Dakota War College continues to offer brilliant demonstrations of Newspeak. First, the SDGOP press release machine celebrates Martin Luther King Day by offering the Republican definition of diversity, derived from the host list for a fundraiser for Rep. Kristi Noem:
...you have Congresswoman Noem’s regular & notable supporters, including Ted Hustead, Steve Kirby, Peggy & Steve Stout, & Matt McCaulley.
But then you’ve got a number of other people. Corey Brown, Tim Rave, Brian Gosch & Dave Lust from the legislature, the Rounds campaign team of Bob Gray, Rob Skjonsberg & Jason Glodt, and Governor Dennis Daugaard
I don’t recall when I’ve ever noticed such a diverse group of people throwing a shindig of this nature [Pat Powers, "Legislative Leaders, Governor Daugaard... Noem," Dakota War College, 2014.01.20].
Diverse: rich Republicans and powerful Republicans. Right.
Maybe all those diverse supporters can help Noem with her laundry. Powers runs a photo that shows Kristi's husband Bryon is falling behind on the housework and declares Noem is "no different than the rest of us."
- The rest of us don't have family businesses propped up by over three million dollars in federal welfare payments.
- Very few of the rest of us show up for work for 160 days, get very little done (still no farm bill!), and earn $174,000. That kind of productivity gets the rest of us fired.
- Different than makes no more sense than green than or rich than. Use different from.
Despite his nod to "diversity", Powers loathes party activists who would dare bring any political ideas different from the platform of his own preferred conservative patrons. He complains that Ron Paul activists have taken over the Iowa party and failed to pay proper homage to the people Powers wishes still ran the party. Darned diversity!
Powers represents a South Dakota Republican worldview that revolves around their own conformity. They want to look around and see a party and a government controlled by people just like their narrow, comfortable slice of the ideological and demographic pie. They want to keep the pluribus away from their comfortable unum.
