Had a nice comment today where I had a person who they very likely disagree with me, but they certainly weren’t disagreeable. And My response was getting a little long and detailed, but I thought worthwhile enough to raise to the top level:
Full transparency, I usually find your articles very biased in favor of establishment politicians aka lifers/career politicians campaigning to keep representing South Dakota, which tends to infuriate me considering you are conservative (I think?!) so we must have different definitions of conservative considering your die hard stance in support of Thune and Dusty despite neither of them voting like they are true conservatives. Regardless, I want to let you know I actually really enjoyed this post and agree with your commentary regarding the signs. I also think the subject matter is valuable and worth writing about.
I hope to meet you one day so I can pick your brain about your choice of politicians to support. If a Republican conservative challenger advertises on your website will this impact your opinion or underlying opinion in your posts? I think you have a good personality and I do find your content worthy of reading and original, which is hard to come by in a world of copy and paste. For what it’s worth, thank you for sharing the ins and outs of all things politics for South Dakota.
And In response, I offer the following to Mary –
Thank you for comments. I’ve had people advertise on my site whom I don’t support or agree with and that’s ok. Advertisements do not affect editorial policy. If they want to advertise, they certainly can, but it’s not going to change my mind.
And I certainly do consider myself conservative, as when I started in politics as well as when I started this website, the political universe was a lot different. A lot of it is perspective. There were fights on even having a pro-life statement in the GOP Platform, and an effort was out there to push out conservatives with a group called the “mainstream moderates” (man, that takes me back). And those who stood against them were the hardcore conservatives.
Now, 16 years later, the same people who fought against the mainstream moderates are now being derided as liberals and RINO’s. I suspect for those who are considered the hardcore conservatives now who can survive in the elections and government.. there will come a point in the future where they’ll be derided as liberals.
Now you might not consider the incumbents conservative, but in what universe is Kristi Noem not the most conservative Governor we’ve ever had? How is Pro-life, pro-2nd amendment Christian Senator John Thune or Mike Rounds not considered conservative for their views?
Or, what about Dusty Johnson? After they disagreed on a funding mechanism for the border wall, President Donald Trump himself endorsed him. I don’t think a lot of people consider Donald Trump Liberal.
Sometimes for those incumbents when they vote on legislation, or have to make a decision on the worst issues, where there’s no winning side. Depending on what side of the issue you’re on, it’s bad choice A or bad choice B. Having to pick the least bad choice doesn’t make them liberal. It just means they have to deal with the reality of governing.
The reason that they are incumbents is that they are good at communicating their message and in running a campaign, AND enjoy the popular support of a majority of the citizens of the state. Do I agree with them 100% of the time? No. I wish I would get my way 100% of the time. But even when I don’t get my way, I have always found them to be good people. Why do I support them?
Dusty Johnson is a childhood friend of my brother’s, and I’ve known him for decades. He would admit himself that he can be a little nerdy and a policy wonk, but he’s engaged in the process to improve government, authentic, a good person, and I respect him. He’s shown he can win elections.
I worked for John Thune when I was with the State Republican party many years ago. There’s a story I remember at the time about a bunny in his yard in Pierre that still makes me chuckle. No one has worked harder to make South Dakota Republicans be successful throughout their political career as John Thune. Again, a tremendously good person. He has his mentor’s (Jim Abdnor) knack for remembering people. And again, authentic.
When she first ran, I helped a candidate run in a primary against Kristi Noem in her first race for the State Legislature, and found out quickly what a force of nature she is to be reckoned with. I remember the GOP State office staff at the time remarking on her campaign savvy and work ethic. She’s tremendously sharp, a phenomenal speaker, has a wicked sense of humor and again, she’s a nice person. She takes an unbelievable number of rocks being thrown at her, but slugs them off and keeps pressing on.
She’s also very empathetic, which I’ve observed in her work on disability issues, where she’s made things happen that previous governors chose not to. Doesn’t mean they were bad, but she was willing to push back against the big hospitals & insurers. She is genuine in her support to help kids & families.
In each of those cases, those are a few of the reasons why I strongly support them to remain in their jobs. For their challengers, that doesn’t mean they are necessarily bad people, but I do not believe they possess the qualities that have made Dusty Johnson, John Thune and Kristi Noem successful in their political careers.
Does that make me biased towards those who are considered “the establishment” politicians? I don’t view them through that lens, as much as I support them to remain doing the job for South Dakotans because they are good people.
I’m not saying our leaders are Hitler, before anyone wants to knee jerk.
That said, I’m sure there are some legislators, who, unbeknownst to them are pursuing course of political totalitarian philosophy (this would be the advisor, lobbyist class that are foisting or duping it upon them I imagine).
But I do put this here for your consideration as an example of why “dear leader” is not worthy of support simply for being a leader.
Also, this serves as an example of why we should be in constant communication (in good faith) to reconcile ideas and confirm better courses of thought.
That is all.
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/germans-supported-hitler-part-1/
Then ya gotta stop deleting comments just because …[deleted]
You have a first amendment right to say whatever you want- shocker you don’t have a right to control how a private platform is well
I’m not making a 1st amendment argument, ya dingus
True that on both of the above comments. Our politics are indeed tending towards totalitarianism in bad ways. Basically, the leftists are trying to build a prison state in which they control everything, but using different tools and means of power than in the mid-20th century. Instead of starting with direct state control, they are starting with the media, big tech, the schools, kow-towing corporations like Disney, professional organizations, the WEF, and then flipping those institutions and, then moving into the state as a final step. Too many Republicans continue to write all this off as though it were 1990s-style PCism rather than an attempt at cultural revolution.
Fortunately, the left overplayed its hand so badly in the wake of the George Floyd killing and covid that the public has begun to wake up to all of these forces, which previously had been more glacial in nature. The proverbial frog in the pot has realized it’s being boiled. There’s still a lot of waking up to do. But the process has started for sure.
Which brings us to this thread. Which side are the state’s lawmakers and this blog going to be on? SOME Republicans in this state and AT TIMES this website have been dabbling in trying to mobilize leftist forms of cultural power against their enemies (public shaming identity politics type stuff), I think not appreciating that they’re playing with fire. Doing this is going to play into the hands of the leftists, who are the common enemy of all sane people. It’s also going to alienate the growing number of people who rightly recognize that unhinged leftism is the greatest threat facing us right now. It dwarfs climate change, for example. Climate change will be bad. But it will pale in comparison to having our institutions overrun by righteous, know-nothing female totalitarians, which is what radical leftism has in store for us. People will continue to sense this, and support politicians who will fight it.