Nashville Skyline

Regular reader will recall that, in the post-mortem of the election, I asserted that even Red states really aren't. They're all dotted with Blue cities; some, of course, large enough to stave off the cretins. Some, not.

Today's Times brings us a first person tale of one such situation, as you might expect from the missive's title, Nashville.

I believe my people elected the greatest threat to American democracy since the Third Reich, but I haven't been able to work up a real us-versus-them way of thinking about my own friends and family.

Wow!!! On both counts.

Tennessee is a blood-red state, but Nashville is a blue city, an arrangement that works roughly the way living with an ex in the same house might work. Every time Nashville passes a law to increase inclusion, or decrease idiocy, the State Legislature passes a law that overrides it. Last month, when Nashville residents took to the streets to protest the president's executive order on immigration, a state representative named Matthew Hill proposed a bill protecting drivers from civil prosecution if they happen to run down a protester.

Yep. They are deplorables.

Meanwhile on the other side of the road, the Ecumenical Franciscan was holding his ground right in the middle of the Trump supporters waiting for the line to move. "Beat swords into plowshares -- where does it say that in the Bible?" one guy called out, passing by. "Two different sources," Father Boylan said, turning to speak to him. But his heckler was already gone.

Not too surprising that the Bible thumpers don't even know the basics of the religion. The phrase comes from Isaiah. Yes, while I knew the term from childhood, I had to look it up to find the original source.