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Red-State Strategy: Dumber, Sicker, Poorer, But in Control of Electoral College, Senate, and Courts!

Republicans maintain political power by resisting democracy and exploiting minoritarian features of our political system. As long as they can control a majority of smaller, rural states, they have better chances of winning the Electoral College, controlling the Senate, and stacking the courts with ideologues who will protect their conservative policies. Vital to maintaining control of red states is waging the culture war to drive away well-educated voters who can see through their malarkey and organize liberal resistance.

Thus, red-state brain drain:

Republican-dominated states are pushing out young professionals by enacting extremist conservative policies. Abortion restrictions are the most sweeping example, but state laws restricting everything from academic tenure to transgender health care to the teaching of “divisive concepts” about race are making these states uncongenial to knowledge workers.

The precise effect of all this on the brain drain is hard to tease out from migration statistics because the Dobbsdecision is still fairly new, and because red states were bleeding college graduates even before the culture war heated up. The only red state that brings in more college graduates than it sends elsewhere is Texas. But the evidence is everywhere that hard-right social policies in red states are making this dynamic worse.

The number of applications for OB-GYN residencies is down more than 10 percent in states that have banned abortion since Dobbs. Forty-eight teachers in Hernando County, Florida, fed up with “Don’t Say Gay” and other new laws restricting what they can teach, resigned or retired at the end of the last school year. A North Carolina law confining transgender people to bathrooms in accordance with what it said on their birth certificate was projected, before it was repealed, to cost that state $3.76 billion in business investment, including the loss of a planned global operations center for PayPal in Charlotte. A survey of college faculty in four red states (Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina) about political interference in higher education found a falloff in the number of job candidates for faculty positions, and 67 percent of the respondents said they would not recommend their state to colleagues as a place to work. Indeed, nearly one-third said they were actively considering employment elsewhere [Timothy Noah, “The Red State Brain Drain Isn’t Coming. It’s Happening Right Now,” The New Republic, 2023.11.22].

Driving college graduates out of rural states comes at a cost in human health and lives. Doctors for babies and lady parts tend to be well-educated; as we’ve reported, making red states even less hospitable to such well-educated and valuable professionals means more babies and ladies suffer and die

It was hard enough for red states to hold onto their OB-GYNs even before Dobbs. A little more than one-third of all counties nationwide are “maternity care deserts,” typically in rural areas, with no hospitals or birthing centers that offer obstetric care and no individual obstetric providers (not even midwives), according to the March of Dimes. This data was collected before the Supreme Court overturned Roe. But even then, those states with the most restrictive abortion laws invested the least in maternal care, affirming former Representative Barney Frank’s memorable complaint that for conservatives “life begins at conception and ends at birth.”

Maternity care deserts are typically in rural areas, not all of which impose strict abortion restrictions. But they’re much more common in states that imposed abortion restrictions after Dobbs, representing 39 percent of all counties in those states, compared to 25 percent in states that imposed no abortion restrictions. Texas has, after California, the highest GDP of any state. Yet 46.5 percent of its counties are maternity care deserts; for some women, the nearest birthing hospital is a 70-minute drive from their home. In some states, including Oklahoma and Mississippi, the majority of counties are maternity care deserts.

Where resources are inadequate for giving birth, infant mortality tends to be high. Among the Dobbs Fourteen [states that adopted strict abortion bans after the 2022 Alito Court overturned Roe v Wade], all but Idaho, North Dakota, and Texas have infant-mortality rates higher than the (shockingly high) national average of 5.42 deaths per 1,000 births. In some of these states, infant mortality is substantially higher. In Mississippi, it’s 9.39 deaths per 1,000 births. In Oklahoma, it’s 7.13 deaths per 1,000 births [Noah, 2023.11.22].

Driving away talent also costs red states’ already laggardly economies:

Meanwhile, with the sole exception of Texas, red states are bleeding college graduates. It’s happening even in relatively prosperous Florida. And much as Republicans may scorn Joe (and Jane) College, they need them to deliver their babies, to teach their children, to pay taxes—college grads pay more than twice as much in taxes—and to provide a host of other services that only people with undergraduate or graduate degrees are able to provide [Noah, 2023.11.22].

Taking advantage of the antiquated and undemocratic compromises of the Constitution to maintain minority political viability is a smart strategy for Republicans. It’s too bad that culture-war strategy leaves red states dumber, sicker, and poorer.

47 Comments

  1. Edwin Arndt 2023-12-03 08:33

    Just a passing comment here; the percentage of abortions that are medically
    necessary is practically nil. This according to google research.

  2. e platypus onion 2023-12-03 09:01

    Since you can’t just walk off the street and have an abortion done by anybody, it seems they are medically necessary.

  3. Rambler 2023-12-03 09:12

    The reality is a two-income couple of college graduates have few options in South Dakota for employment other than the Sioux Falls area. Same is true for North Dakota with the Fargo region and most other red states. Brain drain will only continue with university graduates going elsewhere for employment in their chosen careers.

  4. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-12-03 10:06

    A “Well Organized Republic” is nothing more than all 66 Counties acting together to manage over, and care for all public things held in the name of the “People” i.e South Dakota. The Powers of the State is held by one of or both of two groups of people:

    A) The Qualified Voters of the State of whom elect County Committees, Precinct Committees, and Legislative Delegations of whom hold public organized meetings to discuss Initiatives, Resolutions, and Candidates, of whom they place on a public ballot to adopt as Laws of the State, Promises of the State, as well as for their At-Large Representatives – Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Auditor, Public Land Commissioner, Public School Commissioner.

    B) The “State Legislature” of which is made up of 35 Senators and 70 Representatives of whom are elected by the Qualified Voters of whom meet in a legislative session to discuss initiatives, resolutions of which potentially become laws of the State, so long as they clear the “voters” July 1st Effective Date. The legislature is collectively tasked with choosing our Two U.S Senators, as well as holding Public Trials to Investigate those At-Large Public Offices and all the Departments and Agencies beneath them, as well as Holding Committee Meetings to discuss Specific Governmental Duties of the People (i.e the State).

    The Two Groups of People then work together to Hold Conventions to Amend Our Constitution where we wish to revise our living document, let alone make changes to our structure of government.

    These Two Groups of People together, or individually to adopt statutes and codes to instruct their State Government, County Government, City Government, to a Township Government to act.

    To hold any of these Government Offices, you must be a Qualified Voter of the State, and to become Qualified Voter of the State, you must be fully “Domiciled” within our Political Subdivision..

    You can only have 1 Domicile at one time, and that means, you must take an OATH to the South Dakota Constitution, first and foremost, which protects your rights against all Domestic and Foreign Persons of the State.

    Your Pledge must be to South Dakota, and not to any Foreign State, Territory, nor to the District of Columbia itself.
    As a STATE REPUBLIC, ‘we’ pledge ourselves to uphold, and protect the United States Constitution, to which agrees to protect all of our brethren, all those State Republics Making Up the United States for America, of which was Created in 1777, and of which agreed to Create a Permanent Centralized Government in 1789.

    We the People of South Dakota agree to not only defend the Domestic Borders of Our State, but where we are asked to defend Each and Every Other American State, we shall come to their defense as well.

    Each State Republic, of which is guaranteed to have at least 30,000 American Citizens, is promised to have at least 2 U.S Senators, in order to defend and protect our constitutions, the laws of our state in a National Congress; as well as our American Citizens are further promised to have at least 1 Representative as individual citizens, in order to protect our individual rights against the State(s) as apportioned by population.

    The American Citizens are tasked with Adopting a National Budget based on their Opinions, Beliefs and Desires, however, as “States” we are protected against a Mob Rule Type Democracy, in order to protect the Right of the Peoples against being trampled on by more populous States of Our Union.

    As States – we have the right to concur with each other if we so choose to restrict the Federal Government, let alone replace that Government with a new or improved government in the future.

    In America, the People Rule Together, as the Sovereign People, with the Sovereign being Each “State Republic” themselves.
    The Total Sovereignty of a State of People, forever is vested in the total, and complete immunities of the People of the State.
    Each American Citizen may at their own wishes and desires, pick up, and transfer their Domicile from one State to the Next, but, by doing so, you surrender all your political interests of the previous State, thus renewing, and obligating your Pledge to a New State.
    This is what it Means to Be a State Republic – The People Rule Over the Land, as one collective group of people, pledged to each other, wishing to conduct business as one group of people today.
    “WE” Patriots are creating an excellent plan to Restore the Republic of Free States, where the People control the United States Government. “WE” are the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel, many of us are all have common ancestors to the 12 Germanic Tribes that once called the Country of Pomerania home – a country so massive, that today, includes parts of, or all of Mecklenburg (Germany), Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Baltic States, Sweden, Norway, all with strong connections to Germany itself..

    We are a culture of people born of Pommerian Farmers of who came to the United States between 1830 and 1920 settling in Dakota Territory, while under our temporary government, formed Counties, to which under them, we formed Homesteads, Farm-steads, townships, and other colonies of people, whereas our religious protestant faith, led to forming the ideal core values of the Republican Party (1848), whereas by 1889, the States of South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana were formed..

    If you track America’s Ancestry, you will find that much of the Northern States stretching from Wisconsin in the east, to as far as Oregon and Washington in the far west all share this common ancestry and you will discover the main reasons why these “States” seemingly will unite together, establishing a coalition, a “Confederacy of Member-States” with the one goal of Restoring the Republic to Save America.

    You owe your allegiance to a Group of People called the Ulster Scots – who rose up during the Revolutionary War, proclaiming their Sovereignty, standing up against the King of England, whereas they further, stood up again during the War of 1812, and it was one of them, Francis Key, who written the words to the Star Spangled Banner, becoming our “National Anthem” in the early 1930’s.

    Way, a long time ago, roughly 972 B.C.E, the 10 Tribes of Israel were displaced, headed northbound into Europe to escape religious persecution when the Assyrians conquered their massive area, leaving only Judea as the lone tribe, however, little did we know, those 10 tribes, who assimilated into the early origins of the European Continent, found each other, as they reconnected in the Northern States, making up the United States of America, first by residing in Pommeria, becoming farmers, hunter-gatherers, to merchants…The 10 Lost Tribes are reconnecting themselves once again, and together ‘we’ will play our role in Saving America.

    WE declare ourselves Sovereign, taking no Allegiance to NO KING or QUEEN, let alone Form of Government, “WE” are “States of People” to which stand united – Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

    We will reconnect under a Political Action Committee under the name “We the People to Save the Republic Political Action Committee”

    Democrats seem to hate the Constitution for this very feature, that it allows Americans to ENFORCE their protected rights as Free States, and People as per our Declaration and the Articles, and the Northwest Ordinance to which provides the guidelines, and means of organization of “States” to which can form a temporary government, with the goal to put back together the REPUBLIC.

    1) It starts with organizing under the Counties by holding Precinct Committees,

    2) It then goes to a convention where we can choose, and pick our At Large Representatives – Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor, Treasurer, Land Commissioner, U.S Senator, and “our” Elector for the President and Vice President.

    3) Draw up a Resolution to Hold a “Special Election” unless the next General Election is within 30 days of choosing those Persons. Since this is 2024, “WE” will utilize the General Election to place our “Choices” on the Ballot come November 2024.

    4) By S.D Law, those At-Large Reps take office in January of 2025, whereas, “Our” Elector for President goes to the Convention to cast his “Ballot” one for President, and one for VIce President in December 2024, of which we shall place our “guy” on those ballots.

    5) By means of the Precinct Strategy, “WE” will put our people in “Official Offices” of which govern over the “state government” and of which our “Rightful Choice for President” will govern over the Federal Government in our “Image”.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRG40Isaz5XlikCNvEqlI523rp8O59HKoOSGmTH7-v3CVat71KXXIIs4h1cWy5EJF6V8aRj_32B8EpJ/pub?urp=gmail_link&fbclid=IwAR0ekWGAty3dpq-Tcj5X-GlrfCaalh3NXzmHVUWVKeemVL2_ZVCfryFBA40

  5. All Mammal 2023-12-03 10:16

    Go on, Mr. Z. Serio. Stop making us all look bad. Your comments suck and Nobody cares! Take your Nick Fuentes praising crappy views over to truth social. You’re scaring off all the fish and making it stink to high heaven. Adios.

  6. grudznick 2023-12-03 10:21

    grudznick is no Pomeranian. Tighten up your bloggings, Mr. Zitterich and stop repeating yourself as you slide deeper on the spectrum.

  7. bearcreekbat 2023-12-03 10:24

    Anti-choice/anti-freedom folks in SD have adopted a public policy that is evidence of the observation that:

    Doctors for babies and lady parts tend to be well-educated; as we’ve reported, making red states even less hospitable to such well-educated and valuable professionals means more babies and ladies suffer and die. </blockquote.

    Since SD law now threatens any doctor treating "babies and lady parts with "prison and even a state imposed death sentence if that doctor dares to provide now prohibited medical help to a woman in need, the only rational conclusion is that SD is indeed "less hospitable" to caring and educated medical professionals. Why would any such professional desire to stay in a state like SD that threatens up to life in prison or even the death sentence for providing prohibited medical help to a woman?

  8. bearcreekbat 2023-12-03 10:26

    Dang, another blockquote attempt gone awry. Sorry bout that.

  9. Donald Pay 2023-12-03 10:39

    I tried to read through Mike Z.’s gobbledygook. It’s way too laden with needless bureaucracy, pointless meetings, boring conventions, etc., that any conservative should puke at this. We’ve got to get rid of a lot of county government.. You could easily cut counties down by half or more. Very few people can take the time to go to all these meetings, etc., so Mike Z.’s plan is made for the slackers, the professional politicians and the rich. People who work ain’t gonna be able to participate. I think that’s the key point of Mike Z.’s plan: keep the people from participating in their government.

  10. larry kurtz 2023-12-03 10:41

    Few policymakers dispute the reasons educated people are fleeing my home state of South Dakota.

    The state’s governor is a reactionary cracker. Infrastructure is crumbling. Industrial agriculture is smothering wildlife habitat. Churches are girding for gun violence. Meth has replaced alcohol as the state’s drug of choice. Pierre’s culture of corruption and attacks on kids have ended open government. Native wildlife are being exterminated to make way for disease-ridden domestic livestock and exotic fowl. Jails far outnumber colleges. Bankers continue to enslave landowners and the state’s medical industry triopoly operates without scrutiny.

  11. Richard Schriever 2023-12-03 10:43

    Edwin – Just an FYI here – the only things that are a necessity for your life are food and water. Whatever else you might try to get your hands on is NOT NEEDED – so, give it up. Just walk away from it all. Fagettaboudit.

  12. grudznick 2023-12-03 10:45

    Mr. Pay, grudznick’s close personal friend Lar welcomes you to our County Down 33 team. With our help, we shall starve the county beasts one-by-one, and only the strong will survive.

    County Down, folks. County Down.

  13. Donald Pay 2023-12-03 12:00

    Grudz, I’m not interested in starving necessary services. There is a need for county government, but it needs to be reformed to match the needs of current times.

  14. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-12-03 15:43

    My plan is to get as many Precincts filled by good, honest, constitutional, Anti-Federalist, America First Americans as possible, filling both Democrat and Republican seats all across the 50 States. South Dakota has 689 Precinct Positions in which all but 200+/- are filled. I have stated my plan very clearly – utilize mechanisms written into the NORTHWEST ORDINANCE to which we will use, to put people into places, to which ‘we’ can restore the republic. As Napolean always said – The “Republic” shall always live strong, dutiful, and prosperous. The Republic is ALL PEOPLE making up the State of course. SO it is to all of our benefit to fill in as many precincts, as well a every County COmmittee person, in order to organize the republic as one. Remember, all that is required to become a “State” is 30,000 American Citizens, to whom then can elect a Federal Rep to the U.S House, and as a ‘State” we appoint 2 U.S Senator, and to whom ‘we’ get 1 Elector for the President. The plan is in full force, 689 Precinct Committee People, 66 County COmmittee People, and 35 Legislative Delegates. 790 total people for the Republicans, 790 people for the Democrats, and 790 people for the Independent Statesman Party. That is 2,370 AMerican Citizens of the Republic of South Dakota to whom can then meet in a Statewide Convention to choose our – Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Auditor, Land Commissioner, Public School Commissioner, National Committee Person, Elector for the President, the U.S Senators ( 2 ), the U.S House of Representative.

    Yes, I would include all Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in one Statewide Convention to CHoose those At-Large Representatives. Why – cause that means we only need to reach out to 15 citizens per each precinct person, to organize 30,000 Americans Citizens of S.D – to go out and request a Special Election to put in place “Provisional Government”

  15. grudznick 2023-12-03 16:05

    Mr. Pay, 66 counties is too many by 33, you wrote it yourownself.

    It is not a necessary service to have weekly meetings of fatcat commissioners who garner an ever growing salary, when what we really need is a stronger but more accountable Sheriff in the County of Pennington. If we get a good Sheriff, we can mostly do away with the commission. And if the county named for brevet Gen. Geo. A. Custer can align with the County of Fall River and absorb it, we have probably crushed Lance Russell, the minion of the liberal devil, out of the governments. That is good.

  16. Mike Zitterich 2023-12-03 16:30

    The Counties were established prior to the State being formed, again, know the facts, the People were forming the State(s) between 1850 to 1890, Read the Northwest Ordinance, and you will learn how the States were being formed. Out of Dakota Territory, you get S.D , N.D , WYO, MON.

    Under each County, we have broken ourselves down into Townships, Estates, Homesteads, Farm-Steads, etc…

    Each County has a Commission, Sherrif, Attorney, Treasurer, Auditor, etc

    Each Township has a Board of Supervisors (36 each), Township Clerk, Constable, etc

    Under each Township, you have Municipalitys, Towns, Villages, etc.

    Under the Counties, you have your Estates, HOmesteads,and Farmsteads.

    The People of the County every two years, Elect Precinct Committees, County Committeemen

    10 Counties cannot over rule the other 56 counties, and this is what blocked Amendment A in 2020 !! Thank God.

  17. larry kurtz 2023-12-03 16:37

    Insurance agent Ryan Maher is an Earth hater state senator from Isabel, South Dakota who is greased by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Qochtopus. Maher’s political party is all about South Dakota being a perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area where socialized agriculture, socialized livestock grazing, socialized coal, socialized military insurance, socialized timber harvest and a virtual medical industry triopoly are simply ways of life.

    Maher’s far white wing of the Republican Party wants a not so civil race war because oligarchs fear an admission of guilt implies liability and they will be compelled to pay reparations to Indigenous and to the descendants of enslaved people.

    The Wanblee district should be in Oglala Lakota County then Jackson should be rolled into Stanley, Haakon, Jones and Lyman Counties. Mellette, Bennett, Todd, Gregory and Tripp should be one county. Dewey, Ziebach and Corson should be a county. Butte, Harding and Perkins should be one. Lawrence and Meade should be one; Fall River and Custer should be one.

    East River is a dead zone: smarter people than i can figure out how to sort out that mess. Everything east of the Missouri River is Cleveland anyway.

    Let’s face it: the only worse place than Pierre or Aberdeen to live is DC.

    It’s obvious this phenomenon is no accident: it has been manufactured to make the state a corporatist tax haven for an exclusive set of Republicans while over $3 trillion languish in South Dakota banks.

    South Dakota Democrats need to run on a corporate income tax, ending video lootery, reducing the number of South Dakota counties to 25, turning Dakota State and/or Northern State University into community colleges, and adopting my cannabis template.

  18. Donald Pay 2023-12-03 17:12

    I could care less about when counties originated in South Dakota or elsewhere. That is irrelevant. They now serve as administrative units, and states determine what they do and how they do it. Louisiana doesn’t have counties and Alaska got rid of them. Start living in the modern world, Mike Z. We’re not interested in going back to merry old England in the Middle Ages, where they called them “shires” and served as administrative duties for the Crown.

  19. e platypus onion 2023-12-03 17:18

    Rumour has it drumpf’s preferred choice for veep is former brain surgeon and goofy magat Hypocrite Zi.,.,.,unconscious Dr Ben Carson.

  20. grudznick 2023-12-03 17:41

    Mr. Zitterich, they will probably outlaw precincts and the committeewomen in the next legislative sessions. Watch for the Governor to suggest it. Then where will you be?

  21. Arlo Blundt 2023-12-03 18:00

    Counties are creations of State Government. Total subsidiaries. We can have as many counties as the Legislature determines necessary. With the advent of the internet, I’d say 30 is plenty.

  22. Mike Zitterich 2023-12-03 18:18

    Of course the Democrats hate a strong Unified Republic. They hate the awesome sensation of REPRESENTATIVE process of our great American System. Again the Counties came before the State, while cannot be broken down without a vote of the People of said County(s).

    Democrats do not like it very much when the people elect people to represent them in a Statewide Convention to meet with, and choose our At-Large Representatives, and they continue to support the Neo-Con Republicans cause that is their only voice they have in the State itself.

    Democrats, or shall I say the LEFT WING wing nuts have been destroying our Republic since the creation of the Democrat Party 1828.

    Fact: The legislature gains its power from the people, and where the people are fully organized in thieir counties, they will fight back. The Counties are well organized now, I can assure you of this, and will fight the Legislature if they attempt to strip the precincts of their power.

  23. grudznick 2023-12-03 18:28

    Welcome as a member, Mr. Blundt, to the County Down 33 organization.\

    County Down.
    County Down indeed.

  24. larry kurtz 2023-12-03 18:34

    Every federal department and agency already recognize Native America as the 51st State. While the Palestinian homeland looks like holes in the slice of Swiss cheese analogous to the illegal Israeli state, progress toward resolutions of Native trust disputes would have far more political traction after tribes secede from the States in which they reside and then be ratified to form one State, the 51st, sans contiguous borders with two Senators and two House members as there are an estimated 2.5 million indigenous living on reservations.

    It’s time for the State of South Dakota to abandon Bear Butte State Park that it claimed through colonization and remand it to the tribes for governance so they can restore its name to Mato Paha and for the US Park Service to add the name Mahto Tipila to Devils Tower National Monument.

    The South Dakota Democratic Party should advocate for paying the tribes and settling the Black Hills Claim, dissolving the Black Hills National Forest, moving management of the land from the US Department of Agriculture into the Department of Interior; and, in cooperation with Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Forestry and Wildfire Management rewild it and rename it Okawita Paha National Monument eventually becoming part of the Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge. Mato Paha (Bear Butte), the associated national grasslands and the Sioux Ranger District of the Custer/Gallatin National Forest should be included in the move.

    The United States Constitution is the finest instrument ever created by the human hand. The Preamble is the body, the Bill of Rights is the neck, the Amendments are the strings. It is a fluid universal execution of human and civil rights.

    It’s time for all Americans to enjoy the protection of law by being part of one nation: erase the artificial borders and grant Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness to all the people of North America…Mexico, Central America, Canada, even the Caribbean if they’ll have us.

    I’m not a New World Order guy, don’t support the North American Union (god bless you. please, mr. roddenberry) and I believe the US Constitution is a big enough canvas in order to paint a more perfect masterpiece, a big enough score for all to sing. No violence. No more drug wars.

    Si, se puede.

  25. grudznick 2023-12-03 19:38

    Lar, this morning at the Conservatives with Common Sense breakfasting, during our old business section it was brought up that we need to re-order a batch of the new design of our T-shirts, and get rid of the remaining inventory of the old ones. Remaining is one XXXL and one size M. I’m having them sent out to Mr. Zitterich and you, gratis.

  26. Todd Epp 2023-12-03 19:51

    Zit, my farming Mennonite Epp forbears are not Pomeranians or any other breed of dog. They started out in the Frisian islands. As they were pacifists, they got pushed to Germany then Ukraine then Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas.

    On the farming James side, they were not Pomeranians, Dalmatians, poodles, or even bulldogs. They came to America during colonial times, primarily in Virginia. They then left their worn out farms in the Piedmont for Nebraska after the Civil War.

    Not a Pomeranian among them yet good people who wanted to farm, be good citizens, and to be left alone.

    I’m not sure how this fits with your “history” of the Plains states and the United States.

  27. John 2023-12-04 08:00

    The minority will never fix what ails the US. The US Founders extended too much power to the minority and never fixed their mistakes. Now the US is too cowardly to fix the mistakes. The US doesn’t even rank among the the top 10 democracies in the world. Keep this in mind in the event the authoritarians take over.
    https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/most-democratic-countries/#:~:text=The%20ten%20most%20democratic%20countries%20are%20%3A%201,9.0%208%208.%20Taiwan%20%E2%80%93%209.0%20More%20items

  28. O 2023-12-04 08:42

    Larry, a clarifying question: when you write, SD is second most lucrative state to practice medicine, does that mean that our doctors, nurses and other medical providers do very well, or that our hospitals do well? Those two are not necessarily the same measurement.

  29. O 2023-12-04 08:45

    Donald: “I tried to read through Mike Z.’s gobbledygook. It’s way too laden with needless bureaucracy, pointless meetings, boring conventions, etc.,”

    Of course it is. Those are all ways that the anti-democratic elite can use process to increase their influence over others who do not have the economic means to take the time for those participations. Elitism at its finest.

  30. O 2023-12-04 09:21

    Larry, I would narrow the term “health care professionals” to push back a bit, Nurses in SD do not enjoy this largess: Average RN Salary Adjusted for Cost of Living: $65,686 (Ranks 51st among all states). https://nursejournal.org/state/south-dakota/rn-salary/#:~:text=in%20South%20Dakota-,The%20average%20RN%20salary%20in%20South%20Dakota%20is%20%2460%2C540%20per,9%25%20from%202020%2D2030.

    I believe I can make a similar argument that most hospital workers also are left out of profiting of the health care money machine.

  31. e platypus onion 2023-12-04 10:51

    The Counties are well organized now, I can assure you of this, and will fight the Legislature if they attempt to strip the precincts of their power.

    Best have extra knickers when you attend any fight. You panty waisted magats have especially weak bladders.

  32. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-12-04 15:04

    The democrats only prefer the “Democratic” process of popular elections, cause they know, and understand they can best manipulate the people in 10 large urban centers, and steer enough votes in that minority group of people, whereas the wishes of the greater majority are disrespected.

    The Democrats hate the fact, that the People, when very well organized in Counties, Legislative Districts, Precincts to where they can best hold public hearings, committee meetings, to discuss statewide affairs, whereas it gives them the greater ability to petition the court, the legislature, the voters themselves in hopes of overturning recently adopted initiatives and resolutions adopted by either the legislature, or the voters.

    In a REPUBLIC, the people act as one, in order to agree, or not agree to be governed in a specific manner. And this is the one key difference between a Direct Democracy versus a In-Direct Representative Form of a Democracy.

    Those Ulster-Scots, the Pilgrims, the Mecklenburg-Germans, the Pommeranians, the Moravians, all did an excellent job of laying down the founding principles between 1600-1700 to which would later on, lead to the establishment of the United States for America.

    The United States is a loose Confederation of Sovereign States, to which each have their own independent, free modes of Self Government, as protected by Article 6 of the U.S Constitution, to which Donald Trump, or any President promises to Preserve, Protect, and to Defend, and to further include, CONGRESS which takes entirely separate oath to SUPPORT the Constitution, by not adopting any unjust laws or codes.

    The PEOPLE elect National Committee Persons, County Committee Persons, Precinct Committee Persons to conduct, and hold Town Hall Forums, holding Public Meetings throughout the United States to discuss National, State, and Local Affairs acting as a “True Republic” as the safeguard to holding Government accountable to the people, as well as carrying out, and upholding the due process of giving people a voice, while further acting as “Elected Officials” in Choosing our At-Large Reps – U.S Senators, Governors, Lt. Governors, Attorney Generals, Secretary of States, State Treasurers, State Auditors, Land Commissioners, Public School Commissioners, to whom carry out and enforce the Constitutions and the Treaties as adopted by the People of the 50 Sovereign Republics.

  33. Dicta 2023-12-04 15:16

    Popular elections.
    Minority wins.
    Pick one.

    Legitimate idiot along with the mental illness.

  34. larry kurtz 2023-12-04 16:23

    Jesus F. Christ, Zitterich: seek some medical help.

  35. larry kurtz 2023-12-04 16:29

    There are nine reservations in occupied South Dakota but the state only recognizes seven as sovereign.

    There are 574 federally recognized Indian Nations (variously called tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities and native villages) in the United States. Approximately 229 of these ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse nations are located in Alaska; the other federally recognized tribes are located in 35 other states. Additionally, there are state recognized tribes located throughout the United States recognized by their respective state governments.

  36. Joe 2023-12-04 17:08

    I am honestly surprised GA and NC are next exporters of college graduates.

    Question: How are “red” and “blue” states defined here? GA voted for President Biden and has two D US senators but Rs run the state government (as an example). AZ and VA are two other examples of “mixed” partisanship.

  37. grudznick 2023-12-04 17:59

    Lar, there are nine recognized tribes. That 2 of them do not cluster in economic deserts behind pretend “borders” does not make them less an Oyate.

  38. larry kurtz 2023-12-05 08:46

    Surprise! Report: Abortion prohibition disproportionately affects Native families
    3. Rich women have full reproductive rights while women at the lower income margins suffer chilling effects on those rights. Women in Texas, Wyoming and South Dakota who can afford it simply jump on a plane and fly to Albuquerque, Minneapolis, Denver or elsewhere for their procedures. Imagine a woman on the Standing Rock or Pine Ridge doing that.

  39. larry kurtz 2023-12-08 07:35

    Pregnant people are at increased risk to toxoplasmosis.

    Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that reproduces in cat species, whether domestic, feral or wild. Infected mice lose the fear of cat urine and are more likely to be preyed upon spreading the parasite even more.

    Virtually all hogs in confinement are infected and so are at least a third of Americans. The effects on the gene pool are catastrophic often leading to neuropsychiatric diseases including paranoia, especially in men. Toxoplasmosis is linked to Gender Identity Disorder, too.

    More recently, toxoplasmosis has been linked to risky behavior in wolves after they ingested cougar scat while living in and around Yellowstone National Park. Toxoplasmosis has been linked to depressed mood, feelings of guilt and even suicide in humans. If you’ve lived with a cat litter box in your house you are probably already infected with toxoplasma gondii.

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