People in TN like to think of themselves as “broad-minded”. That’s why they stick with Alexander and Corker.
Chalk it up to Nashville, the Hollyweird of Tennessee.
You almost hit the nail. I’m a native Tennessean and I was never happy in TN. The people do not think of themselves as “broad-minded”, they know they are hillbillies and they are scared to death that the “elites” of the world will find out. So they pretend to be “oh so cultured”. They always hated the reputation that Nashville had as the mecca of country music. They despised the Grand Ole Opry and would not be caught dead there, but they secretly listened to it behind closed doors. The nutty things they are doing now are to say to the world, “see, we’re not backwoods knuckle draggers. We are tolerant and politically correct.
Funny, I was the rebel who thought nothing of what people thought. Brought home all the riff raff (Mom called them) as my friends. I tried to tell her that they needed friends too. I grew to hate the phoniness of the people in my birth state. But where I spent my teen years in Ala. the people were red necks and proud of it. I loved them.