee legislature was exposed as a gerrymandered, heartless, and reactionary group, and three heretofore unknown legislators had become symbols of the struggle for democracy and justice.  

There is the chance that Pearson and Jones will either be reappointed or re-elected.  The House will then decide whether to “seat” them and confer the privileges of membership. We will then see if they have learned anything from the last week of negative publicity.

DEMOCRACY AND DECORUM

As a former minority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates, the actions of last week prompt several thoughts. First, civility and due process is at the heart of democratic governance, and rules are important to the effective operation of a legislative body.  If fair, they are designed to protect the minority and provide it a voice without intimidation or the prospect that they will be shouted down or denied rights by an overreaching majority. 

We have been fortunate in Virginia; even as the minority was frequently voted down during my tenure and the majority frequently engaged in legislative overreach to push a conservative agenda, there was nonetheless a modicum of respect granted us. Unlike freshman Justin Pearson, who has been denied any committee assignments since his recent election, Democrats and Republicans in the Virginia House serve on committees based on proportional partisan representation in the body. With some notable exceptions, our bills were given a hearing and refusals to docket bills affected both parties.  Not so in Tennessee.  Democrats do not serve on all committees, and even when they do, the representation is anything but fair.  Significant issues such gun safety legislation never get a hearing. Hence, when some of your constituents are gunned down, and the established channels deny you a hearing, you find another way. That is why the Tennessee Three engaged in civil disobedience that day. 

Leaders should also find different ways of addressing a violation of rules that is noisy but not violent. When Joe Wilson yelled “you lie” at President Obama during the State of the Union or Marjorie Taylor Greene and her cohorts frequently interrupted President Biden, it was offensive and violated the rules. It was grounds for a consequence. But it did not justify expulsion. 

Second, the Republican reaction was neither fair nor politically savvy. Rarely are lawmakers expelled from state legislative bodies. To do so directly disenfranchises their constituents. Before last week, only eight lawmakers had been expelled from the Tennessee legislature, six because they contested the citizenship of formerly enslaved Blacks. 

In my fourteen years, the only remotely comparable incident involved Delegate Joe Morrissey, who, during a speech on the House floor in 2013,  pulled an AK-47 (it was unloaded) from under his desk and held it high above his head after Republicans killed one of his gun control bills. He received no consequence.

THE LEAST DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE IN THE NATION?

In 2010, just prior to the midterm elections, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the Tennessee House 50 to 48.  After that election, Democrats only numbered 34 of the 100-member body.  Redistricting occurred in 2011, and a 5-4 Democratic congressional margin quickly flipped to a 7-2.  At the time, the numbers looked much like Virginia.  But Virginia Democrats, led by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, aggressively challenged the Commonwealth’s redistricting plan in the courts, and it was eventually overturned, leading to the Democratic takeover in 2019.  Not so with Tennessee. Like Virginia’s 2011 redistricting, Tennessee’s line-drawing strengthened majority-minority districts, and Republicans continued to expand their majorities to the 75-22 margin it holds today.   Because of the hyper partisan redistricting and voting rights restrictions, some now argue that the Volunteer state is the least democratic state in the nation.  Most of the Republican districts are drawn to protect the incumbent. Hence, the only worry for a GOP representative is that someone more conservative would bring a primary challenge. These dynamics help explain why the Republican majority took such dramatic action against the Tennessee Three–-they felt they would receive no consequences and wanted to teach them a lesson.

POLITICAL JIU JITSU AND THE FUTURE

Pearson, Jones, and Johnson are now known around the globe.  They may have lost one battle, but they have inflicted considerable political damage on their opponents. And like Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and countless activists that came before them, the Tennessee Three illustrate the power of nonviolent protest to turn the seemingly total power of their opposition against them.  The most effective nonviolent protests are those that disrupt a traditional activity and make it into something distinctively different. They force us to examine our assumptions. If the legislature had done nothing to the three, the protest would likely have been a one-day wonder. If the three had not fought back and linked their situation to the fight for democracy, they would have never garnered the headlines. Instead, the Republican brand in Tennessee and across the land is tarnished. At their hearing on expulsion, the three lawmakers stated “the whole world is watching.”  In the next few weeks, it will again be time to turn on the TV– and watch events that reflect on the state of our democracy.