A Liberal Dose, June 27, 2025 "Trump Supporters -Is This What You Voted For?"

 

A Liberal Dose

“Trump Supporters -Is This What You Voted For?”

Troy D. Smith

 

I know that many of those who read this weekly column are aligned with me politically -but not everyone. Some might be more in the middle, or significantly right of center. Others, of course, are way right of center, and some of those folks read my thoughts to give themselves something to cuss about. Wherever you fit on that spectrum, I am aiming this week’s column on those who voted for Donald Trump -especially those who are conservative but not necessarily full-tilt MAGA.

Now, if you’ve ever read my column at all, you know how I feel about Donald Trump. I think he is a racist, sexist, immoral, corrupt, greedy, dishonest, not-too-bright, lazy, self-centered, elitist, criminal, serial sexual abuser who is sliding into dementia. If you voted for him, you probably either believe none of that is true, or you believe some of it is kind of true but mostly exaggerated, or you believe it is probably mostly true but you don’t care because you like other things about him. In any of those cases, it does me no good to hammer home to you why I believe those things. So instead I’m going to talk about some other things, many of them related to his “one big beautiful bill.”

This bill is going to add three trillion dollars to the national debt. Is that what you voted for?

It is going to give massive tax breaks to billionaires, who already pay far less than their share. In fact, the bill has been described as the biggest transfer of wealth upward in American history… it will result in the top 10% making (even more) of a killing, while the bottom 10% will have even less than now- while those in the middle will have only negligible gains at best, and may end up paying more.

Is that what you voted for?

It will cut a TRILLION DOLLARS from Medicaid and SNAP (what we used to call food stamps). And STILL leave us three trillion in the hole, due to the tax cuts to the wealthy. And many conservative legislators want to see cuts to Medicare and Social Security added to it. Is that what you voted for?

It will result in almost eight million Americans losing their health insurance, and almost six million losing their SNAP benefits completely. As I continue to point out, you may not be poor and therefore don’t think you have to worry about this, but your mama or your nana probably do. Is that what you voted for?

It has provisions empowering the president to lay off federal workers hired by Congress without consulting Congress, and preventing judges from interfering with any of his actions in any way -thereby crippling two of the three CO-EQUAL branches of government. Is that what you voted for?

Meanwhile, millions of people have lost their jobs, and vital services have been lost, due to chainsaw-like cuts by DOGE. Veterans are either going to lose their healthcare or find it ten times harder to access, parks are closing, airplanes are flying into each other in the sky, Meals on Wheels, Headstart, Americorps, and many other valuable programs have been killed off, military capabilities have been crippled, and as a result the markets have fluctuated wildly. Is that what you voted for?

Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs are already raising prices, and will raise them a lot more. As a result, America’s credit rating and the value of the dollar have been downgraded. Is that what you voted for?

A lot of you wanted a president who would be tougher on immigration, because of your perception of an immigrant crime wave, and you responded to Trump’s promise to deport the ones who are dangerous criminals. Now law enforcement and the military have been pulled from their regular (important) jobs to help ICE, who are running around WEARING MASKS, with no badges or insignia to indicate they even are who they say they are, grabbing people seemingly randomly off the street. Steven Miller (who has no actual elected or congressionally-appointed position) has given them a blanket order to arrest three thousand people per day. Actual criminals, it turns out, are hard to catch -but it’s easy to catch children at school, legally present immigrants who lawfully show up at their court hearings, soccer players, beloved community members, families of U.S. military personnel, or people who are actually U.S. citizens -and imprison them long enough to load them on a plane and send them, for life, to hellish prisons in countries they’ve never even been to.

Is that what you voted for?

Some of you supported Trump because he presented himself as the anti-war president, criticizing interventionist “global policing” “forever wars” in the Middle East… and he just blundered us into one, over theoretical “weapons of mass destruction” (doesn’t that sound familiar?). Oh, he immediately declared “victory” (also familiar) and a “ceasefire” that didn’t even last a full day. Your loved ones in military service may well end up being shot over it in a foreign desert. Iran is certainly going to retaliate by sponsoring more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil… which will work, because the entire FBI and Homeland Security are at Home Depot looking for Mexicans. Oh, side note: this is going to make the price of gas go through the roof this summer.

Is that what you voted for?

Now, maybe you voted for owning the libs, and provoking “liberal tears”, or because you relish the suffering of people not just like you. If that’s the case, congratulations. But most of you voted to improve the economy and bring down prices.

And all THIS is most certainly not what you voted for. Everything you were told would improve “on day one” has gotten worse, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Everything you were promised has proven to be empty.

Aren’t you even just a little bit mad about that?

 

--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