State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-TN) claimed that his party needed to pull out all the stops and fight back against Republicans — to whom he referred alternately as “fascists” and “neo-confederates” — and argued that it wouldn’t matter in the long run what they were willing to do as long as they won.
Pearson was ousted from his position in the Tennessee House when he helped lead his party’s efforts to “occupy” the State House in protest, and then was reinstated days later — after claiming that he’d been forced out by “racists.” During his appearance with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, he discussed the current state of American politics — particularly with regard to redistricting battles and Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) plan to “fight fire with fire.”
Velshi introduced Pearson as someone who had made a name for himself in fighting back, adding, “Brother Jones, welcome back to the show. You are living this. Not only have you done it, but you actually got reelected by your constituents to go back and fight some more. You have set this flavor out there a while ago that people want fighters. And right now voters are screaming out for this. They want people who will say, your morals should be good, but if they’re burning the house down you need to do something.”
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“I mean, that’s exactly right, Brother Ali. You know, the house is on fire, we have to stop pretending like we don’t smell the smoke,” Pearson replied. “It’s time for America to wake up and put our morals above our manners. Now is not the time to engage in trying to play patty-cake with a party that’s been captured by fascists and neo-Confederates.”
“There is no bipartisanship anymore with a party that is intent on maintaining minority rule between tech oligarchs, White supremacists, and Christian nationalists,” Pearson continued, insisting that Republicans were attempting to build a sort of oligarchy. “They want a minority-run government, and they’re willing to do this at any means necessary. We must fight back.”
Pearson went on to claim that what they would not be judged as harshly for what they did to get power as they would be for what they did not do, adding, “You know, I think that we will be judged not by what we do, but by what we don’t do, to future generations.”
“Because if we’re serious about the threat of fascism, that means that there is nothing off the table. If we’re really serious about the threat that we face—” he explained. “That means we use everything at our table to fight back.”
Velshi made no move to push back on Pearson’s claims, instead agreeing with every point: “Because you will not be around to fight back if you don’t fight it now. Right!”
