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String...... It was inevitable South Dakota would become a late national election front in the CovidAmerica election. It's a merger of 40-plus year trends and the unique politics of 2020. What follows is an explanation, not a defense or condemnation...bear with me - 22 to follow
Some of the reasons are obvious and go to the heart of red state-blue state divides. But others have been overlooked in this election cycle and as a born-and-raised South Dakotan, I offer these observations based on covering politics, first there, then nationally, since 1978
Before covering national politics, I covered Tom Daschle’s first congressional run and George McGovern’s last Senate race for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the state’s largest newspaper. Back then, Dems and Republicans in South Dakota were largely competing strains of populism
In McGovern and fellow Democrat Jim Abourezk, South Dakota had arguably the most liberal national Senate pair in the '70s. Since statehood in 1889, heck since Custer violated Sioux treaties in the Black Hills, there has always been tension between federal and local interests
The arguments pre-Reagan, pre-Moral Majority, were largely over the power & size of government, & the ability of individual politicians to bring home federal bacon in the form of farm supports, dam construction, federal park and public lands spending, and other federal goodies
But in 1979, all this changed. Jimmy Carter's Russian grain embargo hammered the state's agricultural economy, and it uncoupled farmers - who were not as Republican then - from the Democratic Party. Dems have not constructed a coherent rural economic policy to bring them back
Reagan's "Sagebrush Revolution" resonated strongly in South Dakota as a pushback on the embargo and other federal policies, like Native American policy. Some of the backlash was based on racism. In South Dakota, anti-feds conservatism has only intensified in four decades since
In 1980, a vanguard of the religious/cultural right landed hit South Dakota. A strain of the Moral Majority and a pioneer of the attack PAC's, NCPAC, attacked McGovern as godless and immoral, a supporter of abortion & national Democrats whose values were foreign to rural America
Since 1980, the SD GOP has increasingly dominated on this God and guns and "freedom" credo. Economic issues have been crowded out by moral and personal debates over abortion, gun and gay rights, even climate. Phrases like "it's God's way" or "God's will" infuse political debate
It's why you see the South Dakota state legislature take on such issues as transgender bathrooms and try to make them a front in protecting a "way of life" - hot button issues designed more to identify enemies than solve problems. Bear with me, we're getting to CovidAmerica
And national Dems have ceded policy to players and interest groups that rural folks think unfairly caricatures them The Green New Deal's agriculture section was widely viewed as a joke in SoDak, one written by a 1-term congresswoman from New York who doesn't know bull from steer
Truth is, innovations in American agriculture - from precision farming to more efficient meat production - have not only helped feed an overpopulating globe, they've been done in ways aimed at improving land stewardship and the climate. Most "industrial farms" are family run
So with all this as a backdrop, it's not a big step to an anti-government, "leave it to God" philosophy and to a resistance of federal directives on masks, social distancing, or shutting down businesses, to stop the spread. If it's God's way and government is evil, why abide?
Add political ambition to this, and you inject more combustible politics in a year that's already on fire. Gov. Kristi Noem, who is Trump2.0 to some Republicans and Sarah Palin to many Democrats, appears to have national ambitions already resonating outside her state.
As much as any Republican governor, Noem has aligned herself with Trump’s approach to Covid. While other GOP governors, like Maryland’s Larry Hogan, distanced themselves from Trump by calling for stronger national directives, Noem has fully embraced Trump’s "freedom" approach
Noem backed Trump's push for untested treatments, like hydroxychloroquine, replicated his his laissez faire approach to masks, allowed the Sturgis motorcycle rally to go on as a kind of symbol of defiance against the virus and a declaration of "freedom" - all national news
Noem has campaigned heavily for Trump this fall, drawing criticism for being gone while Covid has spiked in South Dakota. Many of her campaign stops were in pivotal GOP primary states. And she's hired Trump acolyte Corey Lewandoski to advise and get her placed on right-wing media
So.... resisting social distancing and masks have become a form of counter-culturalism among some South Dakotans. Sans strong guidance from leaders, with "freedom" (to infect, some say) equated with defiance to government, with it all in God's hands, spikes were inevitable
But there is more that is often overlooked. South Dakota's economy is the fourth-most dependent upon small business employment. (Only Montana, Wyoming, and Vermont are more dependent). Small towns in SoDak are warrens of cafes, fix-it-shops, implement dealers, grain elevators...
These small businesses cannot work without human contact. Teleworking won't get the tractor repaired or the seed corn planted. And so shutting down businesses to contain the virus was not an academic exercise on small-town Main Streets, something the scolds routinely overlooked
Finally, there is an element here that few have contemplated, but that I've seen pop up in social media debates on Covid. South Dakota is one of the most anti-abortion states in America. It was a big factor in McGovern & Daschle defeats in 1980 and 2004, respectively
People who believe abortion is wrong are told that the right to have an abortion is a woman's personal healthcare choice, and that it's not government's or anyone else's business. Social media posters throw that argument back re: Covid - if the argument works for you, why not me?
So, before you attack me on a phrase or a single post, I repeat: I offer this as a 40,000-foot view of what I've seen change over five decades leading up to this incredibly divisive moment, and not as an affirmation or criticism of anyone. It is what it is, this 2020
