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Stace Nelson: Bloggers “True Heroes”

In blogospheric trivia, around 11:20 into his Tea Party speech yesterday, Rep. Stace Nelson (R-19/Fulton) blew my cover (I'd even worn my camo hat! ;-) ), noting my presence at the back of the radical right-wing crowd with my camera. With curious heads turning and an armed Tea Party guard roaming the crowd, I smiled, waved, and checked to make sure Stace was still in the frame.

Rep. Nelson expressed his gratitude to his family for tolerating his politicking. He praised fellow speaker Stephanie Strong and travel pal Dan Willard for challenging the powers that be.

And then, in the head-spinningest political juxtaposition of the day, he likened me to arch-conservative theocrat screecher Bob Ellis and called us good Americans:

We've got to celebrate the true heroes in America nowadays. It's not some idiot on a football field or a baseball field or a basketball field. It's guys like my buddy Cory Heidelberger, my other buddy on the far right Bob Ellis, that are willing to get out there and identify the problems of America and write about it, and make a ruckus about it. Now whether you agree with their stance on the issues or not, they're willing and brave enough to get out there and put themselves out there [Rep. Stace Nelson, speech to Tea Party rally, Rapid City, SD 2013.05.04].

Writing is more important than football? Uff da: Stace is really angling for the English teacher vote!

21 Comments

  1. grudznick 2013.05.05

    Hard to believe Mr. Nelson was better at writing than he was at football or on the basketball field.

  2. John Hess 2013.05.05

    Oh fun. When he said you claim to be a liberal some lady audibly squealed. Both should keep saying it like they see it!

  3. Kal Lis 2013.05.05

    Stace better work on vote counting. Most schools have have as many football coaches as they do English teachers, and there's way more football fans than Shakespeare fans.

  4. Michael Black 2013.05.05

    I beg to differ: the true heroes are the ones who get up every day and do their job to the best of their ability without whining about it. It's the teacher who spends extra time with a troubled student. It's a coach who motivates a student to be a better scholar. It's a Mom or Dad that doesn't sit in front of a TV or a computer, but pays attention to their kids. It's a contractor who gets up in the middle of the night and fixes someone's furnace.

    I could go on and on. Political bloggers think they are far more important than they really are. How you live your daily life makes the real difference.

  5. Owen Reitzel 2013.05.05

    There are many different ways to be a hero MB. All those you listed are heros-no doubt. But political bloggers can and are useful. It's a wy for people to be informed and maybe fire them up. One way or the other

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.05

    Michael, take it up with Rep. Nelson. I'm just reporting. And I get the impression he's referring to the pro-sports millionaires who take up far too much of our mediaspace.

    Kal Lis, now's our chance to change those numbers!

    Grudz, if your assertion has merit, it speaks in Rep. Nelson's favor. It suggests he can think outside of his personal box and recognize the value people very different from him add to society.

  7. Michael Black 2013.05.05

    Political bloggers are like the people that plan every part of an exercise program for months when all they really need is to do is get out there and RUN!

  8. larry kurtz 2013.05.05

    go tell pp, mb: feel free to use your name.

  9. Michael Black 2013.05.05

    Photographers suffer from the same affliction. When we get together, we talk shop and who is doing what. We too often forget that only photographers care about other photographers.

    Bloggers can make quite the impression only if they can reach the broader public with their issues. Cory brings up many issues and stories that go beyond just politics that we would not otherwise hear about.

  10. Jana 2013.05.05

    And yet MB keeps coming back for his exercise program.

  11. Michael Black 2013.05.05

    Some days you're the bug and some days you are the windshield.

  12. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.05

    Michael, running for office is a worthy calling. A candidate's number one job is to educate the people—not in the incorrect sense of telling students what to think, but in the sense of the Latin word educere, which means to lead or draw forth. Educating means leading people in conversations, drawing out their ideas, getting them to think through the issues. Candidates must do that while campaigning; the winners must keep doing it as elected statesmen.

    I tried to educate in that sense during my two campaigns for Madison school board. If I run for office again, educating fellow citizens will still be my number-one priority. (Dang: maybe my problem is that I should just make winning my number-one priority!)

    But I can also educate by blogging by, as Michael seems to acknowledge, bringing up issues and stories that people haven't heard about... and getting people to think and talk about those issues.

    I don't think I could do that as well if I were a football player or a professional bicycle racer.

  13. grudznick 2013.05.05

    You keep blogging Mr. H, and keep running for stuff too. Spearfish school board needs good people like you.

  14. Donald Pay 2013.05.05

    One thing that I have a problem with is the word "heros" and then to make it even more appalling he talks about "true heros." Whatever group or person you want to pander to you call them "true heros."

    My own feeling is bloggers present information and opinion, some of which is useful and interesting to me and some of which is not. Since I used to be in the business of doing much the same in a lower tech era, I don't view what I did as elevating me to "hero" status. I just did what I did. If you got something out of it, fine.

    Now, I try not to read anything by Bob Ellis, so to call him a "hero" goes way overboard in the pandering department. I find Ellis extremely not useful, and usually needing more than two o's to append to "cuck--" to adequately describe. I guess you could say he's a hero to the cuckoooooos, but that ain't saying much.

  15. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.05

    Donald, I am uneasy about being accorded the same status as Bob Ellis in any regard (I suspect he feels the same way).

    Donald makes a larger point about political rhetoric. We must always bear in mind that these speeches are sales pitches, not Aristotle's Politics. Just like Mike Rounds, Stace Nelson says these words to move his audience to do certain things. "Hero" exaggerates the work I do here (and, for that matter, in the classroom): my blogging and my teaching are important—and I'll still agree with and trumpet Nelson's apparent point that they are more important than the exploits of most professional athletes—but rarely if ever "heroic." But "hero" sure sounds good on stage....

    Hey, what are the criteria for being a "hero" anyway?

  16. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.05

    (Geez—Stace says something nice about me in front of a tough crowd, and I subject his words to all this literary criticism. I'm such an ingrate!)

  17. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.05

    (Grudz, thanks, but I will do more concrete good for any school district in the classroom than in administration.)

  18. mike 2013.05.05

    Where Stace could really get some separation between himself and Rounds or Noem is by laying out a more conservative position on agricultural issues. Those are South Dakota's auto and bank bailouts and not to mention our hurricane sandy bailouts too.

    Many Republicans are tired of subsidizing factory farmers and wealthy farmers who get tax money while other workers and business owners have to live without.

    People are tired of the unfair playing field where some people are chosen as winners while other are told to compete but in an unfair way.

    Crony capitalism is bad and it doesn't matter if it's Obama, Bush, Noem or anyone doing this. It's all bad and voters are tired of it.

  19. Ken Santema 2013.05.06

    I think mike has mentioned the right path for Stace to take. I work with a lot of farmers throughout the year. And most of them (large or small) feel the current regulations to 'help' farmers have gotten out of control. It would be a tough battle though, the farm industries (seed companies, insurance, machinery dealers, etc..) have deep pockets and a lot to lose if anything changes.

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