The AVENGERS

Our very own South Dakota superheroes

Even if you don't happen to be a dork who enjoys Marvel movies, you should be able to appreciate the analogy I will attempt to make here in this post.

The premise of this thesis is that, at this precise time in history, conservatives in South Dakota - which make up the largest tax-paying, voting & most productive people group - are being defended from a myriad of existential threats to our way of life by a largely unseen, yet noble, group of individuals that fight daily for their respective causes. Or I should say, OUR causes; because these threats affect all of us, or certainly will one day. And our ignorance of these groups hinders their power to properly defeat the enemy's aims. 

My involvement in the Vote NO in NOvember campaign these past few months have provided me with countless encounters with the good people of our state, for which I am genuinely thankful. I've been surprised by making scores of tiny friendships. I say tiny because I may never run into them again, so our “relationship” will likely be extremely brief. Brief, but meaningful. In many of these exchanges, I discover that my new mini-friend is in complete ignorance about one or more of the five major threats that are headed our way. I believe that the main reason for this isn't merely apathy, which does play a part, but information overload. Most Normies simply don't know how to put all of the threats into a hierarchical order of importance. Are we supposed to be more worried about Kamala, Bill Gates, or the politicians who run South Dakota as RINO/crony capitalists working against our conservative ideals? How do we protect our kids from the woke mind virus? How do we know if our election systems are corrupt? Can we trust our government, with anything? What happens if someone finally succeeds at killing Trump? And lastly, what are we supposed to DO about any of it? What adds to all this madness is knowing that roughly half of the country thinks you’re nuts for worrying about any of those things.

This is no accident. As I've written before, the Enemy (bad actors who serve their father, the devil - see John 8:44) is employing a strategy of “flooding the zone'’, which has overwhelmed the sense-making abilities of average citizens. It's just too much to keep track of. From our borderless border, to endless wars, to non-stop blatant lying from our government/media cabal, to runaway gov't spending & inflation, to presidential assassinations that are “no big deal” anymore, to an absolute loss of trust in our election systems, to Klaus Schwab and the WEF, to the possibility that nefarious shadow groups are somehow controlling the weather (!), the average American is being carpet bombed by negativity, lies and chaos . And these problems don't even touch on the specific & very real dangers that we face in our little state of South Dakota, which are anything but little. People are getting black-pilled, to the point where many are openly longing to be “raptured up outta here”.

But what if there’s a better way? What if we were to ignore the noise on the national level, tune out the Clownshow, & zero in on only the issues that directly affect us as South Dakotans? And what if we can make peace with this jacked up world by being an active part of the solution, instead of just fretting about the problems, living in a state of constant anxiety?

Matthew 6:34​​ "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Worrying, fretting, and complaining should only be used as motivation to move you to action. Otherwise they become your very own straitjacket. 

John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid"

Seems like Jesus was trying to tell us something…

Sounds to me like the Lord wants us to be happy warriors.

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Douglas Wilson has much to say on this topic:

Gospel, Not Fatalism

The Father who sent all these troubles to you is the same Father who sent His Son to die mangled on a cross in order to liberate you and me from our sins. Our confidence is therefore in a sovereign Father, and not in a que sera sera fatalism. We may fight with abandon precisely because we are not abandoned. Fatalistic warriors can be grim and fell, but never merry.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Fight with Your Joy

Many Christians spend a lot of time fighting for their joy, when they ought to consider fighting with it. Joy is not the treasure behind us that we are fighting for, it is the sword in our hand that we are fighting with.

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).

Joy in Conflict Is Commanded

We are not a bunch of rag-tag volunteers, fighting for the Lord as it suits us. We were all drafted, and have been mustered into a regular army. We have uniforms, and standardized weapons. We are under orders, and are supposed to fight as required. One of those requirements is to rejoice when we are assaulted. We must not only not be astonished when the bullets of slander start to whistle by, we are commanded to rejoice when the fighting reaches this level. Congratulations—the devil thinks that you are worth shooting at.

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matt. 5:11–12).

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,” (Jas. 1:2, ESV)

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).   (https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/creed-of-a-happy-warrior.html)

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And this from the poet Wordsworth:

. . . And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is he
That every man in arms should wish to be.

                     Character of the Happy Warrior
                William Wordsworth

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In these tumultuous times we find ourselves living, we should all strive to be Happy Warriors, in our own fashion. And since most of us lack the wherewithal or fortitude to make fighting the Culture Wars our full time job, we need to support, love & celebrate the people that are fighting these issues.

We need heroes to fight for us, as we go about the business of our daily lives.

The good news is, we ALREADY have heroes, doing hero things right in our midst.

The superhero meme/storyline has captivated our imaginations for nearly a century.

Superman, who came on the scene in 1938, is considered the very first widely known superhero, and checks all of the boxes for what we consider the archetype hero figure.

Humans inherently have a visceral reaction to injustice, bullies and psychopaths, so all that’s required to achieve “hero” status is for normal people to step out of their comfort zones and take on the biggest fight possible.

In the “real world”, our heroes are mundane (boring). Can't fly, aren't strong, aren't really that exceptional at all, physically. Typically, what we call “heroic” involves life-saving deeds acted out in acute emergency situations.

In politics, our heroes earn their capes by taking bold stands on issues that are either unknown, unfunded, unpopular or otherwise frowned upon by the powers-that-be. Or all of the above.

To truly be a political hero one must be ostracized & despised by a significant number of people. The hero's obsession must be morality-based, whatever that morality happens to be based on. They must believe that they're fighting to help real people, who are being oppressed in some fashion. Wrongs need to be righted.

Politicians who flap their gums, cast their votes and agitate for the promotion of matters related to E.D (economic development) may be useful (to someone)  pragmatic, but they will never be heroes. 

Heroes take enormous personal risks in pursuit of their goals. They trade security for infamy and derision.

Martin Luther & MLK were both heroes.

Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell and Joe Kippley will never be.

In SD today, we have our own modern day political heroes. Without embarrassing them by outright naming them, I will instead list the causes that they fight for. The truth is, within each of these various causes there are multiple people - sometimes many people- who sacrifice their time, money, reputations and emotional energies to simply STOP bad things from happening to our society. Now more than ever before in our state’s history, I would imagine.

For this article, I am focusing only on the battles that are before us in this particular era of our timeline (Fall 2024). A year or two from now there may be different causes that will require folks to step up & fight; new heroes to evolve.

1. Private property rights

2. Abortion Industry Proliferation

3. Defending the rights of grassroots candidates against crony-capitalism (No on Amendment H)

4. Weed proliferation

5. Election Integrity

The last one, #5, is of particular importance because, well, everything else comes in 2nd place frankly. If we allow our elections to stay compromised - because yes they ARE compromised to the max - then no matter how hard you and your friends fight in the field, it will all amount to a hill of beans. Or, it won't amount to a hill of beans. Anyway  we don't need any bean hills.

So I find it puzzling that the Patriots in our state that are doing all the research and reporting on this issue  - arguably the most important issue - are treated like, as the old saying goes, the red-headed stepchild. As a blond-headed stepchild myself, my heart goes out to those who suffered even more due to the fixed realities that they had no control over. Red-headed stepchildren need just as much love as normal stepchildren!

In South Dakota, our friends at SD Canvassing have dedicated their lives to fighting for election integrity, largely with zero help or moral support from their fellow Patriots. They fight for you, and for me, for our state, and for our grandchildren. And they need to know that they're not in this fight alone. The need YOU.

“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” -Barry Goldwater

Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was considered to be too much of a wacky right-winger - a wackadoodle- for saying things like this back in the 1960's, but 60 years later this philosophy appears to be pretty much our only way out of this mess.

It’s always some guy named Joe

Our fellow Patriots in the election integrity field - let's call them the “Ironman” in our analogy due to them being the smartest superhero of them all - are routinely criticized for their tenacity & passion. Meaning, they keep showing up to county commission meetings to support Auditor Leah Anderson (another superhero), voice their concerns to the Commissioners, and they simply won't go away. This really irritates people like Joe Kippley, which is actually a feature not a bug. Kippley, like his fellow RINO Joe Kirby, should be irritated so mercilessly that he does the right thing by retiring from this silly hobby of fiddling with our local governance. Look, a simple rule of warfare is to do the thing that your enemy fears/hates. Our election integrity friends do these type of things daily. 

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SD Canvassing

You may not be willing to engage in the same tactics that they employ to pursue the mission, but unless you have a better plan, try to keep the negative feedback to a minimum. Remember, these folks are your FRIENDS, fellow Patriot. Your enemies fear them, and you should love them.

My favorite part of my recent foray into the political world is meeting so many like-minded people . I love the passion of the ex-normie who, like myself, has recently awakened to the disturbing discovery that our world isn’t what we’ve allowed ourselves to believe it was, and is encouraged to find out that they’re not alone. I love the fortitude of the 1st or 2nd term state rep who isn’t jaded by cynicism, and is still glad to meet someone new. I really enjoy meeting people who don’t look at me purely as someone to be exploited, like a hungry salesman. There is something glorious about joining with other like-minded folks to accomplish similar goals of a primarily defensive nature. We do not seek change. Quite the opposite. We do not use deception, we despise it. We’re not here to take others’ land, but to keep our own.

But we’re never going to win if we don’t address the elephant in the room.

While there is much that unifies the Grassroots movement, our side lacks the cohesion necessary to build momentum that leads to power. The recurring theme that keeps rearing its ugly head is just how fractured & chaotic the Republican party is all across our state. The two main factions are: Patriots and Establishment.

 And if it's like this here, it's like this everywhere. So, if we Patriots are to have any hope of gaining real and lasting power, we must take over the levers of power from the RINOs, particularly at the top. We must have a majority of Patriots sitting in authority positions, manned by people with backbone and a clear vision for America. This starts with the office of Governor. When the time comes, soon, to choose our candidate, it must boil down to choosing the one who is least likely to betray their fellow Patriots. This person needs to be a champion for us all. An ally to every hero. A leader who will unite the party, not serve Globalists & crony capitalists. 

The Establishment/RINOs rarely fight with each other because they are laser focused on “Fiscal” issues, that have only two criteria to meet when deciding which issues to coalesce behind: 

1. Will it create E.D. (economic development) i.e. make money? 

2. Is it expedient for my career to do so?

The Patriots, on the other hand, are incessantly hampered by competitiveness of causes, nitpicking, personal beefs from incidents in the past and an unwillingness to tolerate other groups’ heroic and worthy issues. As humans we tend to get tunnel vision; only seeing our pet cause as being paramount in importance.

One way to end this divisiveness is to think of the Avengers movies, to get back to our thesis. In those stories, various superheroes from their own franchise comics and movies come together to fight a threat so big that it forces all of them to put aside their egos to defeat the existential threat. Each hero has their own unique skill set that, when combined with other heroes, makes victory for the good guys less uncertain.

So let me end this accidentally too-long of a post with a short list of action items for bringing the Grassroots Patriot movement together in South Dakota:

1. Bring all the sub-groups together. We are all paddling the same Patriot boat.

2. N.E.T.R. -  No Enemies To the Right. Never attack your frens, particularly in a public manner.

3. Force amnesia to erase past beefs. Lay down your pride, because it's not about you, at all.

4. Protect our flank. When an ally is under attack, quick & decisive defense is mandatory. Don't ever leave them dangling in the wind.

5. Support all the superheroes, with your time and money.

6. Friend/Enemy distinctions. In Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples, who were constantly under real threats from their enemies, to be “wise as serpents”. For us, this means knowing when you are dealing with someone who is truly an enemy, and acting accordingly. You can pray for your enemy, but nowhere in scripture are commanded to help our enemy achieve their evil ends.

Our movement is blessed with many fearless fighters, and trustworthy leaders. But the man or woman who can successfully make the Avengers movies a real thing here will absolutely own this state, politically speaking; creating a culture and way of life that is truly aligned with “We the People” principles. The leader that we desperately need to unite the Patriots must be a proven fighter, an enemy of RINO’s, and someone who is widely deemed as incorruptible (as much as that is possible).

And most importantly, this leader will make it much more difficult for our enemies to Californicate our South Dakota.

Thank you for reading.

My next article is most likely going to be the most controversial one I've released. (I have written a few posts that I deemed too spicy for public consumption).

Please stay tuned, and remember to support your fellow Patriots however & whenever you can.