I love those rare moments when Republicans start connecting the dots of their own rhetoric. Consider this letter from Eureka retiree Cliff Berreth in this morning’s Aberdeen paper:
You read about the terrible state of affairs in Detroit and Chicago and nobody to blame but the Democrats because they have been in charge of everything forever [Cliff Berreth, letter to the editor, Aberdeen American News, 2015.07.01].
Ah, yes, one of conservatives’ favorite forms of mistaking correlation for causation. Throw Baltimore in there, too. Detroit may have been the victim of Nixon’s dollar policy and industrial inertia as much as any Democratic oopsies… but that’s not what Berreth comes to debate. Instead, he turns that Republican logic to South Dakota:
Then I think of our teacher shortage in South Dakota and one-third of education graduates leaving the state, so the governor is doing a study as to why? South Dakota has the lowest paid teachers in the nation year after year forever. Duh! Think that might be the reason?
Nobody to blame but the Republicans because they have been the ones in charge year after year. I’m a Republican, but I’m also beginning to think we need some more Democrats in Pierre [Berreth, 2015.07.01].
The presence of Democrats or Republicans at a disaster does not necessarily mean that Democrats or Republicans caused that disaster. But Cliff, if you are willing to try sending more Democrats to Pierre to clean up the apparent Republican mess, I welcome your application of that logic to the SDGOP.
Duh.
Cliff will either need to move out of Eureka or just volunteer or donate to Democratic candidates outside of his district if he hopes to help change things. His vote will not make much of a difference in one of the most conservative districts in the state. There are lots of old Mayonaise/Mason jars filled with money buried in back yards up there. lol
Cream cans Lynn, cream cans.
Which of our donors have those cream cans? Let’s put that McPherson County money to work for Democrats!
Cory & Nick Cream cans are even better. A metal detector, some shovels and come up with some reasons to do some digging in their yards. digging for Earthworms at night for fishing? Buy one of those old houses on the cheap and dig? There’s money up there.
Charlie Hoffman & Cliff should know horse tradin is an Olympic Sport up there. You could go up there to sell something and next thing you know your paying them to take it. lol :)
I think that many GOP folks think the way Cliff does, they just cannot bring themselves to look at the other side of the ballot once they pull the curtain. There appears to be something, inherently and systematically wrong, with Democrats. My grandfather and my father could not figure it out, good people and good neighbors, but they would vote GOP straight ticket. just think of the many poor Governors our state has had. Year after year, election after election…it makes absolutely no sense, but by golly they keep voting that way. It is like we have no plan at all to move the state and our citizens forward.
Wayne, we need to keep banging away at that resistance to marking the other side of the ballot. Folks like Cliff are doing much of the work for us, pausing to think through the glib lines their party and talk radio bobbleheads spout and realizing what they really mean for South Dakota. Now we just have to convince them that Democrats offer a viable, non-hell-freezing alternative.
There is no shortage of Teachers in Rapid City, only a shortage of people willing to work for a dysfunction system.
“”Then I think of our teacher shortage in South Dakota and one-third of education graduates leaving the state, so the governor is doing a study as to why?”” Are these all teacher leaving the state or do we need higher wages across the board?