GOP Cold-Blooded Revenge: TN State Legislature Unleashes Fury on Nashville
If Red State Legislatures increasingly war with blue cities, we are one step closer to violent conflict.
Nashville is a unique and vibrantly growing city. Its music history can only be matched by New Orleans. It has a growing tech center, is home to the Harvard of the South in Vanderbilt University, and has a touch of elan with the NFL’s Titans and NHL’s Predators. It is, in short, a “real city” and thus, as is often the case, a blue oasis in a sea of red.
So when the GOP came calling, wanting Nashville as the possible site for the 2024 convention, Nashville politely declined. The city noted that the GOP didn’t represent Nashville’s values.
I have written about this on Politizoom but didn’t have the space to examine the logical consequences. Red states are gerrymandered AF and thus often have massive super-majorities in their legislature that are very disproportionate to the actual population. Those legislatures, if angered by a major city’s decisions, can take control of some of the biggest money-making and necessary infrastructure.
Let’s start with a concise overview of the situation in Nashville and Tennessee, two very much opposing entities in this battle:
Versus:
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From the AP:
In Tennessee, the latest statehouse backlash stems back to last summer when Nashville’s metro council spiked a plan to bring the 2024 Republican National Convention to the city. Progressive leaders argued that hosting the massive Republican gathering would go against the city’s values. Others expressed hesitation toward tying up so many city resources — particularly for an event that residents largely wouldn’t attend…
… For GOP leaders, who had spent months lobbying and wooing party officials on why Music City should host the convention, Nashville had crossed yet another line. Warnings began trickling in that consequences were imminent…
Lawmakers have been swift in filing bills that offer retribution. Legislation has been introduced that would slash Nashville’s 40-member city council in half. A separate bill would give the state control of the governing board for the city’s airport, stadiums and other landmarks, while another proposal would remove Nashville’s ability to charge the tax that funds its convention center. Republicans then introduced a bill that would block cities from using public funds for reimbursing employees who travel to get an abortion.
As is obvious, the consequences are so devastating as to almost force Nashville to offer to host the convention. So much for the Republican mantra that local government is best. Now, the important part. This example will be noted by red state legislatures across the country. Think “Florida” and Georgia, among many others.
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As noted above, the GOP has been so shameless in its gerrymandering that even purple states like Arizona, with a Democratic governor and federal Senators, have a significant majority GOP Legislature.
Let’s start looking at similar situations just to get an idea as to the devastation that could lay waste to Democratic-run cities effectively neutered by the state legislature. Florida-Miami, Georgia-Atlanta, Pennsylvania-Philadelphia, North Carolina-Charlotte, even the reddest of states have their liberal enclaves, Idaho-Boise, Utah and Salt Lake City limits, Texas-Austin…
The events need not be as huge and political as the RNC Convention. What if the City of Boise wants to host a major LGBTQ event? For that matter, what if Atlanta, an even bigger city and more politically important, wants to host the DNC National Convention? What if Austin wants to reconfigure city taxes that tilt far more against the rich. You get the idea.
The sheer number of red states that include liberal enclaves represents a massive threat to the citizens of these cities and their autonomy. If the legislatures desire, they can do as Tennessee has done, exact cold-blooded revenge in major and minor petty ways. A legislature can increase taxes on convention centers and hotels, a major source of income for the city, making the events more expensive to host and less attractive to organizations or even as small as the Sierra Club or other liberal gatherings. The legislature can also be cruel and petty. Tennessee’s legislature changed a major portion of “John Lewis Way” to “President Donald Trump Blvd.” Please to be fcking off now.
This example WILL be followed. It represents a nearly fool-proof way for smaller red-rural areas to control larger blue cities to the benefit of Republicans.
Additionally, this is the new MAGA-America First GOP which has a serious authoritarian bent to it. A similar situation has also already happened with DeSantis’s war against Disney and its special self-governed district in Orlando. The MAGAs want to do this, and fairness, state cooperation, and any sense of shared mission could fall apart as easily as Nashville or even Disney, which ultimately won its battle. There are some events/things that are simply too big, with too much revenue, to attack successfully. But there are damned few Disney’s around. New Orleans can be as blue as it is, but Bourbon Street and the restaurants don’t represent a single entity to fight back.
This will only increase tensions, increase government battles, GOP authoritarianism, and dirty tricks. States will wield power in a manner never considered prior to the increasing contempt for true democracy. The punishment could be so severe to utterly force the city to accept something the citizens adamantly oppose.
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