The Republican Utopia

[TGHusker]

On 8/15/2022 at 5:24 PM, mrandyk said:

Incidentally, she also will not release the results of the probe into whether CRT is being taught in SD schools.

 

Either way, I'm sure this will help the teacher shortage in the state with nearly the worst pay in the country.

 

If ever there were a person who embodied solutions looking for problems. Worst f#&%ing governor ever.

So, my 92 year old Dad, who lives in Sioux Falls, loves Noem.  At first  I thought she would be a good governor.  But the more statements she makes, the more she seems like a brainwashed member of the cult or at least pretending to be a member so she can become the next VP choice. Since I don't follow SD politics too close, what are the worst things she has done? I keep hearing of the SD economy, jobs, etc or is that a false hood?

[mrandyk]

1 hour ago, TGHusker said:

So, my 92 year old Dad, who lives in Sioux Falls, loves Noem.  At first  I thought she would be a good governor.  But the more statements she makes, the more she seems like a brainwashed member of the cult or at least pretending to be a member so she can become the next VP choice. Since I don't follow SD politics too close, what are the worst things she has done? I keep hearing of the SD economy, jobs, etc or is that a false hood?

I have only been back in SD for a year, so thankfully I have missed a couple years of her tenure, but every time she comes up it is just infuriatingly stupid. Below is a quick list of what I've noticed. Not all of it is equally inept, but perhaps so severely dumb that it sticks in my mind.

 

Noem spends no time in South Dakota - She cares only for her national profile and is constantly out on tour doing media appearances. I swear she is on a news program every other Sunday backing up whatever the latest GOP initiatives are. We saw her again today apparently in Georgia to help campaign for Herschel Walker. You can Google news articles relating to her and see just how often she is anywhere but near her constituents. Pretty wild for a job that should keep you inside your state's borders most of the time.

 

Marijuana - On the 2020 ballot SD voted to legalize medical and recreational marijuana. Medical has been implemented, but Noem battled recreational and got the state supreme court to throw it out. The people told her what they wanted, and she looked for any way to overturn the will of the people rather than serve it. Not the first time that has happened in this state (see IM 22 in 2016, followed by Amendment W in 2018).

 

Amendment C - Noem and the state legislature snuck a constitutional amendment onto the ballot this summer that would make it so that any ballot measure appropriating $10 million of state funds over the first 5 years after passage (so, $2 million per year) would require 60% of the vote instead of a simple majority. The timing of the vote was at a time when only registered Republicans voting in their primary would show up (Democrats effectively don't have primaries in this state. My Independent ballot had this amendment and the county commissioner on it). God forbid we the people try to spend $2 million out of the $6.2 billion budget. Then a month later the state posted a $115 million surplus. The thinking behind this proposed amendment would be so that voters likely won't be able to expand Medicaid on their own, or legalize recreational marijuana.......again.

 

University Diversity - This Spring she abolished the diversity offices at the state universities. She claimed that they had been infiltrated by radical left wing politics and were not serving their intended purpose. Okay, how is that possible? The governor and state legislature have been controlled by Republicans uninterrupted since the 70s. 

 

We mean business - She has run a PSA about SD "meaning business" for a while. I have no idea what it costs, and I only became aware of it because I was seeing ads for it while living in Minneapolis. Why exactly would you spend money advertising to the general public of a city hundreds of miles away from your state? The ads had absolutely nothing to do with tourism. They were strictly about moving your business to SD. Seems to me like it would make much more sense to target the business community specifically.

 

Meth - Another PSA, one you may have seen because it caught national attention for being so bad. "Meth, we're on it". Uhh...yeah, there are meth heads out there. I think if anything we are just raising awareness for meth with this. Then, of course, the ad agency who put it together was Minneapolis based. God forbid we keep that money inside the state and in the hands of people who might take some pride in SD.

 

CRT - Noem has been ranting about Critical Race Theory for...however long it has been a GOP talking point. She even got Ben Carson to come out to Pierre and talk to the state legislature about it (or probably to try and build her national profile). She signed an executive order in April to remove CRT from the state curriculum. There was a probe into whether CRT exists in SD classrooms that finally was unveiled two days ago, they found no evidence of it being taught, but Noem is forging ahead anyways to "proactively remove CRT before it has any opportunity to take hold in our schools". Truly a solution looking for a problem. 95% of teachers in the state are white. They aren't going to preach about white privilege.

 

Ethics violations - I'm sure there are plenty, but using the state airplanes with impunity and interfering with the Department of Labor to get her daughter real estate appraisal licensure have to be the most egregious. Her daughter couldn't pass the test. Failed it twice, which is all you are allowed. Noem intervened, got her daughter a third attempt, and she received the license. The director who had to be "coaxed" was then pressured to retire, filed an age discrimination suit against the state, and settled for $200k.

 

I think the economy in South Dakota is probably good by whatever metric you pick, but that's just riding the upward trend that Sioux Falls has been on the last 30+ years. She spouts some BS about keeping the state open for business during covid, but she just mirrored what every other red state did where the local governments had to face the ridicule of trying to enforce any safety measures. All in all, she is actually quite unpopular when you consider how red the state is. Democrats haven't held any sort of office in this state in a looooong time. Only won election by a couple points in 2018, and hopefully does worse this November.

[BigRedBuster]

 

[TGHusker]

14 hours ago, mrandyk said:

I have only been back in SD for a year, so thankfully I have missed a couple years of her tenure, but every time she comes up it is just infuriatingly stupid. Below is a quick list of what I've noticed. Not all of it is equally inept, but perhaps so severely dumb that it sticks in my mind.

 

Noem spends no time in South Dakota - She cares only for her national profile and is constantly out on tour doing media appearances. I swear she is on a news program every other Sunday backing up whatever the latest GOP initiatives are. We saw her again today apparently in Georgia to help campaign for Herschel Walker. You can Google news articles relating to her and see just how often she is anywhere but near her constituents. Pretty wild for a job that should keep you inside your state's borders most of the time.

 

Marijuana - On the 2020 ballot SD voted to legalize medical and recreational marijuana. Medical has been implemented, but Noem battled recreational and got the state supreme court to throw it out. The people told her what they wanted, and she looked for any way to overturn the will of the people rather than serve it. Not the first time that has happened in this state (see IM 22 in 2016, followed by Amendment W in 2018).

 

Amendment C - Noem and the state legislature snuck a constitutional amendment onto the ballot this summer that would make it so that any ballot measure appropriating $10 million of state funds over the first 5 years after passage (so, $2 million per year) would require 60% of the vote instead of a simple majority. The timing of the vote was at a time when only registered Republicans voting in their primary would show up (Democrats effectively don't have primaries in this state. My Independent ballot had this amendment and the county commissioner on it). God forbid we the people try to spend $2 million out of the $6.2 billion budget. Then a month later the state posted a $115 million surplus. The thinking behind this proposed amendment would be so that voters likely won't be able to expand Medicaid on their own, or legalize recreational marijuana.......again.

 

University Diversity - This Spring she abolished the diversity offices at the state universities. She claimed that they had been infiltrated by radical left wing politics and were not serving their intended purpose. Okay, how is that possible? The governor and state legislature have been controlled by Republicans uninterrupted since the 70s. 

 

We mean business - She has run a PSA about SD "meaning business" for a while. I have no idea what it costs, and I only became aware of it because I was seeing ads for it while living in Minneapolis. Why exactly would you spend money advertising to the general public of a city hundreds of miles away from your state? The ads had absolutely nothing to do with tourism. They were strictly about moving your business to SD. Seems to me like it would make much more sense to target the business community specifically.

 

Meth - Another PSA, one you may have seen because it caught national attention for being so bad. "Meth, we're on it". Uhh...yeah, there are meth heads out there. I think if anything we are just raising awareness for meth with this. Then, of course, the ad agency who put it together was Minneapolis based. God forbid we keep that money inside the state and in the hands of people who might take some pride in SD.

 

CRT - Noem has been ranting about Critical Race Theory for...however long it has been a GOP talking point. She even got Ben Carson to come out to Pierre and talk to the state legislature about it (or probably to try and build her national profile). She signed an executive order in April to remove CRT from the state curriculum. There was a probe into whether CRT exists in SD classrooms that finally was unveiled two days ago, they found no evidence of it being taught, but Noem is forging ahead anyways to "proactively remove CRT before it has any opportunity to take hold in our schools". Truly a solution looking for a problem. 95% of teachers in the state are white. They aren't going to preach about white privilege.

 

Ethics violations - I'm sure there are plenty, but using the state airplanes with impunity and interfering with the Department of Labor to get her daughter real estate appraisal licensure have to be the most egregious. Her daughter couldn't pass the test. Failed it twice, which is all you are allowed. Noem intervened, got her daughter a third attempt, and she received the license. The director who had to be "coaxed" was then pressured to retire, filed an age discrimination suit against the state, and settled for $200k.

 

I think the economy in South Dakota is probably good by whatever metric you pick, but that's just riding the upward trend that Sioux Falls has been on the last 30+ years. She spouts some BS about keeping the state open for business during covid, but she just mirrored what every other red state did where the local governments had to face the ridicule of trying to enforce any safety measures. All in all, she is actually quite unpopular when you consider how red the state is. Democrats haven't held any sort of office in this state in a looooong time. Only won election by a couple points in 2018, and hopefully does worse this November.

Thanks for the recap.  Very detailed job.   Noem may have been better as the Rep in Congress. It does seem from afar that the Governor's job has gone to her head and it has become all about her.  For as small of a state that SD is population wise, she has had an exaggerated amount of national exposure as she seems to seek the lime light around Trump, CPAC, etc   She's learned to say the right things and esp praise dear leader.    Yes that Meth ad was horrendously bad and CRT - it isn't an issue in SD but it is in here best interest to make it an issue to get the publicity and 'street cred' in far right GOP circles- the same is true of diversity.  She sees what DeSantis is doing and mimics him - again to get the street cred she needs to be the next GOP VP nominee.  That is what I believe she is campaigning for.  She may even run for president just to get the publicity and increase the possibility of being named the VP.  No way would enough GOP voters vote for her as president in the primary.  At this point Desantis or Trump (if he isn't in jail where he should be) have the top spot secured IMHO. 

[BigRedBuster]

Ummm....Ben.....you might want to look at more recent events than one that happened 160 years ago.

 

 

[Archy1221]

58 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

Didn’t he also sign onto the discredited Hunter Biden laptop letter with 50 other folks who got that wrong? 
 

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276
 

And lie to Congress

https://www.cjr.org/first_person/cia_michael_hayden_expert.php

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/cia-interrogation-report/hayden-testimony/
 

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

No.....that is not your job as a politician.  

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

Good question.

[JJ Husker]

8 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

Ummm....Ben.....you might want to look at more recent events than one that happened 160 years ago.

 

 

Is Ben Stein on drugs?

okay, sure, the Republican party did that about 150 years ago. Things have changed. Wasn’t it primarily Dems who supported civil rights legislation in the 60’s and haven’t they pretty much been the only ones on the right side of that issue ever since? Talk about grasping…

[funhusker]

1 hour ago, JJ Husker said:

Is Ben Stein on drugs?

okay, sure, the Republican party did that about 150 years ago. Things have changed. Wasn’t it primarily Dems who supported civil rights legislation in the 60’s and haven’t they pretty much been the only ones on the right side of that issue ever since? Talk about grasping…

Yeah, it should be pretty common knowledge that there was a big shift between parties in the 20th century.

[BigRedBuster]

Wow….good job Republicans. 
 

 

[BigRedBuster]

Meaning....what exactly.....other than elections?

 

 

[suh_fan93]

 

[Archy1221]

1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

Meaning....what exactly.....other than elections?

 

 

Insane talk 

[TGHusker]

16 hours ago, JJ Husker said:

Is Ben Stein on drugs?

okay, sure, the Republican party did that about 150 years ago. Things have changed. Wasn’t it primarily Dems who supported civil rights legislation in the 60’s and haven’t they pretty much been the only ones on the right side of that issue ever since? Talk about grasping…

Actually the big switch happened in the 70s.  Eisenhower pushed the civil rights bill in the 50s.  It was the strong GOP support of   Dem LBJ to get the 1964 civil rights act passed.  At that time it was southern Democrats who were the opposition - who blocked legislation.  Democrats ruled the south.  It was southern Dem governors who blocked schools, opposed changes.   But it started to change in the 70s with Nixon's southern strategy.  So, it seems the old southern Dem became a Republican and the more moderate Republican became a Dem in regards to civil rights.