Roy Exum
In a weekend meeting of its most fervent fanatics, the Tennessee Republican Party’s Grand Poohbahs decided to try to rob me of my right to vote in primary elections. They want the legislature to legally include “a question regarding political party affiliation on Tennessee voter registration forms as well as requiring party registration in order to vote in a party’s primary election.”
This sounds a lot like what they do in Russia! It also solidifies my belief that the zany extremists in both political parties – national or state – don’t give a rat’s tail about a good and functional democracy. To the contrary, the hope is to get every eligible voter to take part, regardless of any outside factors and regardless of how they might cast the very personal choices. This Republican scam will hamper Tennessee instead of enhancing all that’s right and good in the American process.
Prohibiting any citizen from voting is against the laws of our nation and I, who consider myself as a moderate conservative, am decidedly neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I think both parties allowed some certified bozos to infiltrate their highest ranks and that both of these aged and outdated trains left the intended tracks a long time ago. I am convinced, this from what I read every day and hear, that both are controlled by far-right and far-left radicals, the likes of which I would be uncomfortable with at a lunch table.
That’s being honest – if you’ll study those who are making the decisions in either party, I’ll guarantee you wouldn’t buy a used car from a one and, my goodness, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if your entire family might even change its religious denomination. As George H.W. Bush said more times than not, “I'm conservative, but I'm not a nut about it.”
Further, I believe if the truth be known, these “nuts” are quickly creating far more independent voters in Tennessee than ever before. To bar any registered voter from voting in a primary exactly as they please -- Republican or Democrat – should incur the wrath of our Department of Justice and whoever sponsors such a terrible idea should do 11/29 in a Federal prison. I really mean it.
Mary Mancini, the head of the Democratic Party in Tennessee which seemingly hasn’t saddled a winner since FDR’s New Deal signaled an end to our Great Depression, was precisely on the mark when she issued a statement: “No Tennessean should be required to join a political party in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote, including independent voters,” she said.
She also said, with clear reasoning, “As the share of independent voters continues to increase in Tennessee, this move would suppress them from making their voices heard in the primary process,” and I believe that could be called a conspiracy by the FBI, the Bradley County Farmer’s Co-Op, the check-out clerks at Food City, or by any other group free of political brain-washing.
Leading up to the last election, Scott Golden, the chairman of the Republican state party, disqualified seven qualified Republicans from the primary ballot who wanted to run against the questionable Marsha Blackburn. Seven, with one swoop of his sword! This is in no way or fashion what the vast majority of Tennessee public could ever want.
What you fail to see is that Golden and his Republican looney-tunes have the false bravado to believe they know far more than some hillbilly in Tazewell or the counter girl at the Dickson Waffle House. Of course that’s not true – I’d rather talk politics at the Waffle House any day. Yet this is the flimsy way today’s Republican zealots stack the deck – “Here’s one card, now go play it wisely and, hey, try to show off your loyalty to the dear ole GOP in the parking lot at the polls.”
The seven disqualifications of those wanting in the primary because each believed they were superior to Blackburn, came in the Eleventh Hour, where there was no time remaining for recourse, and let’s all remember Golden was an actual Blackburn employee before “the timing was right” for him to take control of the party and rig the game. Take control he did. He was just re-elected as state chairman because, it is said, he is so good with numbers.
This is the truth. I am on record, as a conservative voter, that the state Republican Party gave us no other choice than Blackburn. The woman has repeatedly shamed herself due to hefty campaign donations from the vermin that sadistically ‘sores’ Tennessee Walkers to painfully dance an uncommon gait called “The Big Lick.” I’m talking there is an abundance of viable proof she accepted thousands.
We know that every state in the Union has at least one co-sponsor of the Prevent All Soring Tactics Bill (PAST) but not one of Tennessee’s nine Republicans -- Congressmen and Senators -- dared sign the list. In the state where soring is the absolute worse on planet Earth, the haughty Republican delegation has repeatedly made ostriches that bury their head in the sand look like pikers.
The United States is in a pandemic of opioid destruction and Blackburn is all about Big Pharma. Strike that … Blackburn is all about Big Pharma’s contributions to her war-chest. It’s so easy to prove. There are valid records that “BigPharma Marsha” took in $92,000 from pharmaceutical companies in such a blatant way there is even a website, bigpharmamarsha.com.
Regardless, this is the lone choice of the Republicans. The Democrats countered with a very tired Phil Bredesen who went out of focus a long time ago. He was a good governor but the constant and severe damage Tennessee conservatives have witnessed from the Clintons, Obamas, Feinsteins, and Pelosis … are you kidding me? The promised Blue Wave turned out to be little more than one morning’s fog.
The reason that the House majority just went Democrat – and I don’t care how you argue – is because the voting public in America has watched the way the Republicans have conducted themselves, including tucking tail and seeking the shadows whenever The Donald is around. The Republicans clearly do not have the leadership to challenge Trump in any way. He’s a barroom brawler alright but there ain’t one Republican in the batch who dares get his starched shirt dirty.
When Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell said he hoped there could be bipartisan cooperation now with the Democrats in control of the House, he had the quivering voice of a sheep going before a majority of wolves. The sound bite was not only typical, but sadly predictable, and this is the 76-year-old Senate Majority leader? What I would give to watch him use an iPhone. Please. This guy has been in Washington for 33 years and is one of the strongest symptoms of Gridlock disease to be found.
There is not much we can do about Washington’s “Legion of the Miserable” but I suspect if you will contact your state House of Representatives and your Congressional types, my worry I will be unable to vote in the primary of any State of Tennessee election will become moot and void. As will your own.
Again, a democracy depends on as many voters who are qualified to take part. Anyone of any stripe who tries to disqualify or prevent the least of our voices to be heard is most certainly not an American who holds to the highest of our ideals. If you love our country, never let an opportunity pass that you fail to protect her. After all, it is you and I who are the watchmen.
royexum@aol.com