Spearfish, SD - After the 2020 election the entire country was given insight into how elections are rigged and sometimes outright stolen; a gift from President Trump. South Dakota is not immune to the problems. Recently, a group called SD Canvassing splayed out the South Dakota voting process, pinned down the issues, and demonstrated for the public that our state does not have a gold standard for elections.

As the information from SD Canvassing spread, the truth was set free like a grass fire in the minds of the moral and seekers of truth. As the group obtained more knowledge about the workings of county level government and oversight of the voter rolls, South Dakota County Auditors, one by one, started recognizing serious issues.

In addition, members of the South Dakota GOP recognized a pathway to improve the quality of our elections to return control of the state's government to the people that actually live here. The pathway led through the leadership of the SD GOP. A rift has formed in the SD GOP between the rank-and-file and the leadership. SD GOP leadership seems to be turning a blind eye to the problems identified by SD Canvassing.

We can only guess at their motivations. Perhaps it's an egotistical reaction. Perhaps there are some people doing illegal things. Perhaps it's a practical solution to favor military interests secretly fighting a domestic war under coded Martial Law. Perhaps foreign bankers use South Dakota to house and launder massive amounts of money while dumbing down the population that might resist being used thusly. Recently 20 or more counties used the rules of the SD GOP to call a statewide meeting. The rules allow this in the event the leadership of the party becomes apathetic, corrupt, or incompetent. As we understand it, the current elected leadership of the SD GOP were not involved in the formation of this meeting and did not favor it. It is possible they used social pressure to rein county level leadership to boycott the meeting.

According to Mary Fitzgerald of District 31 (Lawrence County), there was a vote held at the state level in favor of the boycott. Lawrence County was not represented in an official capacity at the special meeting, which set the stage for a rather heated verbal confrontation at the Lawrence County Republican Central Committee meeting held in August of 2024.

With the smell of delicious cookies filling the air, the coffee was free flowing as members of the Lawrence County GOP filed-in to participate in the meeting. Elected representatives in attendance were Representative Scott Odenbach, Representative Mary Fitzgerald, Senator Randy Diebert, and County Commissioner Richard Sleep.

Shortly after Representative Fitzgerald requested to modify the agenda, there were some questions as to the procedure.

As the meeting progressed through its paces, things seemed fairly normal until one member became restless shortly after Representative Fitzgerald said, "I can play dirty."

It was a short time after that comment that embattled Fitzgerald became physically ill. "I really don't feel well," Representative Fitzgerald said. "I feel like I'm going to throw-up."

As some members reached for their cameras, a solitary voice from the far side of the room asked the question, "Why does Lawrence County not have representation at the State GOP meeting today?" After some wrangling, Representative Fitzgerald became combative. She directed some accusatory comments toward the member, saying Fitzgerald's use of FaceBook was not appropriate.

"[Why did you block me from your FaceBook pages for asking reasonable questions?]" she echoed from across the room.

"It was on my Lawyer's advice," Representative Fitzgerald replied.

"Who do you think you are, lady?" another member bellowed. As he attempted to shout down the questioning woman, she replied "Who do you think you are?"

A quick devolution of discourse ensued, but the core question remained unanswered as order and decorum were abandoned in favor of a good ol' fashioned cat fight complete with a very small man vehemently disrespecting a female member of the Lawrence County GOP.

In an effort to bring the core question back to the group, the woman testified, "We had multiple volunteers willing to drive to and attend the meeting. Why are we not represented at this meeting?"

"You can attend the meeting," Fitzgerald replied. Nathan Houshaagen requested to be recognized and proceeded to highlight how the group has been gas lit for several years on important issues, implying that Fitzgerald was doing the same presently.

Shortly after Houshaagen's clarification, the woman who raised the question and elicited the confrontation with Representative Fitzgerald, named Nicole, seized on the opportunity to clarify.

"We want an official designee to represent us at this meeting." That was the central issue. While members were free to attend the state level meeting, a significant portion of the Lawrence County GOP wanted official representation at the meeting wherein serious questions about the integrity of our process might be discussed despite the agenda only containing discussion items regarding initiated measures.

As I have covered since 2016 in great detail, communication channels with representation have been controlled, members have been shadow banned, lied to, gas lit, economically manipulated, and socially engineered. The purposes for these forms of psychological torture are to control laws against the will of the people, to control budgets and expenditures subsequently, and to slowly drain the economic vitality of our nation away from its residents and toward a replacement population of servile indentured domestic slaves who accept lower wages and have little interest in civic engagement while creating a profit margin to bolster the personal financial goals of an aloof, disconnected, elitist class of self serving anti-patriots. So many people are caught up in the exploitation of US culture now that it becomes difficult to see the forest for the trees, and difficult to see who has mens rae.

After a rousing speech from Odenbach, the tension release was palpable. It seemed like a necessary boil over, and that our process was working. Redressing grievances is a central feature of the culture that made our nation great. As communications become further exploited and amok intelligentsia burrow their way into new methods of communication using the Internet, our nation is falling off a cliff as the bonds between us disintegrate.

However, I believe meetings like this are what refortifies those bonds, despite making some people uncomfortable and despite that it can create some embarrassing moments.

Fitzgerald's problem is what afflicts so many politicians - we kick them over the electoral cliff once they win. We don't stand with them as they face powerful outside interests that influence the process.

The meeting turned in a moment after a comment from me, John Dale. "Was there something discussed at the state level before voting not to send representatives?"

"Exactly," Nicole sang.

"Yes," was Fitzgerald's reply.

In my view, Fitzgerald and others were bullied to countermand their constituencies, and we, the Lawrence County electorate, allowed them to do it. It's a dirty model. It is a Machovellian tactic. It is a deplorable method. We can't expect our representatives to stand up to them alone regardless of who is elected. No matter who we put into office, we must accompany, strengthen, empower, and embolden our representatives to stand-up for the truth of election integrity, the well spring from which all of our rights, productivity, accomplishments, and abilities form. Win that battle, and the rest of the enemies of our cohesion fall like dominoes.