We South Dakotans are used to exposure. A couple weeks ago parts of the state received forty-eight inches of snow with sustained winds of over thirty miles per hour. Gusts went as high as sixty. This week it was sunburn and more wind. I once wrote in a novel that you know you’ve come to the Great Plains of South Dakota when you get the feeling that the whole world could see you, but no one is watching. Yes, we out here in the hard mid-section of the country know a lot about natural exposure. But we don’t know much about national exposure.
This spring has been a little different. The Democratic presidential primary is giving South Dakota a shot at its five minutes of fame. For the last month South Dakota, geographically obscure and chronically conservative, has been a focus for the national media and courted by the two remaining Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination. It has been a very long time since South Dakota’s opinion of who should run for president had a chance for expression. It is a sort of prairie stoicism. As if to show that we don’t care about our lack of national exposure, we have doggedly stuck to our historic position of dead last (along with Montana) in the schedule of national primaries. Like refusing to vote for George McGovern in 1972 and unseating our native-son Senate Majority leader in 2006, it is as if we have historically taken pride in denying the value of our delegates. But despite our apparent wish for anonymity, in this wild primary season, our puny little 23 Democratic delegates suddenly have, if not power, at least significance. And people are discovering that they like the lime light. In fact, people are beside themselves with giddy expectation. How could it be that insignificant South Dakota could suddenly have a chance to be heard? Is it serendipitous or does it make some sort of sense that the windy little hyper-red state that somehow brought the world George McGovern, Jim Abourezk, and Tom Daschle will weigh in for either the first non-male, or non-white presidential candidate ever nominated by a major party in the good old United States of America? We finally get a turn at bat and we are chomping at the bit to get inside that voting booth.
The South Dakota Democratic Party is experiencing a resurrection of roughly equivalent to the experience of Lasuras. It has been so long since any of this has mattered that people are checking and adjusting their registrations – Democrats, Independents, and even some spoiler Republicans don’t want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to vote in a meaningful primary. The blogs are buzzing. The letters to the editor filled with excitement and bombast.
Usually we are the “fly over” part of the country but lately private jets have been dropping off their political cargos all over the state. Bill Clinton has been on our reservations and in our high school auditoriums. Tom Daschle has reappeared as a segregate for Obama. George McGovern floats above it all in the rightful role of party elder. Even the candidates themselves have been present and accessible. I am not the only South Dakotan to have this spring seen, up close and personal, my very first presidential primary candidate.
Of course we had hopes that our votes might actually tip the balance in a concrete way. We had hoped that Obama or Clinton would end up in our debt. We dreamed of one of them standing up in front of the entire world and saying, “Thank you South Dakota, thank you, thank you.” But the way things seem to be playing out; it looks like we will have to content ourselves with a little attention. As far as many of us are concerned our votes do still count. I heard a news commentator compare Senator Clinton to the dinner guest that stayed too long at the party. That may be true if you live in a state where dinner parties of this intensity are frequent events. But in South Dakota having Hillary Clinton as a guest is big deal. She can stay as long as she likes and it’s great that she brought alone her friends and her husband.
And even though we may not have a chance for the distinction of putting one of these candidates “over the top”, there is some unfamiliar magic in the air of South Dakota. When you stand out on these lonely plains you still feel that you are exposed, that the whole world could see you. But this year they are actually watching. It feels great.