Remember the Republican mantra in the run-up to the last election?

“Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.”

Apparently, what they really meant was “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. After we get the gays.”.

Tennessee, hot after passing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has now passed, and Governor Bill Haslam (above), has signed, a bill that strips existing LGBTQ protections, and bans any future laws or ordinances that might be passed by city or county governments.

Nashville had passed an ordinance requiring any company that does business with the city be an equal opportunity employer, including protections for LGBT employees.  The Republican controlled state legislature wasn’t going to stand for any laws protecting the queers, and moved to kill such regulations state-wide.

There are two issues for me in this action.  Well, three, I suppose.

1. This does nothing to improve the business climate in Tennessee.  Claims that it levels the field statewide are nothing more than anti-gay smokescreens, designed to give cover to right-wing lawmakers to invalidate protections for LGBTQ citizens of Tennessee.  Mr. Haslam, where are the jobs?

2. Republicans are big on “small government”.  Get the government out of our lives, is the chant.  “The best government is local, closest to the people.”  Except when local government, like the City of Nashville, does something even a little bit progressive.  “Protect the queers?  We can’t have that!  Pass a state law to prevent local control!”  Mr. Haslam, where are the jobs?

3. They lied.  In the months before the last election, Republicans told voters that they would focus on the economy.  That was their biggest concern.  They said they would work diligently to increase employment and reduce government spending.  So far, all they’ve done is go after abortions and the queers.  Mr. Haslam, where are the jobs?

Mr. Haslam said that private businesses should be free to do as they please.  He, and the Republican controlled state government, want to allow the firing of LGBTQ employees on a whim.  In fact, considering recent actions by the state, it appears they WANT those firings to occur.  Perhaps they’re trying to get to a point in Tennessee where they can be like Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and say that there aren’t any people “like that” in their state.  No protections, no recourse, no consideration.  I wonder what Governor Haslam will say when the first “NO COLOREDS” sign goes back up in a business somewhere in his state?  Is he going to maintain that private businesses can do as they please?

This is the same type of thing that got Rand Paul in such hot water before the election, when he said he wouldn’t have voted for the Civil Rights Protection Act of 1964.  (It should be noted that he was elected anyway. Maybe it’s something in the water in that part of the country.) Private businesses should be free to do as they please, pretty much regardless of what their pleasure might be.

So now the state government in Tennessee has reached down to prevent local control of local issues.  The Republican lawmakers in that state have decided that they, sitting in the Capitol, know better than the city council of Nashville how to run that city.  Small government only means small and off your back as long as you only pass laws the state approves.  For some of a certain age, like me, this reeks of the old Soviet system.  The politburo ran the entire country, even though there were local “governments”, “voted” into office.  Local officials were simply figureheads, with the real control in Moscow.  The Republicans in Tennessee have decided that model is the best way for them to control the state.

The Republic is dying, and it’s the elephant that’s stomping it to death.