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Sutton Launches Leadership Institute

Billie Sutton Leadership InstituteNever let a good logo go to waste: Billie Sutton is putting that lovely green, blue, and gold rising sun logo from his failed gubernatorial campaign atop a new venture, the Billie Sutton Leadership Institute:

The Billie Sutton Leadership Institute is a free, year-long leadership development program for a selective class of young professionals, community leaders, local elected officials, and people interested in public service or getting more involved in their community.

Sutton Leadership fellows will network and engage with some of the state’s top private and public sector leaders while learning leadership skills in workshops conducted by national experts. Fellows will gain the skills and confidence to build and carry out plans to make a difference in their communities [“About Us,” Billie Sutton leadership Institute, retrieved 2019.04.16].

Sutton’s board includes his smart and talented attorney- and county commissioner- wife Kelsea Kenzy Sutton, former fellow Senator Kevin Killer, former Augie prez Robert Oliver, and former South Dakota Supreme Court Justice Judith Meierhenry. It will be interesting to see what sort of counterprogramming the Sutton Institute can offer to Leadership South Dakota, the networking and boatrocking-prevention club sponsored by the usual establishment suspects.

Sutton’s program is free; it begins May 31 with a three-day retreat in Chamberlain/Oacoma. Applications are due May 6.

56 Comments

  1. leslie 2019-04-16 13:31

    With heavy hitters like wisemen Bjorkman and Seiler, younger lawyers Brendan Johnson and Tatewin Means, and SRST’s aggressive Chase Iron Eyes and others at CRST and RST, together with Billie’s legislative Cowboys and Indians elected officials, we are not short on talent to build on Billie’s close election.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2019-04-16 15:23

    leslie, our esteemed barrister should be added to the list of heavy hitters.

  3. grudznick 2019-04-16 18:27

    Don’t forget grudznick. I should either be a fellow or a mentor. You need some balance in this weakly-meshed pot of libbyism.

  4. Roger Cornelius 2019-04-16 20:11

    Forget Grudznick

  5. grudznick 2019-04-16 20:29

    You can never forget the way I looked at you, Mr. C, with a twinkle in my eye and my unevenly trimmed nose hairs trembling.

  6. leslie 2019-04-16 21:45

    that’s lobbyism grdz. I know the one version of you is as pervertedly sexualized as your post here. epitome of sleaze.

    Roger, if you mean Cory, I agree. This man has a political future in SD should he desire it!

  7. grudznick 2019-04-16 21:52

    Yes, Mr. H has a political future in SD, which he does crave. “Candidate for District X”, and I support his campaigns and will be right there as a lobbist, with Mr. C, handing out literature probably at my station near St. Joe’s and 4th.

  8. Adam 2019-04-17 01:50

    Interesting.

  9. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-04-17 05:49

    Interesting, indeed. Instead of focusing explicitly on a bot camp for candidate recruitment, Sutton is offering a more general leadership program like what Republicans Melmer and Oster purport to offer and what local chambers everywhere try to do. I will be interested to see to what extent this effort builds up Sutton’s network for his next bid for statewide office, if one is coming, and to what extent it focuses on prepping a bench of new candidates to step forward and challenge the establishment they are being invited to learn about with Team Sutton.

  10. Across the Aisle 2019-04-17 13:14

    Building up his network? Is he doing this for SD communities or for himself?

  11. Adam 2019-04-17 17:08

    And so the other side of the isle begins to brand Billie as ‘a selfish guy.’

    “ANYTHING that might stick to the wall” is their strategy.

  12. Across The Aisle 2019-04-17 20:13

    Mr H. is the one who questioned what he was doing, “building his network” for a future run. Not my words, his. I am just curious to other’s opinions. All I will say is he is a politician, eventhough he doesnt want to be branded as one.

  13. Adam 2019-04-18 01:47

    As if Billie may not have had everyone’s interest in mind when running for public office. LOL. Almost like, “if a guy runs for office he be naturally selfish as if that’s the only reason a guy ever ran for office (even George Washington) was cause he was a selfish mofo.”

    LOL. Across The Isle will one day find his/herself in hell and I don’t even have to wish he/her to go there.

  14. Adam 2019-04-18 01:49

    I’ll give you $.50 if you can find the typo.

  15. Across the Aisle 2019-04-18 13:16

    I would argue that ALL politicians are selfish to one degree or another. My point is that he has branded himself as “different”, not “status quo”. Well, he is not different. I am not saying that is bad. I love politics, he is a politician, weather he admits it or not. He certainly does not want people to think he is one. As far as me finding myself in hell, I find that hilarious, since lefties have been crying daily, before and since the elections of 2016 and 2018. If a democrat is elected to be SD Governor or US President, I will go on with life and not be online bitching about every move that official makes, even if I disagree with them. I have not seen that from the other side. I did 8 years of Obama and not one social media comment of me crying and bitching about his time in office and there was plenty to bitch about. If Billie is not a politician, why is he STILL asking for money? Eventually, after you ask for money for 2, 4, 6 years, people will not let the “I am not status quo” comment fly anymore. So again, what is your opinion Adam? Is he a networking politician, or just genuinely concerned about our future leaders? He ran as a conservative, so he should be just fine with the up and coming conservative leaders we already have. Both sides do this to push “their” agenda. Lets be grown ups and call it what it is.

  16. Adam 2019-04-18 14:44

    You put mental illness, mush-brain syndrome and insincere dishonesty on display for all, and that has made you helpful on this blog post.

  17. Across the Aisle 2019-04-18 15:17

    You, my friend, are a classic liberal and I love jerking your chain. But please tell me where I am being dishonest? I will look past your mental illness and much-brain comments. Although it is also very helpful on giving us a look at the depth of your thought process. Lets call them names! Like I said, lets be grown ups and please point to where I am being dishonest in my post.

  18. Adam 2019-04-18 15:35

    “Is he [Billie] a networking politician, or just genuinely concerned about our future leaders?” is an insincere question.

    Obviously, he is both. Why don’t conservatives ever ask the same question about Mike Rounds, John Thune or Ditzy Noem? The answer is: because you folks don’t think critically about much/anything at all and push double standards like they’re going out of style.

  19. Across the Aisle 2019-04-18 15:49

    You damn near made it through an entire post without calling someone a name. Good for you! I said I am not against politicians. Sutton claims to not be one. He is different. My point is, NO he is not. My question was very sincere. If he is a politician, we should question his motives, no matter which party he is affiliated with. Politicians are all looking toward the next election, that’s what they do. Ok, ball in in your court. I am not sure you can top mush head, but give it a try. I promise I wont run to a safe space. I am surprised such a name is allowed on here?

  20. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-04-19 09:26

    “jerking your chain”—seems to harken to S&M practices. Why do conservatives get off on that? I don’t write just to jerk chains or engage in any other sort of jerking.

    I look forward to AtA’s questioning of all politicians’ motives, including Republicans, in other posts as well.

  21. Across The Aisle 2019-04-19 11:54

    Its funny that “jerking your chain” bothers you, but not the constant childish name calling that goes on from the left, like mush brain. Also, I DID question Republican politician motives! “If he is a politician, we should question his motives, no matter which party he is affiliated with. Politicians are all looking toward the next election”. So you dont have to look forward to me questioning Republicans motives, you will have to look backward to my post just prior to yours. Nice try!

  22. Adam 2019-04-19 15:26

    I think Republicans are the most selfish politicians.

  23. Across the Aisle 2019-04-19 15:58

    Whatever helps you sleep at night. I have two words for you when it comes to selfish politicians, The Clintons! They put all others to shame on both sides. Second place isn’t even close.

  24. Adam 2019-04-19 16:51

    Every time the morally bankrupt claim that they hated the Clintons but still support Trump, they display their bold hypocrisy and degrade their own moral credibility.

    To so much as lean towards ‘the Clintons might be less moral than the Trumps’ is to have no judgement AT ALL.

  25. Across the Aisle 2019-04-19 17:06

    I never said I hated the Clinton’s. Bill was a great politician, a smart one. He was smart enough to come to the center and get some things done. While I don’t agree with a lot of things that Trump says and does, I do agree with his policies. Hillary is in a class on her own. Now I am “morally bankrupt”? By the way, you are quick to judge mine and others moral credibility, since we don’t agree with you. People like you defended Clinton and denounce Trump for many of the same things. That’s the problem, hypocrisy.

  26. mike from iowa 2019-04-19 17:37

    That’s the problem, hypocrisy. You got that right, Buster! It is hilariously hypocritical for wingnuts to stand by and do nothing when Drumpf commits criminal acts that are far worse than anything Bill Clinton did to get impeached.

    Wingnuts haven’t entertained the idea of reining Drumpf in because with him they get to pack the courts with unqualified ideologues to ensure their unconstitutional assaults on the constitution stay in place.

    Drumpf is a known racist, doesn’t pay his bills, lies every time he opens his mouth, takes credit for stuff he had nothing to do with as far as the economy is concerned, is profiting from being Potus, sells access to himself and whines like a little baby when he finds out the courts won’t let him be a dictator.

    His temper tantrums/ two year old fits of anger should be enough to gets his orange rectum kicked out of Putin’s kremlin annex due to irregularities and Russian involvement to drive HRC’s negatives up and help Drumpf get elected. He has done more damage to American institutions than any one thought possible in barely 2 years of his reign of terror. Drumpf is a laughing stock at home and everywhere abroad. No one respects him or America either.

    We know where the hypocrisy is coming from.

  27. mike from iowa 2019-04-19 17:48

    The Clintons left the WH bankrupt thanks to wingnuts and constant nuisance suits filed by Larry Klaymann and Judiicial Watch. The vast right wing conspiracy HRC complained about is still out there, still trying to trash her legacy by lying through their teeth.

    Lee Atwater gets credit for seeing Guv Clinton as the only threat to dumbass dubya senior’s bid for a second term in 1992 and starting his dirty tricks efforts to damage Clinton and his wife.

    Whitewater investigatiion took six years and millions of dollars for nothing. Mueller used only 22 months and wingnuts grouse they are being crucified. Poor little wingnut victims of their own excess. Cry me a river!

  28. Roger Cornelius 2019-04-19 17:54

    Bill or Hillary Clinton are nothing more then distractions and whataboutisms.
    You can’t possibly compare Bill Clinton’s blowjob impeachment to what is coming out of the Mueller report about Trump.
    There is still so much congress and the people don’t know about the Mueller report. I suspect we will hear more damaging information as the courts demand AG Barr provide more and more information.
    Trump and his followers thing that the Mueller report is the end of the inquiry, when in fact it is the tip of the iceberg.
    There are still fourteen investigations going on involving Trump and not the Clinton’s.

  29. Adam 2019-04-19 17:55

    MFI and Roger are both spot on.

  30. Across The Aisle 2019-04-19 19:14

    Nothing shady about Hillary huh? Wiping servers, smashing cell phones, recking the lives of women Bill (did, does and will) have sex with, Whitewater etc….. Trump a racist? The black community was giving him awards before he ran for president. Just because “Rev” Al says it, dont make it so. I could say Obama is racist, he did more to keep blacks and whites apart than anyone, when he could have done the most for black people he did nothing. Trump has done more for people of color than Obama ever did. Fact! Also nice to know that pretty much every lib on here cant make a comment without calling conservatives names. Do you guys take a class for that? Oh ya, its called elementary school.

  31. mike from iowa 2019-04-19 19:51

    Did you ever hear Clinton or Obama call an opponent names? Drumpf does every damn day of his life. Clean up your own mess before coming and whining about name calling. I have yet to hear a single wingnut chastise Drumpf for his toddler aged fits. What an absolutely outstanding representative of what the once Grand Old Party has de-evolved into.l You guys are a world wide joke. Ignore it at your own peril.

  32. mike from iowa 2019-04-19 20:00

    Which of these Drumpf policies do you agree with- kicking millions off health insurance and lying about it? Taking children away from their parents at the border and not returning them as court ordered? Kissing up to Putin and Russia because he may have damaging video tape out there about him? Using his office to enrich himself? Promising to release tax records and then lying about that over and over again? Pretending to be a great negotiator with North Korea and then giving away the farm to a punk ass dictator and get nothing in return? Telling his goons he’d like them to hurt protesters and offering to pay their legal fees if they did? How about cheating on all his wives and who knows how many affairs he has had. How about promising money to charities then conveniently forgetting to cough up the money? How about telling mine workers he was going to bring back all those coal jobs he lied about and claimed Obama killed the jobs? Do I need to go on?

  33. Across The Aisle 2019-04-19 20:13

    I could not care less about name calling. I poke fun at it because libs are always getting butt hurt if they are called names. I think Trump is stupid for doing it. But you cry about Trump doing it and do it yourself in the same sentence. Our party will be just fine, let the world laugh. The democrat party would kick out JFK today. They are the party of open boarders, no respnsibility, free school, free healthcare, free everything, anti military, PC, dont hurt my feelings, cradle to grave taken care of by the government. That being said, Ibam not happy with my party. Its not the party of Lincoln anymore and thats sad. But, even with all its faults, Inwi take it any day over the left. Keep moving left, Trump will have a cakewalk in 2020. No candidate from far left OR right could or should win. I respect people that take the time to not just know what they believe, but why they believe it. It doesnt matter which party you call yours. I have friends across the aisle that I can have respectable disagreements with, sometimes heated, but walk away friends. Thats the way it should be. I have little time or respect for people on both sides that pay no attention, but then bitch about everything. People should stand up for what they believe in, even if I disagree with it. While I obviously dont agree with you all, I do respect you for standing up for your beliefs. I dont enjoy being on blogs where most people agree most of the time. I respect the hell out of Bernie Sanders. He is not afraid of who he is and had the balls to go on FNC. I dont feel the respect is mutual on here and thats fine. We learn nothing from people we agree with all the time. Anyway I hope you all have a nice Easter.

  34. mike from iowa 2019-04-19 20:26

    Would you please explain where your side keeps getting the misinformed notion that Dems are in favor of open borders? Where is the free healthcare. Medicare isn’t free, but it is a whole lot cheaper than private for profit insurance. No responsiblity? Give me a break.

  35. mike from iowa 2019-04-19 20:28

    BTW, name caller Drumpf happens to be illegally appointed potus and is supposed to act like an adult, not a spoiled brat. I have no such constraints.

  36. Across The Aisle 2019-04-19 20:41

    How was he illegally appointed potus? Since you are not president, you shouldnt act like an adult? What do you call it if not open boarders? Dems want votes, Reps want cheap labor, neither REALLY want to fix. You are right that free healthcare isnt free, neither are any other of the “free” things dems want to provide. Thats the point. See how I did that? I dont care if you dont agree with me on any of this, but PLEASE answer the question how Trump is “illegally appointed”. Please facts and not some Rachel Maddow drivel.

  37. Roger Cornelius 2019-04-19 21:23

    What the hell are “open boarders”? I know what open borders are and can say unequivocally that Democrats are not for open borders, but Trump followers dutifully repeat his lies.
    Across the Aisle really needs to proofread his comments or learn proper spelling and grammar. It is almost impossible to make sense of what he is saying with all the errors he makes.
    Most commenters on this blog make honest errors is grammar and spelling, but they are not blatantly illiterate.
    This president has told over 10,000 lies since he has been in office, not misstatements, etc. but lies.
    This president has not held a press conference in over 100 days. Oh well! Sarah Sanders would just tell more Trump lies.

  38. David Newquist 2019-04-19 21:52

    Roger,
    “Open boarders” must be those that’ll eat almost anything and live in a turbulent climate as in “he is a politician, weather he admits it or not.” (Comment at 13:16.) Those eating habits must produce the bad gas about Obama’s neglect of blacks and Hillary’s criminal record. That weather is recirculating all the cliches of malice we heard against blacks in the civil rights era, now applied to lefties and liberals.

  39. Roger Cornelius 2019-04-19 22:00

    Your (intentional misspelling) the best, Dr. Newquist.

  40. Across The Aisle 2019-04-19 22:14

    Sorry am typing on phone without my glasses. I love how you lefties mistakes are honest and I cant read or write. I should look it over before I post it, but I dont. You cant honestly debate so you do whatever you can to put down anyone that disagrees with you. How many lies did Obama tell and is still telling? Not a smidgen of corruption? I know thats not a sentence and I dont know if smidgen is spelled correctly. What I also know is that you can go to any topic on this blog and if anyone dares to disagree with any of you, you attack them in any way you can. Dont you all get sick of visiting with one another about how great it is to be a liberal and how everything is so unfair to libs in SD. Now, I know I am illiterate, but please someone explain to me how Trump was illegally elected president? Nobody has answered that yet? Why not? Because you all KNOW he won. I know, but Hillary won the popular vote. Show me where that constitutes a victory for a presidential election. If you really believe that he was not elected legally, then you are the one that apparently cant read. If you can answer this please do so with small, easy words. I went to a state school, so I am not that smart. So easily triggered you are. Maybe tomorrow I will get my glasses and laptop and let my wife proofread my post. But, she is a state school grad also, so she cant spell either, unless writing prescriptions.

  41. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-04-20 07:15

    As usual, “you lefties” is evidence that the speaker isn’t interested in having real conversation with real people but rather treating the blog as an extension of his national right-wing commentary consumption. Sigh.

    Maybe ATA (which handle I really don’t like: how about picking an actual name?) could sign up for Sutton’s leadership program and learn about real South Dakota-specific issues and discourse.

  42. mike from iowa 2019-04-20 07:43

    You are right that free healthcare isnt free, neither are any other of the “free” things dems want to provide. Thats the point.

    Democrats-remember those dastardly tax and spend Dems?- provide ways and means to pay for the programs their voting blocks want. Wingnuts spend like there is no tomorrow and then try to pay for their taxcuts for the koch bros by taking away entitlements from everyone except the koch bros. Drumpf has already borrowed over 2 trillion bucks and added several trillion to our debt/deficits even though he promised to pay off the debt and eliminate deficits .

    As for the border, Dems voted to allow several billion for security this year, just not for a worthless boondoggle of a fence.

    As for me not acting as an adult because I am not potus, why are you ignoring the fact that our illegal potus acts like a spoiled rotten brat?

  43. mike from iowa 2019-04-20 08:53

    Perfect description of Drumpf^%$# the dumjbf^%$ – Michael Gerson has a way with words.

    His descriptions of Donald Trump are dead-on; in a recent column in the Washington Post, for example, he considered Trump’s recent attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came to the United States as a Somali refugee, using the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers and an out-of-context quotation.

    It is cruel because Trump essentially delivered his political rant while standing on desecrated graves. The images he employed not only included burning buildings but burning human beings, drafted into a sad and sordid political ploy. Is nothing sacred to Trump? When said aloud, the question sounds like an absurdity. Trump has never given the slightest indication of propriety, respect or reverence. His narcissism leaves no room to honor other people or to honor other gods. Both the living and the dead matter only as servants to the cause of Trump himself.

    from Sheila Kennedy today.

  44. mike from iowa 2019-04-20 08:57

    ATA you should hit your knees and thank whomever you got to have a Potus like Barrack Obama in your life. Obama represents all that is good in a real leader and none of the bratishness Drumpf thrives on.

  45. Across The Aisle 2019-04-20 10:19

    Mike, please explain to me the Illegality of the Trump presidency? I cant get an answer from any of you gentle persons. Is that PC enough? I can’t say libs apparently that triggers you? Again, I have been called a mush brain, illiterate, etc.. and you dont here me crying. But I say “lib” and I dont want a serious dialog? Wow! There is a nice quote from Thomas Paine that comes to mind, when having discussions here. Mike, I will be waiting for your “legal” definition of why Trump is an illegal President.

  46. mike from iowa 2019-04-20 12:00

    Plain and simple- Drumpf had Russia’s help to defeat HRC. All our intelligence sources agreed. The evidence is overwhelming of a conspiracy to elect Drumpf. In case you don’t understand law, foreign interference in an election is a serious no-no. And Drumpf himself asked Russia for help getting HRC’s personal emails.

    Then there was the NY office of FBI agents conspiring against HRC asnd passing info to wingnuts to release to the media. Guiliani admitted he was getting the info and promised an October surprise.

    Now answer a question from me. How come you aren’t railing at the Drumpf kremlin annex for using private email accounts and alowing the grope toy and SIL of Drumpf to access top secrets when intelligence would not clear them for that?

    Why was it such a spit storm for HRC who did not knowingly pass any top secrets to anyone and a nothing burger for Drumpf?

  47. Across the Aisle 2019-04-20 12:58

    Hillary paid for false info on Trump from Russia. Obama was caught on hot mike saying he would have more leverage after election to work with Putin. Trump in an off the cuff comment asking for Russia’s help to find her missing emails, is not a crime. Hillary didn’t “knowingly” pass any secrets? Ha!!! Don’t you know that hating Trump and finding any way to get him out of office will only get him elected again? It was funny watching MSNBC, CNN etc… cry about Trump, but its painful now. Please keep it up and he is an easy winner in 2020. Even if you got your way and he was impeached, it would be President Pence, not Hillary. Poor Hillary, everybody has been conspiring against her. Even if that were true, didn’t she rig the primary against Bernie? That’s a fact, is it not? Just because your liberal media tells you something happened, does not make it so. Dig a little deeper. I certainly don’t believe everything FNC says, I do a little more homework. If everything on tv is true, the Trump campaign was spied on right? Oh, and me hitting my knees to thank Jobu for Obama? Its not going to happen. Trump beating Hillary may just be proof that there is a God and he is good. Happy Easter Mike. I look forward to more of your talking points.

  48. mike from iowa 2019-04-20 13:30

    What info was false? Nothing in the dossier has been debunked. Ab republican started the investigation on Drumpf and there is not a single iota of proof that HRC knew anything about the dossier and paying for it. Individuals in Drumpf’s campaign were picked up on background of investigation into Carter Page. No crime there.

  49. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-04-21 17:14

    Anyone still debating Hillary Clinton is clearly out of touch with the clear and present dangers of the current moment.

    Perhaps people attending Billie Sutton’s leadership program will be taught to discuss actual problems rather than constantly rehashing past elections. Maybe that’s what the program is all about for Sutton: moving on from the last election and looking for new ways to do good for the community.

  50. Debbo 2019-05-10 16:12

    Wondering if you’ve heard any more on Sutton’s institute? According to The Atlantic Sutton is on the right track. https://short1.link/xG3Upo

    The Democratic Party is the party of young people and ideas and growth while the GOP is old and dying white people trying vainly to hang on.

    The Atlantic article is about generations and politics. It’s written by Niall Ferguson, Co-director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s pplied History Project and Eyck Freymann, Research analyst at Greenmantle. Nope, don’t know what Greenmantle is.

    “As a liberal graduate student and a conservative professor, we rarely see eye to eye on politics. Yet we agree that the generation war is the best frame for understanding the ways that the Democratic and Republican parties are diverging. The Democrats are rapidly becoming the party of the young, specifically the Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z (born after 1996). The Republicans are leaning ever more heavily on retirees, particularly the Silent Generation (born before 1945). In the middle are the Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980), who are slowly inching leftward, and the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), who are slowly inching to the right.”

    It’s very interesting. Check out the link if your curiosity is piqued.

  51. Debbo 2019-05-10 16:13

    BTW, several charts Cory!

  52. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-05-11 12:40

    I haven’t heard news, Debbo. I note the application deadline was last Monday, so I would assume that somewhere out there are some youthful leaders with acceptance letters. I just hope they’ll invite me to come speak to the Suttonites on the topic of direct democracy.

    Reading that Atlantic article (Debbo! your short link hung up on me! :-( ), I’m led to wonder if the authors would conclude that Billie Sutton is on the right track. Consider this one key conclusion from the authors:

    In short, Ocasio-Cortez is neither an aberration nor a radical. She is close to the political center of America’s younger generations [Niall Ferguson and Eyck Freymann, “The Coming Generational War,” The Atlantic, 2019.05.06]

    Yes, the Sutton Institute appears to be targeting young professionals to help them build networks that would ancillarily support a Suttonesque agenda. But has Sutton ever portrayed his agenda as that of the under-40 generation whom the authors say Ocasio-Cortez represents?

  53. Debbo 2019-05-11 15:06

    I don’t think Sutton has deliberately attempted or planned to appeal to young people, but in SD he certainly would. Also the people who attend may put the skills and knowledge they gain to use in service of AOC level goals.

    I agree with the statement that AOC is in the center for millennials and Gen Xers. They’re almost panicky about the climate, as well they should be.

  54. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-05-11 16:01

    Sutton certainly has youth appeal. He is himself joyfully young. But there seems to be a difference between the youth center that Ocasio-Cortez represents and the imagined South Dakota middle toward which Sutton tacked in 2018. His leadership institute isn’t overtly about political positioning: it’s just non-partisan learning and networking. As you note, Debbo, graduates of his program could well use the skills and connections they build to promote the political agenda of their choice. I just hope they use their skills to save the gosh-darn planet, which is AOC’s centrist mission.

  55. The Blindman 2019-05-12 11:32

    Political change is like steepimg a good pot of tea.

    I dont live in SD anymore, but it could happen. I follow politics in seven states including Missouri. The lack of stability in South Dakotas political future means change is possible. Billie has some good ideas, bring political minds together, and educating the partys hopeful, but I agree, this looks like the pre pre start to a political campaign.

    My grandma Collins was an old German that truly loved two things, a fresh cup of coffee, and a proper cup of tea, and she wasn’t shy about telling you if you made either wrong.

    Grammy had a ritual for making tea. First you put boiling water into her four cup blue crock teapot to heat it up. Then you poured that water out and poured more in after putting loose tea leaves in the little basket, you slowly lowered it into the pot. Then you lifted it up and down four, that is 4 times. It was easier after she went blind. Then you set the lid on the pot and let it steep . This gave you the flavor and aroma you desired. To little, light tea.

    Comparing the two, SD is at the point where you lower the tea into the hot water. There are not only cracks in the GOP, there is dissatisfaction from the biggest business in the state, big ag.

    It seems like a good time for dems and independents to forgive each others transgressions and form a partnership to remake SD politics. Let me explain.

    While Billie is working for long term goals, there are things that could be done that might change 2020. You need to exploit the crack at the tea bagger end of the GOP for starters. Then you need to actually talk to ag pointing out that the people they put in stat office sold them out. For the right people this would be an easy sell, if you do it right now.

    You have to get those in Pierre to say why they let the governor veto the hemp legislation then use those words to hammer them inn tv and radio adds. You need farmers asking questions about legislative loyalty and resonsability to the electret.

    Next would be a simple set of adds. You show a stadium full of screaming c hearing fans blured with a football team huddled up. The Jerseys would have FARMERS on their backs. Then the next shot would be of Christ setting alone on the other side ofthe field. The announcer would say Governor Noem why arent you chearing for agriculture?

    Here is a radio sopt. Use Kristi words when asked why she vetoed the hemp bill. Then ask her who she helped with that veto.

    Those legislators that couldnt get it up enough to over ride a veto on a bill so popular in the whole state have some splaining to do. Make em pay for their own words on every media there is.

    South Dakota is in a unique situation. The fracturing of a party and dissatisfaction from that parties main contributes. If you cant change the political climate now, you never will.

    You can make a proper pot of political tea, if you have the guts to do it. But what do I know?

    The Blindman

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