Tim Johnson, RIP

No one is claiming Tim Johnson was a left-wing stalwart, but can you imagine what it would be like to elect a Democrat to the Senate from South Dakota today? RIP.

I’ve been in Laramie, Wyoming for the last few days and asking around about things. I have to admit, while I could see Trump appealing to a particular kind of asshole–the east coast kind–I did, back in 2016, think there might be some kind of resistance to his kind of assholism in the West and northern Plains. Boy was I wrong. Montana now just elects out of state far right rich guys. But these people think Donald Trump has literally been sent by God, which frames why some of them would literally like to murder Liz Cheney. They see her as a traitor to Christ. And far-right movements have taken over western institutions over the past decades. One of the things I’ve talked to some of these folks about (a bunch of western historians basically) is how in the 70s and 80s, rodeo culture was very anti-Christian and anti-state. It was the kind of culture that Sam Peckinpah would make movies about. But now? It’s prayer and evangelicalism and doing the sign of the cross after getting thrown from the bull all the way down. So good luck ever seeing a Tim Johnson in South Dakota again in our lifetimes.