Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison to the studio to discuss what citizens can to do push back against the threat of losing our freedoms in America and urged all Tennesseans to come to the capitol and communicate with their everyday people legislators.
Leahy: In the studio, our friend State Representative Jeremy Faison. I got that right Jeremy Faison.
Faison: That’s it.
Leahy: I got the pronunciation right?
Faison: You did. The coffee is kicking in! (Laughter)
Leahy: He’s the Republican caucus Chair in the House of Representatives. You know, we were talking a little bit during the break about what a tough time the next 18 months are going to be for the country because that’s when the U.S. House has a chance to take that back. I think we probably will meantime, the national federal government is totally going out of control. It seems to me and then you tell me if you agree with it, the last bastion of freedom in America is the state legislatures in those states where freedom is still a possibility. Would you agree with that?
Faison: Michael, the only place left that we have hope, first of all is in the Lord. But when it comes to the government we have no hope in D.C.
Leahy: None.
Faison: It’s alright here. The state legislatures are the gatekeepers of freedom that we have left in our country.
Leahy: Now, I’m going to ask you this question if our listeners and I think some of them are are very very upset about the direction of the country and they don’t necessarily know what to do and want to push back. You have some thoughts about what they could and should do.
Faison: I do. I’m gonna remind our listeners, that we have three presidents that came from Tennessee. One of them was them by the name of James K. Polk
Leahy: James K. Polk of Columbia, Tennessee.
Faison: On his exit, James K. Polk said something very profound and I’m inclined to let you hear what he said. He told the people, he said I look forward to the day that I’m no longer a servant and I become a sovereign. And I was like wow. Let me break that out for you a minute. When you are a public servant when you’re a politician you serve the people. And the president said I want to become a sovereign that means a sovereign. You have individual liberty.
Leahy: An individual sovereign. That was the point.
Faison: Individual sovereign.
Leahy: That was his point. Not a sovereign as a ruler of others, but a sovereign as a ruler of himself.
Faison: Yes and also have an input in the people that serve him. Now why do I say that? I say that because I feel like there is a disconnect between the average citizen in Tennessee and the State House and the state senate. But there does not have to be a disconnect.
Leahy: Well, I think there probably is. And here’s what I think. A lot of people perhaps are intimidated by the physical presence of the state capitol. Where do I go? How do I get around? And perhaps they’re intimidated and question whether or not my state representative or state senator and if I have a concern, will they sit down and talk to me about it and really listen to me?
Faison: So if they’d reach out they would find out that we’re just normal people. During the break, you brought up that we’re citizen legislators. I actually kill bugs for a living. (Leahy chuckles) tomorrow morning I’m gonna wake up in Cosby, Tennessee and I’m going to drive to my pest control office. I’m going to have on a shirt that says Rocky Top Pest Control and I’m going to go spray bugs.
Leahy: You’re gonna go kill some bugs!
Faison: Absolutely. That’s who we are. We are just the average human being and we don’t make enough money in Nashville. If you’re honest, there’s no money in politics. So you’ve got to subsidize your income. So we’re normal people. And if you reach out to me man, I’m gonna be your friend. I’m gonna hear what you have to say.
And here’s the cool thing. I’ve given hundreds of tours of our capitol. The best thing is at night, by the way. Get your legislator to take you on a night tour of the capitol and you realize this place belongs to me. And I tell everybody that comes in there and I’ve been doing this for 11 years, you walk around this place like you own it.
Do you know why? Because you do. This place is owned by the people of Tennessee and each one of you who is listening right now, you have ownership. Your tax dollars pay for my office. There might be my name on the door of my office. But the deal is is that office doesn’t belong to me. That office belongs to the people of Tennessee. And if your listeners, if they engage their friends and their family and their children and their aunt or uncle and say listen we have ownership in this state. We have certain things that we want to be done. Get involved. Come see us. Come make your voice be heard.
Leahy: Well as an example, let’s say some states and we won’t get into the details of it in this program. But some states are putting together what you might call Big Tech push back bills. And I think there is such a bill going on in the state senate and state house. But for instance if you care about that and you’re sick and tired of Google and Facebook getting away with censoring and you think your state legislature can do that, you can come in and talk with your state legislator or your state senator. And I think they would be very interested in your ideas.
Faison: Absolutely.
Leahy: And would inform you here if there is the bill and here’s what I think about it. What do you think about it?
Faison: Right. Let me give you another example. We are worried about what President Biden’s going to do with guns. It looks like there’s some type of power grab coming in. So we have bills that are filed that will make Tennessee a Second Amendment Sanctuary state.
Leahy: I’m all for that.
Faison: But let me break it down for you. Guess who the majority people are here from in my email? The people who agree with Biden.
Leahy: Yeah. They are noisy.
Faison: Thank you! I’m know that Tennessee is conservative and we’re pro-gun. We’re pro-freedom. We don’t want the government to tell us how many bullets we can have. We don’t want the government to tell us how many bullets are allowed to be in our magazines. But where are our people calling in and saying we want you to do this and keep pushing for it? There are a few people from the TFA who write you and call you.
Leahy: Tennessee Firearms Association, our friends.
Faison: The NRA.
Leahy: You’ve been involved with NRA for some time.
Faison: But you know what the average Tennessean is, not out there pushing and saying hey, we want freedom. We want our guns. So I want to encourage people to take ownership. Get involved. Call your representative. Call your Senator.
Leahy: And they can really make a difference.
Faison: 100 percent.
Leahy: Representative Jeremy Faison, the Republican Caucus Chair in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Thanks for joining us. Will you come back and joined us again?
Faison:Â Oh, absolutely. God bless you Michael and it’s good to be with your friends this morning.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.Â
So I must ask. When are the legislators going to put a bridle on Governor Lee? You know that monarch that solely decided that Tennessee would take even more refugees and decided to turn over authority to county executives granted neither to him nor the executives by the state constitution? The GOP legislators need to grow a spine and do the job Tennesseans elected them to do instead of standing in the shadows watching the state crumble.