'We have a broken democracy': This Knoxville lawyer is launching a plan to fix it

Chloe Akers says she is no longer just fighting a flawed bill. The Knoxville lawyer and advocate is fighting a broken system through a new project called the Liminal Plan.

Akers gained national attention last year by helping doctors, patients and other attorneys understand and navigate Tennessee’s trigger ban on abortion. But she says the controversial law was only a symptom of a bigger issue facing Tennesseans.

“As I watched the 2023 legislative session unfold, I realized that it wasn't just reproductive rights that fell into this category of an extreme difference between what the voters want and what the laws actually say,” Akers told Knox News.

Polling shows most Tennesseans not only support abortion access up to 16 weeks, but also support universal background checks for gun purchases and the expansion of Medicaid. Yet lawmakers in the Republican majority have passed legislation that does not reflect these views.

Centering the issues voters already agree upon, the Liminal Plan is intended to hold politicians accountable to the will of the people instead of special interest groups, and to challenge extreme policies.

“It's not related to a political party because what we're trying to do is bigger than a political party,” she said. “We're creating a movement for moderates. And it's not a political movement. It's a policy movement.”

The Liminal Plan “is every bit about a ruthlessly pragmatic approach to solving a critical and potentially cataclysmic problem, which is a broken democracy,” Akers continued.

Akers and her team will launch the Liminal Plan during an event from 6-11 p.m. June 23 at the Mill and Mine. Tickets are available at theliminalplan.us. Attendees can expect a few surprises, Akers hinted.

You can find more information about the plan and donate via the website. Akers says donors have been from all political backgrounds, and the first $100,000 of funding exclusively came from women.

Akers spoke in-depth to Knox News about the Liminal Plan and shared how amplifying moderate voices in Tennessee is key to maintaining a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What prompted the idea of the Liminal Plan?

I made an Instagram video last year about Tennessee's trigger ban on abortion and it prompted a huge fundamental change in my career. I became a speaker and an educator about the problem of criminalizing health care.

One of the things I kept coming back to was the disparity between what the polling showed what the voters actually wanted. I realized that we had an accountability problem in Tennessee. We have a democracy in Tennessee that is no longer functional because our lawmakers are not accountable to the people. They're accountable to special interest groups. We have to take that accountability back.

So, I kind of went about reverse engineering a super PAC (a political action committee). Instead of creating a super PAC to advance my personal views or the way that I think the world should work, I looked at what we already had consensus on in Tennessee. What are the three issues that the vast majority of Tennesseans all agree upon? Medicaid expansion, reproductive rights up to 16 weeks and reasonable gun safety in the form of universal background checks and extreme orders of protection. If we can unite that consensus and build a new base of moderates that will be big enough and powerful enough, we can go into our legislative session in 2024 and demand that accountability rests with the voters, not the special interests.

What impact can the Liminal Plan have on elections?

We want to really reframe the way that we talk about these three issues (reproductive rights, gun safety and Medicaid). Take that consensus and make it cohesive to unify it, not around a candidate, not around a politician, not around a party, but around the policy itself. And when we activate our base of moderates, we're going to watch our lawmakers. For the lawmakers that absolutely refuse to do the will of the people and remain completely tied to and working on behalf of extreme special interests, the Liminal Plan, as a super PAC, will support challengers to their seats in the primary election.

We will support moderate Republicans challenging extremism. We will support moderate Democrats challenging extremism. We will support candidates who challenge extremism, who challenge lawmakers that refuse to act on behalf of the people. We're not living in a democracy in Tennessee, and it is that critical. We're in a moment where, I think, everyone in this state regardless of where you live, your political beliefs, who you worship, your gender, your race, your sexuality, all of us together are realizing that our democracy is at stake. We needed to create a movement to harness that.

The definition of liminal is “of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold,” according to the dictionary. Why was “liminal” fitting for this project?

It relates to this project on two levels. On one hand, liminal space is the in-between of what was and what's next. That's where we are as Tennesseans right now. We have had a year that has fundamentally changed the idea of what it means to be a Tennessean. We're going somewhere in the future. But right now, we're in between. We've got to seize that moment and use this time to make sure that the thing we're going to be in the future reflects who we really are.

Liminal space is also the middle. And that's the people that we believe hold the power in this state. That's who the Liminal Plan is here to serve, those in the middle. And we picked the word plan because when you're in hell, you don't want a project. You want a plan. You want a way out. Right now, regardless of your political party, regardless of who you voted for, we are in hell in Tennessee. We are at the mercy of lawmakers who no longer work for us. We need a plan. That's what this is.

How is this movement similar to the approach you used to help people understand Tennessee’s abortion ban?

I looked at the trigger ban through the lens of functionality and how do we solve this problem. How do we navigate through the environment where we are? It's not about screaming and trying to demean someone who holds a different viewpoint. It's about understanding the reality we live in and how do we navigate that in a way that gets us where we want to go. The same concept drove the Liminal Plan. We have investors who are Republicans. We have investors and donors who are Democrats. We have investors and donors who thought they didn't even care about politics. This is about democracy.

My personal thoughts or feelings or views are entirely irrelevant to the way in which we solve this problem. It's really 30,000 feet up looking down and saying, “We have a broken democracy.” The symptom was the trigger ban. The disease is a broken democracy. The symptom is the lack of gun safety legislation. The disease is a broken democracy. The symptom is a lack of Medicaid expansion and the second highest rate of rural hospital closure in the country. The disease is a broken democracy. Instead of treating the symptoms, the Liminal Plan is here to go after the disease.

We have an opportunity in Tennessee to meaningfully address the root problem of all of this, which is bigger than one issue. To do that, you've got to build a base that's big and well-funded, and a beast because we're not taking on the lawmakers, themselves. We're going for the special interests that own the lawmakers.

The loudest voices are often the most extreme. How can we break through the noise to have moderate voices heard?

The way we make the moderate voices the loudest voices is we create a platform. We unify them. What you have now is extremes are the loudest. And you have all these moderates in Tennessee, all over the state, who are completely disenfranchised from politics. They don't recognize themselves in the far right or the far left and, therefore, when they speak, it's just one at a time. What happens when you unify those voices? You amplify them to drown out those in the minority (on the issues). We didn't create the Liminal Plan to advance our views. We looked at what was already agreed upon because that's how you unify. That's how you make the voices in the middle the loudest. You give them a microphone.

The plan’s website calls the state the “belly of the beast” when it comes to polarizing legislation. Is this why it was important to launch the Liminal Plan in Tennessee now?

I think Tennessee has demonstrated to the country and the world, in a way that is profound, what it looks like when a super majority and a state government are no longer accountable to the people. It wasn't just one law. It wasn't just one act or one inaction. Our legislature Illustrated in about three and a half months, in the most undeniable way for all Americans what it looks like when democracy is eroded and no longer functioning. In that sense, we are the belly of the beast.

We have the most extreme abortion ban on the books in the country, which is inconsistent with the will of our voters. The first piece of legislation related to guns to come out of our state house after the Covenant School shooting signed by our governor was to make it more difficult to sue gun manufacturers. We have had a host of other incidents throughout the last three to four months that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that our democracy is broken. When you look at other states, they may have one or two, or even three pieces of legislation that come up in a session that are very out of touch with the majority view, but in Tennessee, it felt as though it was every day.

And also, we're starting here because this is my home. This is a state that I love, that I feel very invested in. This is where I live. I feel so strongly that Tennesseans deserve so much more, and we deserve better than what we're getting. But we've got to demand it.

We’re also seeing more states fit into that “in between” category. How can other states benefit from the Liminal Plan model?

We're seeing this all over the country. We're seeing the law doesn't line up with what the voters want and it's not because we're not asking for what we want. We're making that clear. Look at the protests. Look at the petitions and the letters. They know what we want. They're not doing it because we don't hold them accountable. I think the way to fix it is to find those issues that have so much significant support. It's important also to point out these issues impact whether you live or die in this state. This is not about legalizing cannabis. This is not about tax rates. These three issues (reproductive access, Medicaid expansion, gun safety) make the difference between you and your families living or dying.

And when you go to other states, you look at those issues through that state lens. You understand that it's not political. It's policy and you're using the policy and you're using the narratives to advance the accountability to right the ship. We're starting in Tennessee; we're not ending in Tennessee. Our approach, our infrastructure, our policy arguments, our practical day-to-day playbook, I would love nothing more than to hand it off to Texas next, and say, “Listen, here's how you build a base of moderates. Here's how you activate that base. Here's what we found to be successful in challenging those lawmakers. Here's how we found some success in our primaries." This is a playbook for the opportunity to unite moderates in such a way that you build a base big enough to reclaim democracy from extremism.

How can everyday citizens and voters help with all these issues and righting the ship?

It all comes down to talking to your neighbors. Don't be afraid. There's so much polarization in politics and we've been led to believe that we all hate each other, that we don't agree, and I'm telling you, we do agree. I think that's what folks can do in the simplest sense. Turn off the TV, put the phone down, talk to your neighbor. Start the conversation by talking about what you can agree on first. When we start to realize that, we can be very powerful. I'm not saying we all must agree on everything. Of course, there will be disagreements, but I know that every single citizen of Tennessee supports democracy. As soon as we can start to have that conversation, we can begin to take it back. But if we're still fighting with each other over all the policy and all the politics and the culture wars and this, that and the other, we're not paying attention to the fact that our democracy is eroded. And there's nothing left.

Is Standing Together Tennessee, the nonprofit you created to help providers, patients and lawyers understand Tennessee’s abortion laws, part of the Liminal Plan?

Standing Together Tennessee is a standalone online legal resource center. At some point in the fall, we will be launching the website as a resource for folks across the state to simply learn more about navigating the criminal trigger ban. We had a new amendment to the law come through so we wanted to make sure that the information we put up was accurate and timely. I expect that website will be up and running probably August or September. It will really just be an online legal resource center for Tennesseans to get information about what the law says, resources that they may want to contact, understanding a bit more about what the medicine.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about the Liminal Plan?

This is a plan that is, in every sense of the word, of the people, by the people, for the people. That was Abraham Lincoln. We are a country designed to have a government of the people, by the people, for the people and The Liminal Plan really encompasses who we are. There is an appetite in the state for meaningful dialogue and for an opportunity to see our democracy come alive again. We have so much to offer this country. This state has so much to offer its people and I just really am proud of the response that we've had, particularly in East Tennessee. As a community, we pride ourselves on values like integrity and hard work and respect. I'm really excited to see those values come back into our legislature. I think that this is going to work. I know in my bones that we will get it done.

Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email devarrick.turner@knoxnews.com. Twitter @dturner1208.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Chloe Akers starts the Liminal Plan in Tennessee to fight extreme laws