It’s a few days early, but on Sunday, South Dakota War College will be 18 years old. As far as blogs go, with a typical life of 2 years, in comparison Dakotawarcollege is practically an octogenarian. Methuselah, even.
It’s hard to wrap my arms around the concept of this lasting 18 years. This website is just a few months younger than my #6 child, but older than my youngest. It has been a constant presence (or annoyance, if you’d prefer) in South Dakota politics since the start.
As people ask me about it, it rose from the ashes of when blogs drove coverage of the Thune/Daschle race, and while they were talking about federal races, the State and Local races were always my bread and butter. And it seems that for many of the readers, it is your cup of tea as well. I do talk about federal races more now, but as the people who moved through the state and local system moved up in the world, they brought us along for the ride.
Think about during the last 18 years.. when you had people such as Dusty Johnson who over that time went from working for the Governor, to the Public Utilities Commission, back to the Gov’s office as chief of staff, and then to Washington as a very popular Congressman. I have a daughter who was in Kindergarten when I started, and now works in Dusty’s DC office as a staffer. We’ve all grown and changed over the years. Covering South Dakota politics has been no different as people and movements have come and gone.
When I started, being a blogger, I was looked at like I came from the cast of Freaks. When I was working in Pierre, I had people who would actively walk to the other side of the back lot at the Capitol because they didn’t want to cross my path and be spoken to. I had those above me who would make overtly adversarial comments about my writing my website in my personal time, as if it could affect my employment… and then their boss would clap me on the back the next day and tell me how much they enjoyed my website. A little schizophrenic at times.
When I began writing at my computer, despite having been active in the GOP for over 15 years at the time, GOP would, at times, treat me as radioactive. I’m happy to say that for quite some time, the relationship has been much better. Everyone is more comfortable with being open and talking about things. 18 years ago, we had Democrats to fight with… and now we mainly fight among ourselves because there are no more Democrats.
In our early years, we were talking about the nutty politics of Rapid City… and nevermind. We’re still talking about that. Maybe things haven’t changed that much.
I could go on, and on, but I’m not ready for that kind of retrospective yet.
Glad to be still here and on the interwebs, and I have you, the reader to thank for it.
Congratulations on your 18 years! Amazing accomplishment!