Newsletter: Most eyes are on Trump. They should be on Tennessee’s expulsion of two lawmakers

Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, April 8, 2023. Let’s look back at the week in Opinion.

Donald Trump said something right this week: “I never thought anything like this could happen in America — never thought it could happen.” He was wrong, however, about what happened.

Something truly stunning and troubling unfolded this week in the U.S., and not in New York. Yes, the arraignment of a former president on 34 felony charges rates high on the “unprecedented” scale, but I can’t stop thinking about the expulsion Thursday of two Democratic state representatives ostensibly for demanding action on gun control on the floor of the Tennessee House. The protest didn’t come from nowhere: On March 27, three children and three adults died in a mass shooting at a private school in Nashville, setting off another round of national outrage over America’s sclerotic response to gun violence.

To be sure, the legislators broke decorum with their protest, but voting to expel two of the three (the lone white representative targeted was spared removal) is akin to sending a starving bread thief to death row. It’s the raw exercise of power because a Republican supermajority can, so it did. Never mind depriving the voters in two districts the representation to which they are entitled. Never mind the racist spectacle of running two Black lawmakers out of the capitol in a former Confederate state. Tennessee Republicans bounced two democratically elected members to make a statement about the sanctity of gun ownership.

In a span of time that saw an attack on the U.S. Capitol and the embrace of election conspiracy fever dreams (I decline to use the word “theories”), what happened in Tennessee ranks as among the worst — and possibly the most insidious — attacks on democracy. If I were a lawmaker in a state with an evenly split electorate but a Republican supermajority in the legislature because of shameless partisan gerrymandering (I’m looking at you, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania), I’d watch out.

As for the expelled Democratic Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, it was clear watching the two defend themselves on the House floor Thursday why their fellow citizens voted them into government. They were unapologetic about their demonstration against gun violence, unwavering in their defense of democracy and hopeful for their state’s future (a hope I wish I shared).

And to the people defending this flagrant abuse of power, ask yourself: Since 2016, how often have you twisted yourself into knots defending people like these Republicans in Tennessee? And how much farther are you willing to go? Because Republican leaders seem ever ready to push you.

Another element to this is hypocrisy, something The Times’ editorial board points out:

“While rejecting life-saving controls on deadly weapons, Republicans nationwide have purported to stand strong for free expression. GOP leaders pretend to recoil in horror at so-called cancel culture — the supposed penchant of liberals and Democrats to shut down any who disagree with their political or social positions.

“Yet it has been Republicans, in the years of the post-Trump presidency, who are perfecting the dark art of silencing Americans. Especially those who deign to exercise their right to express opinions and choose officials and policies that represent their values. ...

“It has sadly become the Republican norm to stifle debate. Don’t say gay, don’t say gun control, don’t say racism, don’t let kids read the ‘wrong’ books or be read to by the ‘wrong’ people, don’t permit children to learn about their bodies or their rights.

“A government in which the majority can silence those with competing views is in serious trouble. One that goes further and actually expels those with competing views is dangerously close to becoming post-democratic and post-liberty.”

There’s been a lot of shoot-from-the-hip punditry on Trump’s indictment, much of it diminishing the strength of the charges. I encourage you to pay attention to commentators with expertise on prosecuting complex cases such as former U.S. Atty. Harry Litman, who writes: “Even as [Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin] Bragg hedged his bets with a skeletal indictment, his statement of facts and public comments reveal a clear path to a felony conviction: showing that Trump’s falsification of business records was meant to aid and conceal a tax offense (whether or not it occurred) and to prevent a revelation that would damage his campaign on the eve of the election.” L.A. Times

Trump’s indictment is filling “never again” Trumpers with dread and despair. Columnist Jonah Goldberg is one such anti-Trump conservative, and while he says the sight of Republicans rallying around the ex-president may produce unwelcome flashbacks to 2016, the fears may be premature: “Bragg’s indictment may be the first indictment of a former president, but it is unlikely to be the last. Georgia is likely to indict Trump for his effort to overturn the 2020 election, and most legal observers believe that special counsel Jack Smith will likely indict Trump on federal charges related to his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, or his absconding with classified materials — or both.” L.A. Times

Black Angelenos should be angry with Mark Ridley-Thomas. The suspended L.A. City Council member is a seasoned politician who has helped uplift Black Los Angeles, so his conviction in a federal corruption case represents a major setback for his voters. Erin Aubry Kaplan says it’s Ridley-Thomas who deserves scorn, not the jury that convicted him or the investigators who discovered his scheme with a USC dean: “More importantly, you should keep it clean precisely because it serves the interests of your Black constituents who rely on you to be fair and accountable to them. They need you in office. To get bounced because of a corruption conviction is a tragedy not because of racism but because Ridley-Thomas made choices.” L.A. Times

Want to get a clear picture of how huge American cars have become? Drop a kid off at school in the morning and count how many front hoods eclipse his forehead. I’ve done this with my elementary-age children and winced at how many drivers are cruising neighborhood streets unable to see a good portion of people who might be standing right in front of them. The editorial board calls on regulators to take action on hulking SUVs and trucks because “automakers and consumers continue to buy vehicles with little regard to their danger to people in front of the windshield.” L.A. Times

Why do so many young white men in America find fascism “cool”? Author and researcher Omer Aziz took notice of a gathering of neo-Nazis near his apartment in Cambridge, Mass., last fall. He says their appearance may be updated for the 21st century, but they share troubling similarities with their forebears in 1930s Germany and Italy: “The word ‘fascism’ is often thrown around loosely, and some may feel applying this label is overly dramatic. But its current manifestation in the U.S. mirrors its incarnation eras ago: an ideology that glorifies the traditional masculine, believes in a spiritual right to exact violence and calls for the seizure of government for authoritarian rule.” L.A. Times