What are we going to do about Steph Herseth?

[High Plains]

This woman calls herself a Democrat, but seems to vote with the GOP as often as not. Voted with the credit card companies on the bankruptcy bill, voted for stupid and draconian "anti-gang" legislation, and has now twice voted to fund federal raids on medical marijuana patients.

How do we either light a fire under or her replace her with a real progressive?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Avalanche her with contacts.

The only way.

[High Plains]

6. I do my best

I mobilize my limited network of South Dakota friends and relatives on some issues. So far it hasn't made much difference. But I'll keep it up.

Her votes on that amendment to bar the feds from raiding pot patients really gets me. Democrats voted for that by a ratio of 3:1, but she voted with the Republicans. The only poll ever done in SD on medical marijuana showed huge support. There was no down side.

[DakotaDemocrat]

2. You know with Citibank...

in the state, along with other credit card companies, a first-termer was going to side with them.

I'm more interested in your thoughts of a "real progressive" in South Dakota. Who????

[High Plains]

4. Hmmm...

I guess that's something of an empty threat. Sheesh, isn't there anybody out there? In the legislature? There's a guy from Indian country, Tom Van Norman, in the House.

I grew up in South Dakota and am registered to vote there (a sort of flag of convenience), but don't spend much time in the state and don't follow local politics too closely.

That doesn't stop me from contacting my elected representatives, however.

[existentialist]

8. South Dakota Indian Country

I'm here in Indian Country, and worked hard and close on Tom Van Norman's first race, and I can certainly contact him and be heard if you have something for me to say that is worth saying to him.

[High Plains]

10. Something to say to Tom Van Norman?

Nah, nothing in particular. I just thought of him because I interviewed him once for a story I was doing about a silly-ass anti-meth law the legislature passed earlier this year.

Sorry for the delay in replying. I only check in every once in awhile, usually when Herseth has disappointed me yet again.

[chaumont58]

3. She's from South Dakota

South Dakota doesn't elect progressives. Her only saving grace is she does vote repuke 100%.

I contributed money to her campaign when she ran in the special election and I'm not from South Dakota. I figured a port in any storm, a dem under any circumstances is better than a repuke. I'm not so sure it makes a different. Biden, Lieberman, the DLCers come to mind.

[High Plains]

5. South Dakota elected George McGovern

and Jim Abourezk (sp)? back in the day. But that was back in the day. Who can pick up the torch. Abourezk has a son who I think is an ACLU lawyer type in Vermillion, although that's old info.

[alrightjim]

11. Hi High Plains

I'm in Belle Fourche and I can assure you Herseth is viewed here as just shy of being a communist.

A Democrat has to win in South Dakota, and in order to do this they must stay off hot button liberal issues. I am not saying this is right, but it is necessary if they are to be elected and stay elected. For example, does Tom Daschle really think the government doesn't owe the Lakota ANYTHING for the Black Hills? I don't think he does, but he must say he thinks that, as must Herseth or Johnson, or they commit political suicide. It is all well and good if Bill Bradley introduces such legislation. He may be from New Jersey (actually he was born and raised in Missouri) but in such a matter he can legislate after his conscience, not so any democrat setting up shop in South Dakota.
I worked on the Tim Giago campaign which was really a campaign against Daschle. I would be at my desk and the phone would ring in Tim's office and it would be Daschle, time and again, all bent out of shape and concerned what happened to Thune against Johnson would happen to him against Thune---lose Shannon County big and lose the election.

The GOP worked with us to collect signatures to get Tim on the ballot, and we used that as pressure to get Daschle to agree to hold a meeting to discuss Indian issues. Giago agreed to drop out of the campaign based on that assurance from Daschle.

As a Lakota you are stuck betwen a rock and a hard place. Do you use all means at your disposal to get Daschle caring about Indian issues beyond lip service, or do you NOT do this because you realize it could cost him in the election and you wind up with Thune instead, who doesn't give a rat's ass about Indians no matter how many times he shoots hoops with high schoolers at the rez schools?

I love seeing Thune squirm over the Ellsworth Base closing, and Bush just leaving him out there like a baggy pair of empty pants flapping in the wind! If the base closes Thune is dead political meat, but if you think any progressive will take his place, or Johnson's place, or Herseth's place, that political progressive does not exist, and if he did, would not secure the signatures necessary to even make the primary.

Nice posting to you High Plains.

Jimmy

BTW Forget the young Abourezk. He runs around with a ponytail down his back and wears his liberal ideology on his sleeve, well, actually, in his pony tail. Nice guy, but not electable to any statewide political office.

[existentialist]

13. George McGovern

I believe that George McGovern was actually the first Democrat to successfully campaign on Indian Reservations, particularly Pine Ridge, and it made a difference for him too--he would not have been elected to the Senate without the Indian vote.

[existentialist]

14. Charles Abourezk

Charles Abourezk is an Attorney in private practice in Rapid City.

He may have worked with the ACLU on a case or two, and he may (or may not) be a member, but I believe it would be incorrect to call him an ACLU lawyer.

I doubt if he would be interested in running for statewide office (or any office) although I can't speak for him.

I agree that he would fight a very uphill election fight and would probably not win.

After all, among other handicaps, he's part Arab. . . .

[alrightjim]

15. Abourezk junior

Hi wicasa. Jim Abdnor was Lebanese, too, and it didn't hurt him any. The chairman of the Pennington County Republicans is an Arab, a naturalized American, and it hasn't hurt him any, either. Abourezk's liberal past and liberal name will get him elected to absolutely nothing, plus in person he is nice but not especially articulate or special, easy to overlook in a room full of people. He also is a bit reclusive and snobby in a social-political sort of way, meaning he has offended a good many everyday folks who have met him by not acknowledging they are just everyday folks and that is enough to make them worth noticing.

Quite a few folks I have met also contend Herseth has this problem as well, and that her personalblity is highly selective and targeted where it will do her image the most good. Herseth is the type who walks into a room with the Governor and a janitor and doesn't notice the janitor. Jim Abourezk was the type would stop and shake the janitor's hand first, as a matter of course, and then move on to the governor. Charles is not like his old man. He has plenty of time for Indian looking types who fit his preconception of people who need to be honored and recognized, and his law offices are crawling with them, and the one time I sat in his office he was very personable with me, but for that reason. I had a scruffy, bucky look to me.

I know a guy called his office once with a deeply personal legal problem and his secretary was so rude and dismissive the poor thing was traumatized. I am not the traumatized type, even though I did shed a tear during the Color Purple, so once I found out, I am ashamed to say I called her back up and screamed "F" you into the phone as loud as I could. Well, actually I am not that ashamed, she had it coming. In the old days hair would have been taken, now skins just use harsh language.

Jimmy

[existentialist]

16. OK

OK, your analysis might be right. I've only met Charles Abourezk a couple of times--about half the times I've met Jim Abourezk. You are also correct the Jim Abnor was also Lebanese and it didn't seem to hurt him, but you perhaps miss my implied point. Both Abourezk and Abnor were elected in pre 9-11 days, and while I may be mistaken, I do think being Lebanese would hurt them now.

Also your description of the impression Stephanie Herseth gives is not consistent with my observations, and I've met her enough times that she remembers my name (maybe she just has a capacity to remember A LOT of names). Anyway, when she has been here on Cheyenne River she has seemed to make time to speak with the modest and humble as well as with those with some influence--of course the crowds were not that huge here--there aren't that many people here . . .

[alrightjim]

17. Ousi Al-Haj

Hi wicasa. Qusi (kuh-sigh) Al-Haj was the GOP Pennington County Chairman until this year. He is a Palestinian schooled in Saudi Arabia and a naturalized American citizen. He owns and operates a computer business in Rapid City and he and his wife spent some years living and working on the reservations and have a genuine concern for the rights of the Lakota.

I would call him a moderate Republican, generally at war with the Republican right, so much so Janklow once stuck his finger in his face because he opposed a Janklow appointment, but Janklow couldn't say anything except stammer over and over again: "Mr. Al-Haj, Mr. Al-Haj!" with all that spittle spraying form his bad dental work.

Qusi went to bat for the reservations a few years back, when he found the GOP wasn't going to spend one thin dime campaigning there. They didn't listen and Thune lost to Johnson. They sure listened after that. And when I contacted the various party chairmen in the Hills when doing a story once they only had glowing words of praise for him. One old redneck said, "He's one smart guy, and if you wanna learn something, just keep yourself quiet and let him do the talking." So we met over a bagel in Rapid and I let Qusi do the talking and the the redneck was right, he was one smart guy, and I learned so much about how the political machine operates, and until I met Qusi I didn't think a decent person could be GOP.

I still won't ever vote GOP, but it is nice to know there is one I could vote for if he ever ran for any office, which I don't think he will. For a time there, he had quite a bit of influence and power with the SD GOP and all of this occured after 9/11.

So although I have spent a lifetime at the business-end of instituionalized racism in this state, I still think most people will look past your color and religion if you are on their team, even the right wing GOP. I never heard one person bring up his ethnicity and I met a number of the old guard who liked him but worried "he is too damn liberal." I never met a GOP person who disliked him, and I talked to quite a number of the rank and file about Qusi over the course of a year or so.

So being a Palestinian has not hurt Qusi with the GOP, let alone being Lebanese.

As far as Herseth goes, what you say may be true, I have never met her, I am just relating what other people I respect have told me, and extrapolating that assessment from other political types of similar personality I have experienced. One of the most painful realizations for me, wicasa, was that the Dems could be bastards, too. I was such a good Democrat I would never have believed it. But they invited me to a party meeting in Hill City, and the snobbery was oppressive. I went to a small dinner gathering with Thune in Hot Springs and was welcomed with open arms, they fed me and pampered me, and although they hated my politics, they were genuinely willing to like me just for me.

The Dems have got to lose this haughty snobbery manner with which they interact with regular folks. There was a Dem lawyer in Hot Springs all bent out of shape about starving kids in South America and Africa while Lakota kids a stone's throw from her doorstep were suffering in poverty. This designer targeted compassion is too common among the educated Dem elite and they will never connect with the Red States until they admit it is a habit and take measures to tone it down. I knew a nurse whose politics I much respected, but on the job she had contempt for the aides on the nursing home floor, their intelligence, their worth ethic, and they viewed her with equal contempt. Eventually she was asked to resign. She never did get it. I still admire her politics, but the GOP knows how to connect with the working class, knows how to get them to hate the very things that would benefit them, labor unions, a decent living wage, national health insurance, taxes on the rich. Did you know one year I was unemployed for 6 months and still wound up OWING the government 67 dollars? You can't believe how evil our tax system is until you read Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston.

I've talked your ear off enough. I hope I am wrong about Herseth. I like being wrong about stuff like that.

Jimmy

[existentialist]

7. What to do?

I suppose what we do is to keep contacting her. I'm not happy with a lot of what she's doing, and as one of her relatively early supporters I might be heard a little bit, and I have emailed her twice so far this spring. What we need is about 30,000 of me contacting her I suppose.

Still, I would rather have her in Congress than any Republican as long as the Republicans are lead by the likes of Tom DeLay

[High Plains]

9. Herseth's vote on the flag burning amendment

Oh. She didn't exercise her vote on that issue. Well, hell, at least she didn't vote for it.

[existentialist]

12. vote on flag burning amendment

Half a loaf I guess . . .

(You KNOW Diedrich would have voted for it . . .)

[sarahlee]

18. I write Herseth

regularly - so much so that her office doesn't even bother with form replies anymore. LOL!

About 3 years ago I had started an experiment collecting sigs to run for Congress as an Independent and then got hired by a another campaign (not SD) and decided I could do more good there. But I was not doing all that bad running a stealth operation to get sigs from before anyone found out and started hounding me. I was pretty clear with people up front that I wasn't sure I would carry through because I had no money to really run and I was trying to get a feel for just how great the challenge would be. When I decided to quit, I went back to most of the elders I had met with and asked them not to give up hope, because I (and others like me) would keep looking for someone who could speak for them and that even if they were gone, I would do what I could to keep looking out for their grandchildren.

I know most of the state is pretty conservative, but most are more Libitarian conservative than neo-con conservative. And I think that if we could work with tribal activists and elders and the more libertarian ranchers, we could get enough of a progressive movement in the state to start creating some balance. People crave honesty and no one - republican or democrat that I spoke with thought any of the political types were really honest with them.

The plains are depopulating with the the exception of Native American populations and Rapid City and Sioux Falls. There are an increasing number of progressives moving into Rapid. But you have to start very early and move very quietly, (you get two extra months to file if you are an Independent, but you have to have twice as many signatures), - meeting with small groups of people in homes and drinking a lot of coffee, listening a great deal more than talking - there are more folks like us out there, but the majority are quiet about it because of the prevalent atmosphere and the majority don't vote at all because no one is speaking for them.

Also, while I should note as Jimmy has elsewhere, that while Lakota people are pretty conservative in many ways, traditionally, the needs of the community - taking care of each other was one of the highest priorities. Lakota governence was a bit of anarchy mixed with socialist democracy.

I did get support from a majority of Lakota grandmothers I spoke with on the abortion issue. Even the Christian ones. I've spent a good bit of time with some of the eldest of women around here, who admitted that traditionally, women knew of abortive remedies because they had to keep the number of children to a level they could travel with. It was the Christian influence, the clinial aspect of the procedures now and the forced sterilizations along with the lack of roles for men (after reservations) that lead to a somewhat natural progression to a strict anti-abortion mentality. When I could lead them into discussion of historical reality with emphasis on the respect for individuality with concern for community, I was generally able to get an agreement that making the anti-abortion choice for all women was not reason for a political choice.

With non-Indian ranchers, I had an easier time with older folks than middle aged and younger. They had better recollections of communities taking care of each other were painfully aware of the dangers of privitization, oil shortages (just talk to a farmer who just fertilized his fields about oil prices) and the health care situation. If you spend your time asking them the correct questions instead of telling them what you think, they can find a way to thinking pretty progressively. A great many are as concerned about corporate takeovers of everything as they are about Big government and socialism.

SD is hard to campaign at the National level because you have to work the entire state.

Both parties would do all they could to kill an Independent or progressive Democrat once they found out, so most of the "campaigning" and preparation and fighting of the attacks would have to be done preemptively - before the the filing deadline. It would be a weird, but fun campaign, because for the most part, you would want to avoid the media. LOL! I had no illusions of winning, but did want to scare the pants off of both parties.

Anyway, based on six months experience of working it very part time and not very hard, I got a bit less than a third of what an Independent would need to file and spent maybe $300.00 in gas, pastries and sandwich makings - I think a serious candidate would have to start a full two years out and have a very flexible job and family. I like to think I planted some seeds for a real Independent or progressive Democratic candidate during my six month experiment.

[existentialist]

19. Thank you again,

and although I can't see myself voting for an independent unless and until we can reign in the neocons, I do believe that you have made some good points about how to approach South Dakota voters.