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Blogger, Lifelong Resident Leaves, Says South Dakota “No Longer the State I’ve Known for More Than Half a Century”

Tim Gebhart opened his blog A Progressive on the Prairie with this post titled “Dubya and Crew Did It” on September 9, 2003:

They woke me up. Not since Nixon (and, yes, I do remember Reagan) has there been an administration that caused me so much anger and fear for what it is doing to us. Living in the Northern Great Plains, however, I am surrounded by those who believe patriotism is spelled Republican and means following blindly. Enough. I add my voice to the clutter of political commentary, hoping that there are other such souls out there on the prairie [Tim Gebhart, “Dubya and Crew Did It,” A Progressive on the Prairie, 2003.09.09].

He did not find enough such souls to redeem his lifelong home. Nineteen years later, Gebhart published his goodbye to South Dakota from some greener, friendlier place:

Sadly, I have to admit I’d come to regard South Dakota with Contempt. I’ve been “Noemed” and “wing nutted” to death. It’s simply no longer the state I’ve known for more than half a century.

…I remember a time when the state and its politicians focused on problems, not party propaganda. Today, Noem travels the country as a devout Trumpette, focuses on right-wing hot button issues, and encourages people to gain “free-dumb” here.

…And while it may be the case in many cities, Sioux Falls kowtows to developers and the financially well-off. There’s little concern for what the citizens want and little to no transparency.

…So, best of luck, South Dakota. I couldn’t keep circling the drain with you [Tim Gebhart, “Goodbye, South Dakota,” A Progressive on the Prairie, 2022.05.31].

South Dakota should ache to lose any good reader, thinker, and writer.

54 Comments

  1. Bernie 2022-07-11 15:10

    It takes a lot to get me to comment these crazy days, but this is heart-breaking — partly because I know Tim is such a good fellow, but also because I know he’s not alone. Sadly, I talk to many South Dakotans who wonder if they can make a life here. When a community or state makes certain good people feel they are not welcome, whether because of race, religion, political views, gender, sexual preference, education or whatever, that place is troubled. Troubled and probably dying. And now, almost weekly, someone raises that conversation. They are of varying ages and backgrounds, but too many feel like they just don’t fit with today’s South Dakota. To be fair, I’ve also had conversations with newcomers who move here and love it. As Tim wrote, perhaps he knows too much and thus the changes he sees are more cutting. I still hope that fair-minded and future-thinking people, regardless of political ideology, will come to see that we must make all people feel welcome and appreciated. We’ve made some strides. Sometimes it’s two steps forward and three back. But gay marriage is well-accepted, I believe, and I could point to some improvements in race relations (no thanks to our politicians) … at least from my limited perspective. We have a long ways to go, though, South Dakota, and Tim’s departure is giant step in the wrong direction.

  2. David Newquist 2022-07-11 15:31

    There are many of us who are residential expatriates as far as South Dakota is concerned. That is, we have a physical presence in the state but live mentally and culturally elsewhere.

    Underneath that “South Dakota nice” is a seething malice that is nurtured as patriotism. It is what people of some intelligence and integrity witness, and it is the primary motive behind the brain drain. South Dakotans say if you don’t like it here, get out. Well, folks are getting out.

  3. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-11 16:09

    “Residential expatriate”—fascinating and depressing concept. You can exist in a place but not really live there.

    David, if I may ask, is it harder to be a residential expat than to give up that residency and find a community in which one can fully participate?

  4. mike from iowa 2022-07-11 17:23

    Leaving South Duhkota? We’re on it.

  5. Donald Pay 2022-07-11 17:25

    I don’t think you can live through fifty years of failure and, say, “…I remember a time when the state and its politicians focused on problems, not party propaganda.” Maybe the party propaganda has taken a bigger role recently, but the majority of state politicians, at least in the Legislature, have never cared about focusing on, let alone addressing, the state’s problems. They do so only when there is a crisis. I remember Rep. Mortimer laying out his legislative philosophy, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” No preventative maintenance was allowed by this philosophy, so there is a constant decline over decades, and “things fall apart,” the title of a great book, probably banned by the Rapid City school district.

    That brings up the forty year crusade to fix education in South Dakota. That’s the one thing these politicians think they want to fix. It would be better if they let the teachers just do their job. Every five years or so the governors have a magic bullet to improve schools. Every five years that bullet fails to hit the target, and so we have another magic bullet. This all started under Janklow, who thought he knew everything, but no, five years went by and he fixed nothing. This “fix education” iteration continued up to Noem, who decided to put God in charge, and forgot the other part “…the people rule.” Well, sorry to say, God failed, so now she’s called on the false prophets at Hillsdale College. Good luck with that.

  6. P. Aitch 2022-07-11 18:08

    The Republicans Party (Because if they choose to call us the “Democrat Party” we can bastardize their foolish name, too.) can have it. Everything wrong with SD can be blamed on them. The list grows and grows every legislative session.

  7. John Dale 2022-07-11 18:41

    “South Dakota should ache to lose any good reader, thinker, and writer.” — I second that.

    For some of us, SD was our last stand.

    There is nowhere to go from here, really.

  8. Mark Anderson 2022-07-11 18:44

    OK folks, why doesn’t everyone in the Democratic party in South Dakota have a ceremony, disband and all register as Republicans. It would be at least as large a group as the crazies. It could make a big difference in how the state is run. Rinos forever.

  9. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-11 18:51

    (81 acres and a straw bale house for $375K? That’s got to sell fast!)

  10. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-11 18:53

    Mark, would disbanding and making the one-party regime statistically official do anything to soothe the injured consciences of South Dakotans trying to keep their home and their hope?

  11. WillyNilly 2022-07-11 19:03

    I am too old to uproot and move. The next time I move it will be to a facility because I can’t care for myself. Still, I am tormented by the idea of moving to a place where I feel welcome vs. staying to fight one last time for my state. My child says that he has looked at buying a place here but finds the political climate too corrupt while the price of real estate is too high. He didn’t mention the speed of climate change that will eventually drive everyone away. It isn’t only the politics that are corrupt… the business community seems to find it highly agreeable and are following the example. So, not being one of the chosen few that SD government works for, I will keep my head down until I am forced out.

  12. larry kurtz 2022-07-11 19:05

    Bluest demographic in Santa Fe County, 360 degree views, I maintain the four miles of road in front. Secluded, private, unparalleled investment property 700 miles from Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem’s hell on Earth.

  13. Bob Newland 2022-07-11 19:16

    In Hot Springs (SoDak), the Trumpmeter tops 80 all year ’round. There have been no incidents of homosexuality, plural marriage, pederasty, or pre-marital sex reported lately. I’m torn.

  14. grudznick 2022-07-11 19:20

    It looks like a straw bale house. Probably fall apart in 5-10 years, max, even in that mild clime. They shoulda dug it into a hillside more. But heck, to be Lar’s neighbor, even grudznick might consider a winter residence for a week or three each year.

  15. grudznick 2022-07-11 19:30

    Bob, having been through Hot Springs the other day, right past Ms. Fairbank’s little yard and up to that fancy golf course you fellow sport, which is overrated by the by, I am pretty sure there I saw signs of pre-marital sex going on there. So consider this a report of pre-marital sex in Hot Springs, SD.

    That billboard out by Ms. Fairbank’s joint still needs to go. I was surprised it was still up.

  16. grudznick 2022-07-11 19:59

    13% of US Americans think the US is on the right track. Over 60% of registered Dem’s think Biden needs to be replaced. This is disturbing news, for those of us, which includes most of you and grudznick, who is worried Mr. Trump will live long enough to run again.

  17. P. Aitch 2022-07-11 21:26

    John Dale – SD was where you ran after the Latino boys at the skateboard park threatened to burn you out because you couldn’t and still can’t keep your foolish ideas to yourself. Live the truth, Dale!

  18. larry kurtz 2022-07-11 21:35

    Don’t be mean, Porter. John Dale is the Milo Yiannopoulos of Dale Bells.

  19. Neal 2022-07-11 22:27

    Seems a bit melodramatic to me. Yes, Kristi is terrible in some ways, but life here in SD remains great. Which is why our population is growing, Tim’s departure notwithstanding.

    You see, this is exactly how it’s supposed to be. States should have their own individual identities, and people should live in the state that best aligns with their ideals and beliefs. The idea that there should be a singular nationwide standard for divisive social issues is nonsense and was tearing us apart. This is the only way to save the republic.

  20. Guy 2022-07-12 01:42

    The problem with the Democratic Party today is that they no longer embrace the issues of the working class and that is why they’ve lost so much support over the past several decades. The Democrats have become “Republican-Lite” when it comes to economic issues. Many leaders in the Democratic Party embrace corporatism like the Republicans. This is why Democrats have lost so much power in the past 40 years. This is why so many former Democrats and Republicans are Independents. This Blue State and Red State garbage is what is wrecking our nation. There is no longer a “Purple Balance” among the states and THAT is what is going to lead to the eventual downfall of the United States. Without a respect of Working Class Americans and representing their interests, the corporatists and wealthy Americans run the nation and that is unstainable in the long term. Until the Democrats come back to truly represent the working class Americans, they will never ever regain power. It’s unfortunate because MOST Americans are working class and they are DIVERSE according to race and gender. As a nation, we have come to devalue our workers and worship or wealthy people to our downfall.

  21. Guy 2022-07-12 02:32

    See, that is the HUGE PROBLEM of this blog and all the others: none of you want to focus on the issues that affect most South Dakotans and Americans: the economy and how it affects working class people. Most Americans from all races and both genders are WORKING CLASS. That is a FACT and has been a FACT since the nation was founded, but, in the last 40 years we have come to look down on our workers and worship the wealthy. We all want to be wealthy, but, in reality most of us will NEVER be wealthy. Who do you think adds to the wealth of this nation and keeps it running? The Wealthy? No, the WORKERS add to the wealth of this nation and they keep it running and that is MOST OF US. How can the rights and civil liberties of Working Americans be respected if Working Americans continued to be disregarded in South Dakota and the United States??? We are looked down upon as if we do jobs that are not worthy of respect, BUT, are ESSENTIAL SERVICES for the welfare of everyone. Every race and gender work hard everyday to provide these ESSENTIAL SERVICES so you can have the freedom to blog and comment on every other issue under the sun. It just seems to me that ALL of you have FORGOTTEN that, like the Democratic Party has. The Republican Party….it is already a lost cause. Cory, you want to say I’m hijacking this article then delete my posts because it’s your blog. But, I’m going to tell you this, none of these other issues matter a hill of beans until the interests of Working Americans are addressed and most of us are Working Americans. Without WORKERS, this state and country would cease to operate an exist.

  22. Jenny 2022-07-12 05:30

    What Guy says. Biden is a painful reminder of how weak the Democrat Party has become. Catering to Mitch McConnell.and appointing conservative Federal judges is a crock of….. The two Parties are Republican and Republican Lite.
    Bernie Sanders was a true progressive and they made sure he didn’t stand a chance. I would move to a peaceful country if I could afford it. These are scary times in the Land of the Free. When you have to worry about your family being the next victims of gun violence in our churches,schools and movie theaters and your government cares more about the gun lobby more than the people you know it’s totally f’d up.

  23. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-12 06:51

    Neal, there are limits to how far ideals and beliefs can differ from state to state, aren’t there? Doesn’t there come a point where divergence of beliefs makes common governance impossible? Certain fundamental rights have to be universal or citizens can’t move freely around the country. Where is the proper limit to how much States can differ philosophically and culturally yet remain United?

  24. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-12 07:04

    Guy, Tim is keenly concerned about the economy and working-class people. Read his full post.

    He writes that Sioux Falls government ignores the needs of the working class to favor the rich. The same critique could be lodged to all of South Dakota: we build an economy on the cheap, counting on people to work for patriotism, love, and bad theology and accept low wages. Then when workers don’t have enough money to keep their local businesses open and generate enough tax revenue to maintain our roads and schools, we rely on government subsidies to keep the community on life support.

    And then on top of that, instead of maximizing our economic potential by keeping our native talent on top of recruiting migrants from other states, we craft unnecessarily hostile policies that drive away lots of young people and smart workers like Tim. We then try to excuse that profound economic loss by saying, “Well, that’s federalism! If you don’t like it, leave.”

    Guy, Tim writes your critique about South Dakota’s state leaders. He says the governor’s job is to focus on “the state’s core issues”, and as examples he lists “poverty, lack of health care, and children.” He says Noem is too busy “echoing Trumpisms and issuing venomous press releases” to work with those real problems that you and Tim and I and dare I say, most of the people reading this blog want government to focus on, issues that workers need to see addressed. Too many South Dakotans work their butts off but earn such low wages that they remain in poverty. Too many South Dakotans can’t afford health care… or even if they can afford health care, they have to drive an hour or three to get it because their small town can’t recruit doctors and nurses and pharmacists. Too many South Dakotans can’t afford child care. What is Noem doing about any of those issues when she’s primping for the cameras to sell her book? What legislation have Thune and Rounds passed to raise wages, build hospitals and clinics, and expand child care options in South Dakota?

    Tim is talking about the economy and about how South Dakota’s leaders don’t do enough about it. Read his full post.

  25. Mark Anderson 2022-07-12 07:33

    Guy, UNIONS. Neal, UNIVERSAL RIGHTS. John Dale, S.D. IS a good place for you.

  26. David Newquist 2022-07-12 08:02

    Cory,
    It is difficult to watch South Dakota implode into that undercurrent of fascist temperament which has gained dominance over life here. It would be quite easy to leave, if it weren’t for some family considerations. But the internet makes it possible to stay in contact with that part of the nation which still believes in just causes.

    After four years of Trump which were recorded by the news media, 61 percent of the state voters chose him in 2020. That is not a matter of partisan politics; it is a matter of choosing a man who flaunts an insidious human meanness as executive authority. And that reveals much about the collective state character. The state loses many of the smart people when they go out of state to college, and another batch when they get their college degrees and flee. People of integrity realize you cannot reconcile with malignancy, nor should you.

    My former employer, NSU, has experienced an 18 percent drop in full-time equivalent students in the last decade. The higher education system as a whole has had a decline in enrollments which were accelerated by covid-19. The hard part of being here is living in the fear that my grand children might become “good South Dakotans” in the way that people in Germany became “good Germans” during the Holocaust years.

  27. larry kurtz 2022-07-12 08:28

    So, what’s not to like about six (seven? eight?) month winters, rampant racism, chilling effects on civil rights, an extremist legislature, living in a chemical toilet, sacrifice zone, perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area?

  28. jerry 2022-07-12 11:43

    I see Jenny is off blathering again about that darn Joe Biden and that goof off Chad in Kentucky, that ain’t never gonna happen. When you talk with a devil called Mitch, you always should be ready to goof on the dude. Mitch done got had, to raise campaign money for Democrats in Kentucky. Talk about falling for clickbait, Jenny and so many other so called “Democrats” just eat that crap up like a bunch of bottom feeding carp while supporting NOem.

    South Dakota has many problems that is for sure, but the place can still inspire with it’s wildness. The people are just easily lead, but they are full of the same kind of lameness that has always made me smile. One thing that will be coming to the surface sometime right quick like is water. When those dry states and city’s see those water bodies is when that hits the fan, we shall see how much of independent thinking the folks will have or will they band together to make a stand on how to protect the only thing here that has ever mattered, water. More than politics, water is life and still is king.

    Rapid City wants to build a line so you just know that will go to the rest of the thirsty communities in the Northern Hills and Wyoming. How much is enough? ETSI (1974) will yet live or will be again be able to kill it.

  29. Laurisa 2022-07-12 13:27

    Unfortunately, I know exactly how Tim feels because I did the same thing for the same reasons. Almost three years ago, I left western SD for what was supposed to be a one-year job in Minnesota. The plan was for me to return after the temporary job and hubby and I would have a long-distance marriage until then.

    Covid happened, and the Cheyenne River reservation checkpoints,, and MN travel restrictions, plus my front line worker position, made it extremely difficult for us to meet and we didn’t see each other for months. However, we not only had no problem with the restrictions and checkpoints, we fully agreed with them. I already knew how bad Noem was, but her persecution of the tribe for its efforts to protect its members and non-members on the reservation from a deadly disease, and her horrible handling of Covid, took my disdain, disgust, and contempt for her and anyone who supported her, to another level entirely.

    When the temporary job ended, I realized how much happier I was and how much better my mental health was and didn’t want to return. I found a permanent position in the same MN city and finally, after two years, persuaded hubby to leave SD and join me. He’s a lifelong rural South Dakotan who never considered leaving the state, but even he has finally had enough and is equally disgusted.

    There are those who say we should remain in the state and fight, but there are only so many times you can beat your head against the wall daily before you can’t take the pain anymore. Especially as a woman and liberal Christian, it’s really frightening to be in the state now. It’s painful, because we love the state, but Tim is right. That state is gone and I don’t see it coming back, only getting worse.

  30. leslie 2022-07-12 14:09

    Hahaha! Not just in SD but in the nation, circling the GOP drain.

    Cipollini’s testimony to the Jan 6 commission today, just now, is that VP Pence: “should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his courage not to decertify electors on Jan 6”!

    JFC, yeah, take Rushlimbaugh’s medal and masking tape the inscription w/ a Sharpie: “the couragous Mike Pence!”

    ENOUGH OF THE TRUMPISMS!

    jerry, afaik Homestake heirs still own all the Northern Hills water rights! Buy them back people!

  31. Jenny 2022-07-12 15:31

    jerry, I don’t know what the f you are talking about, I am not a Noem supporter. Biden needs to go take his nap and take a pass on 2024. The Democrat Corporatist party is what the Democrat Party really is today. What the F have Democrats done for working people? Failed on the filibuster, voting rights, student loan forgiveness. Wake up Democrats, when you have the House, the Senate and the White House and still can’t get any major accomplishments done, at some point you have to recognize that Biden and today’s Corporatist Democrats are only working for the elite.

  32. larry kurtz 2022-07-12 15:41

    Why does Herr Trump still have a passport and why isn’t he under house arrest? And why hasn’t his campaign paid Sioux Falls for his appearance there?

  33. jerry 2022-07-12 15:47

    Jenny proves the point of how far to the right she is. Cuddle with NOem, you two deserve one another. Yak yak “the filibuster”, yak yak “failed this and failed that”. Joe Biden’s election is what has kept the lights on in this country since his inaguratation. Stop hanging with fake news and NOem. Them sequins are just glitter.

  34. Jenny 2022-07-12 16:09

    oh jerry you big ol lug! You have it really bad for Noem don’t you! It’s okay, just don’t go stalking her. We wouldn’t want to hear about you going to jail. What the hell would our Air Force be without you?

  35. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-12 16:29

    Minnesota—good for your mental health!

    One wouldn’t think that would make a good recruitment slogan… but Laurisa attests that Minnesota was better for her mental health than South Dakota, and she got her partner, a lifelong South Dakotan, to agree. Minnesota seems awfully persuasive… and the arguments I’m hearing for Minnesota aren’t dressed up in any showy patriotism or cowgirl marketing imagery or anything like that. It sounds more like simple self-preservation.

  36. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-12 16:31

    Jerry is right to point to water as a problem not unique to South Dakota. The Southwest is going to need to shut down growth and block any immigrants, be they Mexican workers or South Dakota snowbirds. Imagine if Arizona told RVers they have to bring their own water supply.

    When California deploys desalinators and South Dakota is stuck catching trickles from the reduced Rocky Mountain snowfall, more people will want to move away.

  37. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-07-12 16:33

    (There is no state-to-state switch we can make to resolve Democrats’ frustration with the Democratic Party’s inability to translate House, Senate, and White House control into more results. But that’s for a different post.)

  38. leslie 2022-07-12 16:55

    Of course, if we don’t arrest global warming (and the GOP!) which are long term and short term vital issues for 2022 and 2024, there very well may NOT be any annual liquid water to replenish those Homestake water rights encompassing the Northern Hills (and SOME. of Rapid Creek), so maybe we can pick them up for cheap (but, very dry).

    Get after it people! VOTE BLUE if you want fresh water for your children and grand children; these are scientifically proven facts.

    Don’t be canaries in a coal mine! AND, if you want to keep American democracy, with your democratic vote BLUE WILL FIX economic inequality, gun violence, voting rights, womens rights, SCOTUS, the electoral college, and even the filibuster!! But this ain’t no 7-11 and this ain’t no disco. It is going to take awhile. The GOP and John Thune et al will obstruct at every turn.

    Otherwise, better buy a BIG air conditioner.

  39. Mark Anderson 2022-07-12 18:07

    Come on folks. When people die from Covid, when they die from lack of healthcare, when kids are shot while attending school, Republicans pray for them. What else do you want?

  40. jakc 2022-07-12 20:07

    Cory, you ask about residential expatsI grew up in SD and have lived in both West River and East River. I have spent several long stretches in the state in the last ten years, long enough to have reestablished residency. Yes, the state has changed over the last 50 years. I mean so what if Roe was overturned. It’s been 20 or 30 years since any doctor openly performed abortions in RC for example. I’m not going to go on how the state has moved from a libertarian conservatism to a Christian conservatism – a sad turn, but the truth is that the real problem for SD is economics.
    Outside of Sioux Falls, there is a financial penalty for staying in SD. This isn’t about politics. Conservative friends I grew up with who have left SD would tell you the same. They made a lot more money out-of-state than they ever would have made in SD, and in all kinds of professions. And, not only would a low-income retail worker make more in Des Moines than in Rapid City, the tax bite (income-property-no sales tax on food) would probably be lower than the SD (sales & property) tax bite, and services like snow removal, in home health care and pothole repair are better in Des Moines.
    Like a lot of people, I can spend time in SD because I make money elsewhere. The Black Hills are a nice place to be if you don’t need to make a living there.
    And, especially outside of Sioux Falls, the idea the state is growing. No, it’s aging, it’s adding RV citizens. Small states ike to talk about the percentage of growth because it exagerates the growth rate. SD grew faster than California or New York! Except SD added 70,000 people and California added 2.8 million. NY added 800,000. It wasn’t until I left SD that I realized how poor SD is. A residential expat who tells a 22 year old in RC or Aberdeen the truth will tell them can make more money elsewhere and come back later. If they are talking to a 22 year old in Sioux Falls, they might tell the kid that they can do fine in Chicago or Denver or Seattle and not have to put up with the tail wagging the dog for a state government.

  41. bearcreekbat 2022-07-14 18:15

    Jenny comes to an odd conclusion condemning Democrats because ” What the F have Democrats done for working people? Failed on the filibuster, voting rights, student loan forgiveness. ”

    Correct me if I am wrong Jenny, but I thought that the majority of Democrats in the House, and 48 Democratic Senators voted to pass “filibuster [reform], voting rights, student loan forgiveness, etc” while 2 Democrats and the entire Republican party killed these efforts. I also thought President Biden and VP Harris supported these reforms.

    So wouldn’t that be evidence that the vast majority of Democrats (a majority in the House, Biden, and 48 in the Senate) are not “Corporatist Democrats [that] are only working for the elite” but are making every effort to do things foir working peoiple? Actually, if failing to enact these reforms constitutes evidence that the elected official or a particular political party is “only working for the elite,” wouldn’t this apply to the entire Republic party and two individual elected Democrats, rather than President Biden, V.P. Harris, Democrats in the House and 48 Democrats in the Senate?

    Maybe rather than attacking and demeaning Democrats as a group it might make more sense to praise those many, many elexcted Democrats supporting these important legislative goals and work to elect enough additional Democrats to overcome obstruction by all Republicans and the few Democrats that oppose these bills. We can be relatively sure that electing more obstructionist Republicans won’t get it done, nor will splitting liberal/progressive votes between Democrats and a new progressive party, since that only increases the likelihood of electing Republicans.

  42. Jenny 2022-07-14 19:54

    Trust me bcb, the whole establishment in Washington is rotten to the core. You know that.
    Newly elected Representatives realize that right away their first day. At some point the American people need to understand that they are not really in the game. Oh they will throw us a bone every once in awhile to get us excited. Obama got us all excited and then turned out to be very moderate
    I will keep voting but there really is not that.much difference.in the two Parties anymore. I am a Democratic Bernie Sanders Socialist so I am way to the left with the far majority of South Dakota Democrats so try to understand where I am coming from and please respect my opinion. Thank you.

  43. Nick Nemec 2022-07-14 20:10

    To say that there isn’t that much difference between the parties anymore is to ignore reality. For example imagine the Supreme Court that might be if Gore had won in 2000 and Clinton in 2016. Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett would never have been appointed. Rulings would certainly have been different, in fact many cases would not have even been considered.

    There is a big difference between the parties.

  44. Jenny 2022-07-14 20:52

    No, to me, there is not really a big difference between the two Parties.
    Now there would be a big difference if Democratic Socialists were the majority in Washington. Things would then get done. Imagine how much easier life would be for millions of working Americans to be able to have Single Payer healthcare, where one doesn’t have to ever worry about going bankrupt from medical bills. Paid Family Leave would get voted in also.
    Imagine if people like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein and all the other Democrats had NOT voted for the Iraq War (still proud of my MN Senators Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton for voting No to war. They stood their ground ) and all the young soldiers that would still be alive. The Military Industrial Complex budget is atrocious and those same Dems vote alongside the Pubs every year to keep it bloated.
    You can keep on pretending Nick.
    I see reality as it is and the US govt, Wall Street and the Banks are rotten to the core.

  45. Nick Nemec 2022-07-14 21:40

    Don’t kid yourself Jenny it takes a filibuster proof majority to pass anything. The simplistic and just plain wrong rhetoric that “both parties are the same” induces lazy people to not vote because “it doesn’t make a difference”. The Supreme Court has proven that theory is wrong as wrong can be.

  46. Jenny 2022-07-14 23:08

    The name Chad Meredith doesn’t bother you, Nick? This is exactly what I mean, it should upset you, Biden’s little deal he wants kept quiet with ol’ Mitch. Why would Biden, the supposed reproductive right supporter President be enabling the problem by helping his buddy Mitch out?
    Say it aint’s so Joe. Which side are you really on? You can’t have it both ways, apparently in Washington it’s hard to tell anymore whose side anyone is on these day since they’re all in bed together.
    Oh but I’m just crazy child abuser Jenny, what do I know.

  47. cibvet 2022-07-14 23:57

    All politicians are only forward looking to the next election, even Democratic Socialists. Even if 60 were elected and a president was to sign off on social programs, I believe a person would have better luck trying to herd 61 cats.
    Money is the name of the game, always was, always will be, even though many fools suck up their patriotic swill.

  48. jerry 2022-07-15 03:07

    Chad Meredith doesn’t live in South Dakota except rent free in your empty melon Jenny. That is one of the biggest problems we have here as a state, people like you blathering on about something that has nothing to do with why this blogger is leaving the state. You, Evans and NOem always sound like you’re in a Menage A Trois of the silly even admitting that you’re a “crazy child abuser”.

  49. Jenny 2022-07-15 06:02

    jerry, get back to your Air Force. They are waiting for you. Go on.

  50. Jenny 2022-07-15 19:39

    You’re a strange one jerry. You Biden Dems should be concerned that he’s tanking in the polls with only a 33% favorability rating. Y’all need the progressive wing of your Party to reelect Biden and we’re not excited at all . When you have a Democrat President appointing Rebublican anti-reproductive rights Federal judges, the progressive wing is going to get angered. What do you expect? It’s not just the progressives either. The majority of Americans don’t want sleepy Joe to run again. He needs to focus on his health, his dementia will be more advanced in 2024.
    It’s painfully clear he has it.

  51. jerry 2022-07-16 05:43

    I admit it, I’m a Biden guy!! Found me out, damn. Better a Biden guy than a NOem frumper/trumper. 33% favorability rating is not a problem here in the land of milk and honey. Ask the ag guys how that Biden team is working for them,

    It would appear that the topic of this thread, agrees that it’s people like you Jenny, that drive the heart and soul from the state. Maybe “y’all”, should move on down to Florida where you can be with your mango boy, trump. You certainly have the fake language to be welcomed. Take your conspiracy boy toy, EVANS with ya. Don’t let the screen door hitcha on the way out,

  52. jerry 2022-07-16 06:41

    Biden is my COLA, I really admit it, I’m a Biden guy!! Even in South Dakota, when the retired (old and disabled) see their increase, well, wow.

    “Retirees could see a double-digit percentage increase in their Social Security benefits next year as inflation continues to run hot, according to several new estimates.

    Based on new inflation data through June, the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits, or COLA, could be an increase of 10.5% next year, according to estimates from the Senior Citizens League, boosting the average retiree benefit by $175.10 every month.”

  53. Jenny 2022-07-16 06:54

    Don’t get mad at me that your man sucks at being a leader. Go take your nap now.

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