Last weekend, I found myself in a long conversation with my brother-in-law’s father, Art. (Is there a name for that relationship?) He’s a college professor, so we have similarly oriented jobs — we both do a lot of sitting, thinking, writing, and reading. And sitting. Lots of sitting. But he describes himself as a conservative; whereas, I typically call myself a progressive.
Art lives in a small town in rural Middle Tennessee. I live in Memphis. We’re both men and we’re both white, so we have that mountain of privilege in common. Still, with our political and geographic identities being what they are, if you only listened to the national news outlets, you’d think we would be unable to have a five-minute-long conversation without smashing a wine bottle over one another’s heads. So, even though we politely disagree about some potential solutions to certain problems, we can usually agree that issues like pollution, pandemics, or disappearing newspapers are problems.
One of the more frightening items on that list, as we saw it, is the devolution of political discourse into a world in which there is but one criteria — absolute, unquestioning loyalty.
This week, Politico reported that Sen. Marsha Blackburn is among a list of GOP politicians being eyed as a running mate for a 2024 bid by our former president, Mr. Donald J. Trump.
To which I say, “Sure. Why not?”
Sen. Blackburn certainly isn’t interested in Tennessee or in any of the problems we face. She’s more often found using her platform to talk about our dealings with China or the southern border of the United States. If you made a drinking game out of her 2018 debate with former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and had taken a shot every time she said “Obama” or “NRA,” you would have died of alcohol poisoning. It seems clear to me that Sen. Blackburn wants to work on a larger stage, to vie for national attention. She can’t be bothered with such pedestrian concerns as infrastructure in her own state, or gun violence, healthcare access, poverty, education, or any of the other problems plaguing Tennessee. She’s got what it takes to make it to the top, though.
As Politico’s Marc Caputo reported in the aforementioned article, “Those familiar with his thinking say his selection will be determined by two factors that rate highest in Trump’s estimation: unquestioned loyalty and an embrace of the former president’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.”
And there we have it. No wonder Marsha’s name is being floated as a potential running mate. She is, after all, happy to parrot the lie of the stolen election. In this way, Tennessee’s senior senator represents much of what I find so hard to stomach about this moment in time. We are knocking on the door of year two of a global pandemic, with the newly arisen Omicron variant presenting another cause for concern. As the Great Resignation rolls on, we find ourselves in the middle of a long-overdue reckoning about workers rights. These are national issues, yes, but they are also ones that specifically impact Tennessee. No elected official has unfettered power, but it seems that a wily politician could leverage the national zeitgeist into some sort of strategy to implement change for their constituents. But that’s not going to play well on Fox — or in Mar-a-Lago.
Unquestioning loyalty is the name of the game, and under those rules, there’s no incentive to reach across the aisle. There’s not even a reason to attempt to fix problems such as healthcare access or stagnated wages and unsafe working conditions. To do so might mean admitting someone from the opposing party has the right idea, at least occasionally, and it’s a short road from there to an angry mob chanting “Hang, [Insert Politician’s Name]” on the lawn.
I suppose it’s no wonder why Sen. Blackburn and her ilk ignore real problems in favor of the same list of talking points, happily tilting at fantastical border walls. But it’s not helping any of us living in the real world.
Jesse Davis
jesse@memphisflyer.com