Where are the Democrats?

Those who monitor and comment on politics in South Dakota tend to ignore one factor that significantly affects the political climate.  That is the outmigration:  who leaves the state, how many, and why.

As a South Dakota professor, I was aware that a goal of many, perhaps most,  students was to find work and life in other places.  At one point, the college president recognized this and sought to use it as an appeal for attracting students.  He started using a slogan for the university as being "a gateway institution,"  a college that prepares one to find and make a living in other places.   The suggestion that a state college would encourage its students to study as preparation for life in other states enraged politicians, and the regents severely reprimanded  the college president for making that appeal.  He quickly ended its usage.

But the shifts of population out of the state are a fact of life.   The opportunities to apply a college education in a job within the state of South Dakota are very limited.  That college president was concerned about where college students could find positions where they could utilize their educations.  He was troubled about the "brain drain" in South Dakota, but to use their educations, many students had to go to other states, and the state lost their knowledge and talents.

Political strategists recognize the implication of the brain drain for the state.   People with  intellectual tendencies gravitate toward liberalism.  And when they seek out places where they can work with their brains, they take their talents with them.  South Dakota identifies itself as a conservative state, but to many "conservative" means "backward," resistance to liberating influences. There is an outmigration of intellectual talent when students graduate from high school and go to college in other states.  There is another when college students in the state graduate and move to other places to utilize their degrees.  What political operatives fail to realize is the reason that there are so many more Republicans than Democrats in South Dakota is that young liberals leave the state for better opportunities and more progressive cultures.  And the more conservative the state gets in its politics, the more determined young liberals are to leave it.   Staid residents often say to critics of the state that if they don't like it here, they should leave.   And that's precisely what they do.

For many years, as an officer in a political party I maintained a mailing list for the Democrats in my area.  I noted a steady decrease in members as their names were removed for reasons of attrition.  When people left, they weren't replaced.  People looked for work out of state.    They chose other places for retirement.  Many just chose to move.  Whatever the motives, the decline in membership was striking, and when we officers reviewed the membership roll, we determined that the decline did not come from a loss of interest, as we had feared, but from a general loss of people in those categories that comprised the active membership.  When we consulted population studies, we found that our region of the country--the upper midwest-- had one of the nation's largest losses of population in the productive age group.  We also noted that some communities have lost facilities run by organizations which were important parts of the of communities.  Aberdeen has lost facilities run by groups like the American Legion and VFW, the Elks and Eagles lodges, and has lost retail outlets such as Shopko, Kmart, and Herbergers.  The population numbers seem fairly stable, but a closer analysis  shows that those leaving are the creative, ambitious, more intellectual people; those left behind are those who tend to avoid stimulation, venture, and change.

Current news in Aberdeen includes reports of further decline.  The school system has 59 fewer students this term.  The Burger King, a national franchise in every community of any size, has closed.  

The Republican Party has almost a total lock on government.  But that's not because its policies and messages are most appealing.  Or because it is more deft at organizing.  It's because the Democrats are leaving.  The party has trouble finding candidates and people who can martial an effective campaign.   That's because the people who could fill those roles are off  somewhere physically or mentally working on creating more vital and relevant lives