South Dakota is a mostly rural, sparsely populated state that has drifted far to the right in recent decades, far from a once proud populist history. Today, both U.S. senators and the state's lone member of Congress are supine Trumpist Republicans. The governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer and every other member of the state's executive branch are Republicans. 30 of the 35 members of the state Senate are Republicans, as are 59 of the state House's 70 members. In 2016, Trump won 61 of the state's 66 counties and beat Hillary 227,701 (61.5%) to 117,442 (31.7%). Two years later, though, Trumpist gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Kristi Noem, didn't do quite so well in the midst of the nationwide anti-red wave. She did win, but not by very much. She beat Democrat Billie Sutton 172,912 (51%) to 161,454 (47.6%), underperforming Trump drastically, while Sutton out-performed Hillary by even more. Where Hillary won just 5 of South Dakota's counties, Sutton won 22.Many South Dakotans have lived to regret that outcome. With Noem absolutely refusing to take any precautions against the pandemic-- almost laying out a welcome mat and red carpet for it-- the state went through a horrific first wave, just over 7,000 cases and nearly 100 deaths. South Dakota has 7,944 cases per million residents, extremely high-- and far worse than hard-hit states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Ohio and Washington and worse than any European country. (By way of comparison, Spain has 6,366 cases per million and Italy has 3,989 per million.) Noem's pandemic criminal incompetence has not only caused severe illness in her own state, but is largely responsible for widespread and deadly pandemic spikes in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and Colorado. In some ways Kristi Noem is the worst of the GOP Typhoid Mary governors in the whole country.On Friday, as South Dakota welcomed Trump for another of his ill-advised hate rallies, the state reported another 85 new coronavirus cases. Today 50 more new cases were reported-- including one that South Dakota won't get "credit" for: after she arrived for the Mt. Rushmore rally, Trump, Jr's mistress, former Gavin Newsom wife and Fox News broadcaster, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19.The NY Times' Maggie Habberman reported that Guilfoyle, a top fund-raising official for the Trumpanzee campaign, arrived in the state with Trump, Jr. but separately from Señor T. She is the third person in possible proximity to Trump known to have contracted the virus. She is likely to have caught the disease at the Tulsa rally, which is also where Herman Cain, now hospitalized, contracted it.
Even as outbreaks have emerged in the South and West and as states across the country report a record number of cases each day, White House officials-- and Mr. Trump in particular-- have minimized their focus on the virus in public appearances. In an interview on Wednesday, the president indicated that he believed the virus was “going to sort of just disappear.”The president’s aides recently modified protocols for people entering the White House grounds, abandoning routine temperature checks, for instance. They have counseled people experiencing symptoms typical of the coronavirus to stay away.But people who come in proximity to Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence are still tested for the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Trump's July 3rd Mt. Rushmore appearance, featuring a desperate speech written by neo-Nazi Stephen Miller, dripping with hatred and divisiveness and seeking to pit Americans against Americans, is likely to cause South Dakota a whole second spike in cases. While Trump was screaming about "left wing mobs" and stoking racism and white nationalism, 7,500 people-- mostly without masks-- were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder to listen to Miller's ugly, vicious words and watch the fireworks, while shouting and spreading the contagion. This morning's Washington Post noted that VIPs were "seated separately onstage-- not six feet apart, but not amid the storm of exhalations, coughs, vociferous cheers and sneezes."Trump has continued illegally using the copyright-protected music of artists who abhor him and everything he stands for. On Friday he used 3 Neil Young songs-- Keep On Rocking' in the Free World, "Like A Hurricane" and "Cowgirl in the Sand"-- even though Young has demanded he stop using his songs numerous times and last week shredded Trump with a rewrite and performance of "Lookin' for a Leader" as part of a very political episode of his Porch Episode series:
We had Barack Obama and we really need him nowThe man who stood behind him has to take his place somehowAmerica has a leader building walls around our houseDon’t know Black Lives Matter and we gotta vote him out.We got our election but corruption has a chanceWe got to have a big win to regain confidenceAmerica is beautifulBut she has an ugly sideWe’re looking for a leader in this country far and wideJust like his big new fenceThis president’s goin' downAmerica is moving forwardYou can feel it in every townScared of his own shadow building walls around our houseHe’s hiding in his bunkerSomething else to lie about