Welcome to The Trousdale County Democratic Party Web Site

The purpose of the Trousdale County Democratic Party is to inform the public on issues of importance to the community and encourage particpation in elections.

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This is my first attempt at writing a blog.  I am going to try to tell you about the current transportation system we have in our county and how the Democrats could improve this system if we elect more state representatives and senators.  As things now stand, we have a grid that has largely remained the same over the past 50 years.  There are no 4 lane roads in the county access to the nearest interstate highways are in adjoining counties. In Hartsville access to the old industrial center near the convenience center passes through a residential area from Andrew Avenue or off Halltown Road.  Large trucks frequently travel to the businesses in this area. This is a potential safety problem for the residential area.

Because we have too few businesses in this county the majority of our workforce is employed outside the county.  This fact contributes to several issues. First those commuting to employers outside the county must spend longer commute times to get to their jobs. That means less time to spend at home and less time to contribute to the community within the county. Secondly because commuting distances are longer, there are greater travel costs.  Of course, Trousdale Countians traveling to nearby counties contributes to the congestion and increased travel problems experienced by our neighbors.

Given the limited state highway construction budgets and the lack of an effective mass public transport systems I believe that Democrats would make much needed improvements in our transportation systems. Given the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill now winding its way through Congress is likely to pass, it should provide a source of funding for new highway construction and expansion of public transportation systems.  There is a heavy emphasis on highway construction.  The current legislature has devoted most of its road construction resources on larger counties like Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner County.  I believe electing more Democrats to the legislature will provide a more balanced perspective to undertaking improvement in roads in our smaller county and to improve public transportation in our larger neighboring counties reducing congestion in our out of county commutes.

Lastly, we need to address the safety problem I mentioned earlier in this blog.  When I was serving on the County Commission, the mayor and the commission tried to address this problem.  In evaluating the cost of providing a safe access road to the area the cost of construction just defeated our efforts.  Clearly with additional funding available at the state level, this becomes possible but only if we elect Democratic legislators who will aver for it as a high priority.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.  If I get a positive response, I will write more.

Jim Falco

Secretary/Treasurer

Trousdale County Democratic party

Well it took me long enough to write but here is my second blog.

I wanted to focus my second blog on health care. Since I published my first blog the situation has changed dramatically. We now have a variety of treatments for the Covid 19 virus, but we have fully vaccinated just under two thirds of the population of the United States and just over half of all Tennesseans. As a result of the low vaccination rate, the most recent mutation of the virus is a much more contagious strain, and the epidemic has become endemic. That means it is here to stay. It will become like the flu virus. Unfortunately, hospitalization rates and death rates are much higher than for the flu.

Democrats are more supportive of Public Health Institutions than our friends on the other side of the aisle. We need to provide more financial support to our local and state public health departments and to shore up confidence in our health professionals. We need to make sure the appointment of health professionals stops being a political matter. Health outcomes should be the basis for assessment of these departments not the one liners of the day.

So, what should state and federal governments do at this point? They should continue the effort to get people vaccinated and continue to develop medications that alleviate the symptoms of this disease. The issue of quarantining those testing positive remains a decisive one. Suffice it to say that governments have had the authority to quarantine people with a variety of diseases from biblical times. If folks think this violates their freedom of movement, it does. It is also true that people do not have the right to injure or kill others by infecting them.  The authority to quarantine should rest with our public health departments at the state and local level and not with governors’ offices.

Mask mandating is another divisive issue. The argument for mask mandates is the same as for quarantining. While individual folks might like to smoke in places, they do not have the right to expose others to that smoke in public places by exhaling contaminated air. To those who argue that masks are not effective ask them if they would like their doctor to operate on them without a mask the next time they need surgery. I will bet very few would think that this a good idea.

To summarize then, like global warming, we are past the time when we can eliminate this problem. Like temperature rise, this virus is here to stay. We need to move on to mitigate the effects of this disease and limit its spread as best we can, so that our health system does not become overwhelmed with it.

Jim Falco

Secretary/Treasurer

Trousdale County Democratic party