Hate in a Hallmark Town, Part 2: A Cautionary Tale About Power and Control
Never in my 40-year career had I encountered what was, on a small scale, political violence. What does it say about America?
This follows a previous post about the political controversy that put me on this journey into the world of hate and political extremism. I hope you will find this to be part of an important conversation and will spread the word!
Doremus Jessup, editor of the Forth Beulah Daily Informer, had taken a stand against the fascist regime that had seized power in America.
As residents in his Vermont community digested the stinging words of his editorial, Jessup stood in his office, looking down upon the street.
“The passing of people became a gathering, the gathering a crowd, the crowd a mob, glaring up at his office, beginning to clamor. There were dozens of people there unknown to him: respectable farmers in town for shopping, unrespectables in town for a drink, laborers from the nearest work camp….
“Their mutter became louder, less human, more like the snap of burning rafters. Their glances joined in one. He was, frankly, scared.”
Soon, the mob was storming the offices of the Daily Informer.
“They were running across the street, into the front office. He could hear a sound of smashing, and his fright was gone in a protective fury.”
In that moment, Doremus Jessup realized that he had no choice but to take a stand against the mob.
As I recently read that scene from It Can’t Happen Here, the 1935 dystopian political novel by Sinclair Lewis, I was reminded of the night in September 2023 when photographer Bryan Staples and I faced an angry crowd of loyal supporters of MAGA mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson in the affluent community of Franklin, Tennessee — county seat of one of the wealthiest counties in America.
Hanson was set to square off against incumbent Mayor Ken Moore at a candidate forum in Franklin’s exclusive Westhaven community.
It was a community that, during a broadcast, I had once mistakenly referred to as “Whitehaven” before quickly correcting myself.
In hindsight, it was a Freudian slip that likely revealed my true assessment.
My friend, New York Times opinion columnist David French, lived in Westhaven at the time, along with his wife, bestselling author Nancy French.
“This is a place where some of the most privileged people in America act as if they’re on the brink of destruction,” David told me one morning over breakfast. “Multimillionaires fly ‘don’t tread on me’ flags and worry that they’re one election away from unimaginable persecution.”
As captured on audio recorded by an independent journalist, Hanson had ordered his supporters: “No Channel 5. They have to leave.”
Here is how my news report from Sept. 28, 2023, described the events:
Emotions were running high at a mayoral forum Wednesday night in Franklin with controversial candidate Gabrielle Hanson and her supporters at the center of what became a chaotic scene.
NewsChannel 5 was invited by the organizer of the forum — a face-off between Gabrielle Hanson and incumbent Mayor Ken Moore — in the exclusive Westhaven community.
But some of Hanson’s supporters tried to block NewsChannel 5 from entering the room, with one knocking a phone out of this reporter’s hands and hitting the phone a second time, as we attempted to document the scene.
“Get your camera out of my face,” the woman snapped.
A Franklin police officer quickly stepped in.
“Stop touching him, or you’re going to jail. Do you understand?” the officer told the woman.
“Ok, but tell him to stop filming me,” she responded.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” the officer insisted. “You’re a grown woman.”
And that was just a small part of what NewsChannel 5 encountered there in Westhaven as Hanson supporters repeatedly tried to order us to leave the premises, telling us that they did not want us at this forum.
At one point, those supporters were standing shoulder to shoulder to try to keep our camera out. Police eventually cleared the entryway. It was a scene that could have become incredibly ugly had there not been a Franklin police officer there to intervene.
They were seemingly determined to physically keep us out of the event because of their disdain for our reporting, because they wanted to control the narrative.
(Here is an account of the incident from an independent group.)
In hindsight, I now believe what happened that night was about much more than my presence at a candidate forum.
Some of the people blocking us had been involved in the culture wars that Gabrielle Hanson had brought to Franklin, battling LGBTQ events based on their personal religious beliefs and insisting that their standards for what were appropriate books for children should be the standard imposed on everyone.
In that moment, I came to more fully understand the events of January sixth—when otherwise law-abiding citizens were willing to cross boundaries they might never have imagined they would cross.
From my perspective, it was no longer about democracy.
It was about power.
It was about a fear of losing control.
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