The politics of retribution permeate the fabric of our society and degrade our democracy.
Where once this nation saw Reconstruction periods striving to increase democracy toward universal suffrage, inclusive representation and equality and prosperity for all, now conservative ideologues are racing to the bottom to see who can deny the most rights to the most historically marginalized people.
Rep. Justin Jones, Rep. Gloria Johnson and I pushed back on one such effort a year ago in the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives. In response to the ignored pleas of concerned children and parents who marched on the capitol, we entered the House well during recess to demand common-sense gun reform. This was in the wake of the mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, where six people were gunned down with a weapon of war, three of them 9-year-old children.
Republican retribution was swift and extreme. Rep. Jones and I, both young Black men representing districts with historically marginalized Black voters, were expelled from our duly-elected offices for “disorderly behavior.” During this same time, we served with Republican members who were allowed to continue their terms despite despicable, even criminal, behavior. One was credibly accused of sexual assault against an intern, another charged with domestic violence and another in leadership who allegedly intentionally urinated on a colleague’s chair. The latter two remain members of the Tennessee General Assembly.
Somehow, none of our colleagues’ behavior rose to the level of disorderly conduct. But joining our constituents, including thousands of children, in a peaceful protest for common-sense gun safety laws in the wake of a mass killing in Nashville did.
The reality is that our very presence on the floor of Tennessee’s state house breaks decorum in a mobocracy where the rights and voice of the minority are consistently and aggressively silenced. Between 2020 and 2023, Tennessee passed 28 laws restricting voting rights. In a stunning effort to further silence minority and historically disenfranchised voices, the Tennessee House of Representatives’ Republican supermajority has introduced at least five more bills and or rules aiming to do just that.
The first two are proposed as constitutional amendments, ironically put forth by so-called strict constitutionalists who routinely oppose amending the Tennessee Constitution — that is until two Black men challenged their anti-democratic rule.
The first proposed bill would prohibit an expelled member of the House of Representatives from holding office for four years, while a second would prohibit someone expelled from ever being elected, reappointed or employed by the Tennessee General Assembly. Tennessee House Republicans voted 67-22 Monday in favor of the third proposed bill to prevent local legislative bodies from reappointing a member expelled for “disorderly conduct.”
“I think it’s very unfortunate,” Shelby County Commission Chairwoman Miska Clay Bibbs told me, “that members of our state government, who don’t represent our county’s residents, are trying to take away our right to elect the leaders we choose. That is not what democracy looks like.”
Fourth is a new rule created by Speaker Cameron Sexton, cutting in half the seats available to the public to watch the public business of the Tennessee General Assembly.
Finally, the fifth proposed bill is designed to stymie Rep. Johnson’s senate run to replace current Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R). The bill would ban candidates like Rep. Johnson from running for two separate offices on one ballot, a practice long legal in Tennessee and around the country. In states where there is a ban, exceptions are routinely granted to accommodate candidates seeking another office.
Each of these bills is targeted directly at my two colleagues and me because we dared to represent our constituents who are demanding we do something to eradicate gun violence. And, in the case of Representative Jones and me, we dared while Black, an act that cannot go unpunished in a state assembly built upon the false ideology of white supremacy.
It’s time for another reconstruction in our country. The First Reconstruction in our nation’s history followed the Civil War to rebuild a war-torn nation. The Second Reconstruction came in the mid-20th century to dismantle a different divide – Jim Crow. Both eras represented times when many Americans traversed racial and economic divides to foster a more equitable and inclusive democracy.
Today, the politics of grievance and retribution begin at the top of the GOP ticket and roll down to the state and local levels, eroding our democracy through aggressive attempts to strip Black people, LGBTQIA people, poor people and people who want to control their bodies and family size, of their human and constitutional rights.
In Tennessee, Republicans have elected to engage in the old Redemption politics of the Ku Klux Klan. They choose to abuse their privilege and duty to make law by seeking racist retribution rather than addressing the pressing issues of poverty, gun violence and providing unfettered access to the democratic process.
Persistent poverty is a prime example of the damage caused by racist, divisive politics. The Poor People’s Campaign reports that to meet basic needs in Tennessee, two adults with two children need to earn at least $22 an hour. But at the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, an individual in Tennessee must work 101 hours per week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. Nearly 40% of the state’s workforce earns less than $15 per hour. Retribution and redemptionist politics won’t heal our communities. They won’t pay decent enough wages to provide our constituents access to stable housing and sufficient food.
Nor will they keep weapons of war out of our streets and schools.
Divisive politics have done enough damage in Tennessee and across our great nation. It’s time for politics infused with love for our neighbors that thrive on inclusion and promote a representative government built on justice and equality for all. It’s time to reconstruct America again. But first, we must stand up and speak out against the destructive forces that threaten the democratic values upon which our country was built.
Instead of dismantling democracy through racist efforts to uphold white supremacy, elected officials today should seek to expand democracy at every political level nationwide, beginning in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Will you join me in building a Movement for Justice by pushing back against a destructive politics of retaliation to move toward a politics of expanded democracy, inclusion and love?
This is our last and best hope to save democracy as we know it.
Justin J. Pearson is Tennessee state representative for District 86 in Shelby County.
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