Republican Voters Who Want Gun Reform: Let the Special Session Be a Lesson

The special legislative session is shaping up to be worse than I predicted. I thought it would be a sad mess — "the people who could help [the Covenant School parents] aren’t going to," I wrote last week, "and they’re going to come up with literally the most vacuous reasons to fail these parents and kids, because they are utterly certain that most voters won’t care."

But did I expect Covenant moms to be pulled out of committee rooms? Drinking fountains being conveniently broken? Troopers keeping people out of the Capitol? A lawsuit? House Republicans blame-shifting for this debacle onto the Senate Republicans? The governor being completely absent? (OK, yes, that last one I would have expected had I given any thought to what the governor might be doing at this time. Gov. Bill Lee: what happens when you elect a man with the soul of a white-tailed deer to lead the state.)

No, I did not. A very basic rule of politics is that you don’t go to war against your own voters if you want to stay in office. If Republican legislators’ goal was to get in and out of this session — which was called to discuss gun reform — without passing any meaningful bills while still placating their very understandably upset white, suburban, private-school-mom voter base, they needed to strike a tone of apologetic hands-tied-ness. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. These are grave tragedies, but what can I do about it? So-and-so won’t let the bills you want to see come up for a vote.” That feigned compassion might not have worked, but “I’m in charge here and you’re either going to fall in line or I’m going to make you sorry” definitely isn’t going to work.

If there is one thing country music has taught us, it’s that if you lay hands on the “good girls,” all bets are off. As far as we all know, the Gatlin boys are still in a heap on the floor after Tommy ended them. Earl, of course, is still dead. And yet these nimrods in the state legislature still thought bullying the pretty blond moms was going to be a successful strategy. I guess there’s still time. Maybe John Rich or Kid Rock can write them up a catchy tune where bullying the distraught mothers of kids who went through a school shooting makes you a hero. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

So what’s next? The very simple, basic first step is that you, pissed-off conservatives who have been done wrong by your representatives at the state legislature, need to unseat a few of them. You don’t even need the whole lot. You just need to oust a couple of them on a clear campaign of gun reform and you’ll find the rest of them suddenly a lot more willing to address your problems. The nice thing about this plan is that you don’t have to focus solely on the state legislature. Andy Ogles is defeatable. He's mean and dumb, and you can be one or the other, but being both is a political liability. It’s harder to unseat a senator, but even the people who vote for Marsha Blackburn think she’s mean and stupid, so a loss to Blackburn where you do better than expected might shake some things loose. And now you know state Rep. Gino Bulso will say one thing to you in private and another in public. Run against him.

Republican legislators have been counting on you to not pay much attention. They have been counting on you sleepwalking through politics here in Tennessee, having a few buzzwords you somewhat pay attention to, and voting on those buzzwords and your habit of voting Republican.

But now you’re awake. A loud noise — the killings of six of your friends and neighbors — woke you, and you’re disoriented, looking around, shocked to find that the people who promised to take care of things while you napped have instead made things worse.

Stay woke, as the kids say. The next time you hear someone in your social circles running down Black people or talking shit about Memphis, remember who was there for you this week. Speak up for women like Shaundelle Brooks, who was fighting this fight long before you arrived at the Capitol. Remember the legislators from Memphis who grieved with you and were outraged on your behalf. They didn’t have to do that. There’s no political benefit. You’re never going to vote for them. You don’t live in Memphis. They’re treating you this way because they have compassion for you. Now you stand up for them and the people in their communities.

Are you still shocked and outraged that male legislators diminished and dismissed your concerns? Welcome to feminism. Next time you hear someone running off at the mouth about how men and women have different, but complementary, roles ordained by God and how men are in charge because God made them more capable than women, I want you to think of yourself, who showed up, and think of Gov. Lee, who did not, and laugh in the face of anyone who tries to suggest that men are supposed to run things because they’re inherently better than women. Is Bill Lee better than you? Bill Lee is in your same boat. His friend was also shot to death at Covenant. You’re rowing said boat. Bill Lee is hiding under a blanket behind a bench hoping no one expects him to help. God thinks he’s a better option than you? Really?

And some of you have seen the shooter’s writings. You also saw how much Republicans wanted to turn this into not a gun problem, but a mental health problem. You saw how they wanted to vilify LGBTQ people and blame this tragedy on them. You all — your community — stopped that. You already are successful advocates for people who don’t get a fair chance in this state.

I don’t expect you to stop being Republican. Hell, Beth Harwell was done just about as wrong as a woman can be done by Republicans in this state and she’s still in The Washington Post blaming our state’s woes not on the people in power but on Democrats moving too far left. (Beth, they are never going to love you back!) But you can stick up for the people who have your backs. You can advocate for people who are suffering like you’re suffering. You can be a little woke, and that would be a good change for our state.