I read through the story by the Scene’s own Julianne Akers about how U.S. Sen. (and presumptive next Gov.) Marsha Blackburn and state Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-“Crossville”) are blasting the city of Nashville because some of our money goes to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
Tennessee Republicans watch Nashville's FY27 budget closely for violations of new state immigration laws
I can’t even be mad. Oh, you live in (or near) Nashville and you don’t like how the city’s run, and you think you should get to throw your weight around and have the mayor scramble to make you happy? Yeah, you and 750,000 other people. Get in line. Hell, it’s a Nashville lefty tradition to get on social media and bitch about the city’s priorities, so I’m surprised and delighted to see a couple of prominent Republicans getting into the spirit. What other liberal hobbies will they enjoy next? Riding their bikes to work? Sharing their snacks? Starting a Marxist book club?
Tale as old as time. Folks move to the city and get changed by their experience of it. How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paris? It’s only natural that Blackburn and Sexton start talking like Nashville liberals. That’s who they’ve chosen to live among.
If they don’t like how we do things here in Nashville, they could always move home. I’m sure someone in Crossville would be happy to see Sexton more present in the community he supposedly represents. And Blackburn has all of Williamson County to live in. She’s the one who chooses to live pressed right up against the bottom of our city.
So really, I think it’s fair to conclude that they actually like Nashville quite a bit, because this is where they choose to spend their time.
Which is a problem for them. If their policies are so great, if the work they’ve done for all of Tennessee has been so beneficial, why not go out and live in the deeply Republican parts of the state? Republican parts of the state are flourishing under their policies, right? Right?
By essentially living in the city, they’re showing that they think that Nashville — liberal Nashville — is better than any other option they have. And they’re responsible for the conditions of their other options! Hilarious.
But that’s not exactly a message that’s going to appeal to conservative voters, so from time to time they have to pop up and insist that they’re outraged or disgusted by something going on here. In this case, it’s us trying to make sure everyone has access to legal representation. But it’s always something — some reason why they must stay here in this wretched place instead of going home.
The question I have, though, is why? No one hates Nashville. If they don’t live here or near here, I doubt they even think much of us, unless they need to come here for some reason. Tennessee has an estimated 7.4 million people in it. Probably 1.5 million think about Nashville a lot, either because they live here or work here. And then, if I’m being generous and stretching, I can believe that another million think about Nashville from time to time, and it’s because they’re coming to an event here or going to the airport or reading what the state legislature is up to. If most Tennesseans have an opinion of Nashville, it’s probably about traffic. They surely don’t give a shit about our city budget.
So that’s (ballpark guess) 2.5 million people who have any strong thoughts about Nashville, and then 5 million who don’t. What does attacking how Nashville spends its money get you from those 5 million? Nothing. It makes no sense.
Except I think this is actually Blackburn and Sexton floundering a little. Blackburn is a shoo-in only if Republicans vote. I don’t know how much Republicans are going to feel like voting this fall. If Trump remains popular in Tennessee, then aligning yourselves with Trump should be a boon. But I read the Farm Bureau press release from April that said, in part, “Unfortunately, the ongoing conflict in Iran is sending fuel and fertilizer costs through the roof, [adding] even more stress to an already dire situation.” Trump’s policies have put rural Tennesseans in a “dire situation” that doesn’t seem to be improving any time soon.
Tennesseans, all Tennesseans, feel beaten down. And there’s no one to blame but Republicans. I think Blackburn and Sexton are hoping they can deflect people’s righteous anger about the state of things onto Nashville and motivate people to turn up to the polls. Keep voting for them and they’ll keep kicking Nashville’s ass.
I don’t think voting will be much more depressed this year than it usually is, but I also don’t think making Nashville the dragon you need to fight is effective — not only because most people in the state don’t give a lot of thought to us at all, and they certainly don’t view us as some kind of villain, but because if we’re so bad, why do Sexton and Blackburn continually choose to be here?
The state's GOP leaders are now a full clown car of anger at Freddie O’Connell
Think of it this way. Nashville is the strip club your pastor warned you to stay away from. So now you’re driving by it two to three times a week. Is it really so bad? Will you go to hell if you go in? And then your friend Marsha says, “I’ll go in, see what it’s like, and come back out and tell you about it.” OK, that might satisfy your curiosity. So off she goes into the strip club while you wait in the parking lot. An hour later, she comes back out and says, “Oh God. It’s even worse than what Pastor says. Girls kissing girls. People speaking all kinds of languages. Gyrating! Booze! Drugs! You have to warn people to stay away. That is for sure a den of sin and inequity. Plus, it’s really poorly managed.” OK, wow. That does sound bad. You wait for your friend to get in the car so you can go warn everyone, but to your surprise, she’s already halfway across the parking lot, headed back in.
Blackburn (and Sexton, for that matter) may sound like a critic of the club, but she looks like a patron. She can complain all she wants about how the club’s run and how she thinks it should be run differently, but she’s complaining from inside the club. How seriously should anyone take that?
Still, it’s interesting. The upcoming election should be a bunch of easy wins for Tennessee Republicans, based on all the good stuff they’ve delivered to Tennesseans, if Tennesseans feel like such good stuff actually exists. But this continual demonization (or should we call it "demonbreunization"?) of Nashville looks like a tell.
And I think they’re telling us that they’re not as secure in their ability to win as they’d like to be. Like I said, interesting.
