How's It Going?

 There's this Internet game that shows up most often as a meme: How It Started, followed by How It's Going. 

In the past few weeks, a lot of images have come to mind as I consider how to share my thoughts about the very twisted path on which we seem to find ourselves currently. This space is in a near constant state of flux between outrage and appreciation. The easiest example to use would be that of the two expelled Tennessee Representatives. The Justins. When a Republican supermajority sent them packing for carrying a protest against gun violence into the chambers in Nashville. This kind of behavior was not to be tolerated. It took just a few days of collected outrage to get Representatives Jones and Pearson back on the floor, doing the job for which they were elected. One observer commented, "They blew up Krypton, and they didn't expect to make Superman?" However briefly the powers that be felt they would be taking their power away, the Justins will now be super. Without the capes. 

Another way to look at it would be through the Star Wars lens. That tense scene in the hangar of the Death Star where Obi Won Kenobi and Darth Vader are dueling, Obi Won insists,  “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Then he raises his light saber and Vader takes a big swing, resulting in the disappearance of the old Master's corporeal form, leaving just an empty robe and the hilt of his saber. Now old Ben Kenobi is a Force Ghost and can get around the galaxy without the aid of the Millennium Falcon. He can show up in force-friendly situations whenever he is needed. Like when he tells Luke to run instead of standing around in that hangar waiting for the Stormtroopers' aim to finally correct itself enough to do him in as well. 

The Republicans may have thought that their big swing of expulsion would result in the simple disappearance of the voices of dissent. They made Force Ghosts who will be able to whisper in the ears of the multitude, specifically those students they spoke with before they got kicked out in the first place. Many of whom will be first-time voters in the 2024 election. 

Oops. I wonder if they wish they had just gone ahead and let that protest go without shining a big bright light on it. Now we all know way too much about Tennessee state politics and their gun laws. How's it going, Tennessee Republicans?