Author
Commentary: Just say no to GOP convention
The column below appeared here six months ago when Nashville emerged as a contender for the 2024 Republican National Convention. Music City is now in the final two cities under consideration—Milwaukee being the other—and next week Nashville’s Metro Council will begin to consider approving a contract with the RNC to host it. Approving the document […]
Commentary: State of insanity
Middle Tennessee’s economic vitality is built in good measure on relocation: decisions by employers to move operations here. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s relocation pitch paints a picture of a region “defined by a diverse economy, low costs of living and doing business, a creative culture and a well-educated population.” The state of Tennessee’s […]
Commentary: Original(ist) sin
Shameless hypocrisy has been the Tennessee GOP’s calling card for a good while now, with no shortage of ready examples: a thirst for local control on education, except when choices made locally are deemed culturally or scientifically unacceptable; performative interest in expanding health care to needy Tennesseans, but stubborn rejection of federal dollars that might […]
Commentary: Dumbfounded
For years rational Tennesseans have marveled at the breathtaking festival of puerility that the GOP-dominated state legislature convenes each spring. I’m not talking about things on which they and I might part company ideologically; with big majorities they do get to pursue their agenda. I’m talking about the stuff that moves well past the foothills […]
Commentary: Red Tuesday
Herewith, because you know you haven’t already had enough election 2021 post-mortems, my five-part take on the brutal Tuesday Democrats just suffered through. [1] Not Them. Republicans may not all agree about everything but they do agree about one thing: turnout. Liberal Democrats cultivate indifference to moderates on the ballot, and moderates do likewise with […]
Commentary: Leaders lead.
Enough already. It is time for Nashville to step up and follow New York’s and San Francisco’s lead, and put in place a vaccination/testing mandate for high-contact indoor establishments and large-venue events. That opening paragraph might strike some as delusional: sure, we’re the blue island in a (feels like literally) bloody red sea, but we’re […]
Commentary: The vax of life
Bringing her vaxo-enthusiasm tour of the south to a Nashville distillery last month, Jill Biden told the assembled dozens that the COVID-19 vaccine “offers almost perfect protection,” plus “it’s just absolutely free so why not?” It’s a fair question, Madame First Spousal Unit, if you assume your intended audience of the unvaccinated can rationally evaluate […]
Commentary: Lost in America
Like many political junkies cooling their heels while awaiting herd immunity, I’ve spent a lot of time this spring puzzling over the present state and future trajectory of the post-Trump Republican Party. Will it transition from something that looks like a cult back into something that looks like a party? And maybe take up governing […]
Bare Minimum
I need a research assistant. I’ll pay you $725 a week. Assuming your performance is good the first year I’ll drop your weekly pay to $702. The next year it’ll be $688, and then $678. In year five your pay is $667, and if you hang in with me for a decade, I’ll reward your […]
Red Reckoning
Thanks to recent events, cogitation about the future of the Republican Party is now a growth industry bursting at the seams. How Trumpy will the party remain now that the Trump brand wafts the stench of insurrection? What political price will be paid by the stop-the-steal dead-enders in Congress who even after the mayhem of […]
Column: Go home, Lamar.
Culminating 18 years of distinguished mediocrity in the halls of power, Lamar Alexander took to the Senate floor last week to give what was billed as his (capital F capital S) Farewell Speech. As public address it was comically self-delusional, projecting an inflated sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction that in normal times we might easily […]
The End of Stupid?
President Toddler’s post-election tantrum slash adventure—a third-rate legal team flooding the courts with fourth-rate filings, with a few feeble attempts to intimidate local election officials tossed in for effect—is going nowhere fast. Or it would be going nowhere fast if it was fast, but almost three weeks after the election it’s more accurate to say […]