Chairman Mary Needs A History Lesson

Mark Rogers

by Mark Rogers, reposted from Quotations from Chairman Mark - Comrade Mal de Mary Mancini is out with a new attack on the Tennessee Republican Party.  Because I know you are busy, I am posting it here.

Friend,

Last week, the Republican National Committee held its annual Summer meeting in Nashville. Republicans say states are the laboratories of democracy, and Tennessee has been on the front lines of Republican policy experimentation.

The results have been an economy that leaves millions of Tennesseans behind. Some lowlights of Republican’s record in Tennessee:

• 10th worst poverty rate in the US with over 1 million Tennesseans living in poverty
• Ranked 38th in the nation by Kids Count for child well being 8th worst median household income in the country.
• Highest percentage of minimum wage jobs of any state in country
• Tennessee dropped in Education Week’s Quality Counts rankings from 21st in 2011 to 36th in 2016.
• Over 365,000 uninsured Tennesseans
• 8 rural hospitals closed since 2010

Tennesseans are realizing the damage Republican policies have done to our state and they are standing up. We need you to join the cause. Make a donation today to support our organizers and volunteers who are already knocking doors to win in 2018.

Thank you!

Mary & the Tennessee Democratic Party

Heavens. I guess we Republicans should be ashamed and just shoot ourselves. Unless we look deeper into Comrade Mary's numbers.

For example:
10th worst poverty rate.
I guess this would be a legitimate criticism of Tennessee Republican governance if Chair Mancini could demonstrate that the poverty rate was substantially lower in the years when Governor Bredesen ran the state. Or perhaps we could look at the poverty rate over the last 100 or more years when the Democratic Party ran the state without much opposition.

Serious, inter-generational poverty in Tennessee, like most Southern Red States, dates to the years before the Civil War when most planters opposed efforts to diversify the regional economy and to maintain the dominance of cotton. Blaming the Republicans who have controlled Tennessee for less than a decade is much like blaming the crew who mishandled the loading of lifeboats for the Titanic hitting the iceberg.

What the Democrats want us to see is that we have more work ahead to undo the damage of decades of corrupt protection for a ruling class that feared economic growth because it would attract new people and new ideas that challenge Democratic rule. Is it any surprise that as Tennessee's population has expanded in the last few decades, the state has become more and more prosperous and Republican?

Want to bet on where Tennessee is in a decade? My guess is that we will move up to the middle of the states and keep improving.

Kids Count Rankings.
Again, what are the trends? And it would be worth looking at the county by county ranking. Democratic policies and political considerations kept rural parts of the state poorer than necessary to preserve their political control and to reward local leaders. In parts of Tennessee, Democratic economic development policy consisted of adding a fancy road {also benefiting connected road builders}. Actually recruiting businesses that would bring in jobs that required educating workers would threaten the status quo.

Also, national Democratic Party policy didn't help. The Great Society increased poverty by ignoring education and training and investments in jobs. The problems faced by Memphis, for example, cannot be blamed on Tennessee or national Republicans. If you take the counties with the heaviest Democratic voting out of the Kids Count numbers, how does Tennessee fair?

Now, having said that, it is the responsibility of the Republican Party in the state to work with Memphis and Shelby County and all the other areas with the greatest problems to do everything possible to help them to build greater prosperity. We must do better than the Democrats.

Highest percentage of minimum wage jobs.
Better than no jobs right? And we have been a low wage state for decades under Democrats because they didn't improve Education or recruit better jobs.

What Chairman Mary doesn't say is how many good new jobs are being created by existing employers or brought to the state because of our business climate under Republicans. What about all the new investment Mary? What about the great industries moving here?

I guess Mary doesn't want us to look at all the facts because they are inconvenient truths for Democrats.

Education Week’s Quality Counts rankings. Mary provides no specifics. Why did we fall? Perhaps other states rose? Why matters. Well, maybe not to Democrats like Chairman Mary.
Plenty of other organizations have heaped praise on Tennessee's Education rankings. Where is Mary's reporting of those results?

Over 365,000 uninsured Tennesseans.
Governor McWherter could have solved that in the early 90s with a more thought out plan than TennCare and the willingness to impose a state income tax to fund it. No Governor has has McWherter's power. That he refused to use it to really solve the problem is not a Republican crime.
I supported InsureTN. I still like some form of state support for poor families in health care. But again, you cannot simply blame Republicans without looking at the history of health care in the state. Governor Haslam was right about this.

8 rural hospitals closed since 2010.
Again, Chair Mary provides a data point without context. Would Medicaid expansion have saved these hospitals? Why did each close? Fact matter.

Clearly Chair Mary needs to study some history before she tries to blame 100+ years of failures on less than 10 years of Republican governance.

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High-powered campaign now underway for Mayor Megan Barry's transit referendum

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Megan Barry is of course an idot.

A Facebook Post from Bill Bernstein:

One could add that the Sharron Statement which was the founding statement of principles of the Young Americans for Freedom did not purport to represent Sharron Connecticut. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy did not purport to represent Chicago. There are no doubt many other examples.  To see the Washington Post article, follow this link.

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On removing the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the Capitol

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Yesterday, the state Capitol Commission voted 7 to 5 against removing the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol (link). I think the bust of  Forrest probably should be removed from the State Capitol and moved to the State museum but I can't work up a lot of passion around the issue.  I feel those bust in the capitol should be reserved for people worthy of being revered and honored.  Forrest' early leadership roll in the KKK, his roll as a slave trader and his roll in the Battle of Fort Pillow probably make him unworthy of being honored.  Governor Haslam, Senator Lamar Alexander and various other political leaders have called for removing the bust. I can go along with those calling for the removal but it is with reservation.  I am glad there is a process in place that tempers opinions of the moment.


Despite coming down on the side of removing this bust, I think we should be concerned about the growing iconoclastic frenzy of tearing down of statues and monuments.  President Andrew Jackson owned slaves and he is responsible for the removal the Cherokee to Oklahoma.  By the time of their removal in 1838, the Cherokee had adopted the ways of white settlers. The Cherokee were not a threat to anyone. They were farmers, they became Christians, developed an alphabet, and printed a newspaper. The Trail of Tears has been roundly criticized as immoral and inhuman.  Yet, I do not want to remove the statue of Andrew Jackson from the grounds of the Sate capitol.

Andrew Jackson

If we start removing the statues and monuments to  every former slave owner and everyone who does not conform to contemporary values, then President Trump is right when he ask if the Washington monument and Jefferson Memorial are not next. The path of tearing down statures to historical figures is a slippery slope. If we are going to undo any honor bestowed on historical figures who were imperfect, then we have a lot of tearing down to do. If the standard is that only those who conform to our current standard of values are worthy of being honored then a lot of monuments must topple and every town or county or street named Columbus or Washington or Jefferson needs a name change.

Sam Davis, Confederate hero

While I am OK with removing the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the place of honor in the Capitol, I generally oppose the trend of tearing down historical statues across the country.  Some of the statues honoring Confederate generals however, were erected in late 1950's and early 60's as a show of contempt for federal intervention to force the South to desegregate and end Jim Crow.  This is the same time period in which several Southern states incorporated the Confederate battle flag into their state flags in a defiant stand against integration.  Some of the statues erected during that period probably should come down. 

In determining which statues should come down, I think their artistic merit, when they were erected, and who they honor should be considerations. In my view, some, but very, very few, and only after a slow deliberative process should any statures be removed.

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Will You Affirm or Deny the Nashville Statement?

By David Fowler,  Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) - This week a group of evangelical heavyweights met in Nashville and released a document called the "Nashville Statement." It speaks to the issues of human sexuality rooted in the psalmist's declaration that it is God "who has made us, and not we ourselves." Not just the content but the structure of the statement itself was important. Its structural importance was brought home by Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's response to it.

 ... Mayor Barry tweeted that the Statement “does not represent the inclusive values of the city (and) people of Nashville.” 

Perhaps it does not. But that Mayor Barry responded is significant. The Statement was theological in nature, not political, so by responding, Mayor Barry, consciously or unconsciously, recognized that the theological always has implications for the political. 

 And so, with its inclusion of denials, the Nashville Statement left Mayor Barry with no room to accept its affirmations and still politically embrace homosexual marriage and sexual self-identification. Read more

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Bellevue Republican Breakfast Club special guest Joni Bryan, Founder The 917 Society

Joni Bryan

What: The Bellevue Republican Breakfast Club hosted by Betty Hood.
Who:  Special Guest Joni Bryan, Founder The 917 Society.
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 2016, 8 a.m
Where:  River Art Studio, 8329 Sawyer Brown Rd


The 917 Society, a 501(c)3 non-profit, exists to empower every 8th grader with the knowledge of their individual freedoms and their very own copy of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution Project's objective is to provide every Tennessee 8th grader with U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions and to complete an exciting educational video narrated by veteran journalist Nick Clooney and an interactive website. The program is free to participants and seeks to fulfill a 2004 federal unfunded mandate that all schools that receive federal funds are to hold a program on the Constitution, on or around Constitution Day. The 917 Society is also opening up the program for private and homeschool students and expects to reach over 100,000 students this year in Tennessee. The 917 Society has plans to expand into all other states offering this free program to celebrate Constitution Day each September 17th. The Constitution is the one thing that binds us all together no matter our differences.

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Mayor Barry's attack against a basic statement of Evangelical Christian belief

A mayor’s backlash against a basic statement of Evangelical Christian belief signals an ominous turn in the culture wars.

By David French, National Review, August 30, 2017- Don’t ever forget that, for some folks, “separation of church and state” is a half-measure. It’s just a pit stop on the road to de-Christianizing America. It’s a temporary means to a much bigger end. Over the weekend, I was honored to sign a document called the Nashville Statement. It’s a basic declaration of Christian orthodoxy on sexuality, sexual orientation, and sexual identity. Its 14 articles can be boiled down to a simple statement: We believe the Bible is the word of God, and the word of God declares that sexual intimacy is reserved for the lifelong union of a man and a woman in marriage. It acknowledges the reality of same-sex attraction as well as the reality of transgender self-conceptions, but denies that God sanctions same-sex sexual activity or a transgendered self-conception that is at odds with biological reality. In other words, it’s basic Christianity.

Sometimes, however, one needs to state the obvious. There are powerful peer and cultural pressures that are pushing Christians to compromise on core principles.

....  Barry’s statement, however, is different. It’s not separation of church and state, it’s a declaration of state against church. (link)

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Mayor Barry says 'Nashville Statement' does not represent city's values

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has created the “Nashville Statement,” stating that marriage is between one man and one woman. ... Barry tweeted Tuesday morning that the “so-called ‘Nashville Statement’ is poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city & people of Nashville.” 

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Below is the text of the Nashville Statement. To see the source material and a complete list of initial signatories, follow this  link.

The Nashville Statement 

“Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…”

 -Psalm 100:3

Preamble
Evangelical Christians at the dawn of the twenty-first century find themselves living in a period of historic transition. As Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian, it has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being. By and large the spirit of our age no longer discerns or delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life. Many deny that God created human beings for his glory, and that his good purposes for us include our personal and physical design as male and female. It is common to think that human identity as male and female is not part of God’s beautiful plan, but is, rather, an expression of an individual’s autonomous preferences. The pathway to full and lasting joy through God’s good design for his creatures is thus replaced by the path of shortsighted alternatives that, sooner or later, ruin human life and dishonor God. This secular spirit of our age presents a great challenge to the Christian church. Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age? Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life? Will she maintain her clear, counter-cultural witness to a world that seems bent on ruin? We are persuaded that faithfulness in our generation means declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it—particularly as male and female. Christian Scripture teaches that there is but one God who alone is Creator and Lord of all. To him alone, every person owes gladhearted thanksgiving, heart-felt praise, and total allegiance. This is the path not only of glorifying God, but of knowing ourselves. To forget our Creator is to forget who we are, for he made us for himself. And we cannot know ourselves truly without truly knowing him who made us. We did not make ourselves. We are not our own. Our true identity, as male and female persons, is given by God. It is not only foolish, but hopeless, to try to make ourselves what God did not create us to be. We believe that God’s design for his creation and his way of salvation serve to bring him the greatest glory and bring us the greatest good. God’s good plan provides us with the greatest freedom. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it in overflowing measure. He is for us and not against us. Therefore, in the hope of serving Christ’s church and witnessing publicly to the good purposes of God for human sexuality revealed in Christian Scripture, we offer the following affirmations and denials.

Article 1
WE AFFIRM that God has designed marriage to be a covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife, and is meant to signify the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church. WE DENY that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship. We also deny that marriage is a mere human contract rather than a covenant made before God.

Article 2 
WE AFFIRM that God’s revealed will for all people is chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage. WE DENY that any affections, desires, or commitments ever justify sexual intercourse before or outside marriage; nor do they justify any form of sexual immorality.

Article 3 
WE AFFIRM that God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female. WE DENY that the divinely ordained differences between male and female render them unequal in dignity or worth.

Article 4 
WE AFFIRM that divinely ordained differences between male and female reflect God’s original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing. WE DENY that such differences are a result of the Fall or are a tragedy to be overcome.

Article 5
WE AFFIRM that the differences between male and female reproductive structures are integral to God’s design for self-conception as male or female. WE DENY that physical anomalies or psychological conditions nullify the God-appointed link between biological sex and self-conception as male or female.

Article 6
WE AFFIRM that those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers. They are acknowledged by our Lord Jesus in his words about “eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb.” With all others they are welcome as faithful followers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known. WE DENY that ambiguities related to a person’s biological sex render one incapable of living a fruitful life in joyful obedience to Christ.

Article 7 
WE AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture. WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption.

Article 8 
WE AFFIRM that people who experience sexual attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Christians, walk in purity of life. WE DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God’s original creation, or that it puts a person outside the hope of the gospel.

Article 9 
WE AFFIRM that sin distorts sexual desires by directing them away from the marriage covenant and toward sexual immorality— a distortion that includes both heterosexual and homosexual immorality. WE DENY that an enduring pattern of desire for sexual immorality justifies sexually immoral behavior.

Article 10
WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness. WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.

Article 11 
WE AFFIRM our duty to speak the truth in love at all times, including when we speak to or about one another as male or female. WE DENY any obligation to speak in such ways that dishonor God’s design of his imagebearers as male and female.

Article 12
WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ gives both merciful pardon and transforming power, and that this pardon and power enable a follower of Jesus to put to death sinful desires and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ is insufficient to forgive all sexual sins and to give power for holiness to every believer who feels drawn into sexual sin.

Article 13 
WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ enables sinners to forsake transgender selfconceptions and by divine forbearance to accept the God-ordained link between one’s biological sex and one’s self-conception as male or female. WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions self-conceptions that are at odds with God’s revealed will.

Article 14 
WE AFFIRM that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners and that through Christ’s death and resurrection forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure. WE DENY that the Lord’s arm is too short to save or that any sinner is beyond his reach.

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On on Friday June 26, 2015, At-large Metro Councilwoman Megan Barry, a Nashville mayoral candidate,
performed the first same sex wedding in Tennessee. 

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Melania Trump’s heels

If I were in an

If I were in an emergency shelter in Houston and First Lady Melania Trumps showed up in a pair of black snakeskin stilettos heels, it would brighten my day and lift my spirits. I love sexy women in stiletto heels. (link to story)

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