Tennessee's Republican politicians are demonstrating the same irresponsible and self-defeating behavior that some Volunteer fans showed Saturday night. With the GOP's plan to use a special session to ban employer-requirements for COVID-19 vaccinations and other health protections, our lawmakers are throwing golf balls at hard-working Tennesseans who depend on good public health and strong commerce.
If the lawmakers' classless, small-minded and destructive effort continues, the result in Nashville and statewide in the coming years will be the same as the embarrassing result at Neyland Stadium. The state will be an all-round loser.
Tennesseans and a number of our employers - like the very strong and health-conscious BlueCross BlueShield - have stepped up to insist on vaccinations and masking. They know we need every tool in the box to control this pandemic and best enjoy the open, strong businesses and the freedom we all love. Earlier this month, the insurer fired 19 of about 900 front-line workers who refused to comply with a company mandate to be vaccinated.
But the GOP mentality that some twisted idea of freedom could and should thwart a proven method of public protection for the public good is why our state continues to lead the country in new COVID-19 cases per capita. (See the two-page list of state COVID-19 statistics that runs in the A section of the Chattanooga Times Free Press every day. Once again on Monday, Tennessee was No. 1.)
It's not a coincidence. We top the list because Tennessee's super-majority Republican politicians continue to signal in every way possible that dismissing COVID recommendations is OK - even expected. Our two-page list illustrates this: All 12 top ratings go to red states.
On Sunday, our GOP leaders said they will take the dismissal further, putting together a late October special session to block a number of COVID-19 mandates, primarily vaccine and school mask mandates. Further, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, told the Times Free Press "there are members who have stated that they may be opposed to the Ford incentive bill" [slated for a separate special session this week] if they can't get their way on COVID-19 issues.
One lawmaker, State Rep. Bruce Griffey, R-Paris, hyper politicized it, calling those who support the right of businesses to require workers to be vaccinated "medical Nazis." The assertion is absurd, outrageous, reckless and wrong. Pandemic tools are anything but agents of genocide.
Talk about throwing golf balls out on the field. This kind of loser mentality doesn't just tempt a one game forfeiture and eventual loss: It ensures bigger future losses as the BlueCrosses of our world sour on a state seen as interfering and uncaring - uncaring both about lives and about keeping businesses and schools open and operating smoothly.
But it isn't just lawmakers who are listening to the vocal right-wing minority that is leading anti-mask protests, disrupting school board meetings and threatening medical professionals.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee should publicly shame anti-mask or anti-vaccine protesters. National studies show enforced school mask mandates (without opt-outs), and clinically proven vaccinations help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Instead, Lee and other Tennessee Republicans are accommodating the extreme factions to maintain the party's dominance. John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, sees it as a political decision.
"The governor is between a rock and a hard place," said Geer. "Even though he understands the science, a lot of people who support him don't, and many of them still think COVID is a myth."
Kent Syler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University, believes legal judgments from federal judges in three separate cases, along with Biden administration efforts to make Tennessee safer, are fanning the flames of Lee's re-election watch.
The judges agreed with parents who argued that Lee's mask opt-out order violates federal law by creating unsafe learning environments for students with disabilities who are more at risk of severe illness. And in Washington, D.C., Tennessee is one of six states under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over whether efforts to restrict school mask requirements constitute a civil rights violation for some students.
"Being attacked by [President] Joe Biden or having your policies overturned by federal judges - who many conservatives view as activists legislating from the bench - probably only helps Gov. Lee with his base," Syler said.
But here's what Lee and other Tennessee Republicans don't seem to grasp, and it's the fault of all of us: They don't know that most Tennesseans - those many who aren't screaming at school board meetings and the vast majority of us who are complying with our employers' vaccine requirements - don't want these ridiculous political golf balls thrown out on Tennessee's field of dreams to wreck our todays and tomorrows.
We have to help these misdirected politicians know that the school board screamers and the handful of job quitters will not give them the votes they need to stay in office.
We have to let them know that with leadership like theirs, it is no wonder that fewer than half of Tennesseans are vaccinated, and that's why Tennessee still has so much COVID.
We have to let them know we will hold them accountable at the ballot box. Because their ballot box, not our health and prosperity, is the only thing about which they seem to care.