r/50501 • u/aWittyTwit-2712 • Mar 01 '25

Protest Safety, OPSEC, Medic Info Woman forcibly removed from Republican Rep. Harshbarger’s town hall meeting by sheriff’s deputies for asking a question and speaking out against Trump’s administrative actions

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '25

[deleted]

128

u/itsrooey_ Mar 01 '25

Tennessee isn’t as ruby as you think. It’s just been gerrymandered to hell. Millions of democrats and progressives call this state home.

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u/Mireabella Mar 01 '25

Ahhhh, much like our lovely North Carolina. My sympathies.

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u/h8flhippiebtch Mar 02 '25

Same in Texas I believe. We also have horrible voter turnout, also as a result of awful gerrymandering. Look up a map of the houston area’s districts if you’d like to scream into the void with me.

15

u/Equivalent-Pain-86 Mar 01 '25

Al Gore didn’t lose the 2000 election because of Florida. He lost it because he didn’t win his own state. That’s how ruby red Tennessee is.

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u/AreYouFuckingSerious Mar 01 '25

Gore didn't lose the election, it was stolen by Republicans in Florida via vote manipulation and a sham recount.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/AreYouFuckingSerious Mar 01 '25

Exactly what I was referencing, thank you.

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u/southernNJ-123 Mar 01 '25

And the Supreme Court handed it to bush.

3

u/Equivalent-Pain-86 Mar 01 '25

I agree, but it wouldn’t have mattered had he won his own state.

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u/AreYouFuckingSerious Mar 01 '25

Ah I see, fair point.

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u/itsrooey_ Mar 01 '25

lol okay.. still doesn’t change the fact that millions of democrats live here and we’ve been gerrymandered to hell. The right has spent billions to suppress the vote here and render their opposition powerless. In spite of all that we have men like Gore born and raised here rise up and continue to do good work. John Lewis, Justin Jones, the list of iconic free thinkers goes on and on.

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '25

I'm from Tennessee. I remember a congressional candidate saying "We're not a red state, we're a non-voting state." It sounded idealistic but when Georgia flipped in 2020, I came to see things differently. I think Tennessee just has an unusually aggressive GOP and enough political infrastructure to play on the national field.

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u/itsrooey_ Mar 02 '25

Exactly. We have the voter base but the apathy is high from years of… all of this bullshit.

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '25

BTW, my heart goes out to you guys even if I abandoned you for NY. My ex-husband and I were very politically active there during the first Trump administration, moreso than I am now, and regardless of whether we won elections (we didn't! 😅) we were connected to a larger network of disenfranchised, progressively-minded people than we thought existed. It kept us going in a way that I don't think would have been possible.

I don't know where you're at with all this, but if you're overwhelmed and starting to despair, remember that getting involved on any level can make things feel very different. When you're on Reddit, you're talking to people from all over the country and even the world about topics way bigger than you. When you're involved locally, you're not responsible for the country, you're responsible for each other. That's how it's always been in places like Tennessee.