Larry Pressler has dropped all pretense after this last years’ election where he lost badly against Senator Mike Rounds, and is openly on the attack against Republicans:
Pressler fielded several questions from enthusiastic students in the audience over the 75-minute discussion period. Most regarded state government and voter apathy. He urged the young students to work to increase voter turnout among young adults, as well as eliminate the Republican stranglehold on South Dakota politics.
“Our Legislature gets a little too far to the right sometimes,” said Pressler. “The moderate center is where all the problems are solved.”
Pressler said the conservative South Dakota Legislature should consider implementing a state income tax, allow for gay civil unions and reconsider the new raised speed limit.
But it gets better. Why did we not elect the buffoonish Pressler, who when formerly in office availed himself of all its trappings? Well, gol durn it , the unwashed masses have too much information available:
Unlike many politicians, Pressler blamed new technology for creating a sphere of ignorance around local government. He said the reliance on global news outlets limits public awareness at the local level.
“Nowadays with computers, people think they know a lot more about politics than they do,” Pressler said. “We might know all about the problems in Ferguson, Missouri, but we don’t know about the problems on Native American reservations in South Dakota.”
Did he really say that? “with computers, people think they know a lot more about politics than they do.”
The fact of the matter is that politicians who could formerly thrive when no one in their home state knew what they were doing were quickly made extinct as the 24 hour news cycle and the Internet emerged. They can’t get away with doing and saying things in a vacuum.
So, Larry lost. And it was all the fault of Republicans and computers. Basically, Larry blames honesty and information.
Somehow, society will just have to suffer under their yoke.
actually, i understand what he’s getting at with the information comment. my town webcasts all city council meetings, and school board meetings, and there’s the state legislature webcast as well. i try to avail myself of all of it. outside of places like this blog, with its engaged contributors (and trolls), few people are actively seeking accurate information and engaging themselves at all levels, local state and federal. as for the comment on “the moderate middle is where problems are solved,” well isn’t that a sideways rendering of the complaint that hard-right conservatives loft against the gop leadership, that they’re too moderate and middle-ish? they’re certainly running things, regardless of “stranglehold” this or “oligarchy” that.
In a way, it is kind of sad.
He is correct we know more about Ferguson MO, than we know about Winner. However, it is the media coverage of the events that is to blame. It is too sad that he doesn’t recognize it.
However he does make point, most of us know who our President is, but not who sits on the county commission (some people have a hard time knowing what county they are in)
This is not the fault of technology. It is the people who are not engaged in the process.
Winner is not on a reservation.
I am a strong Republican and remember the days when it was ok to vote for Larry. He has served this country with honor and distinction so calling him “bafoonish” is a little over the line. Do I agree with hin on all of the issues certainly not, but that is what makes this country great we can agree to disagree. In comparison, Mr Powers was tapped to serve this state and left in disgrace- for not inderstanding the meaning of “conflict of interest” and instead of making the bosses job easier, throwing him into the fire. Who truely is the bafoon here. When asked to make a moral decision the then Senator Pressler turned down the money instead of Pat who said show me the money.
A couple points of clarification.
You misspelled buffoon.
And you have factual errors on literally everything you wrote.
If he is acting like a buffoon now, why is it over the line. He may have been “ok” at one time, but now he is a socialist who has no foundation but goes whichever way the wind blows to try to retain any little relevance he currently has in this world.
John McCain served his country in the military with distinction and was a war hero who suffered greatly thanks to the likes of Hanoi Jane, but it is not over the line to call him an idiot for what he has been doing the past 20 years.
Doing something good at one time does not forever insulate you from being accurately called a buffoon later on.
Question mark after my first sentence in the above post.
The defense of Pressler by Anonymous is interesting. I’m curious how you reconcile the apparent hypocrisy between the positions he claimed to hold when he was running for office, versus the positions he now advocates? Also, given how poorly he treated most of his staff, I’d tread lightly on immortalizing him as a person. Those of us who worked for Jim Abdnor felt sorry for what the Pressler staff people had to put up with.
Rep Schoenbeck, how is anonymous above’s defense any different than that which is routinely employed here of today’s moderates?
Pressler shows his own ignorance of SD affairs by claiming SD legislature is conservative. Raising taxes/fees, increasing government, opposing gun rights, supporting Common Core, supporting illegal immigration, supporting LGBT agenda, etc., all distinct signs the legislature is not conservative. Distinctly unRepublican.
Hypocrisy? Huh, would you call the predominately Republican state legislature’s recent raising of the gas tax by 6 cents a gallon, the raising of vehicle licensing fees by 20%, and allowing the Regents to raise tuition during the last legislative session to be a hypocrisy relative to the Republican mantras of “no new taxes,” “less taxes,” and even “cutting taxes”…. or not?….. Oh, I get it, as long as you are not raising taxes, which truly impact the rich, then you can proclaim you are not hypocritical…. is that it?
So Larry is probably for limiting the information available to American citizens, for their own good of course. He is surely getting senile.
i’m guessing pressler sees a world where a group of people read a few books by mark levin or glenn beck, and then go off insanely half-cocked on just one or two cherry-picked facts from a rather complex news story. i’d guess he thinks a lot of people are self-limiting already. that’s actually somewhat accurate.