POLITICS – It’s a dirty business. By: Chris J. Larson

Actual photo of Minnehaha County Republicans 1777

“Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.” – Paul Valéry

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx
My most popular articles to date have been highly critical of what I see as the Establishment/RINO Republicans in South Dakota; people I have observed as obvious bad actors corrupted by ambition, or even outright liars. The overly cynical may smirk here, thinking “Well of course politicians lie, you rube! That’s just how the game is played”. To which I respond: “Why? Why is the game played that way?”

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In my business, it is also considered normal practice to lie to consumers. What, you thought “mattress sales” were actually temporary markdown events? Ha!

But, I’ve never participated in the “that’s just how it’s done” mindset, because it doesn’t have to be that way. Retailers simply don’t HAVE to be dishonest to attract new shoppers.

And politicians don’t have to lie to us. They don’t!

Now we know that the reason many politicians lie is for expediency, and to protect their power. But what do they see when they look in the mirror? A liar is who they see. But they justify their lack of transparency because of their own allegiance to the powerful elite that they depend on to get reelected in the next go-round. I’m sure their inner monologue sounds something like this: “I need to get this pipeline pushed through by any means necessary so that Company A rewards me with substantial campaign donations so that I can get reelected so that I can keep doing the great work for the people of South Dakota, whether they like it or not!”

But this politician can’t exactly explain it with this degree of honesty to the citizens, because they just wouldn’t understand you see. So instead they speak of things like “Economic Development” and “Driving job growth” and “providing a substantial boost to the agricultural and ethanol industries” as their donors have instructed them to.

The thread that weaves through nearly all of my writing speaks to the reality of the Powerless vs. Powerful dynamic. The Patriot movement is filled with Grassroots people with virtually no hold on the levers of power in government, at least until now. Everything I’ve done, said and written in the past two years has been aiming towards the goal of empowering The People with greater influence on our local politicians, and I am certainly not alone in this endeavor. Thankfully, there are many people – in and out of political office – who now fight for these values in South Dakota.

I’ve never shied away from naming names of the bad actors, some say foolishly, since as a small business owner I do have something to lose; maybe even a lot to lose. But I put my trust in the Lord, in all areas.

This post will once again be of a critical nature, but I will not be naming any specific people by name, because what I want to address is a Family Matter. If you are a SD Republican who actually believes in the party platform – https://penncogop.org/sd-republican-platform/ (not a RINO obviously), then you are part of the Family. We are supposed to love our family members, even if we don’t like them. Even when we bicker. Even when we disagree on strategy. Putting family members on blast on the internet is no way to show that we love them; and so, no I will not be naming names.

As someone fairly new to local politics, I am always careful to throttle my initial reaction to events as I encounter them. I don’t know my way around here sometimes, so I try to be careful in criticisms. Some of the most genuine Patriots I’ve had the pleasure to befriend and fight alongside are also newbies to this game, so we have had many occasions of note-sharing in pursuit of sense-making, as we attempt to apply our common sense to the often surreal world of politics. We’re new to this game, but not new to life, or business, or negotiating important contracts, managing employees, serving customers, or raising teenagers (the ultimate test). In fact, having success in the business world comes with a necessary requisite of accountability that is nonexistent in politics. In business, you can only camouflage your incompetence for so long. BS only gets you so far, and then it catches up. In politics, BS is rocket fuel.

None of this is necessarily groundbreaking commentary, granted, but I wanted to lay the groundwork to better explain where some of us are coming from. And yes, I am speaking for a few other Patriots who are frankly alarmed by the subject matter that I am working towards here.

The SD Republican party is a shambolic mess. A quagmire of petty feuds, sordid history, coverups, embezzlement, vindictiveness, backbiting, distrust, corruption, bad actors and flat out liars. Did I leave anything out? I’m sure I did…

Despite the recent gains the Grassroots /America 1st/Patriot movement has made in the power structures of America and South Dakota, systemic problems still exist, and for the good of our state must be eradicated.

No clear example presents itself than last week’s Minnehaha County clownshow that was the election of the Executive Board. To be clear, I have no problem with any of the folks who won election, specifically. My criticisms are multi-layered and on the macro level. First off, after what we all went though this past year, winning huge victories in the primaries for Grassroots candidates, then defeating all of the toxic ballot measures while effectively taking control of the state House, you would think that the Grassroots would be enjoying a time of peace, trust and goodwill towards each other. Instead, on the Thursday morning before the election took place, I started getting alarming messages about the possibility that a bonafide BlackList RINO by the name of…oh wait, I said I wasn’t naming names…ummm well, RINOs aren’t in the Family so, a certain JOE KIPPLEY (!!!) would be running for Chairman of the Republican party in the largest county in SD. Please take a moment of silence to offer a prayer of thanks for God’s mercy in not allowing this punishment to fall upon us.

Joe Kippley – persecutor of Auditor Leah Anderson; calls private citizens “election deniers”; is the least popular politician in Minnehaha County; and the kicker: Hater of President Trump. A few months ago, with the elections in doubt, Kippley was caught on camera stating that he couldn’t wait until Trump was out of the picture so we could “get some real Republicans back”. This guy somehow managed to get 25 electors to vote for him to lead the county party, and he has TDS. Could you imagine if he would have won???

How could this happen, I wondered. I spoke with several people involved the day of the election, both PCP’s (precinct committee people) and candidates. Some of the PCP’s had no idea who they planned on voting for. A few of them were highly educated persons who have held statewide office in the past, and they were also fearful of a Kippley win, as any true Patriot should be. The reason Kippley even had a chance was that there were two other candidates running also, which split the vote. By all accounts, the two non-Kippley candidates are actual Republicans who could have joined forces to mitigate the risk of a RINO infection. The reason they didn’t is because our party is a shambolic mess. Instead of working together to make sure that Minnehaha county didn’t end up getting RINO’d, different factions were conniving to get “their guy” into the position. I say conniving because there seems to be a very small group of people who are familiar with the guy who won it, and he was supported by the outgoing chairman, at least behind the scenes. Some transparency before the election would have been preferable to what seemed to be the execution of a shadow campaign, particularly against a candidate who is NOT on the RINO Blacklist. I have nothing against the new Chair, nor any of the people who ran (except for Joe obviously), but this is not the point. There is simply too much secrecy and bad blood at the county level. Too much catfighting. One person who attended the meeting told me that someone had posted defamatory pictures of one of the candidates in the women’s bathroom. WHAT THE HELL?! This type of vicious guerilla warfare needs to be condemned by everyone in leadership.

Some people who are involved at the Grassroots level also have valid questions about where the money has been going in recent years. There has been a definite lack of transparency that we hope the new leadership will be addressing, so that people who donate their hard-earned money can feel confident that it’s going where it’s supposed to. I’m not making any accusations against any specific people here, but there are questions that need answering. Transparency is key.

And if it’s like this in Minnehaha, then we know it’s like this in other counties as well.

Any attempt to delve into the apparent problems in Minnehaha county politics will open you up to epic tales of betrayals, fierce rivalries and immature behavior that you wouldn’t tolerate from your 11 year old. More than once, I have been tempted to hit the Quitter button and go back to NormieLand after being educated on some of South Dakota’s political history. It’s just gross.

Politics is a dirty business, but does it have to be?

How can we criticize Dusty Johnson, or the governor, for ignoring the Will of the People when Grassroots activists are out here actin the fool? How can we expect our newly elected Patriot leaders in the House and Senate to respect our goals as citizen petitioners if we can’t even act decent towards each other at the Grassroots level? And how can we ask our Normie friends to wake up and start getting involved in local politics while there is so much bitterness and intrigue running rampant? Imagine being invited to a dinner where the family members were openly fighting throughout the meal. You’d never go back.

Another issue the we have in our Family – the party – is beginning to rear its ugly head by a few hotheads who aren’t content to merely criticize particular upcoming bills in the legislature. I’m seeing on social media some pretty overwrought reactions and hyperbolic opinions aimed at the politicians that I would consider to be battle-tested Patriots. If you find yourself calling someone like Rep. Scott Odenbach a “RINO”, then you need to find a paper bag to breathe into for awhile. As I advised in the “Blacklist” article, we need to refrain from abusing that label whenever we disagree with a fellow Family member about something. It would be wise to allow our friends in the legislature some room to operate for a while. You can always send them an email, or maybe even give them a call. They’re not too big for their britches, yet.

In conclusion, I am asking all fellow Patriots in South Dakota to begin anew on a path to a better future. One that doesn’t involve sneaking around and sabotaging other Patriot’s efforts; that doesn’t involve speaking ill of others behind their backs; that doesn’t remember the sins of the past. Perhaps you are reading this knowing that you have been guilty of some of these misdeeds, and are in need of forgiveness. All you have to do is ask. And all you have to do is forgive.

Remember, this movement isn’t about you, or me, or any one person. It isn’t about forming cliques and taking over a club. It shouldn’t be about character assassinations. It isn’t about making money or climbing a career ladder. Frankly, politics shouldn’t be a career goal at all, for anyone.

It’s about Making America Great Again, transparency, and rebuilding trust in our government.

We are a family, the only one we’ve got.

Let’s love each other.

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32

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