If you’ve ever wondered how bad things have gotten for Republicans in Rapid City for anyone not to the right of Taffy Howard and Phil Jensen, the evidence seems to be coming from the Pennington County GOP.
For quite a while now, the County Party has been advertising their upcoming Lincoln Day Dinner via Facebook and e-mail:
and..
Well, what about their website? There, you can find a day.. and ticket prices.. and that’s about it:
Okay.. that really doesn’t tell anyone much, other than they’re having an event. So who did they manage to get as speaker? It took me a little hunting, but despite their best efforts at burying it..
(my emphasis in the graphic, BTW).
Buried in the middle of the eventbrite page advertising their 2022 Lincoln Day Dinner do they begrudgingly mention that the guest speaker for the Pennington County Lincoln Day Dinner is Governor Kristi Noem.
Wait, what? They actually buried the fact that they have the most popular Republican in the state (among Republicans) and a star attraction nationally as their speaker for the event, but they completely obviate this fact on their facebook page, on their website, and buried as a footnote on the event page where you can buy a ticket?
Can someone tell me whether the Pennington County GOP actually supports South Dakota Republicans? I have to ask, because I don’t know if they’re even trying to support local Republicans much less those who have been elected on a statewide basis.
You have to wonder, as this is the same County Party that has turned over their social media to a kid from South Carolina to reach out to younger voters by posting memes.
And posting memes they do, because they certainly seem to have abandoned saying anything about their elected officials.
There was one mention of Governor Noem signing the transgender sports bill on Feb 4, and a couple of mentions in January.. but nothing since to give anyone the impression that they want to promote Republicans who have been actually elected to office in the state.
Literally, since the first of the year, they have spoken more about alleged injustices perpetuated by twitter against Marjorie Taylor Greene of the Jewish Space Lasers than they have mentioned Helene Duhamel, Jessica Castleberry, or Becky Drury. Or any other legislator.
I’ve heard talk that internally, the awful web presence maintained by the kid from North Carolina is just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to not acknowledging their elected officials, the sandbagging of Kristi Noem is somewhat indicative of the bent by the hard right who seems to be trying to do their best to ignore elected officials.
What an embarrassing mess. At some point, maybe they’ll realize what the function of a political party is – to actually get Republicans elected – and they’ll get back to business.
Though I am a registered Republican, I am not a member of PennCo GOP. I believe that it is their policy or it’s in their by-laws that candidates for public office cannot be a guest speaker at this event. You might want to check into this to be sure.
RIghto. She’s not the nominee until after the primary. Until then, at least during campaign season, she should be treated the same as her opponent, Dr. WOW.
She’s still the Governor until she isn’t. Pennington County GOP is just a mess.
Didn’t you jump ship from the GOP to the Libertarians?
Libertarians have more in common with Democratic Socialists in how they use other political parties.
Interesting point. Ideologically, nothing alike. Tactically, I see your point. Not that that’s a bad thing to interject ideals of limited government and individual rights into the political landscape.
Ran across a few identifying as Libertarian Socialists. They do seem to contradict each other idealogically or this group maybe picking and choosing.
There are a few out there who believe that way. I’d say they are a very small minority. But, here’s the thing — once you remove government control from the equation, it doesn’t matter if Person A is a capitalist and Person B (and the others in their commune, I guess) is communist. They can coexist. If nobody can use the force and power of the government to impart their worldview, then it doesn’t matter how they choose to run their life/finances.
And that’s what the libertarianism movement is fundamentally about — moving us back toward a government that didn’t exist to rule the people, but vice versa. And that’s why you can (and do) have right libertarians, left libertarians, green libertarians, classical liberals, anarcho-capitalists, minarchists, and dozens of other niche beliefs, all residing under the collective umbrella of libertarianism.
If you believe in the basic tenants of “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff”, you’re well on your way to fitting in under the umbrella too.
I’ve found pure Libertarianism to be impractical in the framework of founding US ideals.
One glaring moral conundrum is the inability of Libertarianism to address the loss of agency from addictive drugs like Meth, Cocaine, Alcohol, and Heroin (cannabis is not addictive). Alcohol is particularly bad because you not only lose your agency when you’re doing hits of alcohol, but you lose the agency to quit as well because of its highly addictive nature. Most Republicans know this intuitively and reject Libertariansm political ideology as a result.
Liberty is good, but the ability to choose (Liberty) is lost with the hard addictive drugs advocated by many within the Libertarian Party.
Libertarianism also denies the effect of social engineering within our society, and fails to properly couch “damage” caused by someone disrespect of Liberty.
Some of the good science has informed us of the interconnected-ness of our universe. Turns out, we can’t take any agent action without affecting other people, so pure Liberty is not possible. The air I breath could have been breathed by someone else, for instance, therefore in the spirit of pure Libertarianism I have wronged someone else. Libertarianism quickly gives-way to Anarchy, which – in my view – favors the physically strong only and usurps the power of intellectual property. Anarchy’s end-game requires the physically strong to make slaves out of the intellectually capable.
Some conjecture: Republicanism’s aim (democracy + representation), in my view, is to protect the weak while enabling the strong and intelligent to work together to diminish the cost of our morality?
Digging into the Rapid City murder and properly contextualizing this circumstance that we might avoid it in the future requires a competent Republican community with insightful leadership.
So.
Oops.
Yep. And I still use my real name when I post.
Pat, you really need to post a tutorial for these posters who can’t seem to find the Name field. I’d like to think it’s a matter of ignorance rather than cowardice.
It’s not ignorance, it’s laziness
Any chance of an auction to support the courageous stance of the gateway hotel or is their free speech going to be cancelled?
Hmm, can’t tell if this is a troll or if you are really this crazy? Either way, your stance does fit right into the Pennington County GOP priorities. Hopefully they can fit this auction in after they hold the memorial for the guy that sold all the Nazi memorabilia to you all. He passed away after going to Mexico for cancer treatment because all these US hospitals were involved in “dark money”. Huge shock that the Mexican healthcare system failed him.
I believe their free speech is what is causing them to be canceled. Not free from repercussions remember.
Jesus H. That’s going to earn you a hard ban.
At one time I was a contributor and active member of the local party. Haven’t been for a long time now. They have clearly “jumped the shark” and are as dysfunctional as they can get. Sad.
The Pennington County GOP Chair campaigned against one of our incumbent Republican Senators in the last general election? With friends like that…..
Well maybe if they would be a little more Republican and not in name only that would help also.
Really Pat? You are so far off base with this one. There was zero attempt to bury the fact that Gov Noem is the key note speaker. We are very excited to have her and will publicly say so to any who will listen. This is nothing more than a “Save the Date” preliminary advertising to let others know the date and get it on their calendar. Did you ever once consider that there may not have been a confirmation from Gov. Noem when this flyer went out? You’re the one who sounds like Taffy Howard and Phil Jensen trying to turn Republicans against Republicans, and this is not the first time you’ve done it. Pennington County overwhelming carried Kristi Noem in 2018 in her election for governor giving her a 12% margin over Billy Sutton. In Brookings County, however, Billy received a 10% victory over Kristi Noem. Maybe you should get busy taking care of Brooking County rather than worrying about Pennington. We’ll deliver the vote for Kristi, will you?
Sandy, I’ll enjoy reading about Pennington County’s support of State and Local Republicans when it is actually evident. Until then, I’m sure you can continue to pretend, and we’ll all read about Twitter picking on Marjorie Taylor Greene.
But kudos on noticing that “Taffy Howard and Phil Jensen” are “trying to turn Republicans against Republicans.”
Now quit electing them.
Nice deflection Pat. You will never hear the Pennington County party defending ineffective legislators, but you seem to have forgotten it is the county party’s job to encourage and support REPUBLICAN candidates, not pre-select them. Selection is left to the primary voters to decide. Once that has occurred, it is the local party’s job to support the REPUBLICAN candidates they the REPUBLICAN voters have put forward into the general election. The Pennington County Party has done that well, despite your claims to the contrary.
Boomer makes a strong argument. When was the last time a Democrat was sent to the Legislature from Pennington County? How about Brookings County? Spence Hawley ring any bells? When was the last time the Democrat candidate for Governor received a majority vote in Pennington County? How about Brookings County? Again, Billy Sutton ring any bells? Seems your advice would be more relevant when your county party is successful in not electing and trying to elect Democrats.
For the record, the Pennington county party did fully support Sen. Castleberry. The party can only control their own activities, not individual legislators who may have gone off the rails.
There was a time when I truly felt you were committed to putting forward a positive, unifying message on behalf of the Republican Party. Now it seems you have become like all the rest, more interested in throwing out cheap shots and looking for shock valve. I truly wish the other Pat Powers would return. Maybe it isn’t as much fun for you, but our party needs the other guy more than ever.
Jeff, while you aggressively defend your wife, both of you raise a false assumption that I control the electorate in the county where I live. That would be like me asking why you don’t do something about all the racists in your town.
My point is that your county GOP spends its social media presence posting the same ridiculous crap we all read too much of on Facebook, while ignoring elected Republicans actually accomplishing things.
Let me know when the group actually starts advertising the fact the Governor is headlining the GOP Lincoln Day dinner and promotes the candidates who have been elected to represent it, versus regurgitating mass reproduced Lauren Boebert & Marjorie Taylor Greene Facebook posts.
the SDGOP dodged a bullet when they voted to hold the 2022 convention in Watertown
Pat, as you are known to say, “Please stay on topic. “ You asked:
“Can someone tell me whether the Pennington County GOP actually supports South Dakota Republicans? I have to ask, because I don’t know if they’re even trying to support local Republicans much less those who have been elected on a statewide basis.”
“ What an embarrassing mess. At some point, maybe they’ll realize what the function of a political party is – to actually get Republicans elected – and they’ll get back to business”
I realize you consider yourself an advertising/website expert, so please feel free to offer your opinions. The point is, you went on to aggressively bad mouth the hundreds of hardworking people of the Pennington County GOP who ALWAYS support the candidates put forward by the electorate and successfully get them elected. You asked if anyone can tell you if Pennington County does it’s work as a county party and do they support their candidates. You obviously don’t like the answer, especially when it involves pointing out that your county, which I believe you are involved with, has not been nearly as successful as Pennington county has been. We get it, you don’t like some of the legislators from Pennington County, but as you said, we can’t control the electorate. At least our legislators are all sitting in the Republican Caucus. Furthermore, despite you wanting to judge everyone by a few Legislators you don’t like, Pennington County has numerous outstanding Legislators who are doing great work. My wife needs no defending. She has done more than you and I combined to get Republicans elected in this state. We are just standing up to for the hardworking members of the Pennington County Party to your unnecessary bully tactics. How about we all work together to make all of our county parties stronger, instead of attacking them because you don’t like their website. No matter how poor the effort in your eyes, At least they have one, which very few counties do.
Your wife is great, and facebook posts about Marjorie Taylor Greene will win the day. Got it.