Tennessee Democrats just gave America a masterclass in how to lose a political fight AND your dignity at the same time. After days of theatrical meltdowns over congressional redistricting — complete with shoving matches with state troopers and accusations of white supremacy — the maps passed anyway, and the postscript to this saga is so perfect it belongs in a museum.

Imagine throwing a tantrum so epic it goes viral, and it doesn't change a single line on a single map. That's not activism. That's dinner theater.

The ringleader of this circus was Tennessee state Representative Justin Pearson, the Democrat from Memphis who's currently running a primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen for Tennessee's 9th Congressional District. Pearson took to the House floor and delivered the kind of speech that makes you wonder if he thinks he's starring in a movie. "Today, you will take the only black-majority district from us," Pearson thundered. "But I want you to know: No matter what you do, no matter how much you try to break us and make us bend and quit — we will still be here."

Very dramatic. Very moving. Very useless.

But Pearson wasn't done with the floor speech. Oh no. He also called the redistricting maps "racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump." Because of course he did. When you don't have the votes, you reach for the biggest word in the progressive dictionary and hope nobody notices you're losing.

And then there was the incident where Pearson allegedly shoved a state trooper during the House gallery proceedings. Nothing says "I'm the good guy here" quite like getting physical with law enforcement while cameras are rolling.

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Here's what makes the postscript so delicious, as RedState reports. The redistricting is happening because the Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that race-based congressional redistricting is unconstitutional. States like Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee are all redrawing their maps in response. Tennessee's new maps could shift the state's congressional delegation from an 8-1 Republican split to a clean 9-0 sweep.

Nine to zero. Let that marinate.

And the beautiful irony of Pearson's whole performance? He's running against Steve Cohen — the Democrat who's held TN-09 for nearly 20 years. Cohen, you might recall, was famously rejected by the Congressional Black Caucus back in 2007 when he tried to join after winning Harold Ford's old seat. "I think they're real happy I'm not going to join," Cohen said at the time. "It's their caucus and they do things their way. You don't force your way in. You need to be invited."

So Pearson is trying to unseat a fellow Democrat while simultaneously screaming that Republicans are destroying democracy. The Democrats aren't just eating their own — they're doing it on live television while shoving cops and calling everyone racist.

This is what happens when you build your entire electoral strategy on racial gerrymandering and then the Supreme Court tells you to knock it off. You don't have a Plan B. You don't have arguments. You have tantrums.

The maps passed. The tantrum accomplished nothing. And Justin Pearson gave us enough viral content to last through the midterms. Thanks for that, Representative.