by Dr. Carol M. Swain
Tennessee State Rep. John DeBerry, a black Shelby County Democrat, is an independent thinker, which at the moment makes him Public Enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the state’s Democratic Party.
Earlier this month, with most Americans distracted by the media’s nonstop coronavirus coverage, Janeita Lentz, another Shelby County Democrat and co-chair of the Memphis-Mid South Democratic Socialists of America, advanced a racist, cultist agenda. Her mission: to oust a black Democratic incumbent deemed too uppity for the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) and its white overseers.
Lentz, on April 6, submitted a resolution to TNDP Chair Mary Mancini and Shelby County Chair Michael Harris requesting the removal of DeBerry, a 13-term house member, from the 2020 election ballot. Rep. DeBerry, who has represented a 65 percent black Memphis district for 26 years, is also a Church of Christ minister who is pro-life and pro-school choice. That makes him anathema for today’s Democratic Party. An outspoken but gentle black man, he is a threat to the Democrats’ long tradition of exploiting blacks to advance their progressive agenda.
On April 8, the majority white TNDP executive committee voted 41-18, with two abstentions, to remove DeBerry from the ballot. Rutherford County’s Brandon Thomas, a black member of the executive committee and a candidate in the August 2020 Democratic primary for House District 49, is the only black known to have supported DeBerry’s removal from the ballot.
To bolster her case against DeBerry, Lentz provided 28 pages of evidence. Included were a disbursement from DeBerry’s campaign account to Republican State Rep. Bill Sanderson; a Tweet from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos thanking Rep. DeBerry for participating in an education reform roundtable; Rep. DeBerry’s vote in favor of the fetal heartbeat bill, which was met by billboards purchased by Planned Parenthood; his being the only Democrat endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB); and a picture of the Tennessee Republican Prayer Caucus on January 17, 2020 – with the comment “John J. DeBerry, Jr. the only Democrat invited and in attendance.” “Only Democrat invited” is a false statement because all Tennessee legislators are invited, and many Democrats attend. Then again, prayer is offensive to the edicts of the Church of Liberalism as espoused and embraced by Democrats nationwide.
Rep. DeBerry was never told of the challenge to his credentials or that the TNDP executive committee was meeting April 8. Several black Democrats wrote letters to Mancini on behalf of DeBerry. Among those was Rep. Joe Towns, Jr., whose sharply-worded letter emphasized that “the overwhelming majority of the African-American community has vetted John [and found] him more than sufficient in Democratic values that reflect his district and the black community at large.”
TNDP Chair Mancini has accused DeBerry of opposing women’s health. The latter should be interpreted as abortion. Democrats use euphemisms such as “reproductive health” and “women’s health” to camouflage their devotion to pro-abortion views and make them more palatable to those who oppose killing the unborn. One look at his voting record and population data demonstrates that DeBerry is standing up for the most vulnerable Americans.
Across the nation, Democrats are seeking to purge their party of pro-life Democrats such as DeBerry.
The Democratic Party in America has become a leftist “take no prisoners” cult in which the ends, regardless how immoral or unethical, justify the means. Democratic politics as usual, ho-hum. Many Christians continue to align with the Democratic Party, justifying it with cognitive dissonance that is the calling card of a party that openly defies Judeo-Christian values and principles and spits on the U. S. Constitution (and, for good measure, the U.S. flag). Democrats comprise a little tent party that has no room for anyone, white or black, who dare disagree with their “vision” of the world. It is a vision that takes us closer and closer to full-blown totalitarianism.
The Democratic Party has had a long history – well-documented – of anti-black racism that goes back to its founding. It was the party of slavery; it started the Civil War; it opposed Reconstruction; it founded the Ku Klux Klan; it imposed segregation and Jim Crow racism; it perpetrated lynchings; and it fought vigorously against civil rights laws in the 1950s and 1960s. In my home state of Virginia, Senator Harry F. Byrd led the massive resistance against school integration. More recently, the Democratic Party has been the party that has pushed for late-term abortions, and it has no problem with Planned Parenthood setting its clinics disproportionately in minority communities.
Voting along racial lines, the Democratic Party in Tennessee is seeking to deny black voters their candidate of choice. They prefer a hand-picked black representative who will parrot the socialist agenda permeating the Democratic Party across the nation. At this juncture, it is more important than ever for fair-minded individuals of all races to come together and reject the litmus tests and heavy-handed politics of the Tennessee Democrats as they seek to advance an agenda harmful to the people they seek to control.
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Dr. Carol M. Swain is a former tenured professor at Vanderbilt and Princeton universities. Her Be The People News blog and podcast empower individuals to think independently, understand their responsibilities, and make a difference in the world.
John DeBerry is a wonderful, outstanding Christian man. I have been blessed with the opportunity to worship at his congregation, hear him preach and eat in his home.
After serving for 26 years, you would think that his constituents would be given the right to an up or down vote for him in the primary. It’s strange that a party that loves to shout from the mountaintop that they are for diversity can’t handle a member who has diverse opinions and enough backbone to vote his conscious, rather than down the party lines.
It’s an disgrace to give this God fearing gentleman this type of disrespect. Because he’s note in support of killing babies many are upset? Because he think for himself? Could it be that he’s an minister and will not compromise his faith?
This gentleman has serve his community faithfully. It seems like someone want his postion, but fear they can’t defeat him in an fair election. Please, great people of Tennessee don’t let the radicals destroy this humble man and lose quality leadership!
“Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.”
–John F. Kennedy
And that applies to both major parties which like to keep their members in well defined political boxes.
According to Swain, the only good Democrat is the carbon-copy Republican type like Mr. DeBerry. If DeBerry likes Betsy Devoss’s agenda so much, then he should be honest enough to switch parties. One of the great things about being a U.S. citizen is the freedom to switch parties if one is dissatisfied with one of the parties. Since Swain and her fellow Republicans demand an ideological litmus test that requires all Republicans follow the right-wing agenda with no questions asked, she is hardly in any position to criticize Democrats that demand their own litmus test for their fellow Democrats. If DeBerry were honest with his constituents, he would have ADMITTED to them long ago that he is really a Republican instead of a D.I.N.O. (Democrat In Name Only) or a R.I.A.B.N. (Republican In All But Name).
At one time, the Republicans used to allow for a few liberals and leftists in their ranks, but that gradually came to an end somewhere between 1964 and 2000. Now, these ideologically pure Republicans wonder why the Democrats are demanding their own ideological agenda as well.
Are you saying that over the DECADES, Rep. DeBerry’s constituents have not been aware of how he votes? They have continued to re-elect him. Are you saying that the Democrat voters should not have a voice in who represents them? The leftist, socialists removed DeBerry. The party left him.
Well YOU just followed the Democrat Book of Lies, William Delzell. You are just a narrow minded Liberal sock puppet of the Death cult that is the Democrat Party. Congratulations. I think you have won favors from Satan himself.
Thank you, Carol Swain!
John DeBerry is one of the finest men I know in Tennessee! What is being done to him is absolutely criminal. He is a true champion for right over wrong, good over evil. The 90th District has been blessed to have him representing them in Nashville.
And Dr. Swain is no slouch either! How great is this, one leader within one Black community standing up for, instead of looking to profit from, another Black leader in a different community. Now that could be a force to be reckoned with!
I grew up in a family that were Democrats. I recall that back in the 60’s and 70’s that many or most Democrats were classical liberals. But even though they may still preach “tolerance and diversity”, they have morphed into leftist authoritarians who impose that same rigid ideology of control.
De Berry can always switch his party affiliation to be consistent with his conservative voting record. Be honest about your true party affiliation and loyalty to the Swain agenda, De Berry.