Tennessee WordSmith: A Time for Courage, A Time for Change

A TIME FOR COURAGE, A TIME FOR CHANGE

I have been doing this blog/column for four years now. What I have said between election day and the inauguration, in my opinion, is among the most important writing I have ever done. Unfortunately, due to celebrations on the right and fatigued despair on the left, I don't think many people have seen it. I thought I would make it a little bit easier by putting it all on one page, ready for reading and sharing.

Onward and upward,

Troy D. Smith

November 7, 2024

“What We Obtain Too Cheap, We Esteem Too Lightly”

I am writing this column more than two days before the election, yet you will be reading it two days after. I don’t know what will happen -at this point it looks like it could go either way -whereas you know what has happened already, assuming it is decided within two days (and who knows if it will be). All of which leaves me in a strange place to be writing.

So I am going to spend this time talking about things that are true no matter who wins (or won), and that will sadly remain relevant no matter the election’s outcome.

First, I love movies. When I try to narrow it down to my favorite, I always come up with a three-way tie (High Noon, Casablanca, and It’s a Wonderful Life)… closely followed by the Godfather saga.

Those top three picks had a huge influence on me as a kid, as I was trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be. They all featured good, positive, masculine role models (as portrayed by Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, and Jimmy Stewart), and -though very different genres -they had something else in common. They each featured a hero who stood up for what he knew was right, against overwhelming odds, despite great risk and even great personal cost to himself. Marshal Will Kane in High Noon did this despite no one he trusted believing in him. Michael Corleone in the Godfather movies, of course, is NOT a good role model. But there is still a similar lesson to be learned: he tried to protect his family by giving in and controlling the family business (which, we learn early on, he believes is wrong), doing absolutely terrible things in the process… and wound up destroying his family, instead of protecting them. It’s a roundabout way of saying the same thing. Do what you know is right, because it is worth the cost, whereas doing the wrong thing is NOT worth the cost.

Last week I talked about the incivility and even violence that has become the norm in the Trump era, and gave examples of many people who -out of fear -have knuckled under. A recent opinion piece about the Washington Post scrapping its planned endorsement of Harris out of Jeff Bezos's fear that Trump might win and exact economic revenge on him carried this subtitle:

"The collapse of civil courage in the Trump era is a historical parallel to Nazi Germany"

I see this collapse of civil courage increasingly, not just in politics and public life, but in academia... which is increasingly inextricably linked to politics. In the current bullying atmosphere, some teachers are afraid to teach; some reporters are afraid to report; some librarians are afraid to encourage reading; some doctors are afraid to save lives. And some go much further, joining in on the chorus against the “other” to avoid being lumped in with them.

I am reminded of people during the Hollywood blacklist era who protected themselves and their own careers by naming names and throwing others to the wolves... and when the tide of public opinion turned, it was they themselves who were cast out as traitors and cowards, and shunned by their industry. High Noon, by the way (in case you didn’t know), was written as an allegory of that very blacklisting process, using several blacklisted actors and crew.

I am also reminded of people in occupied countries like France and the Netherlands who, to protect themselves, collaborated with the Nazis rather than struggle against them. When the Nazis were defeated, such people were left to face the fury of those whom they had left to suffer while gaining safety for themselves, as well as their own consciences… many of them contorting themselves like pretzels in an effort to avoid the judgment of their grandchildren. The same holds true for the many who, though they did not actively collaborate, stood by and did nothing and pretended not to know what was really going on.

Well, no one ever has to wonder where I stand or what I think, and they never will. I take to heart the motto of Davy Crockett (who sacrificed his political career to oppose Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal plan): "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." When reminded he would have to face his voters, he remarked that he had to face himself in the mirror and one day he would have to face God. He was the sort of politician we don’t see often, and need to see more of, at least in that regard.

It is a sad statement about our times that I often have sincere friends, on the left and the right, express concern for my safety because of the things I say on here. Since I was a teenager I have identified with Jeremiah, who -when he tried to stop speaking the truth because it kept bringing him violent reprisals -said that it burned in his bones like fire until he had to let it out. I would be miserable if I did not speak out what I see to be truth.

To quote the great historian and general Thucydides: “The secret to happiness is freedom, and the secret to freedom is courage.”

To quote Paul in his letter to Timothy: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

And, finally, to quote Thomas Paine in 1776: “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”

A couple of weeks ago I told you what Cherokees say instead of goodbye (“we will see each other again”). Here is another expression sometimes used in place of farewells:

Stiyu. Have courage.

November 14, 2024

“When in Doubt, Tell the Truth”

A lot of my fellow liberals have been pretty disheartened, even despondent, this past week. Others are angry. I have stepped up on social media to emphasize to people that this is not the time to lie down and give up on our ideals, and give in to defeat. It is time to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start getting ready for the next election -which also means time to organize, to strategize, and to analyze what we can do differently. I’ve had some conservative friends criticize me for this, saying that instead I should be calling for people to unite together and all get along -to which I reply, I love getting along, but if by getting along you mean keep quiet and stop fighting for what we believe in, the correct word there is “submit.” And that seems very Orwellian, when you consider what would have happened -and what DID happen, last time -if the election had gone the other way. You will see no insurrections from us, or efforts to illegally overturn the results of the election… because our primary loyalty is to principle, and the Constitution, not to making sure our person wins no matter what.

But be that as it may. There are some facts that cannot be denied. This time around, the vote was not super-close. This time around, Trump won not only the electoral college -handily -but the popular vote (which a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t managed to do in 20 years). While there were some hijinks, the Russians did not tip the election, or even come close. The fact is, the majority of American voters chose Donald Trump (and, in so doing, the vision of America he offers). I might not like that, but it happened, and -like the Democratic Party in general -I acknowledge it and have no intention of doing anything other than acquiesce to the peaceful, orderly, transfer of power, as sincere Americans have done for almost 250 years (with one notable exception).

But, while that might be the truth, there are other truths -on which I rest my own principles -and I will not stop speaking those truths (hence the Mark Twain quote I used as the title of this column). By the way, as I predicted in my last column, in the past week I have seen various incarnations of the liberal-leaning media (on screens and in print) scrambling madly to the right, no doubt in fear of consequences that may arise from the new administration. You won’t see me doing that.

But I will be talking, probably in my next column, about what I perceive to be the weaknesses of the left and changes I think need to be made in order to succeed. That is, or should be, the normal response of someone whose party and movement fell short in an election.

There are still people in this county and this state who feel like I do -we may be a minority, but we remain a sizeable one. To those people I say: don’t despair. The game is not lost. The other side just scored, and they are on the sidelines celebrating (boy are they), but all this means is that the ball is back in our hands and now they are on defense, and we are on offense. It’s time to huddle up, then start marching that ball up the field a few yards at a time.

Stiyu- have courage.

November 21, 2024

“What Democrats Need to Learn How to Do”

Last week I said I would talk about what the Democrats could have done differently, and why things may have turned out the way they did. The short answer, of course, is that a majority of voters preferred Trump and the vision of the future that he offered. How can we reach those voters next time?

A lot of pundits and talking heads are asking this question. I will tell you a couple of things that I believe were factors, and one thing a lot of pundits and Democratic leaders are saying which I think is wrong- and, at the end, what I think is the biggest change Democrats must make.

First, the biggest thing. Inflation. Yes, numbers show our economy is booming, but working class people are not feeling it- because, during Covid, prices skyrocketed and never came back down. Yes, they did stop going UP as fast, which is good, but they did not come DOWN. And working people feel that, hard. Fact is, whoever was in power was going to take the blame for that, deserved or not, and was probably not going to win the election because of it. It could have been addressed, better, though, and that will come into my final part in a few paragraphs.

Second, the White House support -physical, financial, logistical support -for Netanyahu’s actions in Palestine, which have become genocidal -lost Biden and Harris a lot of support on the left. It may not have been enough to have decided the election, but it was significant. Harris should have separated herself from Biden’s policy on the matter. They lost a lot of votes in swing states over that.

Now for the part pundits are saying that I don’t agree with. I’ve seen a lot of progressive-leaning commentators and even Democratic politicians saying “woke is broke.” That liberals have spent too much time preaching about things the average American doesn’t care about, or is opposed to, like trans rights and Black Lives Matter, and drove swing voters away. Well, I’ll agree that drove some people away -but I do not agree it was wrong to do, nor that it was the real problem. Our movement must never become a movement that is willing to throw the civil rights and safety of vulnerable or minority groups under the bus. Or to throw basic decency under the bus.

I am going to take a moment to say that Trump was very effective in using these issues. He was able to be openly racist against people of color and still get the votes of many of them, by appealing to their prejudices against other groups. This was especially effective in getting the support of young men of color by taking advantage of the misogyny some of them had. He was able to get the support of women by appealing to their fears and prejudices against various groups. He and his followers have done all of that, and anyone who points it out is labeled by them as the divisive one. It is by no means a new tactic, it is centuries old in this country.

But here is what I think Democrats are bad at, and need to get better at. Dealing with working class and working poor Americans. And, in fact, rural America and the South in general. Liberals need to stop being condescending to such folks, and painting them all with the same broad brush, and insulting them en masse. This is not something new from me -if you’ve followed this column, or followed me on social media, you’ll know I’ve been saying it for years. Some of you may have witnessed the fury that pours from me when liberal people who agree with what I’m saying talk about stupid, uneducated hillbillies. And many of those who are not outright insulting just don’t know how to talk to regular people. That needs to change, and change fast.

What we really need is an economic populist from the left to pull working class people together across racial and regional divides -someone disruptive like Bernie Sanders, but younger. Someone not afraid to offend the one-percenters who are benefiting from all of this chaos. Which brings me back to inflation -all those prices didn’t HAVE to go up and stay up. Whole industries took advantage of the opportunity to stick it to the working man and woman and line their own pockets even more. They need to be taxed to pay their fair share, and regulated to prevent their price-gouging. Working class people need someone to step up, to join in with unions, who will inspire them to stand up for their own rights and not be controlled by fat cats on golden (bathroom) thrones who are making a fortune off their sweat, and dividing us all to keep us compliant.

There needs to be Power to the People. And to get that, you have to actually engage the People, and speak to them in a language they understand, without being high-and-mighty.

Folks, when we get that figured out -and we will -there is going to be a real wave of change in this country.

Courage.

November 28, 2024

“We Have Many Reasons to Be Thankful”

For many of my indigenous friends around the country, the whole month of November -and especially Thanksgiving -is considered a month of mourning. Mourning for things lost, people lost, opportunities lost, land lost. I know that for many of my progressive friends, devastated by the recent election, there is also a sense of mourning, and of casting about for things to feel thankful for. Many of my conservative friends are rejoicing, some claiming we are about to enter a new golden age, and they are no doubt feeling very thankful… but a few weeks ago they, too, were worried about the future and discontent about the present, especially about the high cost of living. I fear that inflation is not going to magically go away with a change in the White House, and if Trump follows through on his tariff promises things will probably get a lot worse. The momentary joy of being on the winning side will pass, and golden dreams will feel hollow and tin-plated.

But we all do have a lot to be thankful for, right here, right now. I am thankful for the life I am privileged to lead, the breath I am privileged to draw. I am thankful for family, and friends, and faith. I am thankful for hope, which always manages to shine through even if only in slivers, like sunlight through the cracks in a prison wall, offering the smell of life and freedom, even in the now. I am thankful to still live in a land based on principles and ideals, though imperfectly formed and sometimes fraught with hardship and danger. I am thankful to be part of an ongoing process of striving to form a more perfect union, to be one set of hands in the myriad seeking to mold this country into what the vision of it promises to be, rather than be content with what it is today or what it was yesterday. I do not seek to make America great again, I seek again to make America great. I do not seek to divide and conquer, I seek to conquer the divide.We do not seek to tear down the government, we seek to govern the torn down.

So, for today, let’s take a deep breath and be thankful for what we have.

Tomorrow we will start thinking about how to hold on to it.

December 5, 2024

“The Truth about the Economy”

This week I’m going to talk again about what I think the Democratic Party needs more of going forward: economic populism. I do not mean for that to replace championing the rights of oppressed groups, as some people are calling for, but rather for it to be something that is done as much, as often, and as strongly as championing oppressed groups. You cannot do one of those two things and neglect the other and still be an effective force for a strong and diverse society.

Let’s start by looking at some history. Study after study has shown that the economy improves more, and faster, under Democratic leadership than under Republican. This is because Republicans often make the economy worse, primarily by drastically cutting taxes on the wealthy. Will Rogers pointed out almost a century ago that Democrats get into office by promising to clean up Republicans’ messes, and when they are too slow in doing so they get kicked out and the Republicans are brought back in to undo what progress was made. This is exactly what just happened to the Biden/Harris administration. When Trump left office there was record unemployment and the economy was on the verge of collapse. Under Biden unemployment went down, wages went up, the stock market went up… but the average American didn’t feel it, because of inflation. Supply interruptions caused by Covid caused inflation to skyrocket, as did energy fears over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the last year or two, as various other economic indicators have been very positive, inflation has stopped going up at a precipitous rate… but that didn’t help people much, since the prices that had gone so high did not come down. So instead, voters chose to return to the guy who expedited everything crashing in the first place, and that is going to prove a very unwise idea.

Assuming that his narrow victory is a mandate, Trump is going to overreach very quickly. He has already started doing so, and he is not even in office yet. Quite a few Trump voters are going to be dismayed at some of the draconian steps he takes as soon as he gets into the White House, as their primary motivation in voting for him was inflation and not social warfare. Most of his voters, though, are going to be fine with all that. What they will not be fine with, and what is going to take them by surprise, is the fact he will once again run the economy into the ground, especially if he follows through on his promises about tariffs and mass deportations. Prices are going to go up, not down, over the next two years. Let’s mark it: this week the national average for gas is $3.01 per gallon, the average price for eggs at the time of the election was $3.37, and the average price of milk was $4.04. Average rent is $1559 per month, average home price $501,100, average vehicle price $48,397 (all those prices are going to be lower in rural Tennessee). Unemployment is at 4.1%. We do not yet know the 2024 poverty rate, as the year is not over, but as soon as we have it, let’s mark it and compare it to a year later. Let’s all check in on these markers in December of 2025.

By the midterms two years from now, there is going to be some buyers’ remorse. Democrats have a good chance to make substantial gains in Congress, and two years later to take back the White House. But only if they carry forth the right message. The message cannot be “I told you so.” The message cannot be “you’re stupid.” The message has to be “The Democratic Party cares about YOU, as much as about anybody else.” It has to be this: “The middle class and the working class have to all band together, along with empathetic wealthy people, against the fat cats who want to divide us in order to take even more money.” The Bible says the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, not money itself. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being well-off. Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy were all raised in wealth and luxury… but they all had empathy for the working people of America, and sought to help them, not to use them.

Too many liberals have lost empathy for the working class, or the ability to identify with them, and it shows. There is a sense of condescension for what was once one of the largest parts of the Democratic base. But there are plenty of union workers out there organizing, and showing us how to get things done. The rest of the Democratic Party needs to start following their lead.

December 12, 2024

“Perhaps Introductions Are in Order”

Have you ever been on any of the Sparta-related pages on Facebook? I visit those a lot. I’ve noticed recently that there are some conversation threads on there where almost everyone talking has moved into our county from some other part of the country within the past few years. I feel that, generally, that has way more pros than cons. But it did drive something home to me- I can no longer assume that practically everyone in town knows me. Twenty years ago, I could assume that -or at least that it was more likely than not that anyone I ran into was either someone I knew or someone whose kinfolks I knew. That might’ve been because we had worked together at some point, or went to school together, or had been neighbors. Sometimes they knew me but I didn’t know them, because back then I was in the paper from time to time (and everyone read the paper then) for the western novels I wrote.

All this is to say: it’s entirely possible you, the reader, know me only from this column. And maybe you find yourself thinking “Where does this fancy, elitist college professor get off, preaching at me every week about politics from his ivory tower and his ivy halls?” Seriously, I know some people who think of me that way. For one thing, they probably don’t know just how much a humanities professor gets paid at a state university -I work more in kudzu halls than ivy ones. For another, though, they don’t know ME. So, I’m going to do something I do every couple of years on here, and introduce myself.

I am a 1986 graduate of WCHS. I was born here, at the old hospital (which is now NHC). My mother was born here as well- both sets of her grandparents had moved here from nearby Jackson County before WWI. On my dad’s side, his family had lived around the Overton County/Jackson County border for generations. My dad was born on the Overton County side, and his family moved to Sparta in the early 50s when he was eight. The families of all four of my grandparents were in this region since White and Overton Counties were formed (in 1806), and possibly before.

As for me, I lived in South Florida for a few months when I was 19 (1987-88), then spent almost a year living in Brooklyn (1988-89), in both cases doing mission work with Haitian immigrants using the French I took from the dear Mrs. Sarah Jane Thurman (and getting better at it after a couple of years!) Then I moved back home, got married, and became a father. I had been buffing and waxing floors since I was 14, and continued to do so until I was 37. I wrote my first novel manuscript when I was 19 (mostly to entertain myself, as I was being locked in department stores overnight for up to 12 hours, and the work didn’t take that long). In my mid-twenties I started getting published in magazines and books, and won some awards. At age 32 I decided to find a better way to support my nasty writing habit, so I started college as a double-major in History and English, the first person in my family to ever attend a university. I graduated from Tennessee Tech in 2004, and in 2005 started grad studies at the University of Illinois, where I earned my master’s and then PhD (in 2011). The I was lucky enough to get a job at my alma mater, and come back home to Sparta with my Minnesota-born wife and step-daughter. Since then I have played an active role in my workplace union.

Here's my point. I come from a blue-collar, working class family, and I was a janitor for over 20 years. My family has been in these hills for over two centuries. I am proud to be from Tennessee, and proud to be from White County. These folks are my people. And if you’ve moved here, now you’re my people too. I am not some elitist, fancy big-city guy who thinks you’re dumb and that he’s better than you. I am one of you. I am on here talking TO you… I am never talking AT you. Thanks for listening.

December 19, 2024

“The Hand You Hold Is the Hand That Holds You Down”

By now, everyone knows about Luigi Mangione and Brian Thompson. Thompson was the CEO of a major insurance company who was assassinated by Mangione while in New York attending a conference. The killer’s identity was a mystery for a few days, although he did leave clues to his motive: he had written the words deny, defend, and depose on the bullet casings left at the scene, words associated with denied insurance claims.

Many people, myself included, were shocked by the public response. Social media was full of posts celebrating the murder, most implying that the victim deserved it and some implying the killer was a hero. Some people, in their posts, recounted their own hardships in dealing with insurance companies, ranging from denied claims to canceled coverage that led to intense pain, suffering, and in some cases the death of a loved one. It was immediate, and it was intense. I overheard some people saying similar things out loud.

Many assumed that the killer, once caught, would prove to be a radical leftist (I’m surprised I didn’t hear more references to antifa). However, just like the two people who tried to assassinate Trump, he did not fit the expected stereotype. Mangione grew up in wealth and privilege, a member of a prominent and actively GOP family. His own social media presence has included praise for Joe Rogan, RFK, Jr., J.D. Vance, and Tucker Carlson. The turning point seems to have come when he had a serious surfing injury that led to a permanent back condition and a lot of pain. In other words, he was not an ideological Robin-Hood-like social bandit, as much as some on both the left and right expected him to be one.

Let’s go back to the public response, specifically the large number of people who immediately identified with the killer, demonized the victim, and celebrated the incident. Let me begin by stating categorically that I do not support political violence, nor do I believe anyone has the right -unless they are a legal judge or jury -to weigh in on whether another human being deserves to die. I believe firmly in the use of violence as a last resort to defend oneself or the lives of others, but not as a political statement.

That being said. There is a REASON this act has resonated with so many people, so strongly, and it has nothing to do with political parties. And the reason is this: just about everybody, unless they are independently wealthy, has a story about struggling with the policies laid down by the CEOs and other top executives of the healthcare industry. I’m not talking about the people who work at the hospital, they are tireless, dedicated heroes. I’m not talking about your local insurance agent -I know most of the ones in Sparta personally, and they are great people, many of whom are deeply invested in the community. I’m talking about the people at the top, who make decisions about how to make an extra dollar for themselves and their investors, and whose business decisions lead to suffering for middle-and working-class people. And it makes folks frustrated, and angry. Those feelings are something most people can identify with.

Let’s take that a step further. It’s not just healthcare billionaires that affect your life. Tick off some of the economic issues that make you angry. High gas prices? Oil companies are making record profits. High groceries? Those companies are making record profits. YOU are NOT making record profits. You are struggling to get by, more so every day. Some of you hitched your wagons to the promises of Trump, who said he would lower prices on day one. You might not have been paying attention, but in an interview last week with Time Magazine, Trump backed off on those promises, saying there is little he can do about high prices and he can’t promise to lower them. He also said he can’t promise that his tariffs won’t make prices go up. His pal Elon Musk said that their plans to cut spending will cause a lot of pain in the beginning. Other Republicans are already gearing up to come after your social security and your Medicaid, and your health insurance if you are covered by the Affordable Care Act.

The kind of people I’m talking about used to be called Robber Barons. They have been robbing you your whole life, making grandiose (but hollow) promises and telling you whatever they thought you wanted to hear, all in an effort to take more money out of your pockets and put it into their own, which are already stuffed full.

It is criminal, immoral, and just plain wrong to physically harm those people.

No, friends… you just need to stop voting for them. Watch those prices, folks, and see which way they go.

January 2, 2025

“The Days of the Modern Robber Barons”

What we are already seeing from the next Trump administration, before it has even started, is reminiscent of an earlier time (way before the first Trump administration). Let’s take an inventory so far.

Trump has packed his cabinet with billionaires. He is giving enormous power and influence, in fact, to the richest man in the world (Elon Musk), despite Musk holding no elected or (as of yet) appointed office. Musk seems to have supplanted J.D. Vance (himself a former vulture capitalist and the protégé of a billionaire, who financed his senate campaign) as de facto vice-president. Musk and Trump derailed the budget plan negotiated by their own party, and expressed a desire to shut the government down until the inauguration (almost a month away) -which would not only bring government services to a virtual halt, it would leave three million federal employees without a paycheck. At Christmas time. In other words, one of their first acts was to try to cancel Christmas. And don’t kid yourself -it is not just “lazy government employees” who would be affected by such a shutdown. YOU would be affected, in many ways.

Meanwhile, as part of the budget arguments, Trump wants to end the debt ceiling. Which, as it sounds like, is a limit on how high the government’s debt is allowed to go, or how much into the red the budget is allowed to be. Why is Trump concerned about that? Because he wants to vastly decrease (again) the amount of money IN the budget, by slashing taxes on billionaires like himself (like he did last time). This is why so many corporate leaders lined up behind him this past election season: tax cuts and less regulation of their businesses. This does not mean YOUR taxes would go down. Your taxes would probably go up. Plus many of the government programs that you depend on would be gone. Musk, whom Trump is tasking with cutting government expenses, has made it clear more than once (as have many Republican politicians) that social security and Medicare are at the top of the list to be cut. Also meanwhile… Trump promised to roll back higher prices on day one, which got him a lot of votes, and he is already backpedaling on that and saying it is beyond his control. However, his fat cat buddies are already benefiting. By most accounts, Musk’s personal wealth has soared just since election day.

So, to recap: The very wealthiest elites are going to be benefiting hand-over-fist, at the expense of the middle and working class, AND they are going to be running things politically with little-to-nothing standing in their way. Fewer regulations will save them more money, at the expense of the things protected by those regulations, such as public safety and the public benefit.

We are hip-deep in a new Gilded Age. A brief history lesson: the Gilded Age was that period, from the 1870s to the 1890s and coinciding with the Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914), when huge fortunes were being made by a handful of individuals with names like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie, while the middle and working class suffered from low wages, unsafe labor conditions, frequent unemployment, and general poverty. The rich got much richer and the poor got much poorer. The very term “gilded age”, coined by Mark Twain in the 1870s, indicates that it LOOKED like a golden age on the surface, but that was only a patina and was not solid. The Gilded Age is also known for being the most politically corrupt era of U.S. history (which is really saying something). I sometimes challenge students to see how many presidents they can name between Ulysses Grant and Teddy Roosevelt (1877-1901). They usually can’t name any at all- because none of them really stand out, because none of them really did much. Nor were they really in charge. They were the puppets of the business tycoons. Those tycoons were often called “robber barons” -implying they acted like they thought they were nobility (some actually built castles or huge mansions), but they had gained their fortunes at the expense of other people. “Get rich,” Twain described their attitude: “dishonestly if you can, honestly if you must.”

By the way, it was during that time period that, in this region, railroads and coal companies did everything they could (including force) to take land away from farmers, leaving those farmers no longer self-sufficient and, instead, forced to live on whatever low wages those businesses offered. It was the beginning of the perennial impoverishment of the Upper Cumberland.

The robber barons never really left- but now they are more firmly and openly in control, of the economy and of your life -than they have been in over a century.

How did people resist them then? Stay tuned.

January 9, 2025

“Working Class Resistance in the Gilded Age”

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been talking about the Gilded Age (1870s-1890s), a time dominated by robber barons (super-wealthy industrialists). This was an age when there were practically no regulations on businesses, and no protections for workers. It was during this time that the term “social Darwinism” started being used, which was an effort to use the (increasingly popular) works of Darwin about evolution, especially “survival of the fittest,” to justify the economic realities of the day. People who become rich, this theory explained, did so because they were exceptional, and the best examples of the human species. People who were poor, the theory went, were the worst examples of the human species -due either to their own inferiority or their own laziness. In other words, rich people are rich because they deserve to be, and poor people are poor because they deserve to be. Elevating (or sustaining) poor people, then, would be a disservice to the human species, because only the “fittest” should survive. Another common theory of that age was called the “horse-and-sparrow” theory: it is wasteful to feed seeds and grain to birds, one should feed it to the horses instead. Then, when the horses poop, the birds can peck out what they need from that. The obvious metaphor was that government should not give aid to the poor, they should use that money to help business and the poor will get their living that way. Will Rogers would later rename that idea the “trickle-down” theory.

Social Darwinism was a new term in that time, but it was not a new idea. Half-a-century earlier, Charles Dickens had Ebenezer Scrooge say of the needy, “Let them die, then, and decrease the surplus population.” Half-a-century after the Gilded Age, at the beginning of the Great Depression, banking magnate (and Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury, and who also used the term trickle-down) Andrew Mellon said that depressions are good things, because “enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.”

Social Darwinism was a way that the wealthiest individuals could counter the accusation that they were “robber barons” -they were only following the dictates of nature. They also pointed to the good works they did with some of their wealth -the names Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt are still connected with a lot of things which those men and their families initially paid for (maybe you’ve heard of Carnegie Mellon University- I know you’ve heard of Vandy).

Most working people of the time, though, were not content with being told to pick through the poop and be grateful. The Gilded Age saw the birth of the modern labor movement, and decades of struggle to secure better wages and working conditions rather than count on the robber barons deciding to just GIVE them such things (which they almost never did). The Gilded Age was also the time when Wild West outlaws and bank robbers started to be celebrated by many in the country, especially in the Midwest, and viewed as Robin-Hood-like social heroes. In reality, Jesse James, the Dalton Gang, and others like them did not really rob from the rich and give to the poor -they robbed from the rich and went home. But for many farmers in the Midwest, who felt oppressed by banks and railroad companies, that was enough. Stick it to the man. Fifty years later, there would be another wave of dubious “social bandit” bank robbers who would be popular in rural America -people like John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and others. I speak, of course, of the Great Depression. When income inequality reaches a tipping point, working class people throughout history have tended to celebrate the outlaws working against the system, misplaced or not. I see some of that in the wave of support for Luigi Mangione.

By the way, in 1904 Elizabeth Magie invented “The Landlord’s Game,” later known as “Monopoly.” The original point of the game was not to show how much fun establishing monopolies can be, but rather to show how unfair and frustrating the system was for everyone involved except the one winner. Side note: I absolutely hate playing Monopoly. It’s hard enough just trying to pay the bills without being bankrupted for entertainment.

Eventually, as enough working-class people got tired of the robber barons’ control, farmers and industrial workers started organizing, which led to the Populist Movement of the 1890s, and to a fairly successful third political party (The People’s Party, better known as the Populist Party), which had a profound influence and led to the Progressive Era (starting with Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican).

Standing by and cheering on outlaws may have felt good to a lot of people, but it didn’t change anything. Organizing and turning the tide of public opinion, especially among the middle and working classes, did.

Don’t be content to be trickled down on. Don’t be content to live on the poop that is cast your way. Make a REAL change.

January 16, 2025

“Monopoly but with Your Money”

In my last couple of columns, I have discussed, in some detail, the Gilded Age and the “robber barons” associated with it. I briefly mentioned the Populist Movement and the Progressive Age. This week I’ll give a little more detail on those.

As previously noted, middle-and-working-class people pushed back against the robber barons by forming farmers’ alliances and unions. Those groups joined forces and began to move from protests to political action that appealed to regular people -hence the term “populist.” The Populist Party was formed in the early 1890s, and in the 1892 election took several western states in the presidential elections, as well as several governorships and seats in Congress. They only grew in popularity (pun intended) after that, though they were not popular enough to win the White House. What did they want? Put simply, government regulation of big businesses like banks and railroads, safety regulations in factories, an eight-hour workday, an end of child labor, and direct election of senators (until the 17^th Amendment in 1913, each state’s two U.S. Senators were appointed by the state legislature, not elected by the people).

When a third party has some measure of success, one or both of the two main parties make some adjustment to get those voters back. In this case, both Democrats and Republicans moved somewhat to the left in an effort to get those Populist voters. This led to the beginning of the Progressive Era, when Republican Teddy Roosevelt (initially VP) became president after the recently re-elected William McKinley was assassinated. For the next twenty years, presidents from both parties would follow the Progressive agenda.

What was that agenda? More regulation of businesses, more focus on the good of the general public, more reliance on experts rather than ideologues (especially in the fields of technology and science), and more conservation of natural resources. Roosevelt also called for “social insurance,” or social security, and nationalized health care. The interests of corporations, paramount in the Gilded Age, were reined in. Teddy Roosevelt became known as the great trust-buster (in this context, trust is another word for monopoly). He broke up an effort by J.P. Morgan to consolidate all the midwestern railroads under his control. He promised workers a “square deal” in which the deck was not stacked against them. Safety regulations began to be implemented (especially after the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York in 1911), underage children were no longer allowed to be used as workers (women also got the vote in this era). The FDA was established under Roosevelt. His Republican successor William Howard Taft broke up Rockefellers’ Standard Oil into 30 smaller companies, and the American Tobacco Company into four.

Roosevelt divided corporations into the “good ones” and the “bad ones.” The good ones, to Teddy, were those that offered a valuable good to the public at a reasonable price, and who showed some concern for the good of the public and of their workers. The “bad ones” were motivated solely by profit to the exclusion of all other concerns, and these were the ones he sought to restrict. He very much wanted to get big business out of government. He said that “to destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”

The third Progressive president, Democrat Woodrow Wilson, ushered in the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Trade Commission, and laws protecting striking unions. Twenty years later, Teddy’s Democratic cousin Franklin Roosevelt would usher in many more Progressive programs and laws, including the social security Teddy had worked for.

All those corrective measures to the Gilded Age mindset of unfettered, unrestrained big business, income inequality, and virtually royal powers of the super-rich… all those laws and programs to protect the rights of regular, working people… are all now in danger of being rolled back by the new robber barons. Republicans are champing at the bit to put social security and Medicare on the chopping block, to cut taxes on themselves at the expense of the rest of the country, and some are even calling for the end of child labor laws. They’ve already admitted they can’t bring prices back down, and in fact most of them are clueless about what grocery prices even are, because they don’t live like you and me. They’re running the biggest scam in the history of this country, and they think we are the easy mark they’ve been dreaming of.

They’re monopolists -they have a get-out-of-jail-free card, and have no intention of letting you and me pass go and collect our $200. They want it all.

January 23, 2025

“Americans Overwhelmingly Want Change”

I’ve been talking a lot the past month or so about robber barons, past and present, and the need to push back against them. In doing so, I must point out, I have very explicitly stated that it is not merely being wealthy that makes a robber baron, it is how that wealth is used. There are some extremely wealthy people who make a very positive difference in the world, and who have empathy, compassion, and sincere concern for the community. I know many such people personally, and appreciate them. And then there are those who use their wealth and power primarily to gain more wealth and power, taking FROM the community instead of giving TO it. They are “robbers” because they take their wealth at the expense of everyone else; they are “barons” because they act like they think they are some entitled nobility class that is better than everyone else. To visualize the difference between the two types, just picture Ebenezer Scrooge… before and after. The “new” Scrooge was a positive benefit to society… though it did take supernatural action to get him there.

So what I have been saying is not communism, and it is not socialism. It is progressivism, the kind practiced by Republican president Teddy Roosevelt and, since the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, by the Democratic Party… though in recent decades, that party has largely forgotten how to articulate it, and how to speak to regular, working-class people.

Some folks have told me I’ve been way too negative lately, and even come across as mean. Well, I’m going to be honest with you. I, and others like me, have spent most of the last four years talking about the importance of inclusion and diversity (which I still believe in passionately). We have appealed to the public’s sense of decency, morality, justice, fair play, and belief in democracy and all the other things our country was founded on. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is the very personification of “negative” and “mean”… and now he is back in the White House, and has brought a cabal of billionaires with him, already laying plans to restructure America to benefit their personal bank accounts. He did this by dividing the country while claiming to unite it, and by appealing to voters’ sense of dissatisfaction with how their lives are going and promising them the moon. Most people really do think more about grocery prices and providing for their family than they do about grand ideals or the future.

Now, I’m not recommending sinking to his level. What I AM saying is that, for me, the gloves have come off. And the Democratic Party needs to do the same thing. And we need to do that by pointing out to regular people that the “us and them” in this country is not (as Trump claims) defined by race, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, education level, region, citizenship status, or even strictly by class. It is a tiny percentage of grasping robber barons versus the rest of us, dividing us by all those categories in order to get even richer, as has been the case since the aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. They want all the cookies. When you point that out, they call it “class warfare”… when that term should really apply to what they’ve been doing to the middle and working classes. To YOU.

Democrats used to know how to tell you that. But, for too long, we have instead run to the center in fear, anxious to maintain the status quo, when the majority of Americans are sick to death of the status quo and want CHANGE. That is the biggest draw among voters for Donald Trump. It was also a big draw for Bernie Sanders, and for the same reasons. Robert Reich, who was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, has recently pointed out that it could have been a big draw for Kamala Harris: she came out of the gate with a strong populist message that appealed to a lot of people, but halfway through her campaign she listened to her advisers who urged her to stop bashing Wall Street or she might alienate big money… and her momentum stalled.

I am committed to doing my part to move the needle. There are a lot of other people in the party who are determined to do the same. I think it all comes down to two ideas. First, we really are all in this together.

Second… let’s stop handing over our cookies.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU or the TNDP.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE