South Dakota War College celebrating 16 years in the blogosphere!

Recognizing that we’ve been kicking around for a while, South Dakota War College (or if you use the shorthand, dakotawarcollege) turns an incredible 16 years old on this coming Friday.   To celebrate, I’ll be writing, blogging, taking pictures, etc., from the State Capital Building in Pierre, the city where it all started.

When many political blogs fizzle out after a couple of years, somehow we’ve managed to stay active and relevant for more than a decade and 1/2 in the South Dakota political scene. While it’s not “Gold Watch” worthy, nowadays, I think keeping anything going for 16 years is a considerable amount of time.

It’s long enough to go from a 17 inch monitor on a PC I built myself to my Imac with a 27 inch screen. And long enough I find myself starting to use “office glasses” this year.

It’s really funny when I note my children who weren’t even in school/barely in school when I was starting to write the blog now relate that they run in to fellow college kids who find out their blog-related parentage and declare “that’s your dad, he’s awesome!”  To which they respond “Stop. No he’s not. He’s boring and spends all his time behind a computer.”

Or better yet, the questioner’s eyes get narrow, and my child gets a terse “So, your dad is Pat Powers who writes the blog.  Hmmph.”  One daughter usually smiles and replies in her pollyanish manner “Well, if you hate my dad, my mom is liked by a lot of people.”

Apparently you can’t please everyone. (As I check my back for tire tracks after all that rolling under the bus by my children.)

And maybe, one of they keys to my being around for as long as I have is that I haven’t really worried too much about pleasing people. I’m going to write about what I choose. Whether people are enthused about that or not.

When I started this back 16 years ago, I was working for State Government, and I actually had pressure from a high ranking staff member in offices on the 2nd floor that they didn’t want me writing it.  Blogs were new, and a lot of people were … uneasy with citizen journalism.  They actually went to my cabinet level boss at the time and told them they didn’t want me writing it.  To my boss’ eternal credit, as he related to me, “I told them it’s on your own time, and you have a first amendment right.”  (I believe he might have used the words “f.o.” if you know what the abbreviation is for.)

In my first year or two, I also get kicked out of a Republican Central Committee meeting, with the pronouncement to the crowd “There is a blogger in the room, and we have to ask him to leave.”

In the intervening years, the newness of citizen journalism has worn off, and people’s comfort level has improved somewhat, as you can tell from the Republican candidates and groups who now advertise here.  For the GOP, I’ve gone from getting kicked out of their meetings to a recognition that there’s a lot of the GOP opinion leaders who actively read the website, and it’s a good way to communicate their message to the people they want to read it.

With 16 years under my belt and looking towards the future, there have been times I’ve gotten bored with it. I even turned it over to others for a period for job purposes. But just when you think you’re out…. they pull you back in.

This blog has always and ultimately been about getting elected. When this started way back in 2005, my inaugural message noted “There are tons of good Republican candidates out there, but many of them lack someone to show them the way. Hopefully, this weblog can serve as a reference for campaign “newbies” and those with some experience to use as something to get them pointed in the right direction.”

Since then, I’ve gone far, far beyond that to talk more about what’s going on in the South Dakota political world, but I think the base message still resonates to those who have an interest in running for office.

If I can communicate anything to candidates, it’s to remind them to try to avoid doing foolish (or offensive) things. You’re running to convince not the 20% of people who are with you, but the 80% of people who are not, that you represent their best opportunity for a better future.  Be inspirational and aspirational.

Hopefully, that’s good advice.  Here’s to 16 more years, and we’ll see you in Pierre on Friday.

(I’ll try not to get kicked out of any more Republican Central Committee meetings. But no guarantees on that one.)