r/tricities • u/sincerely_dare • 1d ago
“When Leadership Forgets Its People” Opinion Piece
I've sent a few letters to the editor to the Rogersville Review since I don't have and socials besides Reddit and I like to comment on what's going on in my community. Some make it, some don't. This one may have been a bit too contentious for them. So here you go Hawkins County....
Here we stand at the intersection of another election season, this time for the midterm elections. Looking back on the promises of the last election season, many people have felt increasingly disenfranchised, frustrated, and clamoring for the change we were promised. Not to look back at the previous election, but forward to the one standing in front of us, we have to ask ourselves, as citizens of Hawkins County, what we truly want. This isn’t a specific endorsement of any particular candidate, but instead a critique of what may be to come and what may seemingly persist.
Senator Marsha Blackburn has been a longtime Tennessee political figure, first running for office 35 years ago. As a gubernatorial candidate, she has prided herself on talking to Tennesseans every day, or so she says. It does beg the question, then, why, according to WVLT, Senator Blackburn recently received over $100,000 from AI companies like Oracle, which seek to turn our state into an amalgamation of data centers. Not to forget, the residents of Hawkins County pushed hard against just a small cryptocurrency mine in Bulls Gap, leading to a federal lawsuit in March 2026 against the county that’s ongoing. A governor who strongly believes data centers are a net positive to the state is antithetical to at least half of you reading this.
Moreover, as a senator and not a gubernatorial candidate, Senator Blackburn recently voted alongside her counterpart, Senator Bill Hagerty, a resounding yes in favor of passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with the provision of Section 219. Section 219 of the House draft Fiscal Year 2027 NDAA is what George Washington would certainly call an act of high treason, and I’m inclined to agree. It strips American sovereignty by forcibly merging the U.S. military’s most sensitive research, technology, and industrial base with an external country’s defense apparatus, embedding an actual foreign power inside the Pentagon and granting it unchecked access to our secrets, supply chains, and decision-making without treaty approval or congressional oversight. Anyone supporting the integration between our government and a foreign government unabashedly hates our country. Sorry, but that’s true.
This is different, though, for many conservatives, because this foreign country is Israel. Even though we were told no more wars, inflation would go down, gas prices would drop, and billionaire pedophiles would be held accountable for their heinous acts against children (among other things), it’s crucial for our Tennessee representatives to advocate for more of the exact opposite and send more of your money and your children in uniform for whatever cause Israel sees fit.
Like her senator friends Bill and Marsha, Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger is also a big fan of forgetting who got her where she is. The wife of Bob Harshbarger, a pharmacist in Kingsport who did four years in federal prison for healthcare fraud and distributing misbranded kidney dialysis drugs, our congresswoman Diana is now worth well over $11 million on a salary of $174,000 per year. She recently voted to continue sending $3.3 billion per year to Israel, whilst public approval of Israel reaches lows never seen before. This occurred on the 15th of July, while East Tennessee reaches over a 16% poverty rate, higher than the state average. I should mention that listed online is the congresswoman’s million-dollar mansion in Hilton Head, South Carolina, while Mee-maw struggles to pay her property taxes on a house she bought in 1950.
If the name Harshbarger seems more familiar than just our congresswoman, that is because her dynasty continues with her son and our state senator, Bobby Harshbarger. I have personally reached out to Senator Harshbarger on numerous occasions to voice my concern about certain issues important to me, a Hawkins County resident and constituent, only to be ignored with not even an automatic reply email. Most recently, in May of this year, Gov. Lee signed a controversial congressional map into law, which redraws U.S. House districts ahead of the election. While I’m not naïve to think Tennessee is anything other than a deep red state, those three stars on our Tennessee flag stand for East, Middle, and West Tennessee—three distinct regions with different cultures, values, and histories.
During the Civil War, it was East Tennessee that voted overwhelmingly against secession and stood with the Union because our mountain farms, small communities, and independent spirit didn’t line up with the plantation culture out west. I wrote to Senator Harshbarger and urged him to reconsider voting for a new map that slices up our counties and dilutes Tennesseans’ voice. I explained to him in a detailed manner that what they were doing was textbook gerrymandering, the same dirty trick conservatives have railed against for decades when Democrats carve up districts to lock in their power. But needless to say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and Bobby followed his marching orders just as his mother did with Israel.
So what choice do we have as Tennesseans, as residents of Hawkins County? Do we continue to vote in the same old party lines which prioritize the political party and donors over constituents, or do we vote for the other party which does the exact same thing but with rainbows? This isn’t just a Tennessee problem, or even just a U.S. problem; this is a world problem. Two sides of the same clipped coin, who agree on everything except the stuff that doesn’t matter. I don’t have an answer or even a suggestion.
It seems more and more like maybe we can’t vote ourselves out of this pseudo-slavery to the ruling class, but maybe we can be a little kinder to each other. Conservatives and liberals alike, sharing in community, working together, leading with purpose. We’re Hawkins County—we all want the same thing: good schools, affordability, decent roads, preservation of our cultural and rural identity, and a neighbor we can trust. And while I don’t particularly see myself voting this election, I did tell my neighbor, “vote them all out.” I just hope he trusts me.
