Up for Auction
I woke up the morning after the election to a lot of thanking urban communities — and a lot of chastising rural ones. A mostly red Tennessee map, held up as the whole case.
First of all: urban districts did well. Tennessee Democrats flipped six state House seats — Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, Knoxville, and Memphis among them. The voters were not the problem. The voters showed up where there was something built to show up to.
But urban districts also lost Tennessee’s statewide races. Jerri Green came within fifty-four thousand votes of the governor’s mansion — the closest race this state has seen in over a hundred years — and she did it under a state party left unstructured, disorganized, and decaying, while the national party decided Tennessee wasn’t worth the resources.
National Democrats denied voters — voters living under unstructured, disorganized, and decaying state parties — basic access to resources. Not by accident. By neglect, and by design.
And name the resources.
No mail. No radio ads. No billboards. No TV commercials.
Not a single Democratic Party-backed message to its Tennessee constituents.
Scrappy little regional non-profits crowdfunded a few thousand dollars from their go-to donors. Voters, fired up and dissatisfied on both sides of the aisle, also contributed a record number of small donations. A few stereotypical industry lobbyists placed their bets on Marsha. The rest of the state’s campaign infrastructure and investments came in as charitable crumbs from a few national non-profits with deep pockets and sympathetic hearts. They saw how hard we were fighting. This election saw a greater percentage of national money than any election we’ve experienced in decades. And it was still a negligible amount. All because “they” didn’t believe winning was possible.
And Tennessee is not the only receipt. In Louisiana, Jamie Davis lost by fewer than twenty-six thousand votes — because the national Democrats didn’t believe he could win until hours before the polls closed. No national presence. No party leaders stomping for him. They believed late, and late is just another word for no.
I don’t blame the non-voters. Not anymore.
Leave the state parties to rot. Starve the ground game. Show up at photo time.
Snap, crackle. Prop.
Denying a people the tools to win is no different than Republicans denying access to books. Maybe it’s worse.
Republicans make it plain: our communities are up for auction, and the bidding is open. Say what you want about an auctioneer — at least you know exactly where you stand. But the party that claims to be fighting for us? They aren’t pretending. They’re playing. Playing politics — like life and death ain’t life and death anymore. No better than a teenager on a Discord server.
We get proclamations. Certificates. Signing ceremonies. Quit wasting all of this paper on everything but a new law. Everything but real funds. Bringing crumbs to the table and inviting the press — inviting everybody to smile standing beside you — while knowing that we ain’t giving the community shit they deserve.
That’s the corruption in government I want to talk about.
The lying. The pissing on people and calling it God’s glory. The fake names for fake offices, to represent real movements you aren’t even endorsing. Definitely ain’t funding. In whole or in Monopoly money.
And I ain’t even talking about the cost to fund the lies you sold — I mean… the campaign promises.
But, there I go digressing.
That’s why I stopped writing. I get mad about pervasive injustice. And then the so-called People (big fist) get mad I said something.
I’m not supposed to talk about the injustice we can actually fix. Let’s debate Elon Musk having billions invested in Memphis instead.
I guess.
*deep sigh*
How do we have ANY Black communities in America that are doing well, and the Black children down the street don’t have any food? Delayed speech. Can’t read. Struggling to comprehend verbal language. Struggling to express thoughts. Struggling to potty train. And then they turn 5 and the school in the middle of their neighborhood — you guessed it — struggling.
And then cue up the Democrats to walk in and blame the parents — but ain’t passing any laws. Blame the Republicans — but ain’t proposed one. Blame the billionaires — but constantly discounting their perspective and calling them wrong.
A perspective can’t be wrong. It can be unsavory. It can be displeasing to the critical ear or naked eye. But it can’t be wrong.
That’s a distraction from a simple truth of the matter.
Democrats who hold seats in public office, who shape policy platforms at the national level, who convene industry leaders globally — you’ve gotta be more than “on the record.”
You’ve gotta be more than “present and voting.” Do more than shake the table and grandstand. You’ve gotta unclog some pipes. Clear the debris that’s built up in the gutters for years. Prepare us for a storm. Prepare us for a flood. And then you gotta make it rain big faces ’round this mutha.
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Pass some laws in this motha’.
Do a TikTok dance.
Somethin’.
Y’all ain’t got a plan to do… nothing? You been campaigning for this day to come for years. And you need to schedule a meeting to decide what to do next. You ain’t learn after what y’all did to Kamala Harris? After how y’all played games in the race that belonged to Hillary Clinton?
My God.
So, I’ve gotta question. Then I’m going to shut up and go to bed.
Why do we love to act like we’re so satisfied with the Democrats in our party? I don’t mean alluvem are the problem. I mean what I said. Why do we act like we’re satisfied with all of ’em? Like we don’t know for sure that we let some janky ones sneak in during our low voting season? And you know me — I say “we” to be nice. I’ve been working to move ineffective Democrats out of office since 2017.
And that was before I had to work with so many of “us” up close and personal. I’m convinced that some have no clue what a government even does. Let alone how to run one. But let me focus.
I don’t want us to ever have another election that we could have won but lose and blame someone else.
Our sob story we tell ourselves makes us sound so weak. We ain’t weak. We are just dumb af.
There I go using “we” again.
Truth is, we’re family and we’re in this together. (Smile)
So here is the standard, made plain and actionable for the members of our Democratic family:
Until we stop leaving a hundred thousand votes on the table in neighborhoods where ALL of the voters are Democrats —
Until running on the Democratic label means backing Democratic candidates —
Until a GOTV mailer and a robo call from sitting officials is the price of holding the seat —
Until it’s unfashionable for Democratic leaders to stand around Republican spaces and play costly politics —
Until we get serious by winning,
we will keep losing winnable races by twenty-six thousand, by fifty-four thousand — and calling it the voters’ fault.
Memphis knows how to build. Memphis has always known. Our communities were never the auction. We are the builders — and it is time the party acted like it knows the difference.
Repeat after me…
We are the Party.
The Party is the people.
Without the people, the Party does not exist.
Now, let’s stand up for our children — for real.
Sources
Nashville Banner — seat-by-seat, the six Tennessee House seats Democrats flipped: Smyrna (two seats), Murfreesboro, Clarksville, Knoxville and Memphis. https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/11/05/tennessee-democrats-midterm-election-gains/
The Commercial Appeal — Memphis’s own paper on its councilwoman: Jerri Green carried Shelby County even as she fell to Blackburn statewide. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/11/03/jerri-green-wins-shelby-county-elections-loses-tennessee-blackburn/92480035007/
The Daily Memphian — its election report put the loss at about 54,000 votes, the closest Tennessee governor’s race in decades (public post; the full article is for subscribers). https://www.facebook.com/DailyMemphian/posts/pfbid02BaKGgxZJmM9T8XYUF2GdoC4pXGDJeECrjzFf9ko5wCEsYTw9csQ8g82FHi5DXvuTl
Chalkbeat Tennessee — confirms Blackburn’s was the smallest margin of victory for a Tennessee governor in more than a century. https://www.chalkbeat.org/tennessee/2026/11/04/marsha-blackburn-elected-governor-education-policy/
Associated Press — the Louisiana Senate results themselves: Letlow 745,963, Davis 720,106 — a 25,857-vote margin. https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/?ap_doc=ap%2Frg1%2FWyJhcC92Mi8yMDI2MTEwMy9sLzIwMTU3L0xBL3MiLFsiMTcyMjE0IiwiNjk2ODciXV0
WVLT — Knoxville’s CBS affiliate, carrying WSMV’s reporting: “I’m not going anywhere” — what Green’s near-miss means for Tennessee Democrats. https://www.wvlt.tv/2026/11/04/im-not-going-anywhere-jerri-green-falls-marsha-blackburn-tennessee-governors-race-heres-what-it-means-democrats/
