LETTER | Conservatism works... If you try it
From Rep. Scott Odenbach of Spearfish
In a recent South Dakota Searchlight column, open primaries/Amendment H proponent Joe Kirby wrote that “RINOs are the traditional, mainstream, business-friendly Republicans who have controlled the party and the state for decades,” that they comprise 90 percent of the Republican electorate (false - see, the recent primary results), and insinuated that unless we freeze out conservatives via open primaries, we’ll lose our business-friendly climate.
NEWS: Cities brace for potential IM 28 passage impact
What we know is that a stable business climate does not require corporate cronyism, in fact, just the opposite. If you really want to keep South Dakota great as a safe haven for business, keep it conservative: Keep it free, with equal opportunity for all, without corruption or slush-fund favoritism, with a low crime rate and limited tax burden. Make education innovation and parental choice a priority and free families to choose the best environment for their kids. They will want to move here to share in this freedom, our schools will graduate proficient lifelong learners instead of social promotions, employers will have an intelligent and talented labor pool, and our state will experience a renaissance. Clean up our culture - and our waterways - and watch good people flock to our state to enjoy life while those already here thrive.
This is the truth about the conservative agenda. It is not wacko, not a threat to business and is working everywhere it’s tried. Has it been opposed by some of those Kirby identifies as RINOs? Yes. Did a few of them get replaced in the recent primary? Yes. Does that mean we have to throw out our whole election system because of it? No.
Memo to Joe: South Dakota is a constitutional republic, not a corporation. And we have a governor, not a CEO. There is a difference.
VIEWPOINT: Amendment H aids democracy, not hurts the Democratic Party
Open Primaries allows EVERYONE to vote. Seems like a basic good government/conservative thought to me.
And did i Did I read this correctly? “Clean up our culture…..”. What the heck does that mean? He and his people promote freedom except for girls and women.
What exactly is the conservative agenda? Odenbach implies that the conservative agenda strives to "Keep it free, with equal opportunity for all (tell that to women), without corruption or slush-fund favoritism, with a low crime rate and limited tax burden (limited but not fair, e.g., a tax on groceries that impacts the poorest among us the most). Make education innovation and parental choice a priority and free families to choose the best environment for their kids." South Dakota has been run by conservatives now for years--and while I can say what I thought it used to mean, I'm not sure what Odenbach means by much of this, e.g., slush-fund favoritism (I'd argue Noem has recently engaged in a bit of this when she funded the shooting range with public dollars at her disposal), and we've certainly had some corruption. I think parents have lots of choice, unless by choice he means taking public dollars to finance private educational options which seems counterproductive if you're truly looking for innovation in public education. The blue print for the next conservative President, Project 2025, seeks to eliminate the Department of Education, NOAA, and the Department of Homeland Security. It urges cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and effectively eliminates the separation of church and state in favor of a Christian Nationalist agenda and all that comes with agenda, including national bans on abortion without exceptions. If you include conservative economic policies, tariffs and tax cuts for corporations, I fail to see how that "works if you try it." Tariffs devastated agriculture requiring billions in subsidies to offset the loss of foreign export markets and cutting corporate tax rates has been a disaster. The national debt rose almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country. Contrast that with the last 4 years where the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing. The S&P 500 went up 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. Unemployment is under 4% a 50 year low. Inflation is down to the average over the last 100 years. Serious crime, murder for example, is down significantly. I'm not saying we're without serious issues, but the conservative agenda as it's played out as of late, and certainly as it's written in Project 2025, does not support the "try it you'll like it" approach Odenbach advocates and is not what the vast majority of Americans want or need.