Democrats’ Tantrums Get Them Banned From Committees

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Last week, Tennessee Democrats decided to act like spoiled four-year-olds because they didn’t get their way during a session that centered on redistricting.

These morons blocked aisleways by interlocking arms, brought noisemakers and other prohibited props into the House, distributed earplugs to caucus members so they couldn’t hear the proceedings, and one Representative, Justin Jones, actually printed a picture of a Confederate flag and lit it on fire in the hallway of the Capitol.

The bigoted Jones is the same clown who was expelled from the House in 2023 for storming the floor over gun control. This time, when he wasn’t setting fires, he was stomping around repeatedly accusing the Republican supermajority of resembling the Ku Klux Klan, calling them the “white sheet caucus” in the middle of the House floor.

There were other outside protesters as well, and as disruptions spread throughout the building, troopers were called in to make arrests.

Cameron Sexton, Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, has had enough. He sent individual letters to all 24 Democrats, chastising them for their behavior and informing them that:

“You have been removed from all House standing committees and subcommittees.”

In his letter to Democratic leader Karen Camper, Speaker Sexton stated that the removals were:

“due to actions taken” during the session – actions that “aimed at disrupting the democratic and legislative processes and creating disorder on the House Floor.”

The only exception is that House rules require at least two Democrats to serve on both the Government Operations Committee and the Calendar & Rules Committee, allowing Camper to retain her seat on one panel.

Everyone else, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Naturally, Democrats tried to blame the whole thing on race.

Rep. Justin Pearson stated that Sexton had removed all Black elected officials from committees in the state legislature, describing it as a political attack on nearly two million Tennesseans.

The smug Rep. Aftyn Behn joked that losing her assignment on the Agriculture Committee would give her more free time for her summer plans.

Democrats acted like spoiled brats over the new congressional map, a map created after the Supreme Court declared race-based districts unconstitutional, allowing states to redraw their boundaries.

Trump had publicly called on Republican state legislatures to redraw maps ahead of the midterms, and Tennessee did just that.

Now they are discovering what follows in a state with a 75-24 Republican supermajority and a Speaker who is not afraid to utilize it. Different points of view are always welcome, but childish behavior such as banging noisemakers, burning flag images, blocking aisles, and causing general mayhem shows no respect for the democratic process.

Sean Davis of The Federalist put it plainly on X:

“In the state of Tennessee, political terrorism will not be tolerated. National Republicans take note that this is how you exercise power.”

The NAACP has filed lawsuits, and a federal judge has set a May 20 hearing on a temporary restraining order, otherwise the committees are gone until November.

I have frequently stated that it’s time for Republicans to stop talking and start taking action. Speaker Sexton has done just that. Meanwhile, Democrats seem to be under a misguided belief that they can behave however they like, disrupting or destroying anything they want without facing consequences.

Republicans need to burst that bubble, and they need to do it with authority. This was not a peaceful protest. This was an amateurish display of narcissism and anger over not getting their way.

Democratic leadership has become mythical. Some people still want to believe that it exists, but it doesn’t, and the faster those believers stop denying this truth, the faster our society will heal.