A Liberal Dose, July 6, 2026 "What Has Made America Unique, What Has Made it Great?"

 "What Has Made America Unique, What Has Made It Great?"

I have returned to my newspaper column, but it is only monthly now instead of weekly (not by my choice), yet still the same length. Sometimes that just isn’t enough. This is one of those times -so I am posting this to substack and to my blog, without putting it in the paper. Here goes.

On my birthday (July 6), a Facebook friend asked me this question -or series of questions:

“When you get a minute, I’m on this mission to try to understand the USA’s value. As I grew up in the UK there’s A LOT about USA history I don’t know. I began googling, and Google suggested the USA is special because it inspired the revolution of several countries and because of the idea of a country running without a monarch or leader in place until death. What do you think? I find that when I ask the question, people are either fiercely in love with the USA or hate it. I’d love your opinion.”

Here is the response I gave her, edited somewhat and expanded on a little.

You are absolutely correct. Although the concept of democracy was not new -ancient Greek city states were democracies, as was the Roman Republic for centuries before the Caesars made it an empire, something all of the founding fathers knew about -it had not been tried in almost 2,000 years... and it had never been tried under the philosophy of the Enlightenment, whose philosophers -in England, most notably John Locke -introduced the idea of government as a social contract between the governors and the governed. Before that, for a millennium, Europe had operated under the concept of "the divine right of kings", that is, if a guy is king, God must want him to be king, or he wouldn't be king, and to disobey him in the slightest was treason against God. The Enlightenment was a move away from religious thought, after all the terrible wars it had caused in Europe, and a return to the logic proposed by Aristotle and other Greeks. So with God not directly in the equation, the government is actually an AGREEMENT. You have a group of people, and someone has to make the decisions. The people agree to participate in a democracy and elect their leaders, and agree to live with the results if their person loses. The people agree to willingly give up SOME of their rights to a government, via its laws, but NOT their "natural rights" (rights we are all born with) which are "unalienable rights" (that is, we cannot be separated from them)... freedoms of speech, press, commerce, religion, assembly and so on. In other words, we agree to give up our right to drive whatever speed we want to, or to be as drunk in public as we want to, or to keep all of our money and not pay any taxes... because these are sacrifices we make to live in a safe society. But we do NOT give up our natural rights -what today we would call our civil rights. In return for the people making that concession, the government agrees to provide for a military to prevent invasion, and to enact laws to keep everybody safe. HOWEVER. If that government becomes a tyranny -if it begins to violate people's civil rights -the government has broken their part of the agreement. They have broken the contract. And, according to Locke (who was a huge influence on the Founding Fathers), the people then have the right to get rid of that government and choose another one. SO Lockean social contract- that's ONE part of what made the U.S. special.

Part TWO... is "republicanism". This does NOT just mean a government without a king, not as the founding fathers understood it. To them, republicanism meant that both the government and the people had certain responsibilities... the people have to have "civic virtue". That means that each member of the public must set aside their own best interests in the interest of the community, and be willing to step up and serve if something needed done that they were qualified to do, even if it was dangerous or impacted their pocketbook. This is why George Washington was willing to serve as president twice when all he really wanted was to go home. The nation needed him, because he was the only person everybody trusted to get this new country off the ground.

So PART TWO=Republicanism. PART THREE.... ...PART THREE was liberalism. Which meant "freedom (and rights) of the individual". THIS was the tension of the Constitutional Convention, and of the early days of the country, all the way up to now. Which is more important, the rights of the community or the rights of the individual? The answer, of course, is BOTH. BOTH must be protected... but it is a delicate balancing act. The first ten amendments, AKA the Bill of Rights, are all about the rights of the individual. So PART THREE=LIBERALISM. For a long time now, many Americans have framed the rights of the individual primarily if not solely as the right of rich people to have money, and any effort to provide for the rights of the community they have called communism… and still do. But that’s just not true. Triangulating between the rights of the individual and the rights of the community is something that has ALWAYS been done in America.

And NOW we come to the BIG Part.

Part Four: Thomas Paine and COMMON SENSE. Paine had just moved to the colonies from England one year before the Revolution broke out... but he was intensely patriotic to his new home. The Revolution began in April 1775- but for the first 15 months, it was a rebellion of colonies. People like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson -both lawyers -made arguments about why the colonies should declare Independence and be their own country, but most of their writing on the subject was.... lawyerly. Very hard to read, and kind of dull. And was mostly about taxes. And that's where Thomas Paine came in, and shined. He was a brilliant writer. In January 1776 he published a 47-page pamphlet called COMMON SENSE, in which he laid out the reasons America should be its own country -and most of them were "common sense", something the average citizen could read and understand. As long as we're part of England we're part of all of England's wars.... and England is ALWAYS at war. As long as we are part of England we do not have free trade... we are only allowed to buy things from England, we are not allowed to shop around with other countries. As long as we are part of England, all the big decisions will be made by people on the other side of the ocean who know nothing whatsoever about what our lives are like. He also pointed out that monarchies are inherently evil. Sure, maybe there's a good king every now and then -but that's a fluke. We are stuck with whoever inherits the throne, and they are usually spoiled, selfish idiots. But then.... THEN... Paine turned on the emotion, the passion. Then he said the things that summed up WHY this new country was worth fighting and maybe dying for. Because we will be an inspiration to the world. If we stand up to a tyrant and prove it can be done successfully, and that we can set up a government WITHOUT a monarch, but ruled by the PEOPLE... then everywhere, all around the world, where people are being crushed by a tyrant they will look at our example and know IT CAN BE DONE, and they will try to do it. And if they try and fail... then they are welcome to come join US in our great experiment, for we are not a country of a certain tribe or race or religion, we are a country of people bound by the idea of liberty. In Paine's words, “We have it within our power to begin the world again." And THAT... not a bunch of rich people not wanting to pay their taxes.... THAT affected the common people and made them want to join this mission and fight for this vision. This is why, even though he was neither a politician nor a general, Thomas Paine is called "The Father of the Revolution."

And ...we DID inspire other countries. First France in 1787. Then Haiti in the 1790s. Then, from 1810 to 1830, virtually every country in Latin America. And then in other parts of the world. So that by the end of WWII, even countries that still had kings retained them mostly as ritual figureheads, and the real governments were parliaments elected by the people. So knowing all that, think once more about the Preamble to the Constitution:

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare for ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of America."

And think, too, about the Civil War.... when 11 states, seeking to protect slavery, wanted to break away from the U.S. and form a new country. Knowing what you know about the words of Thomas Paine, realize why some in the north said that surrendering would be "treason to the world". You see, if our great experiment was not able to stand longer than fourscore-and-seven years (or 87 years, from 1776 to 1863), everything Thomas Paine had said would be proven a lie. Because it all fell apart. And then countries all around the world groaning under tyranny would perhaps NOT take the chance to oppose it, knowing that America did and fell anyway. And knowing all that, think again on Abraham Lincoln's speech after the Union victory at Gettysburg in early July of 1863:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

A truly patriotic person must take stock of their country’s history, the good and the bad. Remember, the Constitution was written “in order to from a more perfect union.” It was not born perfect. A lot of people, over a lot of time, have had to work to make it better. In the beginning, “We the People” did not include poor people, women, people of color or indigenous people. But it should have. And that is the trajectory we should continue -greatness lies in the future, not in turning back to the mistakes of the past. Every one of us, every day, should strive to make a more perfect union.

America is not great because it is powerful. America’s power is that IT CAN BE GREAT. That greatness is not due to military strength, or white superiority, or a single religion. It is great because, of all nations in the history of the world, it is based on an idea and a set of principles. The principles of liberty… and of diversity, equality, and inclusion. I am a liberal progressive Democrat, and I am the most patriotic person you will ever meet... and the biggest hater of nationalism, which is the belief one’s country is the best in the world because it is strongest, or simply just “because.” I am a lover of history -true history -because knowing and understanding it enables us to better prepare the future. I am a hater of fake, cheerleading history which pretends nothing bad has ever happened, because it dulls the minds and senses of America, and makes us more susceptible to autocratic control… the very thing our nation formed to oppose.

Most liberals feel the way I do. If you are conservative…. Stop and think for a moment, and you will realize we are not as different as you have been taught over the past couple of generations to believe. 

(Troy D. Smith is on the ballot for the August election for 15th district committeeman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, and would appreciate your vote.) 

--Troy D. Smith is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech University. His words do not necessarily represent TTU, nor are they connected in any way with his job- they are his own opinions on matters of public concern, and an expression of his First Amendment freedom of speech.   

He is a candidate for District #15 committeeman in the TNDP- you can see his qualifications HERE

You can find all previous entries in this 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, June 26, 2026 "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around"

 

A Liberal Dose

“We Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around”

Troy D. Smith

 

Below is the text of a speech I gave at the Spencer Juneteenth event. It reads more like a speech than a written essay, so use your imagination to get my preachin' voice!

I am a history professor at Tennessee Tech. One of my areas of expertise is African American history. So you might expect that I’d be here to tell you about the history of the Juneteenth celebration. But other people are doing that. Today I’m going to be talking about, not just why today is important, but why history is important -especially African American history.

For a long, long time in this country, the only kind of history taught in schools, or portrayed in media, or talked about by politicians, was the kind that makes people feel good, without a hint of negativity. I said “makes people feel good”, but what I meant was “makes the MAJORITY of people feel good.” And little if any regard was given to how it made the MINORITY feel. In that version of history, America started out absolutely wonderful and just got better and better. But the fact is: America started out WANTING to be absolutely wonderful, and TRYING to be absolutely wonderful, and for the most part gradually learning how to do it. The framers of the Constitution had it right. “In order to form a more perfect union.” If something starts out absolutely perfect, it cannot be made MORE perfect. The framers knew there was still work to do. Things could be made better. But it is impossible to make things better, if you refuse to see how they started, and how they got to be where they are now. Those are the first steps to making a more perfect union; without taking them, things can never improve.

Fortunately, many things did change for the better -including how history was presented. Starting in the 1960s, historians started paying attention to the words of the great African American sociologist W.E.B. DuBois, and the great Black novelist and essayist James Baldwin. They started looking at the whole history, even the disturbing parts, to give a more accurate representation of it. And great leaders like Dr. King (who always carried with him a copy of The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward) began to study the previously ignored parts of that history to determine how to solve the deepest problems still facing the country. And for the next half-century, history was no longer cheerleading practice -it was a template for progress and unity. MLK Day. Black History Month. Juneteenth. Native American Heritage Month. Pride Month. NO ONE’S history was being suppressed -it was all proudly being brought out into the light.

But some people didn’t like that, and in this decade we have seen drastic changes in the other direction. We have seen African American history, and other forms of American history, minimized or outright erased from our classrooms, our museums, our historical markers, our media, and -if some people had their way -from our very minds and memories. The political leaders in charge in 2026 America do not want the slightest thing which might cause the merest hint of discomfort to those, like them, in the majority, to ever even be hinted at, no matter how the rest of us feel. Elementary students are getting less REAL history today than even I got fifty years ago. WE MUST NOT LET IT STAND. Slavery of the mind is as insidious as slavery of the body. We are in the middle of another Civil Rights Movement. Let it also be a Civil History Movement. Let today, Juneteenth, not just be a CELEBRATION of past freedom; let it be a DEDICATION to freedom, in the here and now.  Let it be a DECLARATION of freedom, in the here and now. As the spiritual says:

“I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around. I’m gonna keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’, Marchin’ up to Freedom Land.”

That means ALL OF US, TOGETHER. We ain’t leaving nobody behind. ALL of us. Not just the rich, not just the powerful, not just those of a certain skin tone, ALL OF US- until the victory is won and freedom is restored. THAT’S what today is about.

(Troy D. Smith is on the ballot for the August election for 15th district committeeman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, and would appreciate your vote.) 

--Troy D. Smith is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech University. His words do not necessarily represent TTU, nor are they connected in any way with his job- they are his own opinions on matters of public concern, and an expression of his First Amendment freedom of speech.   

A Liberal Dose, May 22, 2026 "Why Republicanism Matters So Much"

 

A Liberal Dose

Troy D. Smith

“Why Republicanism Matters So Much”

 

When I say republicanism, I don’t mean the Republican Party -which has stood for different things in different time periods. I mean what some people call “small-r” republicanism, the political ideology on which our nation was founded 250 years ago. It was the bedrock belief system of the Founders, and meant a lot more than just a government without a monarch -it meant, in the words of (Republican) President Abraham Lincoln, “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” It rests on two foundational ideas: civic virtue and promoting the general welfare. Civic virtue means that everyone involved -governors and governed, who come from the same pool and are not two separate classes (there is no “ruling class”, everyone participates and everyone can serve) -puts the greater good ahead of their own interests. Do you see a need in your community that no one is adequately filling and which you are qualified to fill? Then it is your duty to fill it -not for your own power or glory, not for your own enrichment, but for the greater benefit of everyone. We all have a duty to one another.

Classical liberalism is also foundational to the nation, and is often conflated with republicanism, but it is not exactly the same thing (bear in mind, both republican and liberal had different meanings in an 18^th century context than most 21^st century people associate with them). Liberalism, as aptly defined by Scottish economist Adam Smith (also in 1776), pertains to the rights of the individual, including economic rights. The Constitution balanced republicanism and liberalism, in a way that set the pattern for political discussions we still have today. Which is more important, the rights of the individual or the rights of the community? These two ideas have wrestled against each other like poles on a magnet, leading to a balance that is in the middle. But for an individual, especially for a leader, protecting the rights and well-being of the community means protecting the rights and well-being of the individuals in it. It does NOT mean jealously pursuing only the rights of YOURSELF, to the detriment of everyone else. THAT is the antithesis of republicanism; that, I would argue, is deeply un-American. And nothing could be MORE un-American than enshrining leaders -especially a principal leader -whose personal benefit and well-being informs their every action, for whom everyone else is considered to be a servant (instead of the other way around). THAT would be a monarch. A King. A person whose claim to power is that it is clearly God’s Will he be in power, otherwise someone else would be. That is, in fact, the very thing the American Revolution was initiated to fight against.

Do your leaders serve you, the public… or do they think the public is supposed to serve them? Do they seek to enrich themselves at your expense -or glorify themselves at your expense -or do they seek to provide for your needs even if it is to their own detriment? Would they be willing to risk, or even give, their lives for yours, or for the republic, with no opportunity for personal gain in it for themselves?

If not… they do not deserve, and should not have, their position.

This holds true for leaders of the country. And for leaders of your local community. And for leaders of your political party, whichever party that might be. And we have lost our way on this, on every level.

In this election season -again, on every level -let this be your litmus test. Not whether a candidate is saying what you want to hear, to entice you to hand over power to them. No, let the question be: What’s in it for them? The right answer should be- and should only be -fulfilling their sense of duty by serving us all. By promoting the general welfare. Not their own.

 

--Troy D. Smith is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech University. His words do not necessarily represent TTU, nor are they connected in any way with his job- they are his own opinions on matters of public concern, and an expression of his First Amendment freedom of speech.   

He is a candidate for District #15 committeeman in the TNDP- you can see his qualifications HERE

You can find all previous entries in this 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 

Troy D. Smith Election Bio

 April 30, 2026

I am still on the ballot to serve as TNDP executive committeeman in TN district 15 (White, Putnam, Cumberland, Van Buren, Jackson, and Smith counties), and if elected will return and serve. I was asked to compose a bio for a list of Democratic candidates, and below is what I came up with. If you know me and trust in me, and either live in one of those counties or have friends who do, please share this. Thanks.

Troy Smith is a native of White County and received his undergraduate degree at TTU (and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois). He has been a history professor at Tech since 2011, and teaches (among other things) indigenous studies, environmental history, minority studies, and the history of Tennessee and Appalachia. He is a multiple national award-winning novelist, and authors a political column in the Sparta Expositor -the column was suspended by the editor after Smith received numerous death threats from MAGA extremists, but has recently been reinstated. He has years of experience as a labor organizer, political activist, and civil rights advocate. At Tech he has received awards for his teaching, for service, and for being an outstanding diversity advocate. He has years of experience in leadership, and has served as: faculty senate president, state president of the American Association of University Professors, on the statewide planning and legislative action committees of the United Campus Workers union as well as the TTU rep for said union, national president of the Western Fictioneers writing organization, on the board of the North American School for Organizing, on the state board of AIM (American Indian Movement)-Indian Territory, on the national board of The Second Rainbow Coalition, adviser to the TTU College Democrats since 2011, second vice-chair of the White County Democratic Party, and while in grad school at the University of Illinois served as the history and East Asian Studies departments liaison to the Graduate Employees Organization, where he helped coordinate a successful grad student workers' strike in 2009. In 2020 he was the district caucus chair for Bernie Sanders. From 2023 to 2026 he served as District 15's TNDP committeeman and seeks re-election to that position to continue his work there. He has developed a reputation for courage, integrity, fairness, and -in the words of one state party leader -"calm and measured leadership." As someone with a rural, working class background -the first person in the history of his family to graduate high school, and 20 years as a janitorial worker (and foreman) -he has the ability to speak to the regular working people of this district as well as to academic audiences in a language that resonates with both. In his youth he served two years of full-time, fully culturally immersed socio-religious work (in French) with Haitian immigrants in South Florida and New York City, often in extremely dangerous circumstances. He has cultivated relationships with both the tribal governments and the overall community in both the OK and NC Cherokee reservations, and coordinated (and delivered) food drives for the NC Cherokee reservation after the hurricanes. He always stands up -fearlessly, strategically, and with both passion and compassion -for the oppressed, for the worker, and for what he believes is right.

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 

My Announcement on March 26, 2026, Regarding the Issues Dividing the Party

 I posted this on March 26, right after the end of the meeting when the TNDP Executive Committee, on which I served, voted to remove our former Treasurer from the EC.

This is going to be a long post, but it may be the most important one I’ve ever made so I entreat you to read to the end. “tl/dr” is part of the reason this country’s in the shape it’s in.

For three years, I have had the privilege of serving as executive committeeman, representing district 15 on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party (EC of the TNDP). That is usually a boring, quiet job, but for the past month it has not been. As many of you reading this may know, we recently voted to remove Carol Abney as treasurer of the state party. Many Democrats throughout the state are friends and admirers of Carol, and were extremely frustrated when members of the EC could not immediately provide details for why this happened, and still cannot in certain areas. This is partially because the details of executive session meetings, per Roberts Rules of Order, must be kept confidential unless and until the body votes to do otherwise, and it is partially because it involved grievance petition details that, to protect the process and everyone involved, MUST be kept anonymous and completely confidential or else aggrieved people in the future will be afraid to come forward. Some of the relevant information did get leaked -selectively and in a misleading manner, to benefit Ms. Abney, whose supporters have come to her defense and, essentially, called for Democrats to declare war on the state party. They have framed the situation as the state party holding backroom secret meetings as part of some immoral conspiracy to come after her.

Because she has been free to present her side and our hands have been tied to explain or defend ourselves, the party has been in an uproar for the whole month of March, with many people relentlessly attacking the state party. This has continued even after the EC voted Sunday to allow members, in a limited way, to engage with our constituents about the findings against her. I hesitate to restate those here, as this post is not actually about her, but I can tell you this: according to Tennessee law, one can have multiple residences, but only one primary residence for voting purposes. And, also according to state law, that residence can NOT be commercially zoned. I can also tell you that an EC member leaking confidential information to third parties, according to bylaws, is grounds for removal from the EC, especially if it pertains to grievance petitions.

For the last week-and-a-half, the rhetoric against the state party has been deafening. My entire spring break consisted of receiving dozens and dozens of messages from people in my district, many of whom I’ve known for years and considered friends, berating me and accusing me in the harshest terms of all manner of foul things, including corruption and taking bribes or of just being stupid and gullible. There have also been many, many public statements on social media along the same lines, from people who had not been given the full picture by the EC (by necessity) or were given a misleading picture from other quarters (by design). And I have not been able to defend myself. The same thing has been experienced by dozens of my fellow EC members. It has been so relentless and the stress so great that several times in the last week I’ve had to take nitro pills for my heart condition, something I’d not had to do in over a year, not even when I was receiving death threats from MAGA extremists. At the same time I received only a tiny number of reassuring messages, and none publicly. Because the EC is still limited in the extent we are allowed to address people’s questions or the level of detail we are able to provide -both to protect the grievance process and to protect ourselves from threatened lawsuits -almost no one (neither aggressive detractors nor sincerely concerned people) is satisfied, and the rhetoric has not abated. If anything, it will soon be ratcheting up since a vote was taken tonight to remove Ms. Abney from the EC completely on the basis of her leaking confidential information. For the small number of EC members like myself who are facing a contested election to keep our positions, it will be even more intense now.

This type of internal strife is a godsend to Republicans, and a grave threat to every Democrat running for office. My family is not able to weather this atmosphere without relief until the election in August. It is a strain on our emotional health and a literal threat to my physical health.

Six months ago, my political column in the local newspaper was canceled due to the large number of credible death threats I received in the week after Charlie Kirk’s murder. The editor made that decision purely out of concern for my well-being, knowing me well and knowing I would never back down and allow myself to be silenced by bullies, even with threats to my life. I’ve continued to speak out in any way I could (and in fact my newspaper column is starting back up very soon). The thing is, though -I was able to take security measures to defend my family against would-be MAGA assassins, and their threats only made me bolder, but I was not prepared -and I don’t know how to be prepared -for metaphorical assassins on my own side, including some of my own friends. Further, I do not want to be responsible -even to a tiny degree -for any further heated division that threatens my party and the campaigns of so many good people who have had the courage to step up and run for office as Democrats in our present environment.

My favorite movie has always been High Noon. It taught me many valuable lessons the first time I saw it at age eight. You have to do what you know is right and you have to fulfill your civic duties and honor your oath of office, even if the whole town is against you. Even if it comes at great personal cost to yourself. And you have to defend your community, even when your community refuses to defend you. I have endeavored to live my life by those principles. You have no idea how much I have yearned to tell my side of the story, to tell the whole truth about this situation -but my oath and my duty prevented me, and through all of this I have honored them.

And now, like Gary Cooper’s Marshal Will Kane, the job is finished and I have to take off the badge. I do not need a title to serve my community and the principles of my party, and it is unsustainable for me to hold onto it under these circumstances. Therefore, after the vote to expel Abney, I submitted my resignation to the state chair, as I said last week I would do if we were ultimately unable to provide people with the answers they demand. This is not a reflection on Chair Campbell or the state party, who throughout this have acted on their conscience and dedication to their oaths and duty.

I told Carol Abney weeks ago, and others on the EC have told her since: if there is anything in your life whatsoever that could be used by the opposition to attack us, or cause division in a time when we need unity, you should let go of your concerns for your own benefit (and your stubborn pride) and quietly resign rather than risk facilitating harm to the party and its candidates. That is what she should have done then; it’s what she should be doing now. Instead, she has said repeatedly that if things did not go her way she would burn this party to the ground. She has been trying to do exactly that, and is no doubt doubling her efforts at it at this very moment. It would be hypocritical of me to ask something of Carol Abney I would not do myself. I am not willing to sacrifice my party and its principles for my own comfort or advantage. I am willing to sacrifice myself instead, in hopes such a dramatic action will make some people step back and consider the seriousness of the situation. I have kept my oath, and am now willing to relinquish it if so doing enables me to freely say these things today and help, at least a little, to extinguish this dangerous fire that I did not start and which threatens us all.

One of my greatest personal heroes has always been Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee. Not for the Alamo, but for the fact he sacrificed his political career to oppose Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal policy. His lifelong motto was “Make sure you’re right, then go ahead.” Too many people either skip straight to the “go ahead” part without making sure they’re right, or know they’re right and are afraid to go ahead. I refuse to be one of those people.

I do want to share with you, though, something I have realized after all of this. While many of the people angry at the party and at me have been longtime friends of Carol Abney, I was struck by how many of them barely knew her or had never met her at all. This leads me to believe it was not all about Carol. I think the wildfire intensity of it -especially from rural Democrats -is a sign that they were already having bitter feelings toward the party because they felt we had been ignoring them or leaving them behind, and to them this seemed like just another betrayal, and the seeming blanket of secrecy around it only further reinforced that feeling, and it all came gushing out. I can see that, and I can understand it. We’ve been talking a big game about reaching out to rural counties this past year and you haven’t seen results yet -but many of you do know that Carol is a champion of rural causes. We have been working on some things, that I think are very promising and that I’ve had a hand in, but we’re just starting to get them off the ground. The party needs to try harder, and to make every county party and every member of it feel seen, heard, and valued, especially now that we have all 95 counties organized for the first time in forever. They need to look for more ways to avoid making you feel like you’re in the dark. But what we’ve seen these past weeks? The vitriol and outright hatred? That’s not how to get it done. That is playing into our opponents’ hands.

So now, please. Let’s all take a deep breath and calm down.

Let’s return our attention and our energy to where it should be: opposing Donald Trump’s policies and what he has turned the Republican Party into. Let’s not allow anyone to lead us down the road of making our party like his, with conspiracy theories and cries of fake news, all designed to protect the interests of a selfish few. Put down the torches and pitchforks.

Thank you to those who have supported me through all of this.

And thank you, sincerely, to all of you who supported me before this, even if you have not done so the last couple of weeks. It has been an honor to serve you to the best of my ability, and I did not want to stop. Perhaps I will be able to do so again -I hope so.

I leave you with a few Cherokee words that mean a lot to me. Stiyu -have courage. And another: Gadugi, the sacred obligation to all work together for the good of everyone. And one I have striven to live by: duyukdv. Harmony and balance, and the way of goodness and rightness.

And with an English word that has always meant a lot to the left: solidarity.

Finally, one more Cherokee word. What they say instead of goodbye.

Dodadagohvi. We will see each other again.

---Troy D. Smith

A Liberal Dose, April 24 2026 "Too Fast to Be Furious: The Temperamental Drift"

 

A Liberal Dose             April 24, 2026

“Too Fast to Be Furious: The Temperamental Drift”

Troy D. Smith

 

Historians are trained to argue, as are academics in general. We are trained in doing deep research and finding sources, facts, perspectives, root causes, repercussions, and context in relation to other aspects of history. Then other historians do the same thing, in an effort to present a counter-narrative, and “discourse” is created. I regard this process as an ongoing conversation about historical topics, with each new generation of historians (and their arguments) building on what came before, bringing us closer to that elusive thing called “truth” -which, like Zeno’s paradox about continually halving the distance between one object and another, can only be approached but never fully reached. Although this process can be very dry, it can also be very passionate and sometimes a little ugly (both in print and in person). I like to define academic writing as writing something that will only be read by ten people who hate you. Nonetheless, that discourse is expected to take place with professionalism.

Political writing, especially opinion pieces, are also arguments. It is usually not just an expression of some free-standing opinion (like Andy Rooney’s pieces used to be on Sixty Minutes). It is most frequently an effort to be persuasive to an audience and inspire them to tackle some issue or effect some political change that the author finds (in their opinion) very important. It is even more susceptible to becoming passionate or heated than are interpretations of history. And that is expected. It is nearly impossible to persuade anybody to do anything without first emphasizing the stakes. Ideally, though, when two citizens with opposing views express them to one another, even heatedly, they do so within certain parameters of civil behavior, and with the viewpoint that their opponent loves their country as much as they do, they just disagree on how best to express it. This has been true since disagreements arose between Jefferson and Hamilton when the ink was barely dry on the Constitution.

Boy, those were the days.

 It’s been a long time since civility or professionalism showed their heads on the public scene. Pre-existing groups, such as political parties, have tended to cluster at extremes -extremes in policy, and extremes in debating it. Talking politics -even with people on your own side! -leads some individuals to go from 0 to 100 in a split-second where aggression is concerned. This has led not only to crass rhetoric but to violence, and many factors have contributed to that situation. But it keeps getting worse.

I have been warning of that in this newspaper throughout the decade of the 2020s, in columns with titles like “Some of Y’all Need to Calm Down and Take a Breath” (June 20, 2025). It has become practically expected, and definitely not out of the ordinary, for a political columnist to be threatened with physical injury. Of late, I’ve been receiving metaphysical threats from people on my own side who disagree with me on some things, as have some of the conservative-leaning columnists in this paper in the past. That phenomenon has the same symptoms as if it were coming from the other side: people jumping straight to anger and outrage, then on to harsh attacks, without waiting to find out the facts. Facts themselves seem to have gone out of style. Fury has become the driver for what passes for discourse these days.

Of course, there is very much a need for righteous anger sometimes. But even that needs to be directed to the right sources, and DIRECTED period, not like a shotgun blast. People who wish to effect change must let even their anger be strategic. Anger without focus makes one easily misled and misdirected, and easily herded into traps. I’m not singing kumbaya, I’m still going to argue passionately for what I believe in -I’m saying don’t be Sonny Corleone. Stop and think, don’t just react.

The times are dangerous enough already.

 

--Troy D. Smith is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech University. His words do not necessarily represent TTU, nor are they connected in any way with his job- they are his own opinions on matters of public concern, and an expression of his First Amendment freedom of speech.   

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 March 27, 2026 "Unsilenced and Back in the Saddle"

A Liberal Dose

Unsilenced and Back in the Saddle

Troy D. Smith

March 27, 2026

 

This piece represents my return to sharing political commentary -from a left perspective and with historical context -after a six-month hiatus due to numerous death threats I received in the days after Charlie Kirk’s assassination (despite the fact I had never commented on that subject). Since this is, in effect, a fresh start, and since it may appear in news outlets outside my hometown, I thought it might be appropriate to re-introduce myself before getting into the political opinion part.

My name is Troy Smith. I was born and raised in White County, in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee -a region my family has lived in for well over two hundred years. I am a history professor at Tennessee Tech University. My specialties include indigenous studies, the history of race, and the American South. I am from a rural blue-collar background and spent more than twenty years doing janitorial work before becoming an academic. I’ve lived other places -including a couple of years doing mission work with Haitian immigrants in the Miami and New York City areas, and six years getting my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois -but Tennessee is my home, and I love it.  I am also an author of fiction, mostly westerns. My first published work appeared thirty years ago in Louis L’Amour Western Magazine, and I’ve won a couple of Spur awards from Western Writers of America. Finally, I am politically active -serving my district on the Tennessee Democratic Party executive committee. The words and thoughts in my column are my own, though, and in no way officially represent the TNDP or TTU.

That whole paragraph was meant to drive home the fact that, though I work at a university, my background is not one of elite privilege but as one of Tennessee’s working poor -and I have never let go of that experience. I know very well what it feels like to be from rural poverty, and to be looked down on for it on a personal level while seeing my state, especially the country and small-town parts of it, repeatedly taken advantage of, taken for granted, put down, and being flat-out cheated by con artists and fat cats looking to make a fast buck off of us. And I’m tired of it, as I bet you are. So I have spoken up, and continue speaking up, despite the efforts of those who would like to keep voices like yours and mine silent. Exercising the right to speak up is the very essence of what it means to be American, and so is the refusal to be denied that basic, natural right.

I am speaking up about the fact that voters in this state -especially in the rural counties -have been sold a bill of goods comprised of empty promises in order to get their vote. We were promised that prices would go down “on day one”, but they keep going up and up. We were promised the full release of the Epstein files, and the protection of the innocent and vulnerable -but this administration has fought tooth-and-nail every step of the way to keep that information out of our hands, and have outright admitted they are doing so to protect their billionaire friends. We were promised no wars, yet they just started one without having even the vaguest plan of how to win it. The federal government, and the Republican-controlled government in this state, keep setting us at each other’s throats to distract us from the fact they are picking our pockets. Don’t forget the governor’s private school voucher plan, that is draining money from rural school systems and hardworking teachers while benefitting his wealthy friends.

They think because we are rural we are stupid and easily controlled. But people are waking up to the fact that the longer Republicans are in charge the worse things get.

Speak up with me, neighbors.    

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