If you’re a Tennessean who votes R, I have a question: do you consider yourself one of the most conservative people in the entire United States?

According to the Conservative Political Action Committee, based on our recently passed state laws, Tennessee is the second-most conservative state.

Are you that conservative? Are you OK with the fact that Mississippi has medical marijuana but Tennessee doesn’t?

Do you like living in a state where anyone age 21 or up can carry a handgun without a permit? Looks like the legislature might lower the age to 18 and expand “permitless carry” to include assault weapons too. Are you good with that?

Do you enjoy Tennessee’s trickle-down economics? Our government lures wealthy corporations here by giving them huge tax breaks and suppressing hourly wages. Because most businesses pay no state taxes, our state services are mostly funded by the high sales tax we pay when we go to the store.

And we don’t get much in return. Tennessee’s neighborhood schools are chronically underfunded. More rural hospitals have closed in Tennessee than in any other state. And our state government routinely turns away billions of our own federal tax dollars intended to grow Tennessee’s middle class.

If that’s your vision for Tennessee, keep voting Republican. That’s what more than a decade of extremely conservative government has gotten us, and it’s getting more extreme every year.

Most Tennesseans aren’t extreme in either direction. Polls show that most of us want medical marijuana, reasonable gun laws, reasonable abortion laws, good neighborhood schools, and broader access to health care.

If you want those things too but you “vote for the R,” please stop. Vote for candidates who will vote for the things you want.

If you want those things but you don’t always vote, please start. In 2020 and 2022, Tennessee ranked last for voter turnout. Only 45 percent of Tennesseans who could have voted did. The other 55 percent made Tennessee the second-most conservative state in the country.