John Shelton Wilder was laid to rest yesterday in Fayette County. Many Tennesseans didn't stop to notice a man who had more influence on their lives in his years of public service than perhaps anyone in State government, including the Governor himself. Many would argue that Wilder had more actual power under Tennessee's constitutional system than did the six Governors under which he served. John Wilder's mark on Tennessee and on the Senate which he loved with a passion that its very committee system and rules of operation are largely creatures of his influence, and the very Legislative Plaza where most committee meetings take place didn't exist when Wilder began his long service.
John Wilder was a West Tennessee Democrat of the old school, truly one of the last of his kind in our State. He was, certainly by modern standards, a cultural conservative, but was also a pro-business economic moderate who embraced the New Deal and who established a reputation as being in favor of civil rights at a time when embracing equality of opportunity for African-Americans wasn't a popular position among Democrats, especially in West Tennessee. Wilder would forever gain the loyalty of many black voters in Fayette County-which had a black majority when Wilder started his public service on what was then called the Fayette County Court- because he allowed for black tenant farmers who were pressing for their right to vote to stay on his land when many were evicted from their homes. Wilder was also known for fairer dealings with African-American tenant farmers with whom he did business.
A cotton planter and lawyer by profession, John Wilder admitted in his farewell address to the Tennessee Senate in 2008 not only how much he loved the upper chamber, but that the Senate was where he believed he had made the most difference in his life. Indeed, much of Tennessee's modern road system, as well as our dramatic improvements in education over the last three decades have John Wilder largely to thank for their existence. It was one of the great ironies of his life that Wilder spent much of it as one of the last great relics of the "old Tennessee" while helping to bring the Tennessee that we know today into existence.
John Wilder often liked to talk about how he ran things in a way that was above partisanship and that he didn't think the Senate was much of a place for partisan politics. "The Senate is the Senate" Wilder used to say, which was a Wilderism for "I'm running the Senate my way." One of the biggest reasons Wilder's Senates were known for bipartisanship is that Wilder remained in power because of a bipartisan coalition forged in January of 1987, when Wilder's own Democratic Caucus nominated then-Senator Riley Darnell for Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate. Wilder then managed to orchestrate a coup d'etat by getting the nomination of the Senate Republican Caucus, and 15 Republican votes along with 6 Democratic defectors kept Wilder in power.
Wilder was often at his most partisan when attempting to advocate for so-called "non-partisanship," as was the case with his Tennessee Plan for selecting State judges. In order to keep "partisan politics" out of the judiciary, John Wilder pushed through a plan which allowed for a commission to select judges and voters to then retain the judges most never saw or knew anything about by Yes/No retention votes. This is a blatant violation of the Tennessee Constitution, which clearly calls for elected judges. The reason we still do not elect judges today-in violation of our State's supreme law-is largely because of John Wilder's original "Tennessee Plan." The selection as opposed to election of judges has led to one of the South's most liberal and arguably Democratic-partisan judiciaries, and may be the most glaring black mark on Wilder's largely stellar political legacy.
Rather than a mere backroom deal between Ron Ramsey and Rosalind Kurita that defeated Wilder in 2007 and ended his long reign as Lieutenant Governor, Wilder's reaction to the Tennessee Waltz bribery and corruption sting may have done more to contribute to his ultimate political demise as anything else. After the conspirators were ushered out of the Capitol in handcuffs, Wilder went on to declare before the Senate that this was "not God's way" and attempt to say that the corrupted officials were "trapped." After he left public office, Wilder would later tell the Union City Messenger that “they set little traps for me, but I didn’t get in them," suggesting that "they" set a trap for the people who ended up in prison.
While John Wilder's later political legacy may be marred by an attempt to simply hang on too long, Wilder has left a permanent mark on the way Tennessee does political business. When the history books are written, it will be said an many ways that John Wilder made certain things about our State government be the way that they are.
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