Elite Democrats in Tennessee do not like democracy, and this makes them no different from Southern Democrats of old who once blocked civil rights legislation meant to protect the right of blacks to vote.
In their Senate primary, Tennessee Democrats nominated someone who expressed disappointment with former President George W. Bush, has conservative and libertarian leanings, is against gay marriage, and whose campaign’s Facebook page, as the Tennessean notes, advocates a strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution, pro-life policies, and preventing the country from becoming “AN ORWELLIAN SUPER STATE.”
Such a candidate, on paper, would give Tennessee Democrats a better chance of unseating a Republican in the fall in the right-leaning state, one would think. He would appeal to conservative Democrats and libertarians who do not like the globalist policies of both parties.
But the Tennessee Democratic party machine is upset the nominee, Mark Clayton, is not liberal enough and disavowed him on Friday, a day after he won the nomination.
“Mark Clayton is associated with a known hate group in Washington, D.C., and the Tennessee Democratic Party disavows his candidacy, will not do anything to promote or support him in any way, and urges Democrats to write-in a candidate of their choice in November,” the party said in a news release, according to the Tennessean.
At issue is Clayton’s association with the group — Public Advocate of the United States — that the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center designated as an “an ant-gay hate group” for the group’s desire to amend the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage.
Clayton told the Tennessean he’s an unpaid president and does occasional writing for the group and accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of ginning up such controversies just to increase its fundraising coffers.
The Tennessee Democratic party also accused Tennessee Democrats of being so stupid that they just voted for the first name on their primary ballots, knowing Democrats had no chance against Corker in the fall.
“The only time that Clayton has voted in a Democratic primary was when he was voting for himself,” the party said in the release. “Many Democrats in Tennessee knew nothing about any of the candidates in the race, so they voted for the person at the top of the ticket. Unfortunately, none of the other Democratic candidates were able to run the race needed to gain statewide visibility or support.”
Other national liberal groups were furious, and their pressure on Tennessee Democrats likely led to the party’s dismissal of their nominee.
The liberal Daily Kos’s website wrote that Clayton’s nomination was “a debacle.”
“It’s not like Democrats were ever going to have a shot at unseating freshman Sen. Bob Corker, but at least our preferred candidate, actress and activist Park Overall, is a real Democrat,” The Daily Kos wrote. “The guy Dems did nominate seems to be anything but.”
Sean Braisted, a Democratic Party spokesman, told the Tennessean that the party may actually try to take legal measures to remove the candidate his party’s voters nominated.
“The only option we are taking off the table in this situation is supporting Mark Clayton,” he told the Tennessean.
This is yet another example of how liberal and conformist Democrats — even in the South — are becoming.
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