Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, March 7, 2025 "Some American Voters Are Feeling Buyers' Remorse"

A Liberal Dose

Troy D. Smith

“Some American Voters Are Feeling Buyers’ Remorse”

It is only five weeks into the second Trump administration, and I am starting to see evidence that some of his voters are experiencing buyers’ remorse. Of course, there are plenty who are delighted with much of what he has done so far -or, at least, who defend it all. But even many of them are a little unsure about some of it. What a lot of them didn’t realize -and a few are starting to -is that when he talked about “those people” who don’t deserve what they have, he didn’t just mean immigrants and minorities. Unless you are a billionaire, he was talking about you, too. Nothing he has done so far is going to improve the economy -if anything, between tariffs, mass firings, and closing down government agencies set up to protect the public, he is making it significantly worse. And a lot of people who supported him are the ones feeling the pain. In fact, the way things are going, it is going to be red states that suffer the hardest. Some of my conservative friends are not concerned about this -you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few (very expensive) eggs, they basically say. But it hasn’t hit them personally yet. I predict a different tune will be sung once it does. And it’s coming.

Actually, though, while many of his acts are shocking, none of them should really be surprising. He may not be doing what he said he would… but he is doing exactly what everything about him predicted he would. I think a lot of people have projected things onto him that were never there -like the idea he would ever sacrifice his own comfort or benefit for them, or that he cares about them or about the country. For some of his supporters, it is probably embarrassing to admit that -no one likes admitting they were fooled. But if that describes you -whether you would admit it or not -you are in good company. He has been fooling, and using, working class people his whole life. How many people have done work for him -contractors, construction workers, even basic staff -and never been paid a fraction of what they were owed? And he has always bragged about that.

Look, too, at his international relations. He only seems to care about countries that he perceives as powerful, that are run by authoritarians or dictators who crush the common people under them. He admires men like that (notice it is only men). He seems to have disdain for countries, and leaders, who care about democracy, human rights, ethics, or ideals. He also disdains countries (“s-hole countries”) that are not extremely powerful. Strength and power are all that he sees, or wants to see.

Are you powerful? If not, then you are a tool to be used and discarded. Once he has what he needed from you- your vote (which he will not need again, because he can’t run again -though he wants to -and he doesn’t really care about the fate of the Republican Party), you will be ignored.

Which brings us back to my earlier discussions about robber barons. They treat you like you’re a peasant there to serve their wants, not like a human being worthy of respect. Everything they do is for their own enrichment, or for those like them (because that would naturally benefit them as well). Judge them by what they do, not what they promise to do. Republicans in Congress are all set to cut Medicaid to the bone, and free lunches for poor kids, and SNAP, and are even talking out loud about cutting social security. Musk has actually fired much of the social security staff, including in Tennessee, which is going to slow down processing and payments. Why? Out of concern for the budget? Trump raised the deficit more than any president in history last time around. No, they want to do those things so they can give massive tax cuts to other billionaires.

It's like, on the state level, what just happened with school vouchers. The vast majority of Republican legislators, and the Republican governor, supported them… despite the fact they have been proven not to work as well as public school so far as level of education, despite the fact there is little to no opportunity in rural counties, and despite the fact most beneficiaries will be wealthier people (plus the lobbyists and businesses that endorse the private schools). Its defenders dressed up their vote with rhetoric about “freedom”, but it was actually about the freedom for you to give your hard-earned tax money for breaks to rich people.

Judge them by their ACTIONS.

By the way, fun fact: South African venture capitalist Peter Thiel, mentor and chief donor to J.D. Vance, has said that “freedom and democracy are incompatible” because the common people are a mindless rabble who don’t know what’s good for them. His alt-right supporters call for an end to democracy and a return to feudalism. You know, feudalism: that practice in the Middle Ages when the barons were served by peasants.

Do you want to be a free American, part of a free world, or do you want to be a peasant in service to what George W. Bush called “the Axis of Evil”?

Because you’re about to find out, if you haven’t already, what being a peasant feels like.

--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.

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