A Liberal Dose, November 14, 2024 “When in doubt, tell the truth”

 

 A Liberal Dose

November 14, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“When in Doubt, Tell the Truth”

I want to start off by thanking everyone who helped make our second trip to the Cherokee food pantry a success. I believe there are several churches that will be taking over from here. Just a word about the Living Waters Lutheran Church and food pantry -it is not the official tribal food pantry. Official tribal resources only go to enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians -but there are many non-EBCI Natives there, including quite a few Oklahoma Cherokees and members of a lot of tribes who have moved there to work. The church pantry is open for the needs of everyone living in the Quallah Boundary (or reservation).  A lot of people in need have been helped by your generous donations, and they asked me to convey their thanks. 

That said, let’s jump in- to my first column written after the election. 

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. 

--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. 

A Liberal Dose, November 7, 2024 "Now Is the Time for Courage"

 A Liberal Dose

November 7, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“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.

 

 --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 and the board of the Tennessee chapter of American Indian Movement (AIM) -Indian Territory. 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

 

A Liberal Dose, Nov. 7, 2024 "Now Is a Time for Courage"

 

A Liberal Dose

November 7, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“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.

 

 --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 and the board of the Tennessee chapter of American Indian Movement (AIM) -Indian Territory. 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

 

A Liberal Dose, Oct. 31, 2024 "This Is Not Normal, and It Has to Stop"

 

A Liberal Dose

October 31, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“This is not normal and it has to stop”

 

As you read this column, it is Halloween… and five days before the election. Both of those things are spooky. By the time you read the next column one week from today, the election (hopefully) will be over. Half the country will be furious, half will be deliriously happy and relieved. No matter who wins, about half the country will believe that the future of the country and of democracy are in doubt. It should come as no surprise to you when I say that only one side would actually be right to think that way if they lost.

Four years ago, when Trump lost, I heaved a big sigh of relief because I thought, to quote Gerald Ford at his inauguration, “At last our long national nightmare is over.” But, as it turned out, it was not. I don’t think any of us who had voted for Joe Biden could have believed that the defeated sitting president would actually instigate a violent insurrection to prevent the certification of the vote, while simultaneously putting in place various illegal schemes to do the same thing in the courts. Or that four years later he would once again be the Republican nominee… and that the race would be a virtual tie this close to the election. Even with him being exposed for openly wishing he could have had generals like Hitler’s generals. With all his fascistic rhetoric, and total disregard for the Constitution (or even understanding of what it is), I am terrified of what will happen if he wins. Unfortunately, after what we saw last time, I’m also pretty darn scared of what will happen if he loses.

Trump has eroded all semblance of civility or decency in American public life. He has normalized violent speech, violent actions, and even calls for revenge and threats of using the military against his political opponents (which, we now know, he actually tried to do while in office but he was surrounded by people sensible and principled enough to prevent it, which will not be the case if he gets back in). Before you chime in that liberal rhetoric has led to two attempts on Trump’s life, let me remind you that BOTH those would-be assassins were, not liberal Democrats, but former Trump supporters… take a moment to think about what that means about who has created the atmosphere of violence.

I know many, many people in this and surrounding counties who are terrified to put out a Harris/Walz yard sign. Not because they’re afraid it will be stolen, but because they are afraid, almost all of them, that it would lead to Trump supporters vandalizing or even burning down their houses. And they are not overreacting. Many people who have prominently opposed Trump the past few years are laying plans to flee the country if he wins, for their own safety. Media outlets are refraining from criticizing Trump as much as they used to, or from supporting Harris, out of fear of reprisals against them if he wins. We know that Republican senators who thought Trump should have been convicted in his last impeachment refrained from voting to convict because they feared for their families’ safety, and even their lives, if they did so. Judges in Trump’s MANY court cases have been inundated with death threats. Volunteer poll workers around the country are scared for their safety, and we’ve already seen violence against them.

THIS IS NOT NORMAL.

At least, it didn’t used to be. At least, it SHOULDN’T be. But so many of us don’t even question it anymore, because it has come to FEEL normal just because it has been constant for nine years. Many of us are frogs in boiling water, with the temperature slowly rising.

I have a lot of conservative friends who say they support Trump only reluctantly, that they are disgusted by him on a personal level, but they just can’t support a liberal Democrat. If this describes you… you know that everything I have said about him is true. And we don’t have to let our country keep devolving this way. Once you are in that voting booth, it is you and your conscience. None of your friends, family, or neighbors will know how you vote unless you tell them. If you can’t vote for Harris, write in someone else or go on to the next line.

If you support Harris, and feel like your vote doesn’t count, go in to vote for Gloria Johnson for U.S. Senate. Because if Trump DOES win, we sure don’t need Marsha Blackburn in there helping enable him.

Here we go…

 

 --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

A Liberal Dose, October 17, 2024 "We Are All Doing It Together"

 

A Liberal Dose

October 17, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“We are all doing it together”

 

The purpose of this column is to be political -in fact, not only to be political, but to be politically partisan. I was asked to write it to represent the liberal, Democratic perspective, as a counterbalance to the conservative writers then appearing on this page (and others since).

But everything isn’t political, even in this pretty evenly divided country, even in the final weeks of an election campaign. Some things rise above politics.

In the last few weeks, the Southeast has been wracked by two destructive hurricanes -and not just on the coasts, as we are used to. The effects have extended far up into the mountains. Not quite as far as us here in White County, but only a couple of hours east of us. Hurricane Helene devastated East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, and parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida (who was then battered a few days later by Hurricane Milton).

I have a lot of connections to Cherokee, NC. My primary field of historical expertise is Cherokee history and culture… but it also extends to the personal. I have friends there. My Cherokee connections actually extend to the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and individual Cherokees living around the country. When I was first approached, in 2017, to participate in an interdisciplinary team at Tennessee Tech to apply for an NSF grant that involved cultural training for STEM grad students, with the goal of helping them learn to communicate with communities, learn from them, and work together with them, a Cherokee term came immediately to my mind: Gadugi. Gadugi is a sacred concept to the Cherokee people. It comes from a root word meaning “we all do it together.” In the old days, every Cherokee village had a community corn field which the whole town worked in, and which fed every family according to their needs. In more modern history, when Wilma Mankiller was secretary of state of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma (just before she became the first female Cherokee principal chief in 1985), they got a government grant to modernize their plumbing systems -but did not receive funds to hire contractors to do it. Every able-bodied person in the Cherokee Nation took turns digging ditches until everyone was taken care of. I told my colleagues this story, and they wanted to form a partnership with the Cherokees in both NC and OK for our project, which we received permission from the tribal governments to call Gadugi. Since then we have connected several grad students working in food, energy, or water with the Cherokee people.

One group we have interacted with often on the Cherokee reservation in NC is the Living Waters Lutheran Church, whose pastor and parishioners are Cherokee and which operates a food pantry that serves the poor and needy on the reservation. Students have made many trips there over the last year or so to volunteer in the food distribution. After the hurricane I reached out to see how they were. Cherokee itself was not as badly hit as other areas- but the warehouse that supplied the pantry was in Asheville, and was destroyed, leaving them with no idea where they were going to get the food and other items to help their people. Because they were not as badly hit, most of the help was going elsewhere.

I immediately put out the call on social media and by word of mouth that we needed donations -of food, water, diapers, cleaning supplies, hygiene products, or cash to buy them -to get to Cherokee the following Wednesday, because their need was immediate. The response was overwhelming. The TTU history department agreed to be a drop-off point for campus, and the Putnam County Democratic HQ (which is open all day during election season) agreed to do the same. But it was not a political initiative or mission, they were just the drop-off point. Many conservatives I know donated.

I want to thank the 70 or so people who donated, my wife Robin (who worked for years at the East Illinois Food Bank) for helping me organize it, and my colleague Dr. Sabrina Buer, grad student Creek Anderson, and undergrad student Jonas Carter for putting in a 13-hour day loading, driving, and unloading.

As we were getting ready to head out from my house on Wednesday morning -with a van, a student’s car, and a truck -there was still some room left on the truck, and still some money left. We stopped at Sparta Wal-mart to buy more in order to fill the truck. As we were loading $1700 worth of items at the checkout, random customers who’d heard what we were doing came to our line and pressed more money into our hands. The first person to do so was my good friend John Gottlied, who used to write the other column on this page and argue with me regularly about politics. One of the first people to contribute money electronically was the new adviser to the Tennessee Tech College Republicans (I advise the College Democrats).

Pastor Russel at the pantry was overwhelmed by our generosity and kindness, and said that it was proof that natural disasters are the time for humanity, not for politics, and he was right. It may be months before their warehouse is back up, so they continue to have need. When we got there late Wednesday afternoon they had already served sixty needy families, and had enough to get through the next day, but had nothing for after that. We will be going back on the second week of November, so if you’d like to help please contact me -Putnam County Dems and TTU History office will still be accepting donations, and if there is any business or office in Sparta that is open daily that would be willing to be a drop-off point, please let me know.

I also want to direct people’s attention to ways you can help people in East Tennessee that were impacted. My friend Samantha Satterfield, of Sunseeker Outfitters here in White County, is collecting goods for another trip to East Tennessee. Samantha, a travel nurse, tells me communities out there need water and food, but also need medical supplies. She was recently in Newport and plans to get to other communities out that way. Text her at her business number, (931)319-1906 , or email her at happyhippiesam@gmail.com . You can email me at tdsmith@tntech.edu.

Lisa Russell (Pastor Jack’s wife, who runs the pantry) asked me to tell you this: “You have no idea how many families these supplies will help. You are awesome! Please thank EVERYONE who helped with all of this, we appreciate all of you!”

There is no Cherokee word for goodbye. They say dodadagohvi- “we will see each other again.”

--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, and the board of the Tennessee chapter of the American Indian Movement-Indian Territory. 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

A Liberal Dose, October 10, 2024 "The Stormy Seas Have Followed Us"

 

A Liberal Dose

October 10, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“The Stormy Seas Have Followed Us Inland”

 

Who’d have ever expected that so much destruction and death (230 people and counting as I write this on Sunday) would visit the Smoky Mountains and surrounding areas from a hurricane hitting the coast of Florida hundreds of miles away. It is the worst flooding the region has seen in over a century. Over the last decade or so, as dramatic weather events have slowly begun to convince some die-hard climate change deniers that things really are getting bad at an accelerated pace, the percentage of Americans who recognize that coastal areas are endangered due to rising sea levels and intensified storms related to warmer air currents, and that forested mountains around the country are endangered by wildfires due to the heat and drier climate, has grown (hopefully it is not too little, too late). But no one expected this… from a hurricane at sea.

Two years ago, I was part of a team that embarked on an oral history of extreme weather in the Upper Cumberland, which also involved gathering data from government sources, especially NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). We actually were able to fill in a lot of gaps in that NOAA data for our local region. But we had to warn our student workers, when interviewing locals, to be sure to say “weather” instead of “climate”, because as soon as that latter word is introduced some people shut down because they view the discussion as politicized. “Climate” should not be a political word… but it has become one, because so many conservative politicians have made it one in recent decades. When I was a kid in the 70s, conservative and liberal politicians alike used the word climate freely, without political association, and were equally concerned about protecting it. That ship sailed some time ago, primarily due to business interests’ desire to avoid environmental regulations that would affect their profits. Those corporations, and the politicians in their pockets, have used propaganda and misdirection, and outright lies, to convince many voters that any effort to protect our earth and keep it habitable is a liberal scam worthy of contempt, to the extent a lot of people go around deliberately polluting the atmosphere around them just to show how much they enjoy “liberal tears.”

This particular climate disaster has dovetailed with another conservative tactic of the past decade: spreading the most outrageous, ridiculous conspiracy theories -without the slightest mooring to fact -as irrefutable truths, to stir up their ever-more-easily-impassioned base and distract them from the real issues. Eight years ago, according to them, Hillary Clinton (and, somehow, Tom Hanks) were running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor (which had no basement). Four years ago, Donald Trump was going to magically reverse the results of a national election and execute liberals in the town square. Today, relief and rescue efforts have been seriously hampered by an unbelievable string of conspiracy theories (propounded by actual conservative politicians) claiming Biden and Harris were stealing disaster relief money and giving it to “illegal immigrants”, or even that liberals had somehow generated this hurricane and intentionally turned it loose onto red states in order to win the election. You really can’t summon up anything too ridiculous, fantastic, and over-the-top that millions of MAGA faithful won’t believe every word of it if only their burnt-orange demigod and his acolytes say it to them. Much as with the mythical dog-eating Haitians of Springfield, local and state Republican officials have practically begged Trump and his devotees to cut it out because they are causing chaos in their communities -and, in this case, in relief efforts.

So many of the people who spread these falsehoods do not take the time and mental energy to see the real conspiracy. The Republican Party has been commandeered by people who want to dismantle the workings of the federal government, and any confidence the public has in it, in order to make it easier for oligarchs to get their tax cuts and deregulation, to the ultimate detriment of their own willing supporters, as outlined in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 -which these same supporters insist Trump has nothing to do with, just because he says so (despite all evidence to the contrary). It truly has reached the level of a cult -and one which endangers not just democracy but the future of the very ground we stand on.

 

--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

A Liberal Dose, Sept. 26, 2024 "Hopefully We Are Turning a Corner"

 

A Liberal Dose

Sept. 26, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“Hopefully we are turning a corner”

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I outlined all the momentous political events that had unfolded in a span of only two months? Then I said things had kind of come to a standstill, with polls in a dead heat, and it felt like we were in the eye of a storm.

BUT, I then pointed out, the Harris/Trump debate was only a couple of days away at that time, and who knew what seismic shifts THAT could bring.

Well… yeah. Turns out that shook things up a good bit.

It was a doozy of a debate. It was kind of like the Biden/Trump debate, but in reverse. Trump had his keister handed to him. This time HE was the doddering old man (and, in reality, were he to be elected he would be the oldest person ever elected president in U.S. history). Harris really threw him off his game when she criticized his crowd sizes- he came unglued, as she knew he would. Next thing you know, he was following J. D. Vance down that ridiculous rabbit hole about Haitians in Ohio eating people’s pets (something Vance himself admitted, a few days later, was untrue but something he was repeating anyway).

I was cruising around Facebook during the debate, watching my conservative friends’ reactions. “Is this really the only choice we have?” said one die-hard local Republican friend of mine. Several others were complaining that Trump was killing his own chances.

In other words, they were reacting like many of my liberal friends on the night of the first debate, sent into a state of panic over Biden’s poor performance.

Of course, being Trump supporters, this did not last long. Before the debate was even over, many of them were blaming the moderators, saying they had ganged up on him and that the debate was actually three-against-one… because they “fact-checked” him (something the Trump team tried unsuccessfully to forbid in the debate rules). “Fact-check” is a polite way of saying they corrected his blatant lies. “They didn’t fact-check Harris!” they complained. Well, Harris wasn’t spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about cat-eaters, or saying ridiculous things like executing babies after they are born is perfectly legal in blue states.

Trump did a fair job of controlling himself in the Biden debate, but he went off the rails in this one. While Trump’s fans quickly got over their initial panic and returned to their standard approach of pretending that what they saw with their own eyes didn’t happen, independent and swing voters were reminded of just how unstable (and yes, weird) Donald Trump is. On the night of the debate I could feel it happening, just as we could all feel it with Biden. I found myself wondering if we were witnessing the same sort of moment America saw when Joseph McCarthy was finally challenged on live television and asked, “At long last, sir, have you no decency?” and swiftly tumbled into irrelevancy (side note: Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s biggest defender, was later Trump’s mentor). We’re seeing the polls now, and Harris is pulling ahead- in general, and in several swing states. It is still very close, mind you, but the trend lines are favoring her. And you can feel the Republican panic (you can tell when the Republican Party is scared, they try to prevent even more people from voting).

And that is ultimately the difference between the present-day Democratic and Republican parties. Democrats do not hitch themselves with blind devotion to one person and march to their orders no matter what- they attach themselves to the good of their party, and beyond that to the good of the nation, and beyond that to the ideals the nation was founded on. Anyone who remains a Republican has attached themselves to a cult of personality - to one crass, blasphemous, autocratic con artist -no matter what, and no matter what the damage to their party, their country, and their ideals.

Here’s hoping Trumpism, like McCarthyism, is on its way to becoming a historic side note of a bad time in our country that we are all embarrassed by, but which we got beyond.

Troy Smith, a native of White County, is a novelist, a member of the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee, and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His views do not necessarily reflect those of 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