America’s Primaries Show The Apathy Of Our Electorate

The death of the Republic is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. —Robert M. Hutchins

By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy – indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self- satisfaction. —William Osler

Trump derangement syndrome has proven there are many psychotics on the left, but the very same goes for the false friends on the right who truly are more dangerous than our open enemies. These neo-cons on the right actually work to destroy the true conservative candidates running for office. The State of Tennessee is a perfect example.

Tennessee’s primaries were held on August 2^nd, 2018. To say that I am distraught over some of the results would be an understatement. I campaigned for one of the finest men in Knoxville to become our district’s State of Tennessee representative and I saw the lies and moral corruption. Two of the other five candidates for district representative went door to door and told constituents that my candidate had dropped out of the race but was still on the ballot because it was too late to remove his name. They even came to my door and said the same thing, knowing it was false. But this is minor compared to the behind-the-scenes good-ole-boy actions of those who control this state.

Few Register to Vote

In America we have the right and freedom to vote, and when we massively vote as we did in the 2016 election, despite voter fraud and Deep State tactics, we win. But Americans have not been educated on our Constitution and our freedoms for many decades. They don’t understand that the most important election is the primaries.

Investigative research journalist and friend Devvy Kidd has written numerous times on the failure of our electorate to vote in the most important of elections…the primaries. Here are just a few of her many articles on same. Please take the time to read and share them.

Re-electing the Band Aid Brigade, May 18, 2010

Electing New Band Aid Pushers, May 23, 2012

Unfortunately, the Voters Didn’t Completely Drain the Swamp Nov. 8, 2016

Forget ‘we’ll remember in November’ – it’s the primaries, Jan 31 2016

Primary Voters Still Voting for Their Own Destruction, March 7, 2016

Going door to door in various neighborhoods was an enlightening experience. In middle class neighborhoods of over 150 homes, the registered Republican voters were approximately 25 to 30 homes. In Tennessee, you can register as a Republican but still cross over and vote for Democrats and likewise, Democrats can cross over and vote for Republicans and when they do, they usually vote for the moderate or liberal to skew the results and we end up with Republicans like the McCains, Ryans, and McConnells. This is all too common in the Bible belt State of Tennessee.

In more affluent areas, I found even fewer homes were registered to vote. Many people would not even open their doors or they would open them and scream, “No soliciting!”

In lower economic areas, more were registered to vote, and some of them were quite nice, others non-committal. I actually had the opportunity to educate several young people who said they weren’t interested in politics, but their parents were. And they listened and commented! Some really great youngsters are out there if we’ll just talk to them.

Several home owners invited me in to see their homes or to talk politics. (I have a carry permit and was never foolish.)

The terrific candidate I was campaigning for told me that voter registration has always been low. He was our former five-term county sheriff and had campaigned throughout the entire Knox County of 500,000 people as well as surrounding counties many times. Those with money and stature don’t feel they need to vote, they have everything they need and their apathy toward our Republic and our right to vote is indefensible. In my neighborhood of 21 homes, only seven homes are registered to vote, and a few of those homes are Democrats.

TN GOP Governor’s Primary

Pictured are Randy Boyd, Congressman Diane Black, Bill Lee, and TN House Speaker, Beth Harwell, candidates for Tennessee GOP governor.

On Fox’s Stuart Varney Show the day after our primary, they announced the upset in our Tennessee Governor’s race. We had four people running for Republican Governor. Randy Boyd is an establishment insider like our present Governor Bill Haslam, whose family owns Pilot Oil and Flying J and whose money and power runs the state. As a wealthy businessman, Boyd spent millions on this race. He supported Jeb Bush for President in 2016. Boyd said, “Supporting Trump would be anathema to me.” He called on Jeb for support in the TN Governor primary. Boyd is still listed as serving on Obama’s College Promise Campaign board which is working to make state community college scholarships like Haslam’s Tennessee Promise, available to illegal immigrant students.

Neo-con Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell unsurprisingly came in last.

Congresswoman Diane Black, who was endorsed by VP Pence, and favored by President Trump came in third. She is not the full-blooded conservative we wished for, but the best thing about her was the fact that she would not and has never taken orders from our billionaire Governor, Bill Haslam.

Construction executive Bill Lee spent $5 million of his own money to win the Republican primary for Tennessee Governor. I believe he won simply because he is an outsider like President Trump, and claims to be a devout Christian. However, Bill will have a heavy-duty learning curve, and he may be swayed by people who true conservatives distrust.

The Haslams

Governor Haslam brought United Nations Agenda 21 and smart growth into Tennessee when he was Knoxville’s mayor and then as governor. He also crawled in bed with Education Czar Arne Duncan to literally destroy what little was left of academic education in this state. Obama praised Haslam as a “flexible leader.”

In the spring of 2013, FBI and IRS agents executed sealed search and seizure warrants at Pilot Flying J headquarters in Knoxville, TN as part of an investigation into one of the largest family-owned companies in the United States. Billionaire Jimmy Haslam, brother of our Governor, is the CEO. Upper management was charged with fleecing small trucking companies and the Haslams were found innocent, but former Pilot Flying J vice president of sales John “Stick” Freeman said in a recording played for jurors in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga that CEO Jimmy Haslam absolutely knew exactly what they were doing.

Senate Race

Congressman Marsha Blackburn is the Republican nominee for Senate. Former Tennessee Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen is the Democrat nominee. The seat is being vacated by Senator Bob Corker, who only supported Trump when he thought the President could advance his ambitions. Initially Governor Bill Haslam thought of running for the seat, but then he decided the five-year trial and guilty verdict of his family’s business, Pilot Oil Flying J may put a damper on his candidacy.

We definitely do not want Phil Bredesen in the Senate, he would take orders from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, whereas Marsha Blackburn has been a strong Trump supporter.

Congressional Race

John (Jimmy) Duncan has been our Congressman since 1988 when he was elected to succeed his father in Congress. Jimmy is a lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard and his district is based in Knoxville. When he decided to retire, he endorsed businessman Jimmy Matlock over Knox County Mayor, Mayor Burchett. Our hopes were pinned on Matlock winning because we knew after eight years of Burchett exactly what he stood for and his ties to Governor Haslam. Burchett served as our state representative and then our state senator.

Burchett is so close with liberal democrats that Hillary Clinton mega donor liberal former Democrat Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen who is now running for Corker’s senate seat, performed his first marriage. Burchett is in no way like President Trump, nor did he support him.

We have heard Burchett say that he is for a Constitutional Convention. He also allowed United Nations Agenda 21 and Smart Growth to proceed in Knoxville when he could have put a stop to it. He is tied to the Haslam power brokers.

He worked with liberal democrats to support raising our taxes on three occasions, and there are allegedly multiple ongoing state and federal investigations ranging from bribery, tax evasion, nepotism, backroom deals, and abuse of power against him.

Burchett gave his step son a government job over many qualified veterans who had applied. The step-son has a jaded arrest record in several counties in East TN that had been expunged in at least one county; he was not qualified for the position. One veteran researched the facts and wrote about it.

In the state legislature, Burchett was the deciding vote for the democrats to maintain control of state senate. He opposed creating an ethics commission to oversee campaign finances and was then found guilty and fined for hiding campaign money after the commission was created.

Word is that Burchett also hid thousands of dollars in payments and investments from the state ethics commission while sponsoring legislation dealing with those companies’ markets. Burchett increased the Knox County budget by 22% and our debt by $43 million. He also hired a NeverTrumper as his advisor and chief of staff, pro-Palestinian Dean Rice who divorced his wife and left his twins to marry a Palestinian woman.

Yet the people of Knox County voted for him as our Republican nominee for congress for the second congressional district instead of Jimmy Matlock who would have helped President Trump.

State Representative Race

As I mentioned above, the candidate who should have won, and would have won had the power brokers not interfered, was the true conservative who knows exactly what is going on in our country. He is pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro academic education, is against new taxes, has 33 years in law enforcement as a police officer and our County Sheriff and was President Trump’s East TN chairman. He definitely would put our community interests above special interests.

In my district there were five people running for state representative, Stacey Campfield, Tim Hutchison, Justin Lafferty, Jesse D. Nelson, and Dr. Guy L. Smoak. Republican votes cast in this district were 9,033.

Jesse Nelson, an attorney representing Knoxville strip club dancers who were suing the club owners for pocketing part of their lap dance pay, hardly campaigned at all, albeit his people canvased the district. He received 1,019 votes.

Dr. Guy L. Smoak is a primary care family physician in Knoxville, and received 1,029 votes. I saw no representation, just a few signs. Dr. Smoak is a soft spoken and friendly man, but like Jesse Nelson, he really didn’t belong in the race.

Stacey Campfield was this district’s state representative, and then state senator. Unfortunately statements he made during his last term in office rankled not only democrats, but many of his fellow republicans. His infamous comments and actions gained him not only state but national notoriety with many constituents so that he came in third with 1,929 votes. He joined with Governor Haslam to give two years of community education to college recipients who meet the requirements. Sounds good doesn’t it? But few who have no skin in the game will really appreciate it.

The winner by 2,734 votes was novice outsider and stay at home father who has one child and she’s in school (because his wife earns more) is Justin Lafferty who told me a few years back that he planned on running for office. He won by only 412 votes over the candidate who should have taken the race. I know Justin because he’s a neighbor and I’ve seen him campaign for other neo-con republicans, ones I would never vote for. Justin may have his heart in the right place, but he doesn’t have the knowledge of what faces American citizens today. Several of my friends tried to talk to him, one spending two hours with him about the subjects we know are so important and unfortunately, he doesn’t get it. Like many neo-cons he has his mind made up regarding what he intends to do, not what his constituents want him to do, and not what is good for the community. He won’t listen.

I know that my candidate, retired Sheriff Tim Hutchison has many political enemies as he wouldn’t play the games the good-ole-boys wanted him to play. Saving dollars for the taxpayers rather than having monies go into the pockets of local insiders earned the sheriff a reputation that the players didn’t like. When Trump came to Knoxville, Tim was in charge of local security.

Those good-ole-boys include anyone who is tied to the power brokers in this state mentioned above. I fully believe several people were called on to run for state representative in this district just to garner votes that would have gone to the true conservative and honorable candidate.

The people love Sheriff Hutchison for many reasons, and he would have been re-elected sheriff over and over again had those with money and power not had the state pass term limits on sheriffs in order to remove him. The 1994 referendum was financed by Big Jim Haslam and friends; it was coordinated by Haslam’s political operative Tom Ingram. Their goal: to break up the ruling team of Sheriff Tim Hutchison and his allies on Knox County Commission, many of whom had served 20-30 years. Big Jim is the father of Governor Bill Haslam and Pilot Oil Flying J CEO Jim Haslam.

Conclusion

As both Devvy Kidd and I have said over and over again, not only is voter apathy a huge problem in the land of the free, but registered voters fail to research candidates before they cast their votes. The population of District 89 is 60,915, a portion of whom are not of age to vote, but only 9,033 people voted in this republican primary, and only 2,753 votes were cast for the two democrats.

E-Mail Kelleigh Nelson: Proverbs133@bellsouth.net