Speaking of migrants...
📦 American Exodus · What WeGot · When life gives you linens · Film rundown · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
We’re in the midst of a massive political realignment that started in 2016, accelerated during Covid, and has yet to settle. It may take years to grapple with and explain with adequate vocabulary, but whether you like it or not, it’s happening.
Mass immigration and internal migration are the biggest side effects of the realignment. The former gets ample attention and the challenges it poses have been made abundantly clear, but it’s the latter that may prove to be more immediately consequential. Blue State Refugees fleeing to Texas and Tennessee is a phenomenon we’ve looked at with some consistency that receives precious little attention in broader media. Today, Jerod reviews a book by Roger Simon on just this.
Onward.
Roger Simon is one of those California transplants to Tennessee we’ve heard so much about. The mystery novelist and former columnist for The Epoch Times spent most of his career as a screenwriter working with legends like Paul Mazursky and Richard Pryor. Like the hordes of coastal urbanites who’ve defected from America’s Blue Walls, he set up shop in Nashville a little over half a decade ago. And, with his new book American Refugees, he wants us lifelong Southerners worried about this influx to know that we’ve got him and other members of this diaspora all wrong.
For those worried about the California values these interlopers will bring, Simon offers a word of caution: those values took root here long ago thanks to a host of establishment politicians under the thumb of corporate interests, national lobbyists, and under the thumb of D.C. ambition. In fact, these newcomers who saw their own states destroyed may well be the calvary. As Simon writes, “For the refugees, this political bait and switch–having been lured to a red state promised land only to be confronted by local politicians whose interests often bent more toward self-preservation and personal gain–fomented the development of numerous independent conservative/libertarian political organizations.”
Though Simon casts a wide net in his chronicle of politically motivated migrants, taking readers from Texas to arguably purple states such as Georgia and Arizona, American Refugees opts to focus on Tennessee as its central case study. Known far and wide as a state with low taxes and an enviable record for personal freedom, Tennessee is ground zero for that other migrant crisis, the one legacy media has deigned to cover that's turned suburban enclaves (such as Franklin's aptly named Westhaven) into red fortresses of disgruntled Californians.
American Refugees serves as an engaging record of the last three years. The Williamson County School Board wars, Gary Humble’s work with Tennessee Stands and eventual takeover of the Williamson County Republican Party, the manufactured rise of “The Tennessee Three,” and the ouster of fellow migrants' Robby Starbuck and Morgan Ortagus from the 5th congressional district ballot make up the bulk of the project.
Simon is uniquely positioned to offer his perspective because, to paraphrase Brian Williams, he was actually there—having lunch, attending cocktail parties, and amassing text chains with the major players. More importantly, he was the mastermind behind The Epoch Times’s 2022 fifth-district debate that aimed to shake up the tired, journalist-driven format abysmally illustrated by ABC two weeks ago by replacing typical unabashedly biased journalists with subject expert moderators. Though the format has yet to catch on, it resulted in 500 attendees and 51,000 Epoch TV livestream views—a blockbuster performance for such a localized race.
While Simon has high hopes these Covid-era refuges will act as red state reinforcement, he takes care to offer several other caveats about career-minded politicos motivated to move so they can initiate their ascendancy, plus some choice words about disparate groups more occupied by infighting than actually picking electable candidates. More importantly, he frequently underscores Tennessee’s embarrassingly low voter turnout as a signal that the blue exodus did not create an unassailable majority able to serve as an anecdote to the urban center. According to Simon, “Big cities all over the red states are hotbeds of a reactionary and self-destructive form of liberalism that seeks to turn those states blue from the cities outward, with carless populaces stacked in high-rise buildings, moving about only on public transport and, when possible, working in cubbies like characters in a dystopian novel or film.”
In stitching together memoir, travelog, and astute political journalism, Simon has crafted an essential read for those looking to understand the shifting landscape of red state politics. Whether Tennessee will heed his words amid those other outside forces hellbent on making a “New South” rise is another story. JEROD HOLLYFIELD
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🚍 Where WeGo vs. What WeGot Six months of headlines chronicling WeGo crimes, plus three weeks of vandalism and fifty damaged bus shelters later, it’s no wonder locals are skeptical of the transit system at the center of Mayor O’Connell’s referendum. Though O’Connell insists a dedicated sales tax is necessary to ensure a more walkable, bikeable, bussable Nashville, it may surprise some that Metro has made substantial progress on Nashville’s transportation system without raising taxes.
Back in April, the council endorsed the Connect Downtown Action Plan, a ten-year strategy focused on improving congestion and safety while tackling the city’s infrastructure issues (ahem, disconnected sidewalks). Among other things, the CDA would allow Metro to pursue independent funding, including federal grants for transit projects. A few months ago, the council approved an application for an almost $10.5 million federal grant to pay for adaptive signals. Likewise, they sent in an application for TDOT’s Safe Streets and Roads for All grant last week: over $13 million in funding that could help O’Connell fulfill some of his promises by making improvements along Nolensville Pike to address “safety issues related to substandard and/or missing walking, bicycling, and transit facilities, the need for pedestrian-scale lighting, and lack of pedestrian crossing locations.”
Additionally, WeGo has built 34 new shelters since O’Connell took office last year. Though the Banner says there are currently only 311 shelters, the administration plans to add 1,312 more, one for every bus stop in the city. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
💰 New Finance Director This morning, Mayor O’Connell appointed Jenneen Kaufman Reed to lead Metro’s Department of Finance. Metro’s Interim Director Kevin Crumbo is expected to step down early next year for a smooth transition. According to O’Connell’s press release, Reed has over 30 years of experience in executive finance and has held leadership positions with Metro, the Tennessee Titans, and the Nashville Symphony.
“I am grateful to Mayor O’Connell and excited for this opportunity,” said Reed, who’s expected to be confirmed by the council in October. “I look forward to once again working with the incredible Metro team and serving the citizens of Nashville and Davidson County.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
👖 When Life Gives You Linen If you’re in the mood for some local flavor at the Nashville Film Festival, consider catching Let Them Be Naked at Franklin Theatre on Monday at 6 p.m. The film features Franklin’s own Jeff Garner, the founder of sustainable fashion brand Prophetik Clothing, who investigates the toxic chemicals used by the fashion industry. According to the movie’s write-up, Garner has “spearheaded a campaign to uncover the health implications of exposure to these chemicals and the urgent need for more ethical production of garments,” since his mother’s death from breast cancer. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
DEVELOPMENT
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.
TONIGHT
🪕 AMERICANAFEST 2024 @ Multiple Venues, $125, Info
+ feat. The Woods, Maggie Antone, Sugaray Rayford and more...
🎸 The Last Troubadours Showcase Day 1 @ Dee's Lounge, 8p, $15, Info
🎸 Six Organs Of Admittance @ The Blue Room, 8p, $23.69, Info
🎸 Vance Joy @ Ascend Amphitheater, 7p, $40.5, Info
🎸 Musicians Corner @ Centennial Park, 5p, Free, Info
+ Kaitlin Butts, The Dead Tongues, Tommy Prine and more...
🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: September 20-26
The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming releases, check out our 2024 Film Guide.
The Nashville Film Festival Music City’s Oscar-qualifying movie event of the year celebrates its 55th iteration with a host of independent features, shorts, music videos, episodic shows, documentaries, and Creators Conference workshop panels. Highlights include the Tennessee Horror Shorts Program, the urbanite satire The French Italian, the horror film Your Monster, the animated comedy Memoir of a Snail, the pitch black French comedy Endless Summer Syndrome, Sundance sensation My Old Ass, Jason Reitman’s SNL movie Saturday Night, and This Is a Film About The Black Keys. Through Wednesday at Regal Green Hills, The Belcourt, The Franklin Theatre, and the Soho House.
The Substance (Dir. Coralie Fargeat; Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid) This groundbreaking body horror movie about an aging icon who injects an experimental youth serum to create a younger version of herself won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and whipped up a media frenzy after its premiere there. Now playing in theaters.
Essential Coppola In the two-week leadup to Megalopolis, The Belcourt has culled together the best of Francis Ford Coppola’s oeuvre for a big-screen celebration. This week brings The Godfather: Parts 1 and 2, Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, Peggy Sue Got Married, and–our vote for the director’s personal best–The Conversation.
Transformers One (Dir. Josh Cooley; Voices of Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson) The Transformers probably didn’t need an animated origin story, but the reviews have been surprisingly solid. Now playing in theaters.
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