the story of the year with some Good Guy News. The Tennessee Three, which turned out to be a real Tennessee Two Step.
You see, in 2023 Tennessee Republicans had two things going for them. First, a racist legislative supermajority that could do pretty much whatever it wanted. And second, at the national level, nobody paid much attention to the corrupt and racist proclivities of Tennessee Republicans.
The Tennessee Three changed all that.
In April, Tennessee’s House voted 72-25 to oust Rep. Justin Jones, and 69-26 to oust Justin Pearson for their “disorderly behavior” for taking part in a gun violence protest on March 30 sparked by the Covenant School shooting that took the lives of three adults and three 9-year-old children on March 27.
But members spared Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville in a 65-30 vote, short of the two-thirds majority needed to remove her.
There was no difference between the actions of Representative Johnson, and the two Justins, except for the fact that the Justins are two young black men, and Representative Johnson is an older white lady. And when asked if she thought race had anything to do with her being spared and the Justins being expelled, she said HELL yes.
