Sometimes I wonder if state Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) is some kind of avant-garde, high-concept performance artist. Mean and dumb as rocks, or perpetrating an elaborate hoax intended to reveal the joke of our politicians? It’s hard to know.
As people in his own East Tennessee district were suffering the devastation of an unprecedented weather event, on Sept. 27, Faison took to Twitter/X to complain: “President Biden has finally approved @GovBillLee state of emergency request.” Gov. Bill Lee declared a state of emergency on Sept. 27. According to the governor’s own Twitter feed, the declaration happened shortly before 5 p.m. Faison’s “finally” tweet was made at 9:17 p.m. Like, just how fast does he think the wheels of bureaucracy turn?!
But here’s why I can’t decide if he’s just a jerk or, like I said, a performance artist. He is the state official in the area. It’s literally his job to advocate for the people of state House District 11 to make sure they get what they need from the state. He should have been paying attention to what was happening (and judging by his Twitter feed, he knew days in advance that things were going to be bad — he had a number of tweets ahead of the storm warning his followers of its severity) and what other states in the path of the hurricane were doing (spoiler: getting their ducks in a row ahead of time). Then he should have been on the phone with Gov. Lee making sure Lee was doing all the paperwork he needed to be doing. If Lee was not responsive, Faison should have gone to U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Congressional District 1 or Tennessee's U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Why would he come out and draw attention to the fact that he failed his district? The feds didn’t approve help until 9 at night? Because the governor didn’t request it until 5? Because Faison didn’t communicate to the governor the seriousness of the situation?
It’s like if, let’s say, a gang of land pirates were working its way across the South, leaving a swath of robberies and murders and car-jackings in their wake, and they were headed straight for Nashville. You turn on your TV and there they are in Columbia, and then Franklin, and then Brentwood, and now they’re in Green Hills. Then, oh shit! They’re in your neighborhood! It’s chaos. Your neighbors’ house is on fire. The bandits have stolen your jewelry and your cat. You were just sitting down to breakfast and one of them even absconded with your bacon. Your district councilmember comes out of her house and looks at all the devastation, and you're all in a daze trying to help each other and put the neighborhood back in order. If the police didn’t show up in your neighborhood until 9 that night, wouldn’t you have some questions for your councilmember? If the police then said, “Well, no one called us about any of this until like 5, and we’ve been dealing with neighborhoods who called us about the bandits as the bandits were in their neighborhoods. We didn’t know you all even needed us” — wouldn’t you have more questions for your councilmember? You wouldn’t let your councilmember be all “Nice of the cops to finally show up” if she then admitted she never told them you all needed them, would you?
GOP legislators are mad at Justin Jones for declining to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, while Gov. Lee travels to the Texas border
Anyway, I think someone must have told Faison that talking shit about the people coming to help you is bad form, because now his feed is mostly, “Hey, look at this awesome thing happening! Here are some ways to help.” And “Let’s not be out here spreading misinformation, guys.” But people’s willingness to spread and believe misinformation is happening for the same reasons Faison was making digs at the feds in the middle of a disaster, and why Marsha Blackburn is out here blaming immigrants: It’s easier to blame others than it is to take responsibility.
People keep voting for politicians who want to disempower the federal government. Sens. Blackburn and Hagerty and Reps. Tim Burchett, Andy Ogles and John Rose all voted against extending funding to FEMA in the very same week a hurricane was barreling down on Tennessee. And now they have the gall to be all, “Where’s the federal government? Why is FEMA money going to immigrants?” They voted against FEMA money going to anyone. If any of these rumors of the feds not showing up are true, this is exactly what these folks voted for. This is what they want: for the feds not to show up. And this is what their voters want, and we know that because they vote for them.
You can’t say both “Fuck funding FEMA” and “it’s not fair that FEMA’s not rushing to save us without us even having to ask.”
It’s wild that the rumors and conspiracy theories that have people in the region so upset are rumors and conspiracy theories of them getting what they want. If it were true that no one from the federal government showed up to help, that would be them getting their way, getting the circumstances they’ve been voting for for decades. And yet the people who believe these conspiracy theories and rumors are pissed instead.
I don’t know if there’s even any sense in pointing out that they keep voting for the things they fear. But here we are.
Listen, people are suffering, and yes, many of them are dumbasses, but we still need to help them. Not because they’re ever going to be any different than they are, but because we are who we are. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency’s website has a lot of information on ways you can support our neighbors to the east. And I would emphasize what they say: “Recovery lasts a lot longer than the media attention. There will be volunteer needs for many months, often years, after the disaster, especially when the community enters the long-term recovery period.”
