It’s worth noting that TN state legislator Gloria Johnson escaped expulsion by only 1 vote. 65 Yays, 30 Nays.

n my opinion the two young African American legislators who were expelled from the Tennessee legislature – albeit temporarily – are brilliantly and expansively framing their struggle. It could be narrowly cast, but they want no part of that. They’re finding a place for all of us in this struggle and providing a vision of a multiracial democracy.

My intent this afternoon was to watch NBA Today on ESPN – it’s playoff time – but accidentally I landed on MSNBC which was covering the proceedings of the TN legislature. That “august” body dominated by the Republican Party, thanks to gerrymandering, is voting to expel 3 Democratic legislators for the “crime” of joining a peaceful rally for common sense gun laws. And this in the wake of a mass shooting that left 3 nine year old children and 3 teachers dead. Their bodies were filled, as we know, with lethal bullets from an assault weapon wielded by a young man whose head and heart were filled with hate and whose access to such a weapon was sanctioned by law and advocated by the Republican Party in Tennessee and elsewhere.