“….it’s God’s will.”
Stunned, my lips parted ways, and my audible gasp not only caught my attention but also that of those around me. Exiting the House Committee following the Special Disaster Relief committee hearing, I walked past the gaggle of local electeds from Upper Northeast Tennessee who had just testified to the destructive wrath of Hurricane Helene. It was the January 2025 Special Session, entering my second year as a legislator, and my brain hurt rationalizing these government officials’ fixation with the belief that Hurricane Helene, which killed 17 Tennesseans and caused billions in economic damage, was God Almighty embracing our state, preparing for humankind’s last days on Earth.
Genesis 6: 12-13
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Eschatology is the study of “end times,” and Christians split into two basic camps on how to read it. Camp 1 believes the Bible’s scariest prophecies (global suffering, believers swept up to heaven, Jesus ruling on earth for a thousand years) haven’t happened yet; they’re still coming, so wars, earthquakes, and disasters today get read as signs the end is near. Camp 2 believes almost all of that prophecy already happened nearly 2,000 years ago, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, meaning Jesus’s warnings were about that event, not ours, and the only things still ahead are his final return and the resurrection of the dead.
A year ago this month, black floodwaters ripped through the Texas Hill Country in the middle of the night, killing 137 Texans, including 27 little girls who were campers at Camp Mystic on the banks of the Guadalupe River. For a brief moment, I found myself in a sorority at the University of Texas at Austin, and if you've ever gone through Panhellenic sorority recruitment, you understand that camp politics are class politics. One of my sorority sisters was a Camp Mystic disciple, and as a result of my experience, I’ve become obsessed with the political aftermath of the tragedy. The impacted families, based on their proximity to Camp owners, their religious affiliation, their professional backgrounds, self-selected into two camps, if you will: those that believed the lives of those little girls could have been saved, and their lives were lost due to human negligence, and those who believed losing their girls “was God’s will.”
As I stayed up late at night, inhaling each thought piece on Camp Mystic, I knew what was driving the obsession: a deep empathy for the parents who believed that human intervention focused on severe-weather adaptation and mitigation could have saved their lives. The same feeling I had learning about the immigrant workers stranded at Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tennessee, who drowned and died during Hurricane Helene. You see, naming “climate change” as a driver of the intensity of the Guadalupe or Hurricane Helene would require admitting a governable human cause. So, the end-times frame does double-duty: it explains rising disaster frequency without any reference to emissions, infrastructure investment, or regulation, and it makes any climate policy look faithless, an attempt to control what only God controls.
I’m not a doomsday prepper like some of my end-times colleagues in the Legislature. But the next decade in Tennessee is going to be dark, and I don’t think we’re prepared for how dark. I’m a nerd who studies history, pays attention to economics, and reads everything Naomi Klein’s writes about “End-times fascism”, and all disciplines settle on the observation that collapse is rarely an accident. It’s a series of choices, made by leaders who always had other options. Currently, our federal and state leaders have decided to pillage and steal from us, creating what economists call a “K-shaped” economy. The rich spend as the Gods intended them to, while the rest of us hobble together 2-3 jobs and spend less and less recreationally, hyper-focused on survival as the safety nets crumble around us (I’ve heard from numerous business owners that business is down 30% across the board…). The Second Gilded Age has arrived, and the Great Depression 2.0 is peeking around the corner…
Our tax code, at the state and federal level, has been restructured again and again to benefit the wealthiest Tennesseans and corporations. No new revenue is being generated to replace what’s lost. The COVID-era stimulus and relief money that’s been propping up state and local budgets for four years is running out, and the Trump Administration has cut billions from Tennessee programs, with the state having no plan to compensate other than cuts to TennCare and SNAP.
210,000 Tennesseans are projected to lose health coverage by 2034 because Congress let ACA subsidies expire and tightened TennCare rules, and premiums are already up 32.6% this year.
90,000 Tennesseans have already lost their food stamps. 374,000 Tennessee families are at risk of losing food assistance because of eligibility changes Congress wrote into last year’s budget law.
Tennessee’s private school voucher program has already jumped from 20,000 seats to 35,000 in its second year, estimating a cost of $260 million by 2027… states like Arizona with similar voucher programs are staring down billion-dollar holes in their budget, with local counties hemorrhaging revenue with limited ability to fill the gaps
How this will feel, if we don’t change course:
Hundreds of thousands more hungry and uninsured Tennesseans
Mass bankruptcies, more medical debt, and small businesses shuttering en masse with no support from municipal or state governments
A slow, grinding disruption of public services, not a single dramatic failure but a hundred small ones that will become more and more noticeable
Continued increased taxes on consumption goods and licenses
A real possibility of a state sales tax increase, on top of already having one of the highest combined sales tax rates in the country
Mass evictions, more unhoused families, as private equity landlords and a tightening economy squeeze renters from both directions
Mass unemployment as AI kills entry-level jobs, with youth unemployment probably reaching around 20% by 2030
OK, so now that I’ve laid out my version of the end-times, what’s the plan?
Despair is not a strategy, and imagination is a muscle, one that atrophies, unfortunately, under conditions such as these. I’ve spent the last few years in a near-constant state of grief, but I’ve come to understand that as authoritarianism’s most reliable export…not just fear, but exhaustion, the slow attrition of the civic imagination until people can no longer picture anything other than what’s already failing. I’ve decided to treat my grief as information rather than a verdict, and somewhere between mourning and imagining, my interns and I have been dreaming up and building A New-er Deal for Tennessee… details forthcoming.
Despite the chronic grief, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude to be alive, elected, and organizing in this moment, because whatever else this era is, it’s an era for the dreamers, the visionaries, the world-builders… a rejection of the theology of fatalism, and an embrace of a collective, generative, pluralistic futurism.
Ezekiel 47:1-12
Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows... Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river... Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail... Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.
With hope for the future we deserve,
Aftyn
PRIMARY EARLY VOTING STARTS TOMORROW
You can’t complain if you don’t vote. I don’t make the rules!!!!! We have some competitive primaries across the state, which you can learn from Senator Oliver’s recent Substack. Yes, I’m on the ballot and running unopposed. For my House District 51 constituents, you can vote for me (or not!) this time and again in November.
Early Voting Begins TOMORROW, Friday, July 17th, and lasts until Saturday, August 1st. Election Day is THURSDAY!!!!!, August 6th
If you live in Davidson County, click below to see Early Voting locations and polling times.
Due to Republican shenanigans, your congressional district MOST LIKELY CHANGED. Need information about your congressional voting district? Click below to see your sample ballot and identify which districts you’re in!
MY PRIMARY PICKS
Here’s the deal. I just don’t have time for unserious candidates anymore. I need elected leaders who are collaborative, willing to do the hard work of capacity-building and training the next generation to shift the tide in Tennessee, and disinterested in chasing cameras and more interested in the tedious, invisible labor of rebuilding democracy. And with that…
Live in TN-9? Please vote for Rep. Justin Pearson for Congress. He’s one of the few electeds who is an organizer like me, and I need him in Congress for a host of reasons, including preparation for the post-2030 census redistricting fight, a conduit to Congress should we have a Democratic trifecta in 2029, and a generational leader who is so clear-eyed about this moment and what’s needed to fight back.
Live in Nashville? I’m supporting Beth West for House District 59, who is running in an open seat. Beth’s energy is unparalleled, and she has stepped up time and time again not only to show up for her community but also to organize to make their lives better. Beth works incredibly hard, and I need more of her work ethic in the Democratic caucus, which can help run legislative campaigns to not only push back against the Supermajority but also to build infrastructure across the state for future elections. Join me for a canvass with Beth on Sunday, July 26th from 2-4 PM CT.
Live in Wilson County or in Hermitage? I’m supporting Lindsey Patrick-Wright for SD17, who is running against Mark Pody, the only and last Republican representing Nashville. Yes, there is one token Republican still representing Nashville, and nothing would send a giant middle finger to our Republican overlords and occupiers more than eliminating their representation in state government. Lindsey is a former librarian who has been on the front lines of pushing back against school vouchers and book bans. She’s the fighter we need in the State Senate. Join me for a canvass with Lindsey on Saturday, August 1st from 9:30-12:30 PM CT.
DONELSON TOWNHALL NEXT WEEK
Join Councilmember Jeff Gregg, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Metro Police, Nashville Electric Services, and me for a town hall meeting next Thursday, July 23rd at 6:00 PM at Connection United Methodist Church to discuss Briley Parkway… everyone’s favorite pothole, and of course, the Opry Mills beavers.
What I’ve Been Up To This Summer
Quick recap, because you deserve to know where your representative has actually been spending her time:
Trained 25 Gen-Z interns on electoral and legislative organizing
Hosted a town hall for my Downtown Constituents with Council Member Kupin and Senator Yarbro; one next week in Donelson with TDOT and focused on Briley Parkway
Organized a legal clinic connecting DCS-impacted families with legal support in collaboration with community groups
Organized a summit connecting researchers, academics and organizers so we understand what is “AI” and what it means for our communities
Attended three legislative conferences: Detroit for the Fair Tax Summit, Chicago for The Next 250 Summit, a conference convening female legislators to plan for the next 250 years, and Colorado for a clean energy legislative academy
Take Action
Sign this petition demanding TN leaders address maternal healthcare!
One of my legislative interns created a Change.org petition calling on Tennessee leaders to take meaningful steps in improving maternal healthcare after her experience at the “Monument to Unborn” demonstration.
Aftyn, glad to see you back and causing good trouble!
So glad to have you back. This was a wonderful piece by you. You serve the State of Tennessee so well. You’re a treasure.