Tennessee Politics In Review

It’s going to take years to get out of the hole that the 107th General Assembly has put the state of Tennessee in.

Let’s break it down:

• The issue of tort reform is being touted as a pro-business endeavor, even being called a jobs plan by the GOP in some cases. The reality is that this is about promoting corporate interests. When you see a bi-partisan effort from the Tennessee Citizens Action and the likes of Sen. Mike Faulk and former Sen. Fred Thompson to defeat this in the past month, it’s something to take into consideration that this bill, which will become law, is bad for private citizens. With all the pomp and posturing that we’ve seen from the Hill this year with fancy names for legislation that are at times nonsensical, remember the story of Tammy Travis. She is the human face on this bill. You can hear her story here.

• Both Shelby County and Nashville have made decisions that have been interfered with by state legislators. Different issues (school consolidation and non-discrimination) but the same scenario. Local governments’ decisions have been summarily dismissed because the folks at the legislature didn’t like the outcome so they got in the middle of it. Is the going to become the exception or the rule that local governments are being minimized and ignored?

• The legislature decides that demonizing teachers is a good idea. However, they decide that blowing up mountains without any type of regulation whatsoever is a fabulous plan. So teachers are the bad guys and wealthy coal companies are the good guys? Americans for Prosperity have set up shop in Lenoir City, TN my friends. Just saying.

• Rep. Bill Ketron, who has introduced some interesting legislation this session including Tennessee creating its on currency, has also gone as far as to attack the rights of Muslim citizens in our state. The fear mongering is incredible as displayed in this story from the Marshall County Tribune. Let us not forget a young man named Timothy McVeigh who was a white dude who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City back in 1995. You don’t see him talking about McVeigh now do you.

• In 2008, Rachel Walden at Women’s Health News wrote a sobering piece about women’s reproductive rights would be under attack despite the election of Barack Obama. Much of what she predicted is happening now, two years later.

Where in any of the 2,000+ bills this year that were introduced by the GOP focused on the unemployment rate in this state?  Gas is at an all-time high and it’s expensive to get to interviews. Mass transportation is an issue as much of this state is set in rural areas that have limited options. Where is the conversation about unemployed workers that are desperately trying to find work when work is not available. When I was still in Hoots, dozens and dozens of people showed up at a convenience store for a midnight position that paid minimum wage. McDonalds hired 62,000 people last month when the fast-food chain announced National Hiring Day. Nearly a million people applied.

There were only so many jobs. Let’s remember what Rep. Glen Casada said last session and remind him that, in fact, people are trying to get jobs.

Sargent Shriver famously once said “A line has to be drawn somewhere between what is essential and what is peripheral.”

We need to remember the value of everyone’s voice and that much of what we’ve seen this legislative session has not alleviated the suffering of Tennesseans, instead it’s divisive and harmful because it benefits corporate interests and enflames fear and prejudice.

We need to remember the human faces that all of this legislation will impact. If we lose sight of that, then we lose sight of everything.