On this date in both 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published their first profile of Tennessee State Senator Paul Bailey, who has been a member of the Tennessee state legislature since first winning office back in 2014, and he has used that office to go about undertaking the important business of the good people of the Volunteer State to make sure that all of their license plates say “In God We Trust” on them, because we can’t go having automobiles rolling about the state without making sure they somehow acknowledge the existence of the Judeo-Christian deity, right? While he was at it, he also pushed for legislation to slap the same slogan on every school in the state, (which will give kids a sigh of relief that God is watching and they can trust him if their school gets shot up with all the gun control Bailey and Tennessee GOP oppose) and was one of many Tennessee Republicans who voted to make the Bible the state book, which is, y’know… not constitutional.When he hasn’t been on deranged theocratic quests, Bailey also has been very busy sponsoring important bills like SB 1821, which would have made it legal for people in Tennessee to own pet skunks, and went out of his way to express his distaste with NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police violence by buying season tickets on the 50-yard line to Titans games and not showing up (they still have your money, moron).He handles ALL the SERIOUS BUSINESS, YOU GUYS. Just look at some of this voting record:
- March 27th, 2014: Bailey votes for HB 937, a bill to prohibit the Medicaid expansion in Tennessee.
- February 3rd, 2015: Paul Bailey votes for Tennessee’s HB 995, a bill to legalize the concealed carry of firearms in public parks, just in time for Tennessee to host the annual NRA convention.
- February 12th, 2015: Bailey sponsors HB 1023, a bill inspired by the John Birch Society’s paranoia about fluoridated water, and restrict the amount of fluoridation in the drinking water in Tennessee.
- February 22nd, 2016: Paul Bailey votes for HSR 467, to plead with the Attorney General of the state to file a lawsuit over Syrian refugees being allowed to resettle Tennessee.
- April 4th, 2016: Bailey votes for the highly unconstitutional HB 615, a bill created by Tennessee Republicans to try and make the King James Bible the state book.
- April 23rd, 2018: Paul Bailey votes for HB 2381, to create a “monument to the unborn” in the Tennessee State Capitol, which is probably the most presumptuous example of a participation trophy you’ll ever find, giving a statue to anything that’s ever even pulled off gestating in the womb.
Now, we’re going to be frank, here… there are some nutty Republicans throughout the entire Tennessee state legislature, and FRED has covered many, while acknowledging that there’s a level of “above and beyond the pale” that it takes to stand out enough to get our attention in the Volunteer State. Paul Bailey managed to make himself a known quantity to us back in early 2017, when shortly after the Trump administration’s first attempt at enacting a Muslim ban in the United States, thousands of protesters showed up in the state capitol to protest at the offices of Gov. Bill Haslam.And Paul Bailey took to Twitter to claim that the thousands of people were all “paid protesters”. When the local media asked Bailey to back that claim up, he claimed he heard it from a “reliable source” who he could not name because of “security reasons”. Bailey claimed that the real evidence of paid protesters was that they were all shipped to the capitol in buses,but there was just one problem with that theory, as well… the buses he cited were present not to bring in protesters… but legislators. And there was video of them being used as such.Throughout his current term in office, Bailey continued to submit insanely partisan bills, including SB 2896, an attempt at censoring what kinds of books are available in public libraries (Hint: Many Tennessee Republicans have made efforts to ban books with LGBTQ content, or from gay authors, this would be aimed at that) in September of 2021, was trying to get a special session of the Tennessee state legislature called to ban any kind of Covid-19 mandates, be it by way of masks, vaccines, or social distancing. In 2022, he tried passing a law to criminalize camping in tents in non-campgrounds, an attempt to criminalize being homeless.Just like Jesus would want.Paul Bailey was up for re-election in 2022, and won another term in office on account of getting to run unopposed. He thus is not up for re-election until 2026, and is spending the interim fighting to make sure teachers don’t’ have to respect the chosen pronouns of transgender students, and that no transgender athletes participate in girls’ sports in public school.Because of course he’s that dedicated to his bigotry.
One Year Ago, November 13th, 2022: Paul Bailey (TN)… 2022 Update
Two Years Ago, November 13th, 2021: Paul Bailey (TN)… 2021 Update
Three Years Ago, November 13th, 2020: Paul Bailey (TN)… 2020 Update
Four Years Ago, November 13th, 2019: Paul Bailey (TN)… 2019 Update
Five Years Ago, November 13th, 2018: Paul Bailey (TN)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago, November 13th, 2017: Ralph Shortey (OK)… 2017 Update
Seven Years Ago, November 13th, 2016: Ralph Shortey (OK)… 2016 Update
Eight Years Ago, November 13th, 2015: Ralph Shortey (OK)… 2015 Update
Nine Years Ago, November 13th, 2014:Ralph Shortey (OK)… Original Profile