GOVERNOR KRISTI NOEM CHOSE NOT TO CLOSE BUSINESSES, CHURCHES, AND SCHOOLS OVER COVID19

Kristi Noem says she honestly didn’t expect to be the only Governor in the United States not to close businesses, churches, and schools over COVID19. She saw that nowhere in any Federal or State law did such authority reside. On the contrary, America’s founding documents expressly forbade it. So she explained to the people of South Dakota and to all local officials that the State Government was going to trust the people to make their own decisions. The State would provide them with all available information, but the people would act as they thought was best. What a novel concept! But it’s just common sense.

THE MANNER IN WHICH GOVERNOR NOEM HANDLED COVID19 WAS A GREAT SELLING POINT FOR SOUTH DAKOTA

It turns out, the manner in which Governor Noem handled COVID19 was a great selling point for South Dakota to attract new businesses and talented people from California, New York, Minnesota, and from all over the United States. ‘If they want a government that respects them,’ Noem says, ‘they should move to South Dakota.’ That appeals to people thinking, ‘I want to live somewhere where my kids can be in the classroom, life is normal, and the government knows its role.’ South Dakota’s unemployment is the lowest in the Nation, 2.9%, and its GDP growth is nearly 10%.

OTHER LEADERS CAUSED GREAT HARM TO THEIR CITIZENS BY TAKING AWAY THEIR FREEDOMS.

Other leaders caused great harm to their citizens by taking away their freedoms. At the outset of the pandemic, Governor Noem said, “What happened to so many leaders was that they lost perspective. They got caught up in the fear of it, and the unknown of it, and they completely lost perspective of what their job was, what their role was.” (She could be talking about California’s Governor, among others.) What shocked her the most about the response to lockdown orders in other states was “to watch people just comply when it was so dramatically and detrimentally impacting their families.”

Kristi Noem’s steady hand didn’t panic, nor did it use the crisis as a pretext for a “power grab.” She exercised the wise self-restraint of a true leader. She’s optimistic that people will see what worked and what didn’t work and make political choices accordingly. The good news is that freedom works.