Mel’s Musings – True perhaps, but is it accurate?

I’ve run in thirteen different elections for various offices (State Senate, State Representative, City Council and Mayor) over four different decades and been subjected to innuendo, attack and slander. In a lot of that there was a vague veneer of truth. The negative smears that contained a kernel of truth ultimately were taken out of context, twisted or deliberately misrepresented to make them seem like something they were not. The same thing is going on in the governor’s race here in South Dakota.

Governor Noem has called Representative Jamie Smith the “most liberal member of the South Dakota State Legislature”. I’m not familiar with the voting records of the members of the South Dakota Legislature so perhaps this charge is literally true. However, it is a bit like being recognized as the youngest member of the nursing home. In every nursing home there is a youngest person but they’re still not all that young. The same is true for the South Dakota State Legislature, even if every member was a rock-ribbed conservative Republican there would still someone who was the “most liberal member” by default, even if that designation had little resemblance to what a liberal would recognize as liberal.

The latest distortion of Jamie Smith’s position is taking his quote from Governor Bill Janklow out of context. One of the four times that Bill Janklow successfully sought the governorship was during a property tax revolt. In order for Governor Janklow to provide property tax relief, he broadened the sales tax. In Janklow’s own words, he “found new things to tax”. The elimination of various sales tax exemptions was fought fiercely by the groups who were exempt but in the end they lost. Governor Janklow raised taxes by “finding new things to tax” and then used the funds to help alleviate the pressure of property taxes. Jamie Smith’s comments regarding “taxing new things” referenced what Republican Governor Bill Janklow said previously and, in Smith’s case, was in reference to taxing marijuana should it become legal. I think we all agree that if recreational marijuana became a legal product, it should be taxed like alcohol and tobacco are now. A side note, as part of his “raising taxes, finding new things to tax “stance, Governor Janklow opposed removing the sales tax on food.

Governor Noem has made a cynical, insincere promise to end the sales tax on food. I say that because she’s had four years to rescind it already and not only hasn’t but has opposed previous efforts to do so, like the one Jamie Smith and others tried in regular legislative session. Recently, an additional attempt was made by some South Dakota legislators by calling for a special session to repeal the sales tax on food before the general election to either help the Governor fulfill her promise or call her bluff, or perhaps both. She refused to call a special session and you’re still paying the sales tax on food. Negative campaigning takes on multiple forms. The one we’re most familiar with is when one candidate spews filth at another. Another form is when a candidate makes promises they have no intention of keeping or know full well they won’t be able to deliver on despite their best efforts and no matter how sincere they may really have been when making the promise.

Governor Noem has tried to make hay out of the fact that Jamie Smith did not vote to ban transgender athletes from sports when legislation was introduced to do so at the State level. This is a case where I agree with both Governor Noem and Representative Smith at the same time on the same issue. I agree with Governor Noem that transgender athletes should play sports only in leagues of their biological, as opposed to chosen, gender. However, I agree with Jamie Smith’s stance that we have School Boards and the High School Activities Association for a reason. Republicans are always talking about respecting local control and then they rarely do. Smith’s vote against State control of this matter reflects his belief that we have various levels of government and the one that best reflects the will of people is the one closest and most local to the constituents. What’s next for Governor Noem should she win a second term, deciding when schools should take snow days this winter? Calling off school for weather and deciding who should be eligible for team sports are in the same general category and are the purview of local school boards. If a state agency is to be involved in the transgender question, then it is rightly the High School Activities Association and not the State Legislature or the Governor. Jamie Smith was correct that this is a local and not a state decision while Governor Noem is right on the overall issue of who should be properly participating in boys’ and girls’ sports.

Governor Noem has bragged about her policy of turning a blind eye to Covid. She has criticized Jamie Smith for supporting mask mandates when the CDC and medical science said that was the best policy to combat the spread of Covid and to protect the vulnerable. Thousands of South Dakotans died from Covid. Perhaps if the State had reacted differently some of those thousands would have lived. Governor Noem’s “do nothing, hope for the best and pretend Covid isn’t a problem” approach ended up being not quite as catastrophic as it might have been but her calloused, “damn the torpedoes” strategy put the vulnerable at risk and acquiesced in the death of thousands as the cost of doing business. Criticizing Smith’s belief in medical professionals and compassion for the vulnerable seems misplaced to me.

The condemnation of Jamie Smith for attending a Black Lives Matter event in Sioux Falls is inexplicable as well. I’m sure Governor Noem isn’t for racism, the violent targeting of African Americans, the rail-roading of defendants using shoddy or even false police procedures or forensics and the further indignities that have been visited on African Americans and others that the Black Lives Matter movement is trying to bring attention and reform to. Governor Noem has been banned in the past from some reservations in South Dakota because of her stance on various Native-American issues. Like it or not, America is a diverse place and South Dakota is becoming more and more so these days. A Governor should try and empathize with South Dakotans of all races, creeds and walks of life. No one can make everyone happy all the time, especially given limited public resources, but understanding and listening should be a skill every public servant has and uses proficiently even, or perhaps especially, with those one disagrees with.

The ”maybe true but distorted and inaccurate” campaign I denounce Governor Noem for using on Jamie Smith is not a one-way street, although the vast majority of the traffic in half-truths and exaggerations are on the Noem for Governor side. In the Republican primaries this past summer Congressman Johnson, Senator Thune and Governor Noem were all the victims of the same kind of tactical smears from their opponents that the Governor is now using against Smith. Her opponents commented during primary season on Governor Noem’s use of state airplanes to further her political ambitions on the national level via her South Dakota taxpayer funded out-of-state travel, also decrying her seeming use of taxpayer money for personal reasons such as taking the state plane to her son’s prom and of course the misuse of her office (which even the Republicans recognized and investigated her for) by interfering with a state licensing board on behalf of her adult daughter.

State airplane expenses can be reimbursed by individuals and campaigns. There is nothing inherently wrong in using a state airplane for a non-state purpose if the taxpayers are compensated properly. Of course, the question is, was that done in the cases that Governor Noem is being criticized for? The Governor, any Governor, is not a “regular” person. There is security etc. these days and however a sitting Governor gets to a personal event, it won’t be in the family station wagon.

I hope you vote in this election and for the candidate of your choice. There are also important issues on the ballot that will impact your children, your community and yourself. Vote based on facts rather than on innuendo, smears and fear. Merely attacking the other candidate is often a sign of weakness, desperation or evidence of a lack of a positive agenda to offer to the public.

Democracy is not a given. It must be nurtured. Truth should matter and participation in the process certainly does. Be sure to be informed and then vote in this and every election you’re eligible to vote in. The United States is the greatest country on the face of the Earth and our democracy is a beacon for the world, but only as long as we continue to respect democratic processes and traditions. To maintain our Republic, we must continue to grant that those with opinions and of parties different than are own often have a valid point regardless of how we may view them and their opinions. In America, our opponents always have the right to express their strongly held positions as well as to run and sometimes even win in free and fair elections. “Elections” where only one party ever has a chance to win are not “elections”. Making voting difficult and putting procedures in place to allow state legislatures to overturn the will of the people after they’ve expressed it by voting is not “democracy”. It is tyranny. Democracy is more fragile than it appears, especially now in these politically turbulent and troubled times. Let’s cherish, cultivate and protect it while we still can before it erodes into despotism.