Disorder and dishonor

Interesting scene down in Tennessee with the expulsion votes for three House members for breaking house "decorum" in their recent gun control protest.

The House voted 72-25 along party lines to expel Jones. The effort to remove Johnson fell short of the two-thirds majority needed. That vote was 65-30. Pearson was removed in a 69-26 vote.

They have expelled the two black men, but the white woman can stay. Typical red state. Her expulsion fell one vote short. As it stands, 150,000 citizens of the state no longer have representation by the lawmaker they democratically elected. Because they upset the good old boys.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, later likened the events to an "insurrection," even comparing the peaceful protest that resulted in zero arrests to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. Though he later walked back the comments, saying his remarks were directed at the three lawmakers and not protesters. Sexton this week said he considered the unprecedented floor protest an act "against civil authority."

God forbid people should protest, it is so un American. Flaunting the civil authority. Supposedly, it was not the black guy's first transgression, he had been chided for wearing a dashiki to his swearing in the storied halls, horrors! That was a skoche too black for the good old boys in the Tennessee House.

In Thursday’s historic case, at least one of the lawmakers was expelled for chanting for the prevention of gun violence. In the Republican-led resolution to expel the members, those protests were described as “disorderly behavior” that “knowingly and intentionally” brought “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”

I thought this point was rather salient: 

Some also warned the GOP of expelling members simply for breaking a House rule as previously Republicans have resisted removing members of their own party even when they were alleged to commit serious crimes— including former Republican member Rep. David Byrd, who was accused of sexual misconduct by three women who were underage at the time of the alleged crime. 

We can look past sexual misconduct but god forbid you touch our guns. Even if you are trying to protect schoolchildren. Republican Reps prefer to see it as a return to order.

“This is just not about one specific instance or one specific rule that may have been broken. The rules here are for order,” said Rep. Johnny Garrett, R-Goodlettsville, who led the GOP arguments against Jones. “We owe that to the constituents that we represent across this state.”

I may be an old hippie but I will side with dashiki guy and protecting schoolchildren from assault weapons any day over brownshirts goosestepping towards perfect decorum and order. You can have the Empire and the Imperial stormtroopers, I am more of a rebel jedi guy myself, but to each their own. More here.

Johnson this week decried the expulsion as a double-standard and politically motivated. Last year, former House Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin, faced federal charges related to alleged crimes committed while in office was allowed to finish out his term, while current leadership in 2019 declined to support expulsion charges against former Rep. David Byrd, who was accused of sexually assaulting teenagers when he was a basketball coach decades earlier.

"We had a child molester on the floor for years, they helped him get reelected and did nothing to expel him," said Johnson, who filed a resolution to expel Byrd at the time. "We've had members pee in each other's chairs. We've had members illegally prescribe drugs to their cousin-mistress, and nothing happened. But talk on the floor without permission, and you'll get expelled."

“We demand that democracy be for everybody, not just for rich white men in suits, not just for rich white people who got these positions of power perpetuating the status quo.” Rep. Justin Pearson