The Tennessee Three are instigators, not victims

Either I’m missing something, or most of the media and other observers, such as Barack Obama, are missing something about why the Tennessee Three got spanked, creating such a national crisis that Vice President Kamala Harris was sent to Nashville to administer first aid.

Here are the facts as I understand them:

A person identified as — maybe yes, maybe no —  a transgender female murdered three children and three adults at a Nashville Christian school.

Reflexively, anti-gun proponents demanded the Tennessee legislature pass various gun-control measures, which it was not inclined to do,  being a fairly red (conservative) state.

In response, three Democrats — Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson  — backed by protestors flooding into the chamber, went to the well (central area) of the chamber and with bullhorns led anti-gun chants, disrupting the business of the House. Wrong time, wrong place.

For violating the rules and decorum of the House, the super majority of Republicans voted to expel the two Justins, while the vote to expel Johnson  fell one vote short, because she had not used a bullhorn, it was explained by a Republican.

No, it was because she was white, said Johnson, displaying a frightening leap of illogic. 

Chiming in from afar, reacting to the explosion, Obama said “silencing those who disagree with us is a sign of weakness, not strength, and it won’t lead to progress.” Does Obama remember when Republican Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during Obama’s State of the Union address? A lack of decorum and self-control for which he was reprimanded.

Other commentators wailed that “democracy” was in peril.

The Washington Post said the Tennessee Three had ”agitated for gun control,” while ignoring that the agitation was in the well of the House.

Here, in the Stu-niversity, I say expulsion was too severe. Censure would have been better to get the idea across and not turn them into martyrs. 

Second, “democracy” was expressed by the majority of the legislature, which was not interested in more gun control (even when it is framed as “gun safety.”) I don’t agree with them, but that’s democracy.

Not For the Tennessee Three, who pitched a juvenile fit and stopped the work of the legislature. They were the ones attacking the democratic process, very much like — in principle, if not scale — the criminals who disrupted the work of Congress on Jan. 6.

Can’t you see that?

Being a responsible adult means having to handle disappointment and failure, but the Millennial Justins, probably raised on participation trophies, don’t see it that way. Like many on the extreme Left, they give themselves a right to shut down operations if outcomes don’t go their way.

“Just because you don’t get your way,” said GOP rep Andrew Farmer, “you can’t come to the well, bring your friends and throw a temper tantrum with an adolescent bullhorn.”

No one was gagging them. They could have held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol, or anywhere else, and bellowed for hours. They got reamed not so much for what they said, but for where and when they said it. 

They are not the victims, being denied free speech, they were the instigators, denying it to others.

Democracy survives on freedom of speech, and that includes speech you don’t like.

What the Tennessee Three did has a name: the heckler’s veto. That means suppressing the right of others to speak. It should not be applauded. It should be condemned.