Bob Mercer says South Dakota "got played as hicks again" when South Dakota ranchers and others forced Joan Jett off our Macy's Thanksgiving parade float. Mercer agrees with me that instead of embarrassing ourselves, we could have used a Joan Jett appearance on our float to burnish our image.
Mercer cites our Jett jettison as one more example of how we shoot ourselves in the foot in building South Dakota's population and economy. He points to the disconnect between reservation unemployment and labor shortage in our big towns, our failure to improve Indian education, our overpriced higher education options, our refusal to expand Medicaid, and our unwillingness to recognize gay marriage as factors driving young people away from our state:
Think about what we’re saying. South Dakota is polarized and closed. And we’re not even talking weather.
So it isn’t any wonder, really, that Gov. Dennis Daugaard came up short with his plan to recruit families and workers to move to South Dakota [Bob Mercer, "Joan Jett Fiasco Told Us a Lot about Us," Rapid City Journal, 2013.12.15].
The Republican response to Mercer's critique amplifies that critique:
If he has a problem with Republican dominance, why is he a political reporter in a state with so many of us? [Pat Powers, "Mercer: Republican South Dakota Driving Kids Away?" Dakota War College, 2013.12.16]
Hear the exclusivity? If you have a problem with Republican dominance, pick up your notepad and take your annoying journalism elsewhere—that's exactly the closed polarization about which Mercer is talking.
Mercer says he understands why his daughter moved to another state. But in the very next line (the line Powers elides) he says his daughter could enjoy an equally fulfilling life in South Dakota, and that we don't do enough to sell our strengths.
Critiquing South Dakota doesn't revoke your South Dakota press pass or passport. Critiquing South Dakota is a good South Dakota journalist's duty, to help us make South Dakota even better.
Update 19:25 CST: Tom Lawrence beat Mercer to the punch on questioning the South Dakota ethos that would deem Jett unworthy of an appearance on our float. Lawrence also beat me to the punch of pairing "jettison" and "Jett" in the same sentence. Well done, Tom!
Calling Mercer out for that piece is pathetic.
Here's another go at this topic. It's wonderful that Mercer, who is much more in tune with Republican thinking, to be talking openly about it, because similar ideas from people who have left the state seem to be discounted.
I've come to the conclusion that the majority of people in South Dakota like to be closed off from the wider realities of life. It's a conservative Republican and conservative Christian way of thinking, these days, that, and I'll be honest here, "correct thinking" WHITE people can just wall themselves off from modern life with all its strangely mixed up promise and messiness.
Basically, these people are scared, mostly of their own thoughts and delusions, about what life could be like in South Dakota if they weren't so closed off and scared of their own delusions.
The Joan Jet thing is just the latest in a long line of stupidity. How did South Dakota legislators pass "vegetable disparagement" restrictions on the First Amendment? The biggest industry in South Dakota was scared, shaking in their boot hysterical about someone stating an opinion about a food product. And none of the media outlets or journalism associations stood up to oppose the legislation. Oh, I did. I guess I was the only one who didn't care about what someone big mucky muck thought about them.
And that's the key to surviving in South Dakota. Don't give a damn about what the powerful think, but prepare to starve, because that's your punishment.
You can't begin to solve a problem until you recognize it exists. I'll let the GOP power clic in Pierre a little off the hook. Rank-and-file voters elect these people, and a change in attitude about our state, its future and its image starts at home. But first we've got to stop the gimmicks in Pierre and start the serious business of funding an education system that is truly competitive and raising the bar to wealthy companies looking for tax goodies to expand and/or locate in our state.
Here's PP with a column in todays Mitchell Daily Republic.
I don't remember seeing anything on the Internet saying that there are wild-eyed conspiracy theories about the Chinese communists trying to take over our country.
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/content/powers-attracting-new-south-dakotans-worth-effort
Owen,
Interestingly it is usually that conservatives are the ones that talk of communist conspiracy theories and are still ranting about communism of the 50's and 60's.
In a link provided by IP on another post, even FOX "News" is expressing concern about the EB-5 program nationwide and of possible connections to terrorism. They didn't mention how financially lucrative EB-5 is to politicians.
Where are the Republican fear mongers when you need them? Apparently you just ignore the fears of communism and terrorism if EB.-5 brings bucks into your state.
Couldn't agree with you more Roger. Cory and Bob have done what the rest of the media hasn't. Bringing to light the problems with the EB5 program and asking the questions of Jackley that need to be ask.
Worse a so-called journalist like PP trivializes what these 2 have done.
I was an educator on the three reservations. They have poor education because they insist on it. Once I was having a debate with Tom Daschle about education on the rez. I wanted to find out what I should say to Tom.I happened to see a former student of mine who I had in class at Swift Bird Day School when he was in the fifth grade a. I asked him what role the tribe and school boards should have in running the schools. His reply was,"They can't be part of it because they are corrupt themselves."
There are a lot of fine folks on the rez, but they are not running things. The problem is that those who want to run things are totally incompetent but don't know it.
Democracy is where if you do not like it you stay and try to change it. Communism is where if you do not like it you try to leave.
Rai and Jiri at Lungha. Rai of Lowani. Lowani under two moons. Jiri of Ubaya. Ubaya of crossroads, at Lungha. Lungha, her sky gray.
Mr. Schutterle seems insaner than most with that post. Did you use your "phantom" powers to win the debate with Mr. Daschle?
Yes owen, Bob and Cory are quite a team and have done an excellent job in providing citizens with valuable information on this Republican scandal.
It is below contempt for Republicans to criticize Mercer for sharing facts. If the shoe were on the other foot, I would want Democrats to clean house post haste before permanent damage could be done. Mr. Mercer is actually not just providing South Dakotans, but Republican with a valuable service.
If true Republicans care about their party, they would embrace Mr. Mercer.
I wish that I had the skill, money and time to nominate Mr Mercer and Mr Heidelberger for the Pulitzer prize. I am pretty sure that if they were to win or even be concerned for that honor, there would be a lot more light shined on this atrocious happening within our State. Here is the site for someone who has the above mentioned resources.
http://www.pulitzer.org/how_to_enter
I sent Mercer's post to my children, attending college taking majors that aren't available in South Dakota. Here is Alex's response:
SD is in a unique position of being relativity free to do what it wants, something it has over it more populous peers, and it is located within a hop, skip or a jump from Omaha, Minneapolis, Denver and Billings. So instead of calling it a failed Minnesota, Mercer could have said it's a state that hasn't found what works in the twenty first century.
So in one sense, Mercer is pointing out the opportunity in front of us. But we have to identify what we want to be as a state-much like our founders did as they drafted a constitution that demanded citizen involvement to limit corruption. Are we up for the challenge?
Re Michael Card's kid, Alex: See, give the state over entirely to the kids who have left, and South Dakota would do great.
I bet you could get South Dakota ex-pats age 18-30 to give less cynical and jaded answers than I would give. I was Alex 40 years ago. If Alex comes back, like I did, and tries to help the state find "what works," he will be confronted with this problem: the people there don't want to find "what works."
Raised a daughter in the Black Hills. She skee-daddled as soon as she could. Got herself a degree in Economics from UC Berkeley. Christina Romer was her mentor. She won't be back. South Dakota's loss . . .
Just who is this Merlyn Shutterle and why is he so ignorant?
Mr. Cornelius, Merlyn Shutterle is the self-proclaimed phantom molester and bane of sanity from way back. If you do the google on "gettysburg phantom molester" you will discover much.
The 2010 census demographic distribution by age for South Dakota tells the story:
Under 18: 202,797
18 & over: 611,383
20 - 24: 57,596
25 - 34: 105,429
35 - 49: 150,631
50 - 64: 157,203
65 & over: 116,581
The Joan Jett matter is just one anecdote, but many anecdotes make a trend, and when a trend becomes dominant, it defines the culture. And culture is a matter of attitude. Bob Mercer mentions the weakened state of the Democratic Party, but he does not confront what factors create that weakened state. It isn't because the Democrats fail to attract South Dakotans to its cause; it is because the people attracted to the Democratic cause are driven out of the state to find an environment that is supportive of and compatible with those values. The argument offered by those who cling to the idea that South Dakota is livable for everyone is that one finds detractors everywhere. Detraction and contempt for progressive values is the dominant aspect of the culture, and so, people move away from it. Just ask any of those who have moved, as indicated by those census figures.
Well, grudznick, my son is a Mayo doctor and my son-in-law is a doctor as well. They understand what went on. You don't. They would be glad to debate you about which on of us saner.
It is easy to shoot off your stupid mouth based on what others have told you without knowing the whole story. I outsmarted Jankow. He wound up in jail and he blamed me for it. Sorry, Janklow, you lost.
Grudznick. Maybe you should talk to some of my many friends who regard me as an absolute hero because I am the only one who had the courage to stand up to Jankow and won. You don't understand that the phantom molester was the hook to catch old Bill and it worked. Pretty smart, huh? I was never charged with anything because there was no evidence. I never said I molested anyone. I don't remember the exact definition I found in my big dictionary but it goes something like a thing that is not real and only exists in the mind. It exists in yours because I planted it there.
Hi Roger. If you want to know who I am, email me,
mschutterle@hotmail.com. I'm not like Grudznick, I use my whole name and I don't hide from anyone. G is a linear thinker and if things are the least bit complicated, he is lost because he is stupid.
So what has he done? I have been able to put the FBI, DCI, Janklow and Abdallah on the road with their tails between their legs. What has he done?
Merlyn, No Thank You
I knew you wouldn't.