Following the Koch playbook, Tennessee keeps finding new way

...to undermine the welfare of its citizens.

Legislators Are Not Stupid People. So What’s Behind Their Stupid Behavior?

By Margaret Renkl

March 18, 2019
NASHVILLE — The 111th General Assembly of Tennessee convened on Jan. 8, and it will disperse on April 26, not a moment too soon. Already, its Republican supermajority has introduced bills that would further weaken lax gun laws, increase campaign-donation limits and undermine a progressive Nashville law passed by public referendum, among other assaults on democracy and good sense. Tennesseans should get down on their knees and thank God for the citizen-legislator model of government, because there’s no telling how much damage these people could do if they met all year.

Fortunately, much of what happens in the General Assembly is pure political posturing. So far this year, Tennessee Republicans have introduced bills to amend the state constitution (they want it to insist that “liberties do not come from government but from Almighty God”), prohibit state officials from recognizing marriages between people of the same gender, deny birth certificates to babies born to undocumented parents and, most controversially, outlaw abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Heart cells begin beating so early in gestation that many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant.

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Last May the asset-management firm AllianceBernstein announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Nashville — and creating more than 1,000 jobs here — in part because of $17.5 million in financial incentives provided by the state. Earlier this month, the company’s chief executive, Jim Gingrich, joined with local LGBTQ advocates in assailing several bills designed to suppress gay rights in Tennessee, pointing out that such bills in other states have proven to be “anti-growth, anti-job and against the interests of the citizens of those states.”

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