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Freedom
Freedom
In the United States, how free you are depends on where you live. Because laws and lawmakers' priorities vary from state to state, some Americans enjoy more "freedoms" than others. In Tennessee, our state lawmakers in Nashville often have more say-so about what we can and can’t do than the federal government in Washington, DC.
Do you want more freedom in Tennessee?
Do you always vote?
Do your votes match your views?
TAKE OUR QUIZ
DO YOU THINK the government should access people’s medical records without their knowledge or permission?
DID YOU KNOW:
Tennessee’s attorney general is demanding Tennesseans’ private medical records from doctors and hospitals.
Tennessee’s attorney general forced Vanderbilt University Medical Center to give him the records of Tennesseans who received gender-affirming treatment there. He's also announced his plans to demand medical records from other states if he believes Tennessee citizens received legal abortions there.
Does that sound like medical freedom to you?
DO YOU THINK the government should be able to prevent you from getting life- or health-saving medical treatment?
DID YOU KNOW:
Under a 2022 law, Tennessee doctors can be charged with a felony for providing an abortion to save the life or health of the mother.
The only specific exceptions are ectopic and molar pregnancies. Doctors say the law is so vaguely written that they’re afraid to provide a life-saving abortion until the woman is close to death. This increases her risk of hemorrhaging, developing sepsis (a potentially fatal infection), or permanent infertility.
Does that sound like medical freedom to you?
DO YOU THINK the government should let one parent decide what all children can read in the school library?
DO YOU THINK the government should let one parent decide what all children can read in the school library?
DID YOU KNOW:
In Tennessee, one parent can "challenge" a book to have it removed from public-school libraries statewide.
Before 2022, any public-school parent in Tennessee could “opt out” of certain library books for their own child—they just needed to let the librarian know. That's still true. But under a new state law, one parent can demand that a book be removed from every public school library serving equivalent grade levels. The final decision isn’t made by a panel of education experts, like librarians or teachers, or even by the local school board. It’s made by a board of political appointees
hand-picked by the governor.
Does that sound like parental freedom to you?
DO YOU THINK every Tennessee parent should be able to send their child to a well-funded neighborhood school that meets professional education standards?
DID YOU KNOW:
Tennessee’s schools are among the poorest-funded in the country—and that’s about to get worse.
Research has shown that students in well-funded schools perform better academically. Tennessee invests less in public education than most states. The Tennessee General Assembly has been considering rejecting nearly $2 billion a year in Title I public education funds. Turning away these federal funds (Tennesseans’ own tax dollars) would negatively impact around 1,500 schools in low-income areas.
Instead of ensuring that every public school has adequate funding, Tennessee’s government is creating a parallel, privatized system that moves public tax dollars to privately owned and/or operated schools.
Until the partnership fell through due to local opposition across the state, Gov. Bill Lee wanted to use public education funds to build a statewide network of charter schools operated for profit basis by a private Christian college in Michigan.
Currently, Shelby, Davidson, and Hamilton counties are being required by state law, despite local opposition, to give families $8,000-per-child vouchers to put toward private-school tuition. These taxpayer-funded vouchers typically benefit families with children already enrolled in private religious schools.
Charter schools and private schools are not required to accept all students like public schools are, and they're not held to the same educational standards.
Does that sound like educational freedom to you?
DO YOU THINK we should be allowed to live freely without government interference, as long as we’re not endangering anyone?
DO YOU THINK we should be allowed to live freely without government interference, as long as we’re not endangering anyone?
DID YOU KNOW:
Over the past few years, Tennessee’s lawmakers have spent much of their time (and our tax dollars) passing laws in response to national "culture war" issues rather than serious issues in Tennessee.
Like many other state legislatures across the country, the Tennessee General Assembly has been heavily focused on culture wars, with a particular emphasis on the LGBTQ+ community—especially transgender children. Parents say these children, who represent a tiny fraction of Tennesseans and are already at high risk of suicide, feel harassed and bullied by their own government and do not feel safe at school.
Does that sound like personal freedom to you?
DO YOU THINK Tennesseans should have the freedom to live, work, play, and go to school with less fear of being shot?
DID YOU KNOW:
Tennessee has one of the nation’s highest rates of gun deaths and some of the country's loosest gun laws.
In Tennessee, you can carry a loaded gun without a permit. There’s no safe storage law, no red flag law, and no background check for private gun purchases. Police and sheriff organizations say loose gun laws make neighborhoods more dangerous. Multiple surveys have shown that most Tennesseans want commonsense gun laws in place to reduce the threat of gun violence in their schools, stores, and streets. The Tennessee legislature has refused to pass or even discuss any.
Does that sound like personal freedom to you?
If you want more freedom in Tennessee,
VOTE FOR IT.
If you want more freedom in Tennessee,
VOTE FOR IT.
Don’t miss an election! Vote for candidates who want freedom for everyone in Tennessee.
If more Tennesseans voted every two years (in every presidential and midterm election), we could replace our governor and entire state legislature every four years.
Between 2020 and 2022, Tennessee had the lowest average voter turnout in the country. In the 2020 presidential election, just 74.3% of Tennesseans of voting age were registered to vote, and only 66.4% voted. In the 2022 midterm election, just 67.4% of Tennesseans of voting age were registered to vote, and only 44.5% voted.
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