November 30, 2023
Troy D. Smith
“Understanding the Past Is the Key to the Present AND the
Future”
Recently my friend John Gottlied complained that I had spent
two columns in a row talking about how bad Trump and the Republicans are rather
than being balanced and talking about what I am for, instead of what I am
against. In both his recent columns, he has zeroed in on one of the many points
I made (such as arguing semantics on whether Trump’s claims of election fraud
were thrown out of court 60+ times disproves them) and ignored all the others.
This is like if I wrote a column saying that Trump kicks children, eats
people’s pets, and runs rabbits, and John responded in-depth about how technically
Trump doesn’t run rabbits he just walks them very fast, plus Democrats often
frighten rabbits as well. He also said that my specialty is history but I, and
other historians, don’t understand the present very well. I’m going to address
those points.
First, and foremost, the reason I spent two weeks in a row
talking about the “badness” of Trump and what he has turned the Republican
Party into is that it has become an existential threat to democracy and we all
need to sound the alarm. I don’t say that lightly. Both George Bushes, Bob
Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney -all those guys were normal politicians. I
disagreed with them, vehemently on some things, but I did not have a legitimate
fear that they might destroy America, nor had that idea ever entered my mind
about anyone. Joe Biden, too, like Obama and the Clintons, is just a normal
politician. You might not like his policies, and you might wax poetic about how
he is wrecking the country (like I did with George W.), but everyone
understands that nothing he or any other politician does cannot be undone when
the next party inevitably comes to power.
Trump is different. He has shown us what he is, and what he
wants to be, and the only thing that stood in his way last time was that many
of his own people had a conscience and a sense of duty to the Constitution
(though it took them an awful long time to find it), which he would correct if
he got back into office. It is precisely my understanding of the past that
enables me to recognize this and compels me to cry it from the rooftops.
Consider:
A cartoonish rabble-rouser comes along who has the power to
sway a significant minority of the population by appealing to the racism of
some, to their base and violent passions, and their outrage at the
establishment for “selling them out.” He gives them groups to blame all their
woes on, and encourages them to do so. His every word is hung onto by thugs,
many of them mentally disturbed, who are eager to go into violent action to win
his approval. He is underestimated by opponents who think he is too buffoonish
for anyone to take seriously, and by the conservative establishment who believe
they can use his popularity to gain/maintain political power for themselves and
control him (but they can’t). He uses his often-imaginary enemies and
conspiracy theories to justify terminating the rule of law, and using it
instead as a cudgel against his opponents. He does all this by insisting only
he can make his country great again. Most of his countrymen ignore his antics
and just go along, even as it gets worse and worse, and later claim they had no
idea it would get so bad, oops.
Am I talking about Hitler, Trump, or any number of past
wannabe dictators? I guess it depends on whether enough people pay attention. I
can tell you this, though, what I describe is the very sort of tyrant the
Founding Fathers warned us about and tried to circumvent in the very
Constitution Trump said we should terminate to return him to power. BECAUSE
THEY KNEW HISTORY.
Note: this column was scheduled for November 30. In the two
weeks since then, Trump has announced he will only be “a dictator on Day One.”
That’s like a fox saying he will only eat chickens on the first day you let him
into the henhouse. Meanwhile, all the conservative Republican leaders I
mentioned by name above, and others, have sounded a warning that America needs
to take him at his word and recognize the threat he poses to democracy.
Bear in mind -returning to history -everyone who supported
Hitler was not a racist or a violent thug. Most were just normal people who
went along because they liked some things about him and ignored the rest. But history
does not give them a pass, because it was all right there in front of their
eyes and they refused to see it.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee
Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
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