Christopher Bedford comes to South Dakota for an actual hug from Governor Kristi Noem (“‘Are you doing the social distancing thing?’ Gov. Kristi Noem asks me, before crossing the second-floor meeting room for a hug“) and for a sweaty propagandistic hug of her dedicated if blandly delivered Trumpism in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Amidst Bedford’s Noem hee-haw-ry and racism (“The first sign we’ve entered the Wind River Reservation is a black-haired woman stumbling barefoot from a bathroom outside a gas station, eyes wide, red bandanna tourniquet still tied around her sagging bicep. That and the low price on tobacco.”) lies one profoundly ironic and telling quote from Donald Trump’s next and last running mate:
“In a crisis situation,” Noem reflects, “where you have the potential to really lose sight of what makes this country great, and if you have a leader that will take too much authority in a time of crisis, that’s when we lose our freedom and our liberties…” [Christopher Bedford, “Hard Times, Strong Citizens, and Freedom: The Story of the Ranchers, Businesses, and People in the Only State Not to Shut Down,” The Federalist, 2020.06.10].
Only the most Orwellian aspirant to the Trumpitburo could so straightfacedly duckspeak the primary critique of the Trump Administration, the constant and growing authoritarianism amidst social unrest. Governor Noem represents the Republican Party’s chronic projection, in which they mouth the truest critiques of their own party as if they were talking about someone else.
As you point out with the image of a black-haired women emerging from a gas station bathroom with a red bandana tourniquet on her arm, Bedford’s writing presents imagery that is a collage of stereotypes. His writing purports to be a series of vignettes that travel writers such as William Least Heat Moon uses in “Blue Highways.” but Bedford never pursues the narrative beyond the conservative stereotypes. Thus, his tales either praise or defame. They make no attempt to search for what is true.
The GOP joke-letter you cite is also locked into tiresome, malevolent cliches from people who cultivate hatred. This is the kind of expression that made Donald Trump possible–praise for the man of 18,000 lies who roils the troubled waters he is alleged to guide us through.
Spot on, David. The times they are-a getting scarier.
50,000 out of work South Dakotan’s. South Dakota also has 5 times higher rates of Covid19 than Wyoming, 1027 with 18 deaths, North Dakota 3,016 with 74 deaths and Montana 573 with 18 deaths. Hard Times indeed. Strong Citizens goes with Freedom, the freedom to die from something the governor could have prevented. South Dakota, Freedom First, my arse 5,742 Covid19 cases (with a shabby amount of testing) with 74 deaths (jury is still out on this one). How the hell is that possible? South Dakota is a failed state led by an incompetent, unpleasant governor with the dumbest damn bunch of hayseed legislators in the great land. Lewandowski paid a whole helluva lot of greenbacks for this stroking from the author.
Hide an watch the business failures we are all about to see when the Payroll Protection Program runs out of money in the next few weeks. More and more people will let the streets talk for them as their boots march in protest. No authoritarian will make the people stop when they are desperate they will not abide .
“Lobbyists for the restaurants immediately took their complaints to the White House and the Treasury Department, but without success. Now, about one third of food service and accommodation businesses have less than one month of cash left, said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork, putting as many as 3 million restaurant jobs at risk.” Washington Post 6.10.2020
Add 3 million more to the 1.5 million just announced onto the over 40 million unemployed and you got a whole lot of idle workers not getting paid.
Is she distancing herself from Trump, building deniability?
Naw, she is snuggling up to chubby like a daddy’s girl.
I prefer a blood-filled tick or oozing pus-filled sore to the loathsome Bedford and the Federalist F******.
Nice mouth, pastor. Now get your sermon for tomorrow written while you’re in the right mindset.
Well said Debbo, despite grdz trolling. The article is replete with misinformation and mindless enabling trump love. As is the Heavily criticized Federalist. Wiki
Romantic red necks guns and trump. Drivel.
It’s a strange article. It doesn’t paint a flattering picture of South Dakota, or of Noem, if you ask me. It can’t be good for the tourist industry to see how cavalierly people take basic health measures in the midst of a pandemic. Noem hugging the author is a bit much. She seems more like a street whore offering her services without a condom. I can’t imagine anyone reading this and wanting to visit a place that doesn’t take their health and well-being seriously.
The article could only be written by someone whose knowledge of Noem and South Dakota politics is minimal. For example, that quote by Noem begs to be juxtaposed with her riot boosting laws. The woman is exactly the tyrant she complains about.