Last week, audio emerged of Republican state representatives fighting behind closed doors in a meeting with no staff present. (You can read a transcription of the leaked recording right here.) The existence and leaking of this audio suggests that the unity and loyalty Republicans want may take more work than just yelling at two folks who didn’t vote “right” when it came to Gloria Johnson.
However, I was moved by Rep. Jason Zachary’s (I’m sure completely serious) surprise and outrage at hearing Tennessee Republicans being called racist or even — gasp — white supremacists. How could this happen? How in the world might people look at a group of angry white men railroading two Black men out of the state legislature, while speaking to them in the most condescending terms, and refusing to let other Black people who wanted to speak finish speaking, and think these white guys are racist? It makes no sense.
So, I got out my pushpins and my red yarn and I cleared off a wall in my house. I began to string together the “evidence” for this “cuckoo conspiracy” that people on the left believe proves our state Republicans are a bunch of racists and white supremacists.
Let’s put our first pin in the League of the South. You may remember these folks from Charlottesville, where they and other members of the Nationalist Front — the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Workers Party and Vanguard America — along with other racists chanted “Jews will not replace us” while protesting the removal of Confederate statues and causing mayhem that led to the death of Heather Heyer. If not Charlottesville, then certainly you remember them from back in 2017 when we found out that League of the South member David O. Jones headed up a Bible study with and solicited money from a retired federal judge. One of the founders of the League of the South was Jack Kershaw, known today for sculpting the ugly Nathan Bedford Forrest statue that used to sit out along I-65.
Jack was also in the Sons of Confederate Veterans along with beloved Democratic state politician Doug Henry. Henry was one of the people who helped place the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust in the state Capitol — the bust that Justin Jones and fellow protesters finally helped get removed in 2021. Henry also, allegedly, was the reason TDOT kept the space along the side of the interstate clear of trees, so that Kershaw’s statue could be viewed. Nathan Bedford Forrest II was head of the SCV and of the Georgia Klan, so Kershaw being a member of a hate group and the SCV is just part of the tradition of SCV members. Matt Heimbach (one of the leaders of the aforementioned Traditionalist Workers Party) allegedly went to college with an SCV scholarship, and according to the John T. Hughes Camp #614 Sons of Confederate Veterans themselves, Heimbach was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal at the SCV reunion in Murfreesboro (yes, our Murfreesboro) back in 2012.
Let me be clear here. The SCV itself isn’t a terrorist organization. But it is the acceptable-to-society place where white supremacists launder their ideas into the conservative public, because so many SCV members are also members of white supremacist groups. White supremacists argue that Jews are the problem, and the very same newsletter that reported Heimbach’s medal also reported how that SCV chapter had a problem with a Jew. Your average SCV member might not even think much of that, but someone who is bothered needs only ask around, and some of his fellow members can suggest to him groups they are affiliated with that take direct action against these “problematic” Jews. State Rep. Joey Hensley is a member of the SCV. State legislators Janice Bowling and Ed Butler have both been doing their part to transfer state property to the SCV — and look here at Rep. Ed Butler getting his picture taken on Jan. 15 of this year. Who’s that standing to his right? Sure looks like Ed Butler of the SCV. Good thing Rep. Butler is such a good Christian, or one might suspect he was trying to pass legislation specifically to benefit the SCV Ed Butler.
After Charlottesville, Vanguard America dissolved itself and then re-formed into Patriot Front. We know Patriot Front is active here in Nashville because we’ve seen their graffiti. I suspect there’s a great deal of overlap between Patriot Front and the Proud Boys. In January, over in Cookeville, when a small group of fascists protested a drag show, some masked protesters held Patriot Front flags (see the top photo on the linked story), and a man in a Proud Boys jacket could be seen standing behind the kid with the Nazi flag. The Proud Boys are another cesspool of racist behavior. NewsChannel 5 identified three Tennessee Proud Boys among the Jan. 6 insurrectionists — Joseph Padilla, Joshua Portlock and Mathew Walter. The founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, is a contributor to the American Renaissance website, a site where “race realists” go to complain about how put-upon white people are. American Renaissance explains their work thusly: “We also believe that whites, like all racial groups, have legitimate interests that must be defended. The defense of those interests is white advocacy. We seek to advance only those interests that we recognize and would defend for all other racial groups. We seek no advantages as whites — only the expression of preferences for our own people and culture that are taken for granted by people of other races but denied to us.”
American Renaissance is also one of the racist groups that meets at Montgomery Bell State Park. Past speakers at this conference include Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes, Patrick Casey of Identity Evropa, former member of Congress Steve King, Laura Loomer and Michelle Malkin, as well as American Renaissance’s own Jared Taylor. (One of the other racist groups that uses Montgomery Bell Sate Park is the Nationalist Solutions Conference, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League, featured William Clark of Identity Evropa, Michael Hill of the League of the South, Jason Kessler of Sines v. Kessler fame and David Duke.) Michelle Malkin was also a contributor to The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is home to Matt Walsh, who held a rally at War Memorial Plaza against trans people. Attending that rally were noted evil hairball Marsha Blackburn, the SCV-supporting Sen. Janice Bowling and House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who can be heard on the audio we started this column with, as well as other Tennessee politicians. And who else was welcome at that rally? The Proud Boys.
Much like when Gov. Bill Lee couldn’t be bothered to denounce the Nazis who sent him a huge, public thank-you note, none of the Republican politicians at Walsh’s rally spoke out against the Proud Boys. Walsh’s anti-trans rally, held in front of a crowd of Proud Boys, was a “Rally to End Child Mutilation.” And that brings us back to poor confused Jason Zachary. Why would anyone ever think he was in league with this huge roster of evil villains? Oh right, because he was a co-sponsor of all the anti-trans and anti-drag bills. He is in league with them.
And what’s the acceptable explanation here? He’s on the side of the white supremacists, but only about the LGBT stuff? It’s unfair to lump all bigots who have wide swaths of agreement on issues together?
These fools have been swimming in a cesspool and are now surprised and offended when people tell them they smell like shit. Well, folks, get out of the cesspool of white supremacy and we’ll stop complaining about how much you stink.
