AND ONE MORE THING

{The Open Door by Peter Ilstd, 1900)

“It’s better to burn out, than to fade away”- Neil Young/Def Leppard/Kurt Cobain

I actually debated even writing this post, or anything really.

Just,,, fade away, into the substrate of normieness.

After all, Chris Larson and all of his political ramblings don’t amount to a hill of beans, in the grand scheme of things.

But I felt that you, all of my friends, deserve to know why I am retiring from political activism. Some of you may eventually begin to wonder why I disappeared from Facebook & Signal. Maybe you would begin to fear for my health. Maybe no one would notice at all. Anyway, many of us have fought some serious battles together these past three years, and I want you to know that it meant something to me. Every one of you means something to me. Even the losers and haters.

And so, I burn out…

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WHY?

Let’s start with the obvious. This past election was devastating to our movement, and no, it’s not just because my preferred governor candidate lost. One reason is that we quite simply lost all the momentum we had built up in SD for The People. Poof, it’s gone.

The media likes to refer to our movement as “populism”, which is code for “dumb illiterate hicks who don’t understand how the world really works and need to be kept faaar from the levers of power”. But populism just means what many of us have been doing the past 5 or 6 six years: paying attention to what our electeds are doing and getting involved in the process of having some influence in the operations and policies of our government. The Establishment hates populism, because they hate to be held accountable. They hate us, and we know it.

I got involved, at ever increasing levels of intensity, for one purpose only: To take over our government. Or at least to help like-minded warriors take over. For now, we have failed. I am not interested in rebuilding the movement. Or at least, I don’t have the energy to. Hopefully others do, and will.

I’m certain that some of Toby’s supporters are ecstatic at the prospect of defeating Larry, and then Dan Ahlers after that, after which he can begin to figure out how Pierre actually works, then implement all of his grand plans. Who knows? Maybe that is exactly what will happen. Wake me when we get there.

How did we fail?

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SILOING

My friend and co-conspirator Juliann (the MVP of the grassroots in SD) has written about this problem for quite some time, and as usual she saw the problem of “siloing” (separating into distinct groups that ferociously fight other grassroots groups,like the school choice bills of 2025 session) long before the rest of us.

There were 2 major things that I predicted last year in regards to siloing that came true in last week’s election:

#1 The mega prison vote of Sept 2025 wrecked Jon Hansen’s bid for governor. Before the vote happened I personally pleaded with many of our legislator “homies” to vote No. To the ones who had endorsed Hansen, I told them that if this passed it would not only help Rhoden, it would make Jon - who was publicly a NO vote- look weak and ineffective. Well, how do you all feel now? I’ve heard that those same people are whining about Steve Haugaard endorsing Toby in the final days of the campaign. In his endorsement, Steve listed the prison vote one of his main reasons for not supporting Jon. Maybe next time all of you Yes voters will listen when smart people are giving you advice. You got your prison, but all we got was some lousy campaign Tshirts.

#2 With Doeden joining the governor race (3 months after Hansen), the grassroots would split into 2 groups, and pummel each other into ruination. I wasn’t alone in making this prophecy, but what we saw happen to our legislators last week proved I was right to be worried. Trust me when I tell you all that I did everything I could to bring the two sides together and prevent this debacle. Obviously, I failed.

Siloing killed our movement. Maybe activists in the future will not make this mistake. As I’ve said before, getting the grassroots to cooperate is like herding stingrays.

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RETURN ON INVESTMENT

In this effort- political activism- I have reached the Point of Diminishing Returns. From a business standpoint, treading water equates to losing, since the meager profits gained do not in any way counterbalance the stress, worry & angst that comes with operating any enterprise. If you are breaking even, you are Losing, and it’s time to shut it down. I’ve had a couple of those failures in my career. It sucks to admit defeat, but it is imperative to one’s survival to know when to move on.

The juice just ain’t worth the squeeze any more.

After all I am a business man, so I am making a business decision here. Constantly attacking the most powerful people in the state is an extremely poor marketing strategy for a retail enterprise. My employees have never been thrilled with my very public activism these past three years, and these people mean a lot to me.

Also, you just can’t be a political activist at this level without it taking a toll on your family. Daily I would drink Outrage from a firehouse, holding 5 conversations in my head at once. Rarely was I 100% present, with anyone. was always micro dosing on some intrigue, some nugget of Truth that was out there, beyond our reach, but maddeningly in sight. Always forming the argument that would END ALL SECRETS, PURSUADE MY ENEMIES, and FIND THE TRUTH. We were like the subculture of Sasquatch enthusiasts, forever seeking the elusive creature that hates to be photographed, or leave footprints or corpses. It simply isn’t possible to be involved at the level I was witout it taking a toll on those around me. At least, it isn’t possible for me. Maybe others can pull it off.

This was never about me. It was about us. If I cared about my brand, I would easily survive & thrive in this next season, where the People (populists) will once again occupy the cheap seats in the back of the bus. The Rage Porn will flow daily into our 5 inch portals, as Speaker of the House Rehfedlt delivers endless offerings to our GED overlords, through the desk of our next puppet governor. The Network is the House & the House always wins. More on that below.

Some may think I leave defeated, tired and hopeless. But actually I just need some peace. What I’ve come to realize the last several days is that the cost of being an activist is that this stuff takes up a lot of space in my brain. Too much space. I need to focus now on what really matters: Kingdom work, and my family. And my business. I doubt any of us, given the chance to lie on our deathbed, will look back with regret and wish we would have gone to one more city council meeting.

I have maintained all along that I was only in this game to prevent the Californication of South Dakota, and that I could walk away at any moment that God wanted me to. Now I fear that maybe that moment happened a while back, and in my fervor I ignored it.

I would rather be obedient than win political battles, or arguments on Facebook (Pro tip: you never actually WIN an argument on FB. It’s all performative).

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All Is Vanity

From King Solomon:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens[c] to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south

and goes around to the north;

around and around goes the wind,

and on its circuits the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 1-12

Did I accomplish anything of lasting value in this arena, or was it all just vanity? Time will tell.

An obedient people say “Lord, they will be done”. To a rebellious people God says “No, you’re will be done”.

It seems obvious that we are in a season of God allowing us to suffer the consequences of our collective wickedness. He is saying to us, “I will let your foolishness continue on for a bit longer”. It is obvious to me that Sioux Falls will continue to turn itself into Minneapolis, and South Dakota will continue to be run by oligarchs. The reason for this is….

BLACKPILL

Notwithstanding the many tactical errors inflicted upon us by our own stupidity, it must be said that this election has left many of us extremely puzzled, and it is reasonable to allow into our thinking the possibility of election shenanigans that serve the interests of what some call “The Network”. If you are not privy to the concept of how our system of government actually works, I ask you to purchase and read this book that was given to me by my older son, who is himself a man of deep skepticism of this modern world.

There are many reasons to be skeptical of our government, particularly our election system, and it is never going to get fixed just by wishing it would. This election in particular is difficult to make sense of. Doeden wins more votes than the other 3 candidates but nearly every legislator who endorsed him lost their seat? The Freedom Caucus was completely wiped out. Candidates at all levels win without doing much (if any) door knocking? Lots of weirdness. Just look at what’s happening in California.

If you don’t already, please consider supporting my good friends over at SD Canvassing, who are the most passionate, transparent and fearless warriors that we have in South Dakota. As they like to say, if we don’t fix our elections, nothing else really matters.

Jessica is what I call a REAL ONE.

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THE ILLUSION OF INFLUENCE

The most disappointing realization I’ve allowed into my consciousness is that I have been operating under what I think of as an Illusion of Influence. The sole motivation for most political activists is to have influence in our government, and I was no different. In fact for the past year my main focus has been on changing the narratives and policies of Government Economic Development. GED is the lifeblood of the Corporatocracy that governs our state, at all levels. My fellow writers SD Voices & Fred Carpenter have joined me in exposing the many flaws in this System, primarily how these boondoggles are effectively wealth transfers from the many to the few politically connected entities. The People agreed with our criticisms, for the most part. The pushback that we received was typically from people who are employed directly or indirectly by the GED machine, such as Tyler Tordsen for example. They see GED as a net positive for the citizens because they have to believe it. They literally work for the machine. For awhile it seemed that our pressure campaign was working. The most powerful GED titans in SD were building websites and cutting TV commercials to offer their counter propaganda against us. Dana Dykehouse became a paid subscriber to this substack lol (thanks Dana!), presumably to keep tabs on his opposition. We really had some momentum going…until the election happened. Nearly every anti-GED candidate was defeated by RINO/Corporatists.

My influence was just an illusion.

Either the voters actually want SD to remain a Corprotacracy, or the election was rigged.

South Dakota will continue down this path, and the citizens will suffer. CO2 pipelines, hyperscale data centers, wind tower proliferation, corporate welfare, Big Tech PACs ….

***SD FOR COMMON SENSE is a PAC headed by SF mayor Paul TenHaken, formed in Jan 2026 while a bunch of us were freezing our butts off getting signatures for the data center petition drive. The name gives you an insight into what the Establishments thinks of us. We “lack common sense”. There was also a new PAC this year called Sensible SD. You see, we peasants lack the sophistication necessary to handle the nuances that accompany holding office in this state.

***FORGE THE FUTURE PROJECT is a fake conservative effort focusing on getting as many pro data center shills elected as possible. Take note of who they chose to support in the primary. You will notice supposed conservative John Hughes in this list, the man who famously decided to write an op-ed on why WE DESPERATELY NEED THIS MEGA PRISON TO BE LOCATED INSIDE THE CITY LIMITS OF SIOUX FALLS two days before the special session vote last September, inexplicably.

As for this substack, I have no idea what sorta content I may be producing in the future. Maybe nothing. Only God knows. For those generous folks who for some reason chose to be paid subscribers, I must apologize for not giving you any exclusive content, or anything that could be considered “bonus material”. Really, I wish that I would have thought to turn off that option when I started writing a few years ago, but I didn’t know you could such a thing. I never got into this for money. I greatly appreciate your support, and if any of you feel jipped please stop into Comfort King sometime & I will soothe your disappointment with a free hand-stuffed Comfy pillow.

Finally,

Like Jesus left us the Holy Spirit as our Helper, I leave you with my close friend and confidant, Adam Long. As I knew he would, Adam won his primary last week (D2 House) , and will easily win against whatever dipstick the Dems run against him in November. Adam is your new leader in the legislature, and make no mistake. Rally around him, support him, and provide whatever help he needs in the upcoming battles against the TransRepublicans who have once again wrested control over the People’s capitol, the devious bastards. And if for some reason Adam ever runs for governor, let’s try not to call him a “career politician” and destroy the base again, hmmm?

Who knows, I may even occasionally manifest myself as spectral guidance to Adam, as Obi Wan liked to do for Luke Skywalker in times of crisis.

Please know that I love you all, nothing was wasted, every conversation we ever had means something, and every battle we fought was worthy. We harassed our enemies relentlessly, and pursued truth lustfully.

I’ll remember you, each and every one.