Live from Music Row Friday 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 original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, there, there are so many themes that we have talked about over the last 2 1/2 years that you’ve had me on your show, and one of them is equal treatment under the law, equal treatment in general. We’ve also made the statement that people believe what they want to believe and that fewer and fewer people will even be persuaded.
The question that I ask people with whom I disagree and are willing to have a conversation is, is there any information that I could provide to you or any facts that I could provide to you that would cause you to change your mind? And if so, what are they? And if you want to ask me that question of me, I can provide you with that.
And so I’m already prepared because I know why I believe what I believe, and I try to support it with logic, and I try to support it with consistency. Then you have the Democrats who claim no one is above the law when they’re referring to Republicans, then Democrats when they’re referring to Democrats, there is no law that applies.
This is true now across the country as we’re focused on what happened in Nashville, the same type of thing that happened in Kansas, the same type of thing that happened in Kentucky, and the same type of thing that happened in Florida.
And in North Carolina, a Democrat named Tricia Catherine switched parties. She said I like to think of myself as an independent thinker. And she said the Democrat Party doesn’t allow for independent thinking. If you disagree with the orthodoxy, they called you terrible names.
And when she switched parties she told people some of the vile names she was called. And this is a legislator in North Carolina, duly elected, has a constituency, and she’s trying to represent her constituency, and her party, which doesn’t allow for any dissent, called her a bunch of names, and she switched parties.
And now North Carolina Republicans have a super majority. And if they stick together, they can overturn the vetoes of a Democrat governor, which is the same phenomenon that happened in Kansas in that they already had a supermajority. But somehow, the voters selected a left-wing governor in Kansas.
These things strike me as strange—same thing in Kentucky. Then we look at what’s going on here in Tennessee, and we saw the antics of yesterday, and that’s the only thing you can describe them as, antics. There are rules that apply to decorum in the legislature, and these three people all broke the rules.
Two of them more egregiously than the third. And because the third was not as egregious as the other two, there were a few Republicans who refused to expel the third one. And so the two that did act almost exactly the same were expelled.
Now it looks like the local authorities from which they come are going to put them right back in. That’s what John Cooper is recommending and wants here for Nashville. I’m going to assume for purposes of the commentary, that’s accurate and that the Democrats stand behind these two. Here’s my question.
If I went down to a council meeting as a citizen and believed that my voice was not being heard by anybody in the council, would I be allowed to stand up with a megaphone and say what I want to say for as long as the council is in session?
The answer is no, I’m not going to be allowed to do that because the council could not conduct business if the citizenry, which has every right to have their voice heard, for goodness’ sake. If you won’t bend to my will, my voice isn’t being heard. Then any individual could disrupt the entire meeting because there would be no rules because they could claim that their voice is not being heard unless that group bends to their will.
And that’s where we are now. What’s happening with our council races, where the State Legislature has said that you can have no more than 20 council members? Would it be difficult for the council to go do the hard work necessary in a relatively short period of time to shrink the maps to 20 or whatever it would be, the maybe 17 with three at large? Could they do that?
Yes. Are they angry that they’re being forced to do something that they don’t want to do? Yes. Are they reacting in a way that is contrary to the rule of law? The answer is yes, they’re refusing to comply.
And we’ll see what happens with that. But as a country and as a society, if we move more and more toward one side that does not have to live by the same rules that they seek to apply to others, we will end up with anarchy.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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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.
Photo “U.S. Capitol” by GPA Photo Archive.
