🇺🇸 The Tennessee Three

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Good morning, and happy Tuesday! Family and friends in Pulaski County gathered for a very special birthday celebration Saturday. Veteran David Elder served in Italy, Germany and France during World War II and was even awarded the Purple Heart. More than 200 of his closest friends and family joined together at Woodstock Community Center to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Plus, a TikToker’s favorite “Disney day” food hack is helping families stretch their dollar when dining in the parks, and the footage is going viral.

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🐘 Monday, April 10, Republican Presidential Nomination 2024: Trump 47, DeSantis 23, Pence 5, Haley 4, Cheney, Pompeo 3, Christie 1, Noem 0, Ramaswamy 1, T. Scott, Youngkin, Sununu 0 (I&I/TIPP)

🐎 Monday, April 10, Democratic Presidential Nomination 2024: Biden 39, Harris 7, Buttigieg 5, Sanders 7, Obama 8, Warren 4, Clinton 4, Ocasio-Cortez 4, Newsom 3, Klobuchar 2 (I&I/TIPP)

📉 Monday, April 10, President Biden Job Approval: Approve 48, Disapprove 50 (Rasmussen Reports)

📉 Monday, April 10, Direction of Country: Right Track 38, Wrong Track 56 (Rasmussen Reports)

TRENDING

Left: How Will Trump's Trial Play on the Campaign Trail? Amy Sorkin, The New Yorker

Left: Make Wisconsin a Democracy Again Adam Serwer, The Atlantic

Left: The City Without TikTok Jessie Yeung, CNN Business

Right: Dems Play Same Old Hand: The Trump Card Michael Goodwin, New York Post

Right: American Politics Has Become Amplified Rage Jonathan Turley, The Hill

Right: Dems Are Ruthless in Their Pursuit of One-Party Rule Paul Gottfried, American Greatness

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QUICK CLICKS

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Economy: Outlook for credit access hits record low while inflation expectations jump, NY Fed survey shows (CNBC)

World: Netanyahu reverses decision to fire Israel defense minister after protests (The Guardian)

POLITICS

The Tennessee Three

Last week, the Tennessee House voted to expel two of its members, after they helped lead a demonstration that disrupted proceedings at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Both members are black, which has attracted controversy, but others say they violated House rules and therefore faced consequences.

Reporting from the Left: Ousted Tennessee legislator Justin Jones reinstated after Nashville council vote (NBC News)

Reporting from the Right: CBS host warns Tennessee GOP that ‘maximalist’ expulsion of Democrats is asking for violence (Fox News)

From The Flag: The since-ousted lawmakers were rallying in favor of stricter gun laws, following the Covenant School shooting late last month. By using a megaphone and carrying signs through the House floor, they were officially “out of order” per the House Speaker. Here’s more from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Democrats’ Platform in 2023: “Advance Partisan Hysteria At All Costs”

• The expelled lawmakers hijacked House proceedings and abandoned decorum, but now accuse Republicans of “threatening democracy.”

• Democrats don’t like this event being compared to January 6, but actually in this situation, lawmakers joined and led the disruption.

• The White House deliberately avoided addressing the Nashville mass shooting until it became politically convenient to do so.

“Who's Undemocratic in Tennessee?” Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal: “Today’s partisan panic about democracy is brought to you by the state of Tennessee, where Democrats are making secular saints out of two state lawmakers expelled by the House for disrupting the legislative work of their colleagues. Will representative government survive? Yes, somehow we think it will. … The Tennessee House has an institutional interest in deterring fringe legislators from hijacking the floor to get attention. Democratic debate can get heated, which is why legislative bodies have rules of decorum, such as Congress’s custom of referring to fellow legislators, if through gritted teeth, as ‘my friend, the gentlewoman from California.’ Even fake civility has democratic utility. … National Democrats and media are rushing to associate themselves with this mess, perhaps because they think they can spin it to fit their narrative that Republicans are a mortal threat to democracy. … It worked last year, so why not keep the riff going?”

“The Fallout From Tennessee’s Mini-Jan. 6” Byron York, Washington Examiner: “Three members, all Democrats, (hijacked) the House floor for nearly an hour… in tandem with noisy anti-gun protesters who filled the galleries. … There is absolutely no doubt that the three brought disorder to the House. … Democrats bristle when anyone compares what happened that day to Jan. 6. Nobody died at the Tennessee protest, they say. No windows were broken. There were no battles with police. That is all true. … Imagine if, on Jan. 6, three members of the House had actually joined the protesters, bringing a bullhorn to commandeer the House floor, working in tandem with protesters in the House gallery. Their demand was that there would be no business as usual, no certifying of the 2020 election results until the House addressed ‘the crisis at hand.’ There would be consequences for that, most likely serious consequences.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Kamala Harris' Grotesque Political Spectacle in Nashville Bonchie, Red State

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Republicans Continue To Play Fast and Loose With Fascism in 2023

• The Tennessee House executed an overbearing and indefensible power play in response to pushback – a repeating theme nationwide.

• This move ignored the racial implications and stretched far beyond hyperbole by comparing these events to January 6.

• Tennessee House Republicans are acting similarly to post-Civil War Democrats who wanted to “save” the South from black people.

“The 'Tennessee 3' saga highlights the GOP retreat into Fortress MAGA” Greg Sargent, Washington Post Opinion: “President Biden declared the move ‘without precedent.’ Others see it as a rare throwback to hardball tactics largely not seen since the civil rights era or even the Civil War. All of that is true enough, but the Tennessee events are also part of a larger story that is unfolding all around the country: GOP state legislatures are resorting to increasingly novel, overbearing and indefensible power plays to hold off the rising tides of backlash unleashed by their descent into reactionary rule. … Two of the three Democrats — both young, Black and representing urban areas — were ousted by overwhelmingly White and conservative majorities. The third, a White woman, narrowly survived the vote. Republicans charged them with breaking House rules of conduct, which they don’t deny. But the protests, while raucous, were peaceful, and according to the Tennessean, no lawmaker has ever been expelled for breaching decorum rules.”

“Tennessee Republicans Reach New Low” Editorial Board, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Republicans in the Tennessee legislature reached a new political low… (expelling) two Black members for having participated in an anti-gun protest following the March 27 deaths of three children and three adults in a Nashville Christian school mass shooting. As if blind to the racial implications, lawmakers voted narrowly to let a white House member keep her seat after she participated in the same protest. … Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton went so far as to say the protest ‘was equivalent… maybe worse… of doing an insurrection in the Capitol.’ … Democratic state Reps. Justin Pearson, Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson — disrupted House proceedings… But it didn’t even slightly resemble the bloodshed, destruction and democracy-threatening chaos of Jan. 6… It boggles the mind how Sexton reached his ‘maybe worse’ comparison. … Johnson participated in chants but didn’t use the megaphone, which might have led some Republicans to vote against expelling her.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: The Real Message Behind Expelling the ‘Tennessee Three’ Jemar Tisby, CNN

FLAG THIS

On This Much We Agree: Not Much Love For Congress

Polling shows that a majority of Americans disapprove of both Republicans and Democrats at the Congressional level. In a survey released last week, 65% disapproved of Democratic leadership’s job performance, while 68% disapproved of Republican leadership’s job performance.

Around a third approved of Democratic leadership (33%) and Republican leadership (29%).

Data indicates even Republicans are unhappy with the new Congress: just 26% hold a favorable view. That’s the exact same number as the overall percentage who feel the same way (Pew Research).

FLAG FINDS

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