Tennessee Republicans hit the panic button after expulsion stunt fails

Tennessee Republicans really tried to make the burgeoning gun reform issue go away by expelling two Black Democrats from the state legislature, as if being on the wrong side of racism was somehow going to save them from being on the wrong side of gun reform.

That stunt predictably failed in spectacular fashion, with one of the expelled legislators already having his seat back, and the other expected to get his seat back this week. And now the entire nation is watching Tennessee Republicans closely, after years of avoiding such scrutiny.

So now Tennessee Republicans are hitting the panic button when it comes to gun reform. Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee is now planning to issue an executive order to provide minor gun reform measures, and he’s also urging the Tennessee legislature to pass other gun reform measures.

Yes, it’s a shame that being politically cornered is the only thing that can motivate Republicans to do even a fraction of the right thing. But that’s the reality we live in. The is a win, and we have to treat it like one. We just don’t have to settle for it. Now that we’ve got Tennessee Republicans on the ropes, we need to keep pushing them. We need to spend the rest of this term forcing them to do more. And then at the end of the term we need to replace as many Tennessee Republicans with Democrats as possible.