A Liberal Dose, May 9, 2024 "A Nation Divided Over a Nation Divided"

 

A Liberal Dose

May 9, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“A Nation Divided over a Nation Divided”

 

An interesting thing happened to me the other day. I was on Youtube, looking for the most recent clip from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. The first thing that popped up was a bit showing Anderson Cooper reporting on the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. Cooper was telling us that an attack had been launched from Gaza that killed Israelis, and the Israeli government was bombing Gaza in retaliation, killing countless civilians, and saying it was Hamas’s fault for hiding weapons among those civilians. Why was this on a comedy show? Because Oliver showed several more clips of Anderson Cooper -from 2012, 2009, 2006, back to 2002 -saying almost word-for-word the exact same thing. The joke was that there were two constants in the world: Anderson Cooper always looks exactly the same (Oliver made a Dorian Grey reference), and Israelis and Palestinians are always killing each other. I noticed at that point that the clip I was watching wasn’t from a 2024 episode after all, it was from a 2014 episode.

And that’s about the only halfway funny thing that can be said about this whole tragic situation (and even that is far more sad than funny).

Despite the fact the two sides have been fighting each other for what seems like forever, things have ramped up unbelievably since October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas fighters surged into Israeli territory and killed over 1,100 people and abducted about 250 more, whom they took back to Gaza as hostages. There were reports of incredible atrocities, rape not least among them. Israel responded with overwhelming force, which surprised no one… but many have been surprised, and outraged, by how overwhelming it has been. So far, 34,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza -the vast majority of them civilians (and many of them children). The people of Gaza now have very little, in some cases no, access to food, medical care, fuel, electricity, or, in many cases, drinkable water. The result is widespread starvation. The UN Human Rights Council has cited “clear evidence” of war crimes. A large number of journalists and international aid workers have been killed by Israeli forces, sometimes despite clear markings of their identities.

Everything I said in the above paragraph was fact. However, exactly what those facts mean, or for some people how those facts are framed, depends on perspective. And everyone in the world -including the U.S. -does not have the same perspective. Most come down very firmly, often forcefully, on one side or the other. It seems most on the political right unequivocally side with the Israeli government, but the left is divided -with many on the center-left steadfast in support of the Israeli government, but many farther-left folks supporting the Palestinians, or even Hamas. While not universal, it seems to me there is also an age divide, with most people I know under 35 much more critical of Israel and much more empathetic toward the Palestinians of Gaza. I’ve heard pundits from both parties claiming that is true because young people are uninformed or easily misled, but I don’t think that is the case. I think at least some of it depends on how much one’s thinking was shaped by the Cold War era.

I also think that most Americans in general -young or old, left or right -don’t fully understand the complexities of this situation or the history associated with it. And I think that a lot of people (liberal and conservative) have fallen into the trap of describing any opposition whatsoever to Benjamin Netanyahu or the Israeli government as antisemitism. I admit that is a factor for some, but not for the vast majority of protesters. There are huge numbers of Jewish people IN ISRAEL who oppose Netanyahu and the current actions of his government (I know some). There are large numbers of Jewish people in the U.S. who are part of the pro-Palestinian protests around the country. My own future son-in-law, a devout Jew, was baking bread last week to take to the shabbat observances by the large number of Jewish protesters at one of the campus encampments.

It’s not as simple as many would have you believe. Or maybe it is… just not in the same way.

I said last week it was going to take a while for me to address this subject. This week’s whole column has been composed of me just setting the stage. Next week we’ll start delving into the history.

 

--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, May 2, 2024 "Notice Who the Money Keeps Trickling to"

 

A Liberal Dose

May 2, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“Notice Who the Money Keeps Trickling to”

 

First, the situation with Israel and Palestine continues to spiral further and further out of hand and is starting to do so in this country as well. I have been putting off discussing it on here until the semester was over, because doing the subject justice will take deep thought, time, and will require more than one 700-ish word column. I hope to get started on it with next week’s piece, because it can’t be put off any longer. I will say, for now, how ridiculous it was last week to read Marsha Blackburn’s column about how disruptive and wrong protests are and how they (and pretty much anything Republicans don’t like nowadays) should be felonies. Coming from people who continue to excuse, justify, deny, and/or support the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, this -much like cries of outrage over the border when they dropped their own bill on it -is rankest hypocrisy. Protesting in a peaceful yet “disruptive” way (which is the whole point of protest) should apparently be a felony when it is on a topic they don’t support- but wreaking havoc on the Capitol, assaulting policemen with dangerous weapons, and smearing feces on the walls of Congress are all just fine when it’s YOUR side that does it.

For this week, I’ll spend the rest of my time discussing rank hypocrisy on a state level.

Did you know that Tennessee is one of only 13 states in the country that imposes sales tax on food? Did you further know that, food tax aside, Tennessee has the highest sales tax in the nation? Relying on sales tax instead of state income tax is generally known as a “regressive” tax system… because it places a higher burden on the poorest people (including working people) than on the richest people. Taxing food is just adding insult to injury (while also compounding the injury). Democrats in the General Assembly tried to end the tax on food this year… but Republicans blocked those efforts. However, Republicans have ONCE AGAIN lowered the business tax, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year and billions over the next few years, including over 1.5 billion dollars in refunds to big businesses this year alone. And they are doing their level best to do it in such a way none of us will know just which businesses are getting these breaks, and how much… but it is estimated more than half of that money is going to be going to businesses outside Tennessee. A lot of it will be staying in the state, though, including those tax savings going to Governor Lee’s multi-million-dollar company.

So… we can’t afford to give working people a break on basic necessities like food -even when so many are suffering -but we can give up billions of dollars in tax revenue for big business. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned several bills that Republicans shot down -higher minimum wage, free breakfast and lunch for school kids, paid time off for new foster parents -in most cases, without even listening to the arguments in favor of them. One particular legislator, though, argued with us (my union) that the state government can’t afford to do things like that. Yet we have a surplus. And yet we keep handing tax breaks out to the large companies and the wealthiest individuals. Clearly, we CAN afford it, they just don’t want to do it… not because it would take money away from taxpayers, but because it would give them less money to hand out to their cronies.

I have a friend who loves to say “Has a poor person ever given you a job?” as a way to defend trickle-down economics. I always reply, yes, all the time. Because when a working person has more money on hand to spend, THEY SPEND IT -because they have to, to get what they need (or maybe just things they want but usually go without). And the more they do that, the more goods are sold in this country, the more goods need to be made, the more money flows through the hands of the most people. Heck, the more money people at the top make in the long run (as Will Rogers pointed out, money trickles UP). But they’d much rather have it NOW. And their Republican friends keep making sure they get it, don’t they… by taking it away from YOU. All this other stuff is just smoke and mirrors to keep you from noticing.

--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, April 25, 2024 "Biden vs. Trump- By the Numbers"

 

A Liberal Dose

April 25, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“Biden versus Trump -by the numbers”

 

Each week for the last month, I’ve had progressive friends in White County tell me, “you need to respond to what Marsha Blackburn said last week, it’s outrageous.” So far, I have held off -for fear it would be all I ever wound up doing. It would probably take two or three columns to fact-check each one coming from that quarter. However, I’ve decided to take a stab at it.

First off, she’s been talking a lot about the border, walls, and impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas (for not securing the border). That effort was tossed out of the Senate, justifiably, as it did not come anywhere close to approaching the impeachment requirement of high crimes or misdemeanors. The fact is, Blackburn and just about the entire Republican Party have abdicated any authority they have to complain about the border. A bipartisan, Republican-led bill from the Senate offered to give conservatives everything they ever dreamed of regarding border security, and it looked set to breeze through the House… until Donald Trump demanded that his Congressional supporters not pass it, because then the problem would have been solved under Biden’s watch and Trump would not have it as a campaign issue. That is not conjecture, it is established fact. So, at the command of their self-centered orange potentate, they undercut their own measure when it was otherwise assured of success. This proves that most Republican politicians don’t really want to solve that issue, they want to have it perpetually unsolved so they can blame Democrats for it. Well, they’re the ones holding that particular bag now, and sudden cries of concern and outrage over a problem they chose to allow only proves their hypocrisy.

She has spent the balance of her time lately talking about the economy, claiming it would be far better under Trump than Biden. Let’s look at some facts (easily verifiable by a quick google search), and compare how Trump did in his four years versus what Biden has done so far (through January, 2024).

America lost 2.9 million jobs under Trump. So far, they have gained 14.3 million under Biden. Unemployment rose 6.3% under Trump, but has fallen 3.7% under Biden. The economic growth rate fell 3.4% under Trump, but has risen 2.5% under Biden. America lost 154,000 manufacturing jobs under Trump, and has gained 790,000 under Biden. The trade deficit went up 40.5% under Trump (despite that being a main focus of his policies), and has gone up an additional 20.9% under Biden. The budget deficit is currently just a little more than half what it was in Trump’s last year. In Trump’s final year, the murder rate was the highest it had been in 25 years, but it has fallen year-by-year under Biden (this surprises people, as conservative media makes it sound like we are living through an “American carnage” level crime wave).

A few things haven’t changed much. The poverty rate has stayed roughly the same for the past decade, and the number of people on food assistance has gone down tiny bit by tiny bit in that same timeframe.

The one area where Biden is not doing so well is inflation. Prices on everything went way up during and immediately after Covid. The inflation rate has slowed way down since then… but the problem is that, once prices go UP, they can STOP going up as fast, but they almost never go back DOWN. As a result, “real wages” -adjusted for inflation -are lower than they were under Trump. This despite the fact that the stock market has surged and the economy has grown by leaps and bounds… but the average person doesn’t feel that, they are feeling the squeeze.

Here’s something important to take into consideration. It is not just the U.S. that experienced that inflation surge -it was the WHOLE WORLD. Supply chain shortages during Covid got the ball rolling, but price gouging by businesses increased the effects. Here’s how we know that’s true: corporate profits rose by 8.5% under Trump, but have risen 38% since Covid under Biden. That’s what has been causing the squeeze you feel, not Biden’s policies. Ask yourself this: do you really believe that Donald Trump would take any steps to correct for businesses maximizing their profits on your back? You know as well as I do that he’d find ways to help them do it more. In fact, those corporate leaders are hoping you’ll vote for him so they can get even more of your money.

--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, April 18, 2024 "Your Voice Doesn't Matter to Them"

 

A Liberal Dose

April 18, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“Your Voice Doesn’t Matter to Them”

 

Last month, for the first time in several years, I accompanied several of my United Campus Workers colleagues from across Tennessee to the state capital for “lobby day.” It happens every March; UCW members and various allies converge on Nashville to spend the day meeting with legislators and encouraging them to support a handful of bills that our union has decided we can get behind. In recent years, the action has always taken place during UT’s spring break, and that has not coincided with Tech’s, meaning I was teaching that day. This year, though, the stars aligned.

About ten years ago, UCW had a sustained campaign to try to get the Tennessee General Assembly to protect the Tennessee jobs threatened when our previous governor wanted to outsource all state building facilities jobs to a company in Chicago. For an entire semester, I went to Nashville every Tuesday (which I had off) with one or two fellow UCW members to talk to lawmakers one-on-one. A couple of folks I talked to last month remembered me from those days (and, by the way, the General Assembly came through for us back then, with a majority of them signing a letter to the governor opposing his plan).

We had several bills to promote this year, most of them things I would think most anybody would find worthwhile. There was a proposal (offered by Gloria Johnson) to significantly raise the minimum wage; there was one for free breakfast and lunch for public school students; there was one to establish six weeks of leave for employees who have taken on a new foster child. I talked with about a dozen legislators that day, all Republicans. Most of them (with one glaring -and rude -exception) were gracious and gave us a hearing, and a couple said they could support our initiatives if they made it out of committee and to the floor. I’d like to point out that this experience, and our union’s victory on the facilities workers issue, shows that you CAN still reach across the divide and find common ground on things if you try.

But then, at the end of the afternoon, I saw something that I found very disheartening -and a significant change from how things were just ten years ago.

Several of us sat in on the committee meeting where Johnson offered her minimum wage bill. She was near the end of the agenda, so we were there for the whole thing and saw several bills being presented, most of them from Democratic lawmakers (who have been a relatively small minority there for years, after having been the majority for decades before that). In each of these brief discussions, the single Democrat sitting on the committee in question asked relevant questions of the presenters about details.

Most of the rest of the committee, though, were sitting up there laughing and joking among themselves, or engaging in unrelated side conversations, talking over the presenter. The only time they turned their attention to the matter at hand was when the vote was called for and they said “no.” It was incredibly arrogant. The lawmaker who had been so rude to us in his office was on that committee; I had tried to tell him that there were studies which backed up our assertion that raising the minimum wage did not hurt the economy, and he’d said he had never heard of such studies. Johnson had one of my colleagues, a political economics professor from UT, testify about exactly such a study that day, and this guy and his colleagues talked over and ignored him the whole time.

Now, that guy didn’t surprise me. But as I have thought about that day since, and how respectful everyone else was to us, their constituents, on an individual level and yet how rude they were as a group, I’ve come to think it is reflective of a larger trend.

It’s hard to be rude to someone looking you right in the eye -in part because you see their humanity. But many Republicans in our legislature have gotten so used to thinking they have all the power, they no longer even acknowledge, much less listen to, voices from the other side. It no longer matters what you say, or what you want or need. If you are not in lockstep with them, you don’t matter.

Let’s all get to the ballot box in November and show them that theirs is not the only voice in this state.

--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, April 11, 2024 "Stop the Death-March of Education in This State"

A Liberal Dose

April 11, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“Stop the death march of education in this state”

 

This weekend I spoke with Matthew Hawn (for reasons I will explain below). When comparing notes, we realized we both graduated from Tennessee Tech twenty years ago next month, and that we had many of the same professors and were even in some of the same classes, so we must have crossed paths. I was a History and English major and he was an Education major, so we may not have traveled the same social orbits… but we are aware of each other now, and the fact we have so much in common makes that even more noteworthy.

Matthew spent sixteen years teaching at the Sullivan County High School, including a class he taught for over ten years called “Contemporary Topics.” He was beloved by his students, and had never given anyone cause for complaint. Until the Tennessee General Assembly passed the so-called “critical race theory” and “divisive concepts” laws, and he actually discussed race (and assigned a reading by noted African American author Ta-Nehisi Coates) to his high school students. He became the first Tennessee educator to be fired under those laws (making national news -as is usual for Tennessee lately, not in a good way).

Tennessee is not the only state with such laws (but all the ones who do can accurately be described as red states). There are several. Other legislation has been put forward all around the country seeking to muzzle public educators, both in K12 and higher ed, and control what they teach and how they teach it where race, gender, or really almost any kind of minority status, are concerned.

Several concerned individuals and groups in Tennessee -including the Tennessee Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Tennessee chapter of the American Indian Movement-Indian Territory -have come together in recent months to create an informal organization called the Tennessee Coalition for Truth in Education (TCTE) with the goal of educating Tennesseans about these laws and their consequences. One of their first actions was a webinar (which was recorded and can be found on youtube by searching the organization’s name) featuring a couple of legal experts.

A larger, nationwide group has also formed recently -with members including AAUP chapters, higher ed unions, and student organizations from across the country -with the goal of organizing a “National Day of Action for Higher Ed for the Public Good” on April 17. Campuses in multiple states will be involved, directing interested parties to view a national live “teach-in” at 4pm Central that day, and/or other events geared toward local needs.

That’s where Matthew Hawn comes in.

The TCTE (check above if you get your acronyms confused, I’m slinging around a lot of them!) is sponsoring, at 6pm Central on April 17, a live educational webinar that will be promoted by participating organizations across Tennessee. The webinar will feature Hawn, telling his story, giving context, and answering a couple of questions. Really interested parties could watch both the 4pm national event and (or) the 6pm state one. You can learn more about the national teach-in at www.dayofactionforhighered.org , and about the Matthew Hawn presentation at www.facebook.com/TN.Coalition.4Truth .

Here is a quote from the Day of Action group: “Institutions of higher education serve to educate the public and to help generate the reliable information, broad-ranging knowledge, and reasoned analysis that a democratic society requires. Colleges and universities are spaces where research and ideas—including challenging ones—are subject to rigorous study and critical evaluation. In the interest of democracy, our educational institutions must be allowed to function free from interference by politicians, CEOs, and lobbyists seeking to repress inquiry.”

 

The folks who cry the loudest about so-called “cancel culture” want to cancel any educational, intellectual, or philosophical discourse that makes them uncomfortable -when making people uncomfortable is what education is FOR. If all it does is make you comfortable, it is not education, it is indoctrination.

 

I’ll close with a quote from the TCTE: “We are the only people who can stop the death march of education in this state.”

 

Get involved. Ask questions. Pressure your politicians. Be prepared to CHANGE your politicians if they continue to hamstring the education of our young people.

 

--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, March 28, 2024 "The Power of Quiet Democrats"

 

A Liberal Dose

March 28, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“The power of quiet Democrats”

 

Back in the summer of 2021, I did a series of columns in this newspaper called “When White County Was Blue.” I was musing about the fact that, for most of my life, White County was so solidly Democratic that for all intents and purposes the Democratic Primary was the real election (for virtually all offices), and the general election only a technicality. I’m going to share a lengthy quote from the first column in that series:

“I looked at the presidential results in White County for every election between 1900 and 2020. Allow me to tell you how many times the Republican carried White County in the 20th century (25 elections).

“Twice.

“The first time was in 1972: Nixon vs. McGovern. Nixon won 60% to 37% (I will give all the results in terms of percentages)... Still, it was closer in White County than it was nationwide, where the margin was 68% to 30%. The only other time was 1988, when Bush, Sr. beat Dukakis on the national stage 58% to 42%. In White County, though, Bush’s victory was razor-thin: 50% to 49%, or a margin of only 82 votes…

“Reagan won Tennessee both times (1980 & 1984), but not White County. Bill Clinton won by large margins both times. Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee to Bush, but he won White County 53% to 45%. But in 2004 Bush beat Kerry, 56% to 44% -the numbers were reversed. Obama lost in 2008 63% to 35%, 68% to 31% in 2012. Trump won 78% to 19% in 2016, 81% to 18% in 2020.”

White County’s “red” status is relatively recent. A lot of folks who have moved here in the last 20 years might never have guessed that, and I guess a lot of people who are from here but under 30 might not have known it. I think a lot of folks who are from here but are over 30 have FORGOTTEN it, and forgotten which ticket they themselves used to punch.

Nowadays, it seems that only about one out of every five voters in White County votes Democratic. That’s not many. But let’s take a look at some actual numbers where registered voters are concerned.

In the 2020 presidential election, there were 16,637 registered voters in White County. Of those, 11,929 actually turned out -or about72%. By the time of the 2022 midterms, there were 17,350 voters, out of whom 7,033 turned out -or 40.5%. Smaller turnout when the White House is not at stake is the norm. But think about that total number of registered voters -17,350. If the one-in-five ratio holds up, that means there are about 3,500 Democratic-leaning voters in this county. 3,500 people in a place this size is NOT an insignificant number.

And I hear from them.

Some of them are people who’ve moved in (though the majority of people moving in lately have been conservatives from blue states). Many are younger people from here who have more progressive or liberal ideas than the majority. And a good many of them are people my age or older, who never did switch over to supporting Republicans. A lot of those people are quiet about their political beliefs, being in the minority -but they’re there. Turnout among registered Democrats tends to be small in rural Tennessee counties -because they are discouraged. They know their preferred presidential candidates have very little chance of winning here.

But you know what? A couple of thousand here and a couple of thousand there, added to the Democratic majorities in large cities, can make a HUGE difference in a statewide race (governor or U.S. senator). It could help send Marsha Blackburn home at the end of this year, and pick up a seat in the Senate for Democrats.

So if you’re a quiet Democrat… don’t be discouraged. Get out and vote. Your vote CAN make a difference.

--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, March 21, 2024 "Trump Promises a Bloodbath for the Country"

 

A Liberal Dose

March 21, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“Trump Promises a Bloodbath for the Country”

 

As I write these words (four days before you will read them), everyone is talking about some controversial statements made yesterday in Ohio by Donald Trump (imagine that). One of those statements concerns undocumented immigrants:

“I don’t know if you call them people,” Trump said. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Well, it is a terrible thing to say. About anybody. Because claiming that some people don’t count as people -similarly to calling groups of people “vermin,” as Trump has done repeatedly -is something authoritarians have frequently done throughout history (one authoritarian in particular, a little fellow with a funny mustache). It is a tactic to dehumanize members of that group -to “other” them, as sociologists and anthropologists say -in order to make it easier to hate them. And to kill them. It wouldn’t REALLY count as killing, you see, since they are not human.

But his next statements are what people have been talking about the most. While discussing the future of the auto industry, he said, “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

The media, and Trump’s political opponents, have pointed to these words as a dire warning: that Trump is predicting, and even calling for, violence if he loses. Trump, and his defenders, say those complaints are taken out of context and twisting his words, that what he meant (in his colorful way) was that the auto industry would be destroyed by Biden’s policies. And, looking at it in context, that very well may have been what he was trying to say.

But, gee, why would people be prone to take him at his literal word with things like this?

Maybe it is because of the strong tendency he has shown to issue dog whistles to his most violent followers, phrased in such a way as to have plausible deniability but clearly evident to his intended audience. And sometimes it is bullhorns, not dog whistles: promising to pay the legal expenses of his followers if they beat up protesters (when, as we know, he doesn’t even pay his own legal bills), suggesting that the police intentionally injure people when they arrest them, calling for the U.S. military to shoot down peaceful protesters in the streets. And, whether it’s Trump or his cronies saying it… people listen.

Remember the guy who shot up a pizza place because right-wing media claimed that Hillary Clinton was running a child prostitution ring in its (nonexistent) basement? The guy who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s house and cracked her husband’s skull with a hammer? I don’t know, the couple of thousand people who stormed the Capitol threatening to hang Mike Pence?

Some Republican senators privately admitted that they did not vote to convict Trump in his January 6^th impeachment because they literally feared for their families’ lives from his supporters. So have some judges. Anyone who opposes him gets massive amounts of death threats… and we’ve all seen evidence it is not hyperbole.

Study after study has shown that political violence is on the rise in this country. The Anti-Defamation League reported there were 450 murders committed by political extremists in the U.S. in the last decade -20% by Muslim extremists, 4% by people on the left wing… and 75% by right-wing extremists. This is backed up by studies done by the FBI, the Global Terrorism Database, and other sources.

Just like on January 6^th, Trump does not physically do anything (he rarely does, come to think of it, in any context)… but his words have done a LOT. And still do.

Donald Trump’s mouth has already created a bloodbath in this country. And he keeps ratcheting it up.

--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