The thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away
You know you done me wrong baby
And you’ll be sorry someday

As a teenage kid growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, I remember working the campaign to elect John DeBerry. I remember placing signs on the side of the road and waving to onlookers. I knew little to nothing about politics, but I was asked to serve my community by supporting DeBerry with sweat equity. He was a Democrat and I guess I was too. Although I wasn’t at the age to vote, being a black young man, affiliation with the Democrat Party in Memphis is like the association between barbecue sauce and ribs — they go sticky hand in sticky hand.

With our support, DeBerry won his first election as a Tennessee state representative in 1994. I was 15 years old. Since then, he has managed to be reelected for 26 consecutive years. Well, that’s all about to change simply because he — wait for it — frequently voted with Republicans on several issues, including school vouchers and the “fetal heartbeat” bill. If I could add that wide-eyed emoji, I would insert it here. The Democrats, once again, found a way to eat their own. Last week, I wrote about State Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, who was censured for thanking President Donald Trump. Here we go again.

This time, however, the Tennessee Democrat state representative is being banished from even running in the 2020 election. You heard me correctly: Rep. John DeBerry will not be on the Democrat primary ballot in August for the first time in almost 30 years. Far-left Democrats in Tennessee disagree with the candidate’s pro-life Christian views.

He should have known better than to support school choice, in which minority students and parents would be given the opportunity to leave a failing neighborhood school and take those tax dollars with them elsewhere. He should have known that any thumbs up to legislation that saves lives in the womb from the extortion of abortion would raise red flags with his party colleagues. How dare he?

The Tennessee Democratic Party’s executive committee last month voted to remove state Rep. John DeBerry from the party’s 2020 primary ballot. “After a long meeting in which we heard challenges and evidence, we did what we thought was best to protect the Tennessee Democratic Party and the [values] we stand for,” Tennessee Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini said in a statement.

State Democrats did not elaborate on why committee members voted 41-18, with two abstaining, to remove DeBerry from the August primary ballot. However, four other candidates for office were also removed from the ballot by the committee’s vote for apparently similar reasons. They are William Frazier, who filed for Tennessee State House District 84; Michael Minnis, who filed for Tennessee State House District 93; Tharon Chandler, who filed for United States Senate; and another Memphis candidate, M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams, who filed for the 9th District U.S. Congress seat.

As DeBerry put it, “The Tennessee Democratic Party has decided that a 26-year Representative that spent 12 years as a committee chairman, conducted himself with integrity, served the party well, sponsored meaningful legislation and built bridges across the aisle to get bills passed is [no longer a Democrat].”

Democrats like to say, “Diversity is our strength,” but I guess that only means if you agree with them. Once the “thrill is gone,” and you begin to think outside the far-left box, they don’t have any use for your services anymore.