SD politics in a nutshell.
In the world of politics there exists a definite class system, a hierarchy. This is one thing – maybe the most important thing – I’ve learned in my recent foray into the world of local South Dakota politics. I imagine it’s the same scenario in every community in America.
Certainly at the highest levels we can see that the famous people “running our country” seem to be very polished, clever with their words and what-not. They’re clearly the world’s best salesmen, and their product is the next election. They also are quite blatantly selling access to power, their votes and – probably most of all – their legacy. Ever notice how many bridges are named after politicians?
Another undeniable fact about politicians is that THEY NEVER LEAVE OFFICE. Not willingly, anyhow.
Joe Biden, our intrepid leader of America & the free world, has managed to cling to various elected offices for a whopping 54 years. My entire life.
He must be really good at it by now. Undoubtedly he is good at it, whatever it is.
Until recently, most of us on “the right” have been content to sit back and allow others to run our country, state, county and cities without too much scrutiny. As long as they’re “on our team” then they must be the Good Guys.
Let’s be honest, anyone with average intelligence can recognize that the politicians who make it to the top are non-stop self-promoters. Always pushing the brand, telling us that whatever schemes they get up to are “for the people!”. The covid era revealed to us normies the lie that has probably been there all along. Our “leaders” used a man-made crisis (Yes covid19 was made in a lab in Wuhan. Yes, our own tax dollars funded the mad scientists who created this virus. See here>>>>https://oversight.house.gov/release/covid-origins-hearing-wrap-up-facts-science-evidence-point-to-a-wuhan-lab-leak%EF%BF%BC/ ) to peddle falsehoods about masks, expand the surveillance state & create many billions in profit for the pharmaceutical industry. Then the 2020 election happened, after the “Summer of Floyd” riots that defied all logic. Why was it cool to participate in massive violent protests all over America, but we were supposed to stay away from church? Mass Formation Psychosis was being employed on the whole world, and many of us got angry. We were right to be angry, as it turns out.
So, we woke up to the reality that the so-called experts in our government need some looking into. This phenomenon has caused a massive grassroots influx of newbies into the political process, particularly at the local levels. The response from Establishment political actors has been hostile and sneering; and only serves to prove that we were right to harbor our feelings of distrust. They doth protest too much.
When they do deign to offer some kind of response to our concerns, you know, the little people who pay all the taxes, they employ subtle (and not so subtle e.g. Lee Schoenbeck’s frequently-hurled “wackadoodles” slur) condescension while telling us to “Embrace the normal” –
“Shut up”, they explained.
Sorry guys, but this version of normal is not something we will be embracing.
Ever.
But the looming question we are left with is “Who do these politicians think they are to treat their own constituents this way?” This question is at the heart of why so many of us are disgruntled with the leaders in our own Republican party.
As I see it, politics is a dichotomy of the Haves and the Havenots. This isn’t about wealth, although the Haves will inevitably accumulate more wealth as they play the game to their advantage. Don’t you think it’s strange that our legislators are not constrained from investing in stocks while in office? Seems like an easy path to corruption. Instead, what differentiates these two groups is access to power. And the longer they are active in the game, the more durable this access seems to be. Not to “go down rabbit holes”, but a critical thinker these days can be forgiven for wondering how large of a role that blackmail plays throughout our political system. The more people that I meet who are already in office seem to mention this possibility with an alarming bit of casualness that only adds to its plausibility. Yes I could name names here, but it is unnecessary as no one can prove anything, really. That’s the beauty of blackmail: If you are the victim of it, then shame will keep you silent.
And if you think that certain bad actors in industry would never stoop so low to slake their ambition thirst, then you need to read some books on the history of the Industrial Revolution. Greed isn’t a disease of a bygone era. It’s evergreen, and part of the human condition.
In politics, having personal wealth isn’t important; true power comes from having connections. The Haves who’ve been playing the game for a while accumulate valuable ties to others in their party who understand how the game is supposed to be played. The Haves benefit from PACs (political action committees) run by the true party leaders who distribute money to candidates that their own Donor Class approves of. In what is clearly gross influence peddling, the Haves will uniformly cast their votes to clear the path for money-making schemes like the carbon pipeline, to name the most obvious recent example. To mask the corruption, they use words like “growth”, “economic development” (always beware when a politician uses this term, they are about to GET PAID) and “common sense conservatism”. They tell us, with straight faces, that “the market demands lower carbon” and that the pipeline is “a win” for the state.
Those of us who are Havenots just want to hang onto our rights to our land. But we don’t matter in this “economic opportunity”. Roll the trucks!
Havenots just have real jobs (meaning, jobs that actually serve other people), friends & family. They don’t “rub shoulders”, “schmooze”, “network” or any of those other extraneous activities that somehow get you into the cool kids club.
We’re too busy earning a living, paying taxes (like proper fools) to governments both big & small that don’t give two farts about us; and ultimately wondering in those quiet times when the kids go to bed exactly who built this hamster wheel, & what are we actually doing on it?
When the Havenots start noticing notice that our “leaders” are immoral, phony, tone deaf & not really all that elite, well, that’s where we are now. We start to get involved, like responsible citizens ought to in a free society. What we are finding out though is that our involvement is neither welcomed nor needed. In fact, as it turns our we’re all a bunch of kooks! Who knew??!!
When a Havenot meets someone new in a political setting, they don’t see a rung on a ladder. They just see another human, someone just like themselves who is takin an interest in their own governance, maybe for the first time in their life. The Haves see other people as Human Resources, to be exploited for votes, taxes and adoration, in no particular order of importance. Of course, one would never know this by interacting with them. The best politicians, the Haves, have a gift of making it seem like they really care about the people they serve. In person, to the credulous, or worse – the starstruck- they can appear to be completely normal.
The greatest compliment that politicians receive in a one-on-one meeting is that they’d be “great to have a beer with”. Joe Biden, our most recent example of the lifelong professional political animal, has cunningly crafted his image of “good ol’ Joe from Scranton” in order to make it easy for the rubes to choose him over his opponent. He’s just a REGULAR GUY you see, just like you and me! Except you and I don’t get our crackhead son a job on the board of a Ukrainian power company to the tune of $50k a month, a position that he was thoroughly unqualified for. Nah, if one of our kids is playing the role of real life Jesse Pinkman, welll he’s most likely headed for the hoosegow. Us Havenots just don’t have that kinda juice in the world. We can’t use our influence to open some doors, and close others. Because we Have no influence.
But we do have something even more valuable on our side. We have the Truth. We have passion. We have awoken to the reality of the problems that have been festering in our society for too long now. And the more fellow citizens we meet, the more Havenots we connect with who are like-minded, the more connections we make, the louder our voice gets, and the harder it will be for the powers-that-be to ignore us.
So speak boldly my friends. Confront your opponents in our party that wish to pretend we don’t matter. Pray for your enemies before engaging in battle with them. We can take control of this party, if we are unafraid.
