Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, March 28, 2025 "The Deck Is Stacked Against Working People"

A Liberal Dose

“The Deck Is Stacked Against Working People”

Troy D. Smith

We are living in a very dramatic time. Now that the robber baron class is firmly in power, with almost no checks on what they can do, we are all seeing the results… and we’ll be seeing more as the year goes on. The economy is losing traction, inflation is expected to rise even more, and there is a danger of stagflation -a situation in which your money continues to lose buying power. But the billionaires don’t care, because they’re making even more of a fortune than usual. And the Republican party, which in recent years has been trying to convince you they support the working class, is showing their true colors… from DC to Nashville. It’s all about taking from you and giving (even more) to themselves. The deck was already stacked in their favor, and they are trying to ensure they get everything by taking more and more control.

Our only hope is to restore some balance. Until just about twenty years ago, Tennessee had been a solidly blue state for generations. If you are from here, then you remember -and you remember that things were a lot better than they are right now. For the last decade or more, there has been a Republican supermajority in the Tennessee General Assembly… have they improved things? No. They’ve done a lot of performative stuff focused on telling you how to live your lives, but has any money or financial benefit come to you? No, it has all flowed to the last two Republican governors and their cronies. And what have the Republicans done nationwide since they took over everything? In less than three months they have voted to gut Medicaid, have crippled the VA and social security, and have started a trade war that is making all your costs go up.

Our only hope to stop the bleeding is for Democrats to take back Congress in the midterms, to provide a check on the impulsive actions of the president. And, on the state level, to elect enough Democrats to at least break the Republican supermajority so there will be some parity in government, and some options. To do that, we need the right candidates. A lot of people say “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” We need candidates who speak the language of the people, who understand Tennessee, and who are willing and able to say to the working class “we are the Democratic Party and we have come back for you- and we are here to fight for you. For all of you, against the one-percent billionaire robber barons who have pitted us against each other in order to pick all our pockets.” Willing to say the hard truths, and fight for what is right without setting up focus groups to see how it plays to an audience. And they are out there, waiting for their chance.

But the deck is stacked against the working people.

I have held a lot of leadership positions in my life, and I want to tell you something about my leadership style. I don’t like being a leader. I am not the sort of person who has an overwhelming need to be in charge and tell everyone what to do. But what I am is someone who -when something needs to be done and no one is stepping up to do it -will step up because I feel it is my duty. Since election day I have had this sobering feeling that -even though it is not something I actually want to do, because I enjoy my life just the way it is -maybe this is a time and place where my specific talents could be used for the greater good, and maybe I should run for public office. So I’ve started thinking about it, and looking into it.

And do you know what I’ve realized? The way our system is set up, a working person with a steady job -and bills to pay -cannot afford to run for state or national office. I would have to take months off work, without pay, to campaign full time. If I ran for the state legislature, I would have to take unpaid leave every spring semester and lose half my annual salary, for a position that actually only pays a very small amount. If I wanted to run for Congress I would have to, if I won, give up my university position -which is reasonable -but while running I would not be getting paid, and if I lost I would be out of a job and unlikely to find a corresponding position.

So the only people able to run for office at that level are people who either have a spouse with a very good job, enabling them to live on one income, or they have to be a successful business owner who can afford to hire someone else to do their actual work while they are serving, or be independently wealthy, or -like J.D. Vance -be virtually adopted by a billionaire who pays all the bills. In other words… you have to have money. And in a system like that, the overall problem -the fat cats controlling everything -just keeps self-perpetuating.

I haven’t completely ruled out running for office, but it looks increasingly unlikely unless I win the lottery. If you can think of a solution let me know. Because we -all of us -desperately need new voices, voices that are strong and authentic and speak to the people, and are willing to fight. And we need them right now.

--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