A state that gave up politics for character assassination and petty hatred
{Corrections have been made for omissions and errors made in the posting process.}
Some bloggers have berated
the Democrats for not putting up a candidate for state attorney general to
oppose Marty Jackley. As I no longer hold
an office in the party and am not active as present because of a medical regimen
that keeps me occupied so I have no information on the efforts to recruit an attorney general candidate.
However, I was asked to help find potential candidates and recruit a
prospect for the U.S. Senate race in 2010 and know the reasons that people,
especially Democrats, are reluctant to enter politics.
A case in point was made by
independent candidate Mike Myers on a recent Argus Leader 100 Eyes video. Myers' original running mate for lieutenant
governor had to withdraw from the race because of some family health
issues. He was asked how he ended up with former Republican legislator Lora Hubbel
as a replacement. Myers recounted how he
had contacted a physician he knew who accepted the challenge. But the next day the physician called Myers
and said his wife objected. Myers’ words
are that she said she would do bad th ings to her husband if he ran for office.
i
That
reason of family objections was a common one raised by potential candidates we
talked with in trying to recruit candidates o run against John Thune. Families,
especially the effect on children, were a prime consideration. So was integrity of character.
Democratic
strategists realize that the only way to defeat a Republican is to launch a
malicious campaign of character assassination that appeals to the penchant for the
hateful rage that has become the political criterion for electability. Most astute Democrats recognize that politics
have changed and see nothing but harm and damage to themselves and their
families coming out of campaign. That is because politics changed in South Dakota ten years
ago.
I
have written about this many times before, but people who have histories and
strong attachments to South Dakota
find it hard to admit that the essential character of the state has changed.
When
Thune challenged Tom Daschle in 2004, he hired Dick Wadhams as the campaign
manager and dutifully recited the
scripts Wadham supplied him with.
Wadhams returned to the state as a campaign advisor to Mike Rounds and
is now employed by the state Republican Party.
Thune had acquired a record in the House of Representatives that was
feckless and lacking in accomplishment.
To challenge Tom Daschle, who is a highly accomplished legislator, he
could not afford a comparison of records or stances on the issues.
The
strategy was to avoid issues, policies, and legislative record and
accomplishment and attack Daschle personally.
A most successful ploy was to play to the resentment among South Dakotans of anyone who has accrued success and
recognition outside the boundaries of the state. The Thune campaign played up Tom
Daschle’s attaining the majority leader of the Senate as an abandonment of the
people of the state for the culture of Washington, D.C ., and declared it as
his major residence. He still owned and
returned to his house Aberdeen,
where his mother lived when he returned to the state. The campaign also attacked the press for the
coverage it gave to the Senator and Senate majority and played up the
assumption the press had liberal leanings and gave Tom Daschle partial treatment. Then it attacked Daschle because his wife who was
a successful lobbiest for the airline industry had once been a beauty queen for
whom, the campaign implied, he abandoned his first wife. The
Thune campaign also knew that Daschle is of a principled character that would
not engage these personal assaults in kind.
The Thune campaign hired a history professor of
the neocon bias at South Dakota
State to write a blog
dedicated to the character assassination of Tom Daschle, In 2004, blogs were a recent development and
very few people in the general public were aware of or read them. The anti-Daschle blog gave voice to the
campaign strategy that Thune and his surrogates were covering the state
with. The character assassination went
so far that during a television debate show Thune accused Daschle of giving aid and comfort to the enemy for his opposition to the war in Iraq. Giving aid and comfort to the enemy is
how the Constitution defines
treason. The Thune campaign also
portrayed Daschle’s opposition to a Constituional amendment forbidding flag desecration as
limiting free speech and because laws were already on the books dealing with
the matter as an unpatriotic betrayal.
This imposed on a man who served in the Air Force as an intelligence
officer from a man who had no military service.
During the last months of
the campaign I was a member of a group that campaigned for Tom Daschle in the East River part of the state. What struck me was that people
who opposed Daschle did not bring up issues and policies, but abused the
campaigners with a personal hatefulness against Tom Daschle. I and a few others registered concern about
the intensity of the responses, but most of the campaigners were loyal South Dakotans who dismissed the reactions as that of a
small minority of hateful people who did not reflect the more benign and
wholesome aspects of the people of the state.
Daschle, of course,
lost. And as conservative blogs showed
up on the Internet, they continued the personal discrediting and character
assassination of Tom Daschle. In South
Dakota, as is true of the Limbaugh believers in our
nation, the GOP has abandoned any sincere discussion of issue for character
assassination as the total purpose of its campaigns. In South
Dakota, character assassination is embraced or
dismissed as acceptable among a majority of the voters. The designated voice of
the state GOP, South Dakota War
College, when it is not
posting hackwork tributes to its candidates is totally devoted to the discrediting
and malicious besmirching of Democratic candidates. Its posts have a disregard
for accuracy and factual truth. It is
simply an exercise in mindless scurrility. If this is, as it claims, the most read blog
on state politics, that defines a state with a cultural climate that people of
good and good purpose wish to avoid.
The Argus Leader published
an editorial after the state GOP convention berating the party for passing a
resolution calling for the impeachment of President Obama. Its main point is that it was a foolish resolution
and made the state look like a conclave of backward rubes. Like many loyal South
Dakotans, the Argus Leader, because of circulation and advertising
considerations, cannot afford to point out that the GOP is the majority party,
it has controlled state government for decades,
it is electing its candidates to federal offices, and it, in fact,
defines the essential character of the state.
The dominant attitude in the state is that of ignorant, malevolent rubes
who love to hate and dwell on personal
resentments they harbor against those who achieve and have successes in
other parts of the world.
When it comes to recruiting
candidates to run against the South Dakota GOP and it’s assassination squads,
few people want to subject themselves to the toxic stress and damage against
their characters, which have destructive effects on families. As one person who rejected a run for the Senate
four years ago put it, there is no point in campaigning among people who aren’t
interested in solving problems but only want to hold power and demolish any
opposition through their angry hatreds
.
The declining Democratic
voter registrations probably reflect a trend.
People who think politics is about serving people, not defaming and
insulting them, want out of here. Good,
loyal Democrats cannot face what the state has become, even though many studies
point to it as one of the most corrupt
states in the union. Like their ancestors
who left the Old World to escape corruption and oppression, many South Dakotans
are following that precedent in their culture rather than try to convert those
who oppose them to a more benign, good-willed way of life. What is represented in the defamatory
campaigns of John Thune and Kristi Noem is what the majority has voted
for. The state is not the kind of place that respects good will and good purpose.
3 comments:
Excellent article Mr. Newquist. I hope Pat Powers reads this.
Your comments are on the money, my kids are gone for all the reasons you have stated, and they left with my encouragement. If my roots weren't so deep I would get out as well. House is almost paid for, maybe then I get out.
I find most personal attacks of politicians distasteful. Now and then what may be a legitimate concern sounds like a personal attack.
However, I don't think any Democratic candidate has the luxury and status to ignore negative personal attacks by the GOP ratpack of pols, publicists and corporate media.
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