How to Beat John Thune in Three Easy Steps

Kevin Woster’s story in the Oct. 18 Rapid City Journal points out that nobody has stepped forward to challenge junior senator John Thune in next year’s election. And although there’s still time for Democrats to put forth a credible candidate, I’ll admit I’d been thinking that someone would have come forward by now. After all, the Republican Party is the weakest it’s been in a generation, and last fall’s Democratic high tide is still running quite fervently, even if the MSM wants you to think there’s an actual horse race going on between the parties.

Still, young Johnny Thunderbird has had that whiff of mystique about him since he so unceremoniously dispatched Tom Daschle in 2004. (And don’t think we’ve forgotten the tactics that you employed then, J.T.) In any case, Thune has that aura about him, although he is not as safe politically as he and the media would have you think.

So to any potential Democratic challenger(s) (Eric Abrahamson, anyone?), here is a three-point plan for taking Thune down next November.

1. Hammer on his TARP vote. You might recall the fall of 2008, when George W. Bush--a Republican--was president, and the economy collapsed. The banking system was at risk of failure, and Our Senator Thune declared that a bailout was necessary because the system was “too big to fail.” I found this to be an odd statement from a man who had long dubbed himself a free-market conservative. It was not free-market in that Thune was calling for the government to intervene in the economy, and it wasn’t conservative in that it involved spending a pantload of taxpayers' money. In spite of his constituents’ vociferous objections, Our Senator Thune explained rather condescendingly to us rural yokels that we just didn’t understand the economics of the situation. But I think many of us came to understand that he had become an opportunistic hack for the GOP, rather than a voice for South Dakota.

2. Frame what Thune calls uncontrolled Democratic spending for what it is—an overdue investment in America. Remind people why the economic stimulus package he voted against was necessary. It was John Boy Thune and his Republicans asleep at the switch as our economy toppled dangerously close to Depression. The Democrats’ stimulus, which by design is only just starting to take effect, is pulling us out of the recession as you read this. Recovery is under way, and Thune voted against it. Then ask how he can defend bailing out banks but not regular folks like us out here losing our jobs. And then ask why our nation’s health care system isn’t “too big to fail.” Ask why when real people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake, his free-market ideology kicks in again. Tell him that fixing the health care system puts a significant portion of the economy on stable, sustainable footing. These are investments, not wasteful spending. That kind of irresponsibility ended the day Bush left the White House and the GOP was reduced to the dust bunny it is today.

3. Already, Thune is representing his party more than his constituents. He has always assumed that South Dakota is a Republican state. And that is his Achilles heel. First, the electorate has shifted over the past few years. Recent surveys are showing that South Dakota is leaning more and more Democratic. The Republican Party nationwide is weak, and S.D. is no exception. Second, Thune assumes that if he takes care of Republican issues, he’s taking care of his constituents, which is simply lazy. On a range of issues, such as the environment and energy (it’s never been this cool to be green) people are shifting toward Democratic positions. Same with health care. Aside from the shouting, teabagging zealots that make up the shrinking base of the GOP, real people--even many conservative ones--are seeing the need for reforming the nation’s health care system. With health care eating up 20 percent of the nation’s GDP, it’s an issue of economics as much as it is of health care. But Thune only sees it as an issue of doing the opposite of what the Democrats are doing. That’s pretty simplistic of him, but that’s what we’ve come to expect. As Thune moves up the chain of command in the GOP, South Dakotans will get less and less out of him. Johnny, you’re the Senate Republicans’ No.4, but you’ll always be number two to me!