17April2018
(Springfield, IL) – Not once, but twice, the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives has tried to adopt a – resolution – condemning Neo-Nazis and white nationalists but – has failed.
Even a watered down resolution failed.
Enter Illinois House Deputy Majority Leader Lou Lang (D-Skokie) who has pledged to pass the Tennessee measure in the Illinois House.
“Moral courage should not be watered down and moral courage should not stall in committee on a resolution denouncing Neo-Nazis,” said Lang. “Perhaps the Tennessee House wishes to avoid offending Neo-Nazis and white nationalists, but I, personally, don’t give a damn, and that’s why I plan to pass the Tennessee resolution in the Illinois House – word-for-word.”
Last October, Tennessee State Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-55) filed House Resolution 583, but it failed to advance out of committee for the lack of a seconding motion.
“I’m in utter disbelief at what just happened,” Clemmons said at the time. “I didn’t think there was anything controversial about this resolution.”
This spring, a watered down version of the resolution failed to persuade GOP lawmakers, and the resolution died in committee.
“The pernicious drift of Neo-Nazi normalization in this country and its growing influence on some elected officials imperils the basic liberties upon which all Americans depend,” said Lang. “So, let’s be clear, accommodation of Neo-Nazis and white nationalists is repulsive and denunciation is not a moral ceiling but a floor in order to qualify as decent member of society.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2017 “hate map” found 37 hate groups in Tennessee, including chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Confederate League of the South, and the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations.
Lang’s resolution is H.R. 991.