A Liberal Dose
Property Taxes, Tariffs,
and Taking Back the Keys
Troy D. Smith
Several people in White County have noticed their property
taxes have gone through the roof- in some cases more than doubling. Walmart has
announced that consumers need to prepare themselves, as they are going to have
to raise prices significantly this summer due to Trump’s tariffs (Trump angrily
told Walmart they need to “eat the losses” -thus accidentally admitting there
will be huge losses). Inflation continues to go up, with no end in sight -in
fact, economists warn it is going to get a lot worse. Plants in the Upper
Cumberland that employ a lot of people have been shut down because the parent
companies have to consolidate costs due to so many of their workers nationwide
being deported (I speak primarily of the Perdue chicken processing plant in Monterey,
throwing people born and raised in the Upper Cumberland whose families have
been here for generations out of work). 19 people died in tornadoes in Kentucky
this week -and the early warning systems had been forced to close at night
because they are run by the federal government and DOGE put so many of them out
of work (remember when I said, about a month ago, that people in this area were
going to start dying because of that?). Airplanes are falling out of the sky,
and the country has barely avoided much greater aerial catastrophes (so far)
because so many air traffic controllers have been fired. The U.S. credit rating
has been downgraded and the dollar is losing value around the world. The U.S. economy
shrank in the first three months of this year, for the first time since Covid,
after several years of gradual growth- if it shrinks again this quarter we are
officially in a recession. This week the GOP has taken another step in pushing
through Trump’s “big beautiful bill” that will give massive tax cuts to billionaires
(though if you make less than $4 million you will be paying more, not counting
tariffs, WHICH ARE A TAX ON YOU), while taking health insurance away from 10
million people, cutting SNAP, and making massive cuts to Medicaid. “Oh, they
would never cut Medicaid! Trump said so!” The fact is, the only thing that
slowed this bill down some was that several Republicans refused to support it
because it didn’t cut Medicaid ENOUGH. And make no mistake, Medicare and Social
Security are next.
No matter how much some folks would like to blame Democrats
for this, the facts are these: the Republican Party is in complete control of
every branch of government, from the federal level to the state level in
Tennessee to the county level in White County. Those of you who support that
party got your wish. What we are seeing is the result. This is what happens
when you hand everything over to one party -they no longer have to care about
your needs, because they know you will keep electing them because you’ve been
trained to hate the other party. And you lose all leverage. Sure, here in
Tennessee the one-half of one percent of trans kids can’t play sports, and
school libraries are being forced to remove books about Jackie Robinson and MLK,
and those annoying poor kids won’t get to eat at school anymore… and that makes
it all worth it, right?
Remember how angry many of you were -the vast majority of
you, regardless of party affiliation -about the governor’s school voucher program,
which will essentially be taking money away from our county schools and giving
it to rich people’s kids in private schools in the cities? Remember how angry you
were at your Republican representatives for going along with that, despite the
fact you, their constituents, did not want it? I sure hope you remember the
feeling you got when you saw your property tax bill this year.
If you want them to stop robbing your house, STOP HANDING
THEM THE KEYS. Stop letting them distract you with tirades about “wokeness”
that have almost no impact whatsoever on your daily life, while they rob you
blind to give more money to their fat cat, robber baron friends/contributors.
Listen, I know some of y’all have just moved here in the past few years. But
for those who have been here even a little while, you remember -barely more
than a decade ago -when we had Charlie Curtis and Charlotte Burke, and before
that her late husband Tommy, representing us at the state legislature. When Bart
Gordon represented our district in the U.S. House, and when Phil Bredesen was
our governor? All Democrats. Was life really so bad here then? Is it really
better now, after over a decade of absolute Republican rule on the county and
state level -or is it a whole, whole lot worse? I think we all know the answer
to that.
Take the keys back, people.
--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
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
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