Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed John Harris, the founder and CEO of Tennessee Firearms association to the newsmaker line to comment on the Tennessee General Assembly’s lack of awareness of the Second Amendment.
Leahy: We are joined on the newsmaker line right now by our friend of many years, John Harris. John is the founder and CEO of the Tennessee Firearms Association. This is a group that defends the Second Amendment here in Tennessee and has done so for 28 years. Good morning, John. Thanks for joining us.
Harris: Good morning. Thank you.
Leahy: John, what’s going on with the Tennessee General Assembly? Are you happy, or are you displeased?
Harris: I will say I am not surprised by the cavernous lack of constitutional stewardship shown by our Senate this week.
Leahy: That’s quite a phrase. You call it the cavernous lack of constitutional awarenesses. Did I get that?
Harris: Stewardship.
Leahy: Cavernous lack. That’s pretty good. That’s a great phrase.
Harris: It’s unfortunate. It really is.
Leahy: Tell me about it. What do you mean by that, John?
Harris: We have, discussed and pushed through TFA now for two decades or better, the concept of Tennessee’s lack of true constitutional carry. And a fact that clearly dates back in our statutes to at least 1801. And the Tennessee legislature, particularly under the control of the Republicans for the last 13 years, and the Republican leadership, particularly in the Senate, have used every opportunity they had to block and stonewall efforts to try to move Tennessee towards true constitutional carry, which is simply an environment that says if you can legally possess a firearm, it just simply isn’t a crime for you to carry it in public.
Leahy: Wherever you want in public.
Harris: Right. It’s what most of us think of it as the free exercise of a constitutional right, and we don’t have it. We’ve never had it in Tennessee with respect to the Second Amendment.
Leahy: I’m just surprised that you constantly think that here in the United States, we’ve got to have our constitutional rights. (Chuckles)
Harris: I feel like I’m talking to the leadership in China sometimes as opposed to elected officials in a constitutional republic because they really don’t care what the governing document that restricts their authority as elected officials says.
They do what they want to do and they listen to both Governor Haslam’s and Governor Lee’s administrations, which clearly have demonstrated in the hearings this week as one of the stories on The Tennessee Star this week, showed quite clearly that they don’t care what the Constitution says, nor do they really even understand what the Constitution says in terms of the existence of this right, and what the right means, despite the fact that there are now within the last 15 years, three U.S. Supreme Court decisions have laid it out quite clearly what this concept stands for.
Leahy: John, do you think that you and I ought to give them, copies of the book that you helped co-author with me, The Guide To The Constitution and the Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students? I think our kids that go to the Constitution Bee probably know the Constitution better than some of our leaders in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Harris: That would be a marvelous idea. It’s sad that it would be necessary, but in this particular context, we’re talking about a provision of the Constitution that is literally one sentence, and the operative phrase is less than 10 words. They can’t get it.
Leahy: Shall not be infringed.
Harris: Yes.
Leahy: Shall not be infringed. Actually, that is four words, shall not be infringed.
Harris: No doubt about it. It’s clearly a disposition and Governor Lee’s leading the charge, but he’s got a lot of support, particularly in the Senate with Randy McNally and Jack Johnson and Todd Gardenhire, that they don’t want this particular constitutional right to be recognized or understood in Tennessee.
Leahy: Is that bill dead in the water now?
Harris: Here’s what happened. The bill came through the house last Wednesday and came out of the House Civil Justice Committee in a format that we were substantially happy with. There had been an amendment put on it that we did not like because it created a conflict among four different statutes.
But otherwise, it would’ve done two, or three things of necessity. It would’ve eliminated a sentence in the Tennessee statutes that says it’s a crime to carry a firearm with the intent to go armed. That gets us substantially to the base concept of constitutional carry.
The next thing it did was it would have provided that the handgun-only restrictions under Tennessee law for permits and permitless carries would be repealed. All of those references to handguns would be substituted with references to the phrase firearms, which again, in the constitutional context, are not limited to firearms, but they certainly aren’t limited to handguns.
So it would’ve been a move in the right direction to, say, firearms. Then the third thing it would’ve done is it would have changed the permitting age and the carry in general, from 21 down to 18. And that’s not really a change because the state has executed an agreement to be submitted in federal court in East Tennessee that already says that.
For example, Senator Johnson’s bill from 2021 to impose that restriction on its face violates the Second Amendment, 14th amendment and constitutes a federal civil rights violation.
Reducing it to 18 statutorily cleans up the code, but it’s something the state has already agreed to it’s new Attorney General is completely unconstitutional and can’t be enforced anyhow. And so that’s what came through the House and is headed to the House floor, and Speaker Sexton signed onto that last week as a sponsor. So we feel comfortable that it’s at least going to pass in the House.
Then yesterday in Senate judiciary, we’ve got a committee of people appointed by Randy McNally to serve on that committee. Two of the nine are Democrats from Memphis, at least seven Republicans, and you’ve got to have five affirmative votes to get a bill out of that committee.
Senator John Stevens has done a good job presenting this bill and advocating that we now have a responsibility in the legislature to follow the Supreme Court’s Bruen laws carrying the bill. That was the companion version of what came through the house last week.
And we had been told that of the seven Republicans, only three, including Stevens himself, who serves on the committee, Senator Kerry Roberts and Senator Don White were willing to vote for the bill. And that left Todd Gardenhire, the chairman, John Lundberg, Paul Rose, and Trent Taylor.
Four Republicans that would support that bill were listening predominantly to representatives from TBI in the Department of Safety who were sent over there, according to Elizabeth Stroker’s own words, Governor Bill Lee, to oppose the legislation.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed State Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) in the studio to describe the Senate majority duties, relationships, and upcoming agenda in the Tennessee Senate.
Leahy: In the studio, our very good friend Tennessee State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, who represents most of Williamson County. Doesn’t have a challenger, so he’ll be re-elected five days from today on November 8.
Jack, tell us a little bit about the job of a state senator as a majority leader. What do you do? What’s your relationship with the President of the Senate, Randy McNally, who is also a lieutenant governor, the way it works here, and how do you relate to your other Republican colleagues?
There are 27 Republicans and 6 Democrats. How do you relate to the Democrats? What’s the job of being a majority leader in the state Senate?
Johnson: Sure. You hit the nail on the head. First of all, our leadership structure, the Speaker of the Senate, who is our lieutenant governor, Randy McNally, who is a great friend and a wonderful mentor to me and others in the Senate, he’s our longest-serving member.
He’s forgotten more about state government than most of us will ever know, I’ll say that. So we’re very lucky and fortunate to have him where he is.
And then you have the majority leader or the Republican leader, and that’s because the Republican Party is the majority party. That makes me the majority leader. Jeff Yarborough from right here in Nashville is the Democratic leader, and he’s the minority leader.
So my job is to work with my colleagues and focus more on the policy side of things. We have our caucus chairman who’s also in leadership, Ken Yager. He’s kind of more focused on the political side of things, working with our members, and so forth.
I focus a lot on policy, be it the governor’s agenda. And when Governor Lee has a legislative initiative, I’m the Senate sponsor of that legislation, and I work with my colleagues to try to get that advanced. It’s also my job to tell the governor when I don’t think we’re going to be amenable to something that he proposes.
Leahy: So the perception is that when there’s an agenda for the governor, his team and he developed an agenda item, a series of bills they want to introduce, but he doesn’t just go out and introduce them. He talks to you. He talks to Lieutenant Governor McNally. He talks to Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton.
Johnson: Absolutely.
Leahy: And basically he says, will this thing fly?
Johnson: Exactly.
Leahy: Are there times when you say, love you, Governor, but this thing, I don’t think it’s going to fly?
Johnson: Well, obviously, the governor is a great friend, and we’re both – I would consider us both very conservative Republicans, and so we agree most of the time, but certainly there are times that we don’t agree, or maybe I agree with him.
But I go back and talk to my colleagues, and we use the term “I feel a cool breeze blowing” on a particular idea. So it’s equally my job to go back to the governor and say, hey, what you’re proposing, Governor, I don’t think we can get across the finish line.
Or, maybe suggest changes or say, I think if we approach it from this angle, I think we can get there. But obviously when it comes to things he’s proposed, like the Heartbeat Bill and tax cuts and things like that, most of the things the Governor’s proposed find broad support.
But yes, it’s a two-way street. It’s to be supportive of his agenda when I can be and my colleagues can be, but also to work with him when maybe we’re not on the same page.
Leahy: Now, the other part about this that’s sort of interesting is, back to the constitution of the state of Tennessee. Just structurally, the Tennessee General Assembly, that is, the Tennessee State Senate and the Tennessee House, have a lot of power in the state. And to me, as I read it, it’s because you can override a veto of the Governor with just a majority vote in both Houses. Is that right?
Johnson: That is correct. That is correct. Unlike the federal government where it takes a two-thirds vote of both chambers to override a presidential veto. So it very rarely happens because very rarely in our history has either party had a two-thirds majority in both chambers.
But you’re right, and I’ll give you an example. We had legislation back during the Bredesen administration relative to the ability of a carry permit holder for carrying a weapon, to be able to take that into a restaurant that served alcohol.
And that was illegal and we said it shouldn’t be illegal. Now, it’s illegal to consume alcohol while you’re carrying a weapon, but if you want to go and have iced tea and some chicken fingers and the restaurant doesn’t care, you should be able to take your weapon in.
Governor Bredesen vetoed that legislation and then we overrode his veto. It doesn’t happen a lot, but I will say Governor Lee in his entire first term did not veto a single bill passed by the general assembly.
Leahy: But it’s a power.
Johnson: Exactly.
Leahy: And in the state of Tennessee, if the leadership of the state Senate is aligned with the leadership of the Tennessee House, that is a very powerful combination. And what I’ve seen is extraordinary cooperation between Lieutenant Governor McNally, the president of the state senate, and Speaker Cam Sexton.
Johnson: Yes.
Leahy: It seems to me that ideologically the Senate and the House are very closely aligned in ways that perhaps previously in Tennessee state history didn’t happen.
Johnson: Absolutely. And it’s not lost on me or my colleagues. We are in this incredible situation right now as a state, and with that, I think, comes tremendous responsibility because we have these supermajorities.
We are very closely aligned. We have some really incredible men and women serving in both the House and the Senate. And that’s one reason our state is in the incredible condition that it’s in right now is that we’ve been able to work together now, I would say, and it’s not going to happen.
But can you imagine being a Democrat governor with these supermajority Republican legislatures, both the Senate and the House, with everything that you said, our ability to override vetoes with a simple majority.
Leahy: Let me just say, let me paraphrase something that Barack Obama said. On the other hand, in that circumstance, if there were a Democrat governor, the Tennessee General Assembly would say something like this governor, we have a veto pen and we’re not afraid to use it. (Laughter)
Johnson: That’s right. We have a phone and a pen and we’re not afraid to use either one.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Jack Johnson” by Senator Jack Johnson. Background Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Andre Porter. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson to the newsmakers line to clarify and outline how a new bill set to pass would set guardrails on critical race theory being taught in public schools.
Leahy: We have State Senator Jack Johnson on the newsmaker line. Welcome and good morning Jack Johnson.
Johnson: Good morning, Michael and Crom. It’s great to be back with you guys.
Leahy: Well, State Senator Johnson, I sent you a text last night late. It was passed by bedtime, but it was important. I said, well, the Tennessee House has passed the bill banning critical race theory from K-12 public schools and it looks like a pretty good bill. It addresses the 11 specific tenants of critical race theory. It didn’t specifically say critical race theory.
Then I got a text from a grassroots group saying, oh, no, the state Senate didn’t pass it. There’s trouble in paradise. (Johnson laughs) To which I said, Jack, what’s up? And then you provided an explanation and share that with our audience, if you would, please.
Johnson: Sure. And thank you for the opportunity to do it, because I realized whenever we cast that procedural vote that it might be perceived last night that we were voting against the ban on teaching critical race theory in public schools. And that’s not the case at all. Because of our legislative process, we’re using a vehicle.
We’re using a bill that deals with another subject matter. But the caption of the bill, which is the way we work in Tennessee, the caption will hold the necessary language that we want to pass to ban the teaching of critical race theory. The Senate had already passed that bill, which, by the way, is sponsored by my friend Mike Bell, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee and serves on the Education Committee.
And he’s very passionate about this issue. And he’s kind of taken the lead along with Brian Kelsey, who’s chairman of the Education Committee. And so the House put a mandatory language on the bill that we had already passed. When a bill has passed differently in each Chamber, then it has to go back to the other Chamber for that Chamber to either concur or non-concur with the action of the other Chamber.
When that bill came over, we had some language worked out with the House. But the stakeholders decided they wanted to make it even stronger. They want to make the language to ban critical race theory or the teaching of those tenants, as you say, even stronger longer than was originally drafted. And the only way procedurally to do that is to go to a conference committee.
Now that language has been worked out, you will see it. It will be made public later today because we’ll have that conference committee today. It’s going to add a couple of elements to what was passed by the House. And again, we are working collaboratively with the House on this. There is almost universal agreement among the Republican supermajorities that we want to get this passed in the best manner possible.
So we’ll have a conference committee today. The conference committee report will be taken out by each Chamber. It will pass overwhelmingly. We’re going to send it to the governor, and he will sign it.
Leahy: The conference committee makes the strengthening additions to the bill today. Does it go before the House for a vote in the Senate today or tomorrow?
Johnson: Today. That is correct. Let’s say that the House and again, it’s not the case with this bill, but it’s just procedurally, the only way we can get to where we want to go. But if you have a bill and the House and Senate have different versions and each Chamber is resolute in their version of the bill and the other side will not concur to the changes of the other Chamber, then you end up going to a conference committee.
And that’s where you sit down and negotiate and work it out. And if you can come to an agreement, that committee adopts a conference committee report and it’s signed off on by the members of the conference committee and then the bill is brought back to each Chamber, and you adopt that conference committee report just as if it was a brand new bill. And that’s what we’re going to do today. So we can get the strongest language possible past relative to critical race theory.
Leahy: So we’re talking with State Senator Jack Johnson, the majority leader in the state Senate. So it sounds to me, Jack, like our headline tonight at midnight, when we publish each day’s news stories at The Tennessee Star will be something like Tennessee General Assembly Passes Strongest Anti-Critical Race Theory Bill in America.
Johnson: That’s what I expect to be the case, and that’s what we want to do. Tennessee is a leader. We want to be a leader on this particular issue. But let me say something else, Michael, if I could as well. And I’ve had as you might imagine, dozens, if not hundreds of great conversations with constituents, moms, and dads whose children have been exposed to some of this material in Williamson County.
Public education is a partnership between the state and the local level we created. Many many years ago we created school districts, political subdivisions that act as school districts with local school boards for a reason. And that’s because teaching kids in inner-city Memphis is going to be different than Hancock County. And so you need local authority.
It’s still incredibly important, no matter what language we passed today and send to the governor to become law, that people are still engaged with their local school boards. And that is certainly happening in Williamson County and it’s happening all over the state. So this battle to stop this does not stop or end when we pass this legislation.
Because if there is a school system out there somewhere in Tennessee that is intent on teaching this propaganda to our kids, they’ll find a way to do it. So we’re going to set these guardrails and these parameters. And I think when you see the language we pass today, it’s very thorough, but it’s still critically important that people be engaged with their local school boards.
Carmichael: Senator, I’ve got a question for you. In the bigger cities, the teachers’ unions have such immense power, and the teachers’ unions essentially control the school boards. What can the state do about that? Because I understand what you’re saying. And it’s a nice idea that the local school board actually cares about the students.
It’s a nice idea. But in the bigger cities, the school board cares more about the union and the bureaucracy. And the result is that the education and many of our government-run schools, especially for Black and Hispanic children is just inadequate. It’s just terrible. What can be done about that where you just have these special interests that spend enormous amounts of money to get their people on the school board and control those giant budgets for their own interests?
Johnson: No, you’re exactly right, Crom. The teachers’ unions do have enormous power, especially in the larger cities. And they have significant influence over the election of school board members. We’ve made progress at the state level, but there’s more to do. Michael will remember, you may as well Crom, several years ago when I carried the legislation to end collective bargaining.
At one time, you think it’s bad now, at one time, school districts were required under state law to engage in collective bargaining with the local teachers union to pass raises, salaries, all kinds of things, working conditions, and so forth. And we did finally get that legislation passed to revert. It was the only instance in Tennessee where there was state-mandated collective bargaining with the union. So we did away with that, which was a significant step. But there is more to do.
Carmichael: Does the state have the authority to just do away with teachers’ unions in the state of Tennessee?
Johnson: No. It’s an interesting legal question. If people want to be part of an organization, then they can under state law. You hit the nail on the head, though, Crom. The problem comes in when they get so engaged and virtually are Kingmakers, if you will, relative to the local school board and the people who serve on the school board. So if the union doesn’t sign off or endorse you, in some instances, you can’t get elected.
So defacto they do have control over the body. What the state can do, and we know that we have serious issues in, particularly in Memphis and Nashville, relative to public education the governor and our Education Department is focused like a laser on those particular districts. We fund roughly two-thirds of their budget, so we have significant influence over them. But statutorily you do have a school board that has control over local decisions.
Leahy: Jack, later today, after the state Senate and the state House pass this strengthened anti-critical race theory bill, do you have any indication from the governor’s office as to his attitude about signing this particular bill?
Johnson: So I’ve not asked him specifically, but I know that the stakeholders, the chair of the Education Committee from both the Senate and the House have been in conversations with him as well. And I never speak for the governor or commit for him, but I feel quite confident that he will receive this legislation favorably and sign it. I’d be surprised if he didn’t.
Leahy: Well, sometimes there’s bad news we talk about politically. This sounds like it’s very good news.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Gary Humble of Tennessee Stands in studio to talk about what it’s like at the Tennessee State capitol as a grassroots activist and intermingling with members of the House and Senate.
Leahy: We are joined in studio by our good friend Gary Humble, the group Tennessee Stands a grassroots organization. He is a thorn in the side (Humble chuckles) of the Republican establishment and all of the Democrat folks up on Capitol Hill. Gary, good morning.
Humble: Good morning to you. I’ll take that intro all day long.
Leahy: Well, Tennessee General Assembly winding down another three or four weeks, right?
Humble: Yeah, I would say three or four at the most. They’re working pretty hard. Everything is pretty much on final calendar now. Some sub-committees in the House are closed, so they’re working pretty hard at getting to the place where they can adjourn.
Leahy: Now, have they lifted all of the Coronavirus regulations? Are regular people able to go into the capital now?
Humble: Yeah, they are pretty much, but it’s just like everywhere else. It’s sort of the fine line between there’s a rule, but we’re not really sure if there’s a rule. And once you get past a certain point to the elevators, we’re not really going to enforce the rule. And then as you walk around, there’s a few of our truly, I would say conservative, freedom-loving legislators that you’ll never see with a mask or anything like that on. And it’s literally like walking into the grocery store and sort of seeing who it.
Leahy: Some are, some are not.
Humble: Same environment.
Leahy: But is there a rule now? Do you have to wear masks there?
Humble: The rule is, well, again, like everywhere else, the rule is to wear a mask, but it’s rarely enforced.
Leahy: Okay. Well, so now you go up there, in essence, acting as a grassroots lobbyist, right? For various bills.
Humble: Functionally sort of.
Leahy: Functionally. You’re not registered?
Humble: I have not registered as a lobbyist, though I could. But I choose not to participate.
Leahy: You are an advocate.
Humble: I’m an advocate. I’m a citizen of Tennessee. That’s a better word to describe it.
Leahy: You are an advocate of the issues. So we hear this mantra at all, get involved. Get involved. Get involved? Well, your group is getting involved. When you go to Capitol Hill is it just you or is it you and a couple of other folks from Tennessee Stands? How does that happen?
Humble: It’s usually me and a couple of folks. We have someone that comes up from Knoxville pretty regularly. And then a couple of volunteers that actually have been lobbying some of these, especially medical freedom issues that we’ve been addressing right now for the last couple of years. So we do have some volunteers up there that are lobbying at least every Tuesday and Wednesday, which is how much the meet of the week.
Leahy: So set the stage for me. You enter the security. Do you show your ID when you get in?
Humble: No, I don’t have to show it.
Leahy: As you enter, do you have your mask on?
Humble: No. So far, that’s worked.
Leahy: So they don’t give you a hard time.
Humble: Let me tell you, the Capitol Police, there are phenomenal people. In fact, when we had our rally there and we had about 350 folks or so show up, I worked with them the week prior, letting them know that was going to happen. And they’ve bent over backward upping their staffing so that they can process as many people as they could let into the building. They are quite incredible to work with. Good men and women.
Leahy: Now, do the legislators up there recognize you yet? And when you’re walking through the halls, do they see you and then head recover?
Humble: I actually have gotten where the eyes meet.
Leahy: Eyes meet and somebody disappears?
Humble: And there’s the look away.
Leahy: It’s Humble with the Tennessee Stands. I’m getting out of here. Any of that?
Humble: Please, God, let him not recognize that I saw him. (Laughs)
Leahy: Okay, so you got a little that going on. But you’re nice, right?
Humble: Yeah. Absolutely.
Leahy: You are polite. You don’t harangue them or do you?
Humble: I got a good story for you.
Leahy: Storytime. Let’s hear this story.
Humble: Because you can tell there’s a conversation happening about me there and whatever. So I’m having a meeting and I’ll just call him out. He’s a great guy. Chairman Vaughan from Collierville. We were having a meeting about a bill. Fantastic guy. Lovely conversation. And I think it seemed to me he had a set of expectations.
Leahy: Which House is this?
Humble: House of Representatives.
Leahy: 99 members.
Humble: He’s a rep out of Collierville on Memphis area and a great guy. We’re having a conversation. And anyway, we get done. He said, You know what, man? I just got to tell you, this is not what I expected. This is a really great conversation. He said, you know what? You’re a lot smarter than I thought you’d be.
Leahy: Subtext. I expected a crazy loon, and I got a guy who could make an argument and make sense.
Humble: That’s right.
Leahy: Well, but this is sort of a lesson for everybody out there in our listeners. What conservatives and constitutionalists and grassroots activists in our listening audience and around the country have to deal with is despair. And that’s a little bit what the left is trying to do. They’re trying to shock and awe us into submission, and it ain’t going to happen. But any logical person has got to say, I have to have a path out. I have to have somebody who’s going to listen to me. And when you see people saying, well, I’ll give you an example.
The Georgia runoff elections, right? Two Democrats won. They’re awful. They’re left-wingers. But what happened is the Georgia Conservatives were so dispirited and angry at the bad decisions by the governor, the Republican governor, and the Republican Secretary of State they said, yeah, I’m just not gonna play this game. It had a bad consequence in Georgia. And for our conservative populist friends out there, it would have a bad consequence here if you’re not engaged, but you cannot rail at the moon.
Humble: Right.
Leahy: You can’t come in and have them say, oh, there’s that lunatic. Oh, there’s that intelligent person who actually makes an argument. All right. I’ll talk to him or her.
Humble: And there’s sort of a balance there. I believe there’s a line between making an intelligent argument, which certainly you need to make, but also being heard. Unfortunately, what you’ll find and it’s not just the Tennessee General Assembly, it’s in any legislature in any political arena is that a lot of these men and women respond to pressure.
Leahy: Well, they all do. (Humble chuckles) This is why, actually, you see the left, because all of the activists on the left appear to have jobs where they’re paid for by these nonprofits funded by left-wing billionaires. On our side, it’s basically volunteer stuff. So you have to do it in between making a living. So they’re able to be more persistent and to get in the face of state legislators, typically more vociferously than our side in here in Tennessee.
Humble: I had Steve Deace mention something about that one time and he was like you know why it seems like sometimes the left is always added, and they’re always winning it’s because it’s their religion.
Leahy: Not only is it their religion but because of the way the left finances this with the guilty, autocratic, let’s destroy American billionaire class, which is growing, by the way, those guys fund the activities. It’s a profession now. A community activist is a profession on the left, and it’s a well-paying profession. That’s the difference right there.
Humble: We have some activists that are working in Memphis and they are seeing some of the same things. She’s actually been able to scope out who these people are. And she was telling you, no, Gary, what I found is they’re actually paid quite well.
Leahy: They are. That’s the secret about, quote, community activists on the left. It’s a profession. now, if you have no skills, but like to be a loudmouth talker, it’s perfect. (Laughter) If you have no skills but like to be a loudmouth talker and you can communicate the best career path for somebody on the left is to become a community activist.
Humble: No question.
Leahy: Because there’s so much money out there from the left-wing billionaires who hate America.
Humble: No question.
Leahy: That’s very interesting. I want to ask you this. As you go up there and you talk to members of the Tennessee General Assembly, is there a difference between talking to a member of the House of Representatives in which there are 99 members? And it’s generally considered a little bit more raucous because they are all in there for two-year terms. And then the more stayed state Senate, which has only 33 members and they’re in there for four-year terms. What’s the difference in terms of communicating with a state Senator versus a member of the state House?
Humble: Actually, that’s a great question. I don’t know a person that can have experienced much of a difference. I will say on the Senate side, they actually can be a little bit more rushed and busy and moving papers because, in the House, each representative is limited to running 15 bills. The Senate is unlimited. I want to say, Senator Bowling, I can’t remember who I was talking to but they had, like, over 70 bills.
Leahy: Senator Janice Bowling. Friend of this program.
Humble: 70 bills that have just been filed by her in the Senate because there’s no limit there. So, actually, on the Senate side, there is a little bit more movement. A little bit more business going on because with everything they have to get through.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Gary Humble” by Gary Humble.
