Race to the Bottom

This was supposed to be no race at all. That’s how the insiders saw it, one year ago.

Bill Hagerty and his pals figured it would all be over before it even started. But Manny Sethi didn’t get that memo. On Wednesday, Politico magazine called Tennessee’s GOP Senate primary the “nastiest Republican primary in the country.”

What happened? Let’s review…

1.    The Senate seat in question is the one held since 2002 by Lamar Alexander, the only Tennessean in history to be elected both Governor and Senator. Eighteen months ago, when Alexander announced his retirement in January 2021, his office became an “open seat” - and a must-hold for the national Republicans, so narrow is their controlling majority in that upper chamber. 

2.    Hagerty, who was then President Trump’s ambassador to Japan, looked in the mirror and believed he saw the next senator from Tennessee. One year ago, Trump himself threw Hagerty’s hat in the ring for him – an unorthodox move, to be sure, but then Trump is an unorthodox president. Hagerty thus became Trump’s Chosen One. The president’s push would surely carry him to the nomination (which will be decided on Thursday).

3.    Soon after this, Sethi, a trauma surgeon, declared he would run also. Over the past year, he has garnered support from some of the Tennessee GOP’s other activists, including the former congressmen Ed Bryant of Jackson and Zach Wamp of Chattanooga. A key adviser is the former state party chair Susan Richardson-Williams of Knoxville. His campaign claims the race is now close.

These circumstances have made for a curious primary battle, and one that says much about what high-level Republican politics has come to in both our state and nation.

The Alexander seat still seems a safe one for the GOP to hold. But, on this final weekend before the primary, we might have appreciated knowing a little more about these two men.

When it comes to party primaries (especially when picking nominees for national office) the old saw is: “Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line.” When Trump and Hagerty made it official a year ago, there was much falling in line among the current first tier of the new Republican Party. Since that time, Sethi has at least made the contest more interesting. 

Hagerty, in fact, has a sterling history in business and public service. Sethi, too, has a solid record of accomplishments in his medical field. You would never know it. We don’t hear much about either man just listening to the opposition advertising that has flooded Tennessee media markets. Their messages are only about adherence to the Trump line now.

You may be wondering: When was the candidate debate for such a high office, where we might have learned more about their minds, their ideas for government, what principles are most important to guide our country now, how they think through problems? Forget it. That debate never happened. (Sethi asked. Hagerty declined.)

But this race in Tennessee is one where voters would have been better served by a properly formatted, well-moderated joint appearance by these two candidates. The kind where those cute consultant-penned zingers aren’t enough, where good reporters on a panel might persist with follow-up questions getting to straight answers to questions of national policy. 

Voters who don’t know them personally don’t have much basis for decision-making beyond TV commercials. Left unspoken are what the two men – each one obviously accomplished, clearly well-educated, highly respected over their careers – actually think about anything other than Trump. So it has gone for the past year.

Time was, not so long ago in Tennessee, a candidate’s familiarity with Asia and the opportunities it gave Tennessee for new manufacturing jobs (think Japan, and Nissan) was seen as a badge of honor. Today, among national Republicans anyway, not so much.

Time was, there was better acceptance in the political class of new Americans (such as Sethi’s own parents, who came from India). No longer. Immigration is now a radioactive word among Republican politicians. Sad, but true.

You would think these two accomplished men might be talking about substantive topics, that a real leader might have an idea for making our state and our nation stronger. Not so.

What structural reforms would you favor to help heal the economy? (Silence.) What about NATO, and nuclear disarmament, and Russia? (Crickets.) What of poverty and hunger and racial justice? (Say what?) Answering any of those might risk running athwart the Trump Doctrine (whatever that is).

You would think that Hagerty and Sethi, two men who otherwise seem ready to serve, might have had more to say to us than their constant references to our sitting president, modeling him and his behavior. Instead, this primary race, at an early point, became flush with fear - fear of Trump, especially, but also their fear of engaging the better part of the rest of us.

This primary has been a race to the bottom.

© Keel Hunt, 2020