Gerrymander: to divide or arrange (a territorial unit) into election districts in a way
that gives one political party an unfair advantage.
(Dictionary.com)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. A dream he died for. As of yesterday, Tennessee has now relegated that dream to the burn pile.
Anyone who knows me knows I have seldom been enamored of my home state. I fit in here like the proverbial square peg in the round hole. Especially when it comes to politics I have been an odd woman out, preferring to follow the constitution, both in spirit and in fact, and trusting that others are doing the same.
Yesterday’s events in Nashville killed that fragile trust completely when the legislature voted to gerrymander the last blue election district in Memphis, effectively busting us from 2026 back to pre-1965. To a time when men and women fought and died to have their civil rights recognized and enforced. To the days of Jim Crow. To say I am ashamed and outraged is putting it quite mildly. At least I can say I have never voted for the incumbents.
This vote had nothing to do with what is good for the state. It was nothing less than a power grab by the Republicans, done out of fear that they will be losing votes in the midterm elections coming up in November. In its wake will come the return of rampant racism and discrimination on a level not seen in decades. Anyone who says differently is sadly delusional. Anyone who agrees with it cannot be considered an American in the purest sense of the word. Our country and its constitution were founded on the precepts of liberty, and amendments added later were to establish and protect the rights of all who live here. Thanks to the example set by the State of Tennessee, those rights are now in jeopardy.
I’ve commented elsewhere that Tennesseans aren’t all stupid. It’s just the ones that aren’t are in the minority. I want to shake the crap out of those that enable politicians to run roughshod over the hard won rights and liberties of others. And I especially want to do so with those who continue to vote the same people in while bitching about nothing ever changing. What else do they expect will happen? There’s an old computer programming phrase that fits the occasion: GIGO. It means “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” That’s Tennessee politics in a nutshell.
The general election is coming up in November. Gerrymandering might seem insurmountable but the truth is that while it makes it harder to be heard, it doesn’t make it impossible. It’s time that everyone who believes in what America is supposed to stand for take their place at the polling booth. This is not the time to feel intimidated. It’s time to fight back.
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