When historians look back at this time, they’ll see a nation and its people at a crossroads — will we finally live up to our founding ideals of equality for all, or will we fully succumb to a rigid hierarchy built on ignorance and fear?
With the dominant authoritarian bent of the Republican Party committed to the latter, the only viable vehicle for the former, at the moment, is the Democratic Party. In Tennessee and Hamilton County, local Democrats have been assigned the difficult task of steering our state and our community in a better, more equitable direction.
Accomplishing this feat, given the political reality of the statehouse under GOP supermajority rule, will be an uphill battle. With these dire stakes, there has been much discord within the Democratic Party over how to overcome this steep hurdle and win back power.
As is human nature, perhaps, when faced with such uncertainty, local Democrats in recent years, instead of unifying against this Republican threat, have had a penchant for eating their own. The latest examples are a defamation lawsuit and an official grievance filed against party leadership.
(IN THE NEWS: Tennessee, Hamilton County Democratic parties dealing with internal conflicts)