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Eat Your BBQ and Shut Up!
21 percent of Black Tennessans can’t vote. They were charged with felonies and, as a result, lost that right. The right to vote, by the way, is not one guaranteed in the Constitution. Those good, Black folk and the rest of the residents of Tennessee who can’t vote (9 percent overall) have two things in common: They love BBQ, and if, and when, they get the right to own guns reinstated, then they will be again permitted to vote.
The state’s toughened voting rights restoration policy requires people convicted of a felony to get their gun rights restored before they can become eligible to cast a ballot again, Tennessee’s elections office said Tuesday, confirming a mandate that officials had been debating internally (Felons Must Get Gun Right Back).
This sounds completely insane, even irrational, but then again, who am I — and the 37 percent of Democrats in the state — to complain? Tennessee has supermajorities in the state house and senate. Voting rights groups call the state the most gerrymandered in the nation. Less than 10 percent of the seats in the state are considered competitive because of the extreme gerrymandering that has taken place since 2012 after Tea Party Republicans gained a majority.
