On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Tennessee Stands Founder and Executive Director Gary Humble joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss his efforts to address government overreach by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee under the state’s emergency powers statute during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Once the governor [in Tennessee] has executed an emergency, he’s made himself a king,” Humble explained. “He has the sole authority every 60 days to renew that emergency and with, with no limits.” Humble added, “Our governor, under this emergency order, has taken upon himself as the executive to issue these new powers himself and it’s unconstitutional.”
This abuse of power, Humble said, is dangerous because it is unchecked and threatens the liberties that informed the founding of the United States.
“We have this mindset that government has a role or a duty to keep me safe, and I would argue that government’s first duty and role is to secure liberty, not to keep me safe,” Humble explained.
“We formed a government with one purpose to secure those rights that already existed. That means that the government can’t take them away,” Humble continued. “We’ve lost that in 2020, but there’s still a very large divide in that mentality, even in the Republican Party as to what is the true and appropriate function of government.”
Read more about Humble’s fight to preserve Tennesseans’ liberties here.
