If you are an ideologue, living in Tennessee can be maddening. For all the talk about our fair state being a “red state”, such labels are superficial and do not tell any kind of meaningful story. We do not, nor have we ever run super-hot or super-cold. When it comes to political passions, Tennessee has always been lukewarm. A cursory look at our history bears this out.
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Although not a state at the time, the citizens of what would become Tennessee were divided about the Revolutionary War.
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Tennessee did secede from the union in 1861, but did so tepidly. It was the last border state to do so. It was also the first state to rejoin the union. Because Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, it was the only one of the formerly seceded states that did not have a military governor during the Reconstruction period.
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For all of our bible-thumping conservative misogyny, Tennessee became thirty-sixth and final state necessary to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided women the right to vote.
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The TVA and segregation guaranteed that politics in Tennessee would be dominated by the Democratic party throughout most of the 20th century. Yet, even that must be understood in the context of machine politics, specifically Memphis Boss Ed Crump. The state has had a political division by geography since before the civil war. As one heads west, Republican control cedes to Democratic control (with the exceptions of the donut counties around Memphis and Nashville).
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Starting in 1970, the governorship has ping-ponged back and forth between the two parties: Ellington (1967-71) D,Dunn (1971-75) R,Blanton (1975-79) D,Alexander (1979-87) R,McWherter (1987-95) D, Sundquist (1995-2003) R ,
Bredesen (2003- ) D . -
Our state legislature is split. And, even when Republicans first took control of the state Senate in 2005, they still elected John Wilder (D) speaker.
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Although it could be argued that Tennessee is very conservative religiously, such a statement is relative. Compared to, say, Connecticut? Certainly. Compared to Alabama? I don’t think so. You can point to
StokesScopes (that’ll teach me to write a post before two cups of coffee…) all you want, and you’d be showing your ignorance. The Scopes monkey trial was a publicity stunt – a way to spur economic development. Not to say we don’t have our share of fundamentalists. But, even our fundamentalists are lukewarm.
There are many examples I’m leaving out, but, you get the picture. Check out this page for a really cool timeline of TN political history, starting in the 2nd half of the 20th century.
To understand politics in TN, you need to look at power. The most powerful Republicans are moderates, the most powerful Democrats are moderates. Tom Tancredo and Cynthia McKinney would not cut it here. We have our occasional Campfield and Cohen, but you will never see a mercurial type like that ascend to the top of their party here. They are distractions.
Tennessee is, no matter what the two parties try to claim, a moderate state. I like it that way.
February 29, 2008 at 10:53 am
[...] Slartibartfast explains our very unique politics: If you are an ideologue, living in Tennessee can be maddening. For all the talk about our fair state being a “red state”, such labels are superficial and do not tell any kind of meaningful story. We do not, nor have we ever run super-hot or super-cold. When it comes to political passions, Tennessee has always been lukewarm. A cursory look at our history bears this out. [...]
February 29, 2008 at 11:35 am
If by Stokes you mean Scopes, I’m not sure how promoting anti-science is supposed to spur economic development; usually it works the other way around.
I’m also trying to figure out how you can call Cohen extreme; in national terms, the guy is pretty moderate, not at all representing the left-wing version of a Campfield.
Not that I disagree with your overall point, but I don’t think you’ve chosen the best examples here.
February 29, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I know it’s Wikipedia, but this is relevant:
Publicity
Edward J. Larson, a historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, notes “Like so many archetypal American events, the trial itself began as a publicity stunt.”[16] The press coverage of the “butt” Trial was overwhelming.[17] The front pages of newspapers like the New York Times were dominated by the case for days. More than 200 newspaper reporters from all parts of the country and two from London were in Dayton.[18] Twenty-two telegraphers sent out 165,000 words per day on the trial over thousands of miles of telegraph wires hung for the purpose;[18] more words were transmitted to Britain about the Scopes trial than for any previous American event.[18] Trained chimpanzees performed on the courthouse lawn.[18] Chicago’s WGN radio station broadcast the trial with announcer Quin Ryan via clear channel broadcasts for the first on-the-scene coverage of a criminal trial. Two movie cameramen had their film flown out daily in a small plane from a specially-prepared airstrip. H.L. Mencken’s trial reports were heavily slanted against the prosecution and the jury which was “unanimously hot for Genesis.” He mocked the town’s inhabitants as “yokels” and “morons.” He called Bryan a “buffoon” and his speeches “theologic bilge.” In contrast, he called the defense “eloquent” and “magnificent.” Some creationists have claimed that Mencken’s trial reports turned public opinion against creationism, though few people seem to have actually noticed this at the time.
The media’s portrayal of Darrow’s cross-examination of Bryan, and the play and movie Inherit the Wind, caused millions of Americans to ridicule religious-based opposition to the theory of evolution.[19]
The trial also brought publicity to the town of Dayton, Tennessee, and was hatched as a publicity stunt[17] From The Salem Republican, June 11, 1925:
“The whole matter has assumed the portion of Dayton and her merchants endeavoring to secure a large amount of notoriety and publicity with an open question as whether Scopes is a party to the plot or not.”
February 29, 2008 at 1:05 pm
How’d that work out for them? Got a lot of companies to open up there, did they? Hire their high school graduates? I didn’t say that they weren’t trying to promote the local economy (though the single newspaper report you mention, standing unsupported as it does, has often been challenged); I reiterate that, by painting rural Tennessee as the home of uneducated buffoons, they harmed it.
February 29, 2008 at 1:22 pm
nm, I have a personal copy of “Summer for the Gods” if you’d like to borrow it sometime.
February 29, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Oh, I agree with you. The original point was that most see us (Tennesseans) as Mencken saw us. But, here in TN, religion is not only deeply part of the fabric of life, it’s big business.
So, when we appear to be doing something out of fundamentalist ignorance, perhaps wer’re just trying to make a fast buck.
February 29, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Slarti, I think this is an excellent post and one of the best explanations of Tennessee culture and politics I’ve ever read. As a life-long Tennessean, I’ve often found it difficult to explain our state to others. You’ve done a super job.
February 29, 2008 at 1:58 pm
perhaps we’re just trying to make a fast buck.
But trying unsuccessfully.