Representative Phil Jensen (R-33.Hisega) played weak political theater Wednesday afternoon, bringing a lengthy House State Affairs committee hearing to a dreary ending with a limp and dopey presentation of House Concurrent Resolution 6008, his attempt to get the Legislature to affirm verbatim the South Dakota Republican Party platform. The committee responded by killing his ploy.
Representative Jensen opened his testimony with the specious lie that his resolution was about “fealty to our South Dakota values of hard work, individual liberty, et cetera” rather than stating the obvious fact that he was asking the Legislature to affirm the South Dakota Republican platform. In further departure from truth (not to mention decorum and respect for the time of a committee that had already been meeting for over three hours, reconvening after the full House meeting in the afternoon to finish its business), Jensen said he would read “a few” of the Whereas clauses, then plowed into reciting HCR 6008 verbatim, from the top, getting through 15 of the resolution’s 56 Whereas clauses in two minutes, with no commentary and no sign of stopping. A committee member finally interrupted Jensen, telling him the committee had the text in front of them and had read it, and asked the sponsor to give “some comments as to the merits of the resolution.” Jensen snarked back that the member may have been absent when he profferred his opening lie, then paged ahead to read the Resolved clause (again, Phil, why?) and opened himself to questions.
Asked to speak to the merit of his resolution, Representative Jensen did not.
Representative Roger Chase (R-22/Huron) asked why the committee needed to pass a resolution affirming “things we all believe in.” Chase must have a case of the Jensen fibbery, not only declining to acknowledge that HCR 6008 is the SDGOP platform but claiming that everyone believes every plank of that platforms (there are people on the committee, in the Legislature, and across South Dakota who do not support a total ban on abortion and stem cell research, display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, abstinence education, South Dakota’s “right-to-work” law, or the Electoral College and who do support single-payer health care, online same-day voter registration, and socially responsible investing. Chase also ignored the deeper philosophical point that the self-contradictions within the SDGOP platform make it impossible for any rational being to believe all of the items in the platform.
Acknowledging that there is a lot of difference of opinion within the Republican Party, Jensen finally admitted that HCR 6008 is the SDGOP platform. In a weird whopper, Jensen said he didn’t notice until this afternoon that the resolution doesn’t mention that it is the Republican Party platform. That claim is, of course, ridiculous. He knew he was creating a vehicle by which to ask the Legislature to formally affirm the SDGOP platform, or at least to create a little campaign point for his feckless radical right-wing friends. He worded his resolution deliberately avoid mentioning that it is his party’s platform, perhaps in an attempt to sneak the platform by some inattentive legislators who would read the innocuous title, TLDR the 56 Whereases, and vote a casual warm fuzzy aye just to get back to business.
Representative Oren Lesmeister (D-28A/Parade) asked Representative Jensen to explain what “assimilating into our American heritage” is. Jensen had to ask what portion of his resolution Lesmeister was referring to. Lesmeister pointed to that phrase buried down in Whereas #40. Jensen asked again for a specific page number and paragraph, and Chairman Will Mortenson (R-24/Pierre), strangely, asked Lesmeister if he could be more specific (when it’s the sponsor who ought to have the most specific grasp of his own resolution). Lesmeister pointed to page 4, lines 18 through 20, and said he was asking for a definition of “American heritage” (not bad, but I think asking Jensen what he means by “assimilating” would be even more to the point). Proving that he doesn’t know what his own resolution and his own party platform are talking about, Jensen said simply (as in simpleton), “I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.”
Rep. Chase then moved to kill the bill. He said he respects Jensen for bringing the resolution but affirmed diversity and expressed his hatred of resolutions:
…We as representatives on this committee have to understand that we have differences of opinion and principles across the state of South Dakota and our diversity is coming along a great deal of what we see in our communities, and so I hate resolutions because they put you in a corner, if you vote for it you’re wrong, if you vote against it you’re wrong, and so I think it’s just improper for us at this time on this committee to promote this and move this along [Rep. Roger Chase, statement supporting his motion to defer HCR 6008 to the 41st day, House State Affairs, 2023.02.08, SDPB audio timestamp 3:23:00 ].
If Jensen and his mugwumps can find a radical to primary Chase in District 22, they will spin Chase’s statement as “Chase is a RINO who pushes diversity and hates the GOP platform!”
Representative Lesmeister noted that HCR 6008 cited the English language as a unifying factor. He noted that his grandpa spoke German and his grandma spoke Norwegian and both barely spoke English when they died. He also said American heritage could be Native American heritage, German heritage, almost anything amidst our diversity.
Representative Kirk Chaffee (R-29/Whitewood) said he was “struggling” with the resolution, saying it’s “awkward” to cut and paste the GOP platform into a resolution and make legislators vote on it. He was also struggling to put together a coherent explanation of his position.
The chair asked with a chuckle if anyone could help Representative Chaffee. Representative Erin Healy (D-10/Sioux Falls) gladly and readily offered her assistance:
We all represent a lot of people, I’d say about 14,000 people, some of them are Republicans, and some of them are Democrats, and we don’t really need to put into resolutions what the Republican party ideology is. I will never bring a resolution that puts my party’s platform into a resolution, so I think there is your out [Rep. Erin Healy, House State Affairs, 2023.02.08 timestamp 3:26:15].
Jensen’s fellow radical Representative Jon Hansen [R-25/Dell Rapids] spoke to defend HCR 6008. Strangely, he said HCR 6008 “seems” like a copy and paste of the Republican Party platform. He said the platform is “really good”. He joked back at Healy that “I wouldn’t want to put the Democrat Party platform in a resolution, either.” (In one more Republican lie, Hansen said after his own chuckle, “Just kidding.”)
Chairman Mortenson closed debate by saying the convention “is the place for politics and this is the place for governing. And so I think when we start mixing the two and playing pure politics with resolutions like this that we have lost our way, and we swore an oath to the Constitution and to the state, and not an oath to any politics….” The chair then quickly called the roll and joined six other Republicans and the committee’s two Democrats to vote to kill the South Dakota Republican Party platform. Only Chaffee, Hansen, and the quiet Representative Becky Drury (R-32/Rapid City) voted to keep HCR 6008 alive.
Representative Jensen, why go through such motions? Why play word games and evade the real issues? Why not be direct with your colleagues? Why not take advantage of the opportunity to speak to your resolution to boldly affirm the values of the Republican Party? Why not, when asked what assimilation into American heritage means, state boldly your vision of an American in which we are all one people in one nation subscribing to your superior Judeo-Christian values? If you know you don’t have the votes (and, seriously, when has Phil Jensen, in his 15 years in Pierre, ever had the votes?), why not at least come forth with statesmanlike gusto to advocate your minority principles (which, curiously, in this case, are supposedly the majority principles of the majority party, and that’s the point you wanted to make, right?)?
Anyway, HCR 6008 is dead. But we know, contrary to Representative Mortenson’s closing attempt at grandiloquence, the party that wrote HCR 6008 will continue to govern in a partisan fashion, killing bills and resolutions that come from outside the elite party club, the club to which Jensen himself doesn’t really belong.
Therein lies the problem with bumper sticker politics: there is no depth beyond the tag line. When leaders are elected in a system that presses them only to recite those slogans and nothing more, we get governance by slogan — or in this case literally an attempt of slogan in lieu of governance.
Most Republican’s in South Dakota are RINO’s. They do cut the horns of the others on occasion.
Good…there are a few responsible Republicans around who will seek to move the Party slightly away from the radical right posturing which took over the Party Convention. Their’s is a thankless task and they are victims of considerable sound and fury, which frankly, they have brought upon themselves by tolerating the antics of the militant, far right wing.
The last paragraph of Mr. H’s blogging here is righter than right.
What kind of circle-jerking club would have Jensen as a member? Even circle-jerkers have more pride.
Bob, I have been digging in the Decorum Forum’s archives for hints to grud’s identity and when you were deciding whether to publish its comments its profanity was effusive.
Only one former or current legislator knows me as well as Mike Verchio does but his wife died recently and it seems unlikely he’d be commenting on political blogs like DFP and Pat’s Pissoir. Verchio is a Luddite but has grandkids and grud has alluded to also having them. Thoughts? Prayers?
I doubt Verchio has the imagination or the venality to assume the identity of grudznutz.