Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives have shot down a resolution that would have condemned white nationalists and neo-Nazism. It didn’t even make it out of committee in the Tennessee legislature.
The House State Government Subcommittee rejected House Joint Resolution 583, written by Tennessee Democratic state Rep. John Ray Clemmons, without any explanation on Wednesday. The resolution does not name any particular group and it calls on law enforcement to go after white nationalists and Neo-Nazi groups with the same “fervor” as other forms of terrorism.
“[W]e urge law enforcement to recognize these white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations and to pursue the criminal elements of these domestic terrorist organizations in the same manner and with the same fervor used to protect the United States from other manifestations of terrorism,” the resolution said.
The proposal comes after multiple white nationalist gatherings in Tennessee in recent weeks, including a “White Lives Matter” rally and a gathering of white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to the Tennessean.
“I’m in utter disbelief about what just happened,” Clemmons told the Tennessean. “I didn’t think there was anything controversial about this resolution.
“I would love to try to pass a resolution denouncing white nationalists and neo-Nazis,” Clemmons added. “But if I can’t even get a second in a subcommittee, it evidences this Republican supermajority’s refusal to denounce these hate organizations, for what reason I cannot begin to imagine.”
