Governors should serve the people
Throughout Kristie Noem’s reign as South Dakota’s governor, I’ve realized two things. One: I liked her as a governor a lot less than I thought I would. And two: she must think South Dakotans are dumb or blind.
As Julie Andrews once sang, “Let’s start at the very beginning a very good place to start.”
Noem started her governance in 2019 and immediately made what I would consider questionable calls.
In her long list of interesting decisions, she started with abolishing a law that required concealed carry permits in South Dakota. Which I think was a commonsense gun safety for everyone type of law. It was weird that she decided to do that, but it was something most people looked past.
Then she vetoed a bill that would have legalized hemp in South Dakota, which more than half of South Dakotans were in favor of. Later, more ballot measures about legalizing marijuana were passed through to her to sign off on.
She then yet again decided that the voice of the people she is supposed to represent wasn’t as important as her own and tried to block both measures from going through.
Although she only succeeded with blocking one measure. This shows her blatant disregard for the voice of South Dakotans.
While spending her time running through five chiefs of staff, Noem also thought that maybe a bit of gluttonous spending on behalf of the taxpayers of South Dakota might be a good time. Noem spent $68 thousand on rugs imported from India, a chandelier and a sauna for the governor’s mansion.
Now my personal favorite was when she paid a Minnesotan advertising agency $449 thousand public funds to create everyone’s favorite campaign: “Meth. We’re on it.”
Noem maintains that it was a successful campaign. However frankly, that campaign is hilarious and made a laughingstock of South Dakota. Noem has also spent $166,410 on a Californian company to do a review of the Department of Corrections operations.
Either of these jobs could have been done just as well (or better in the case of the meth campaign) by instate companies that would have benefited the South Dakota’s economy. Which you would think she would be all for since that was part of the reasons, she wouldn’t shut down the state during COVID. Even when South Dakota had the country’s second most cases per capita. During her genius handling of COVID cases in the state she also spent the pandemic relief funds for the state to promote tourism.
While South Dakotans were sick and dying, she was more worried about how we can convince more people to visit instead of taking care of our own.
Noem is also under investigation for nepotism in helping her daughter receive her real estate appraiser’s license. She has never publicly accepted Joe Biden’s presidential win after claiming that the 20220 presidential elections had widespread voter fraud. And lastly, Noem signed a religious refusal bill into law making it so that business owners can choose not to provide goods or services due to religious reasons.
While she has used her power to serve her and her family, she has repeatedly ignored the wants and needs of the people she is supposed to serve. Instead, as South Dakota’s first female governor, she has taken steps to make South Dakota serve her while walking itself back into the 50s.