“Head like a hole, black as your soul
I’d rather die than give you control
Bow down before the one you serve
You’re going to get what you deserve”
“Head Like a Hole” — Nine Inch Nails

Incredible to consider that the quoted song is almost 35 years old, but the techno-metal sound that Nine Inch Nails really brought from tiny clubs onto mainstream radio at the same time the grunge movement also hit the music scene was something that those who are now in their *cough* 40s grew up with.

This song is from Nine Inch Nails’ album “Pretty Hate Machine” and, like much of the music frontman Trent Reznor and the band would produce, had very strong and timely lyrics.

The lyrics to this song also make me think about a Bible verse that hangs in my house, Joshua 24:14-15, New International Version.

“Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

This year, South Dakota will have a choice.

Sadly, based on previous voting trends in the state, voters will likely choose to serve party again rather than reviewing the person behind the party name when casting a vote.

However, the response to Amendment C in June primary voting gives at least a glimmer of hope that issue can still outweigh party, even in a very heavily “red” state.

While I’m very happily an independent and don’t claim any party, the party in power in the state I reside is Republican, and thus, the officials in office that as a journalist, it is my responsibility to hold to their actual oaths of office, are all of that party.

Not a personal preference, just the preponderance of which party happens to be in office that I end up holding Republicans to task for their actions in office.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, three currently running Republican officials made some pretty doozy moves in the last few weeks that have received very little local blowback but certainly should have.

It begins with the two representatives up for re-election that the state sends to Washington, D.C.

Recent votes have seen Dusty Johnson vote against bills that would have federally protected the right for individuals to seek and use contraception and the right for two individuals of any race to marry.

Multiple people talk about how these bills had other things involved with them, and while that may be true in some of those cases, in the case of contraception, specifically, it was a stand-alone bill. Also, in none of the cases did Johnson come out to defend what he thought was worthy of voting for in the bills, only rail about what he felt that he had to vote against - most likely, especially during an election cycle to appeal to a certain base.

On the Senate side, John Thune has kept my email flooded with sometimes as many as 10 emails per day discussing his most recent television hits or talks on the floor of the Senate.

Recently, his rhetoric has become entirely anti-Democrat, to the point that he actually spent an entire two weeks going on various television programs and speaking on the floor about how Democrats are using a bill to hurt South Dakotans and make life worse for all in the country. Then he quietly voted for the bill.

Not a word discussing how there were good ideas in the bill, even though there were things he didn’t agree with (which is true of a lot of legislation). In fact, he did television hit pieces ripping the bill he voted for the same day he cast his vote.

However, the actions in D.C. are the actions in D.C. The person holding the highest office in the state has been up to typical actions - for her, anyway.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Kristi Noem won her first opportunity to represent the state in Washington not by debating Stephanie Herseth Sandlin on issues, but by running attack ad after attack ad to accuse Stephanie of having a “liberal agenda” associated with other Democrats rather than debating Stephanie on those points directly.

Now Herseth Sandlin happens to be president of one of the colleges in the state that Republicans hold up as a beacon of moral teaching - yet its leader is someone their state leader declared as a vehement liberal.

In her first run for governor, she ran an ad late in the campaign against her opponent, Billy Sutton, focusing on his spouse. The information in that ad turned out to be completely false, but it swayed multiple voters, and Noem won a very narrow (for this state) victory, amassing just over 50% of the electorate.

A few weeks ago, Gov. Noem stated that she would not debate on South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB), citing the network’s “left-leaning” broadcasting.

This would come as a significant surprise to anyone on staff at SDPB, especially as they cash their state government paychecks and check on their state benefit plan as SDPB is a state-run organization.

While employees absolutely maintain journalistic integrity, they’re still state employees, so thinking they’d go too far against the hand that feeds them editorializing is absolutely silly, which makes the argument not to participate in a debate hosted by the state-owned public broadcasting agency a sign of the distrust the governor has in her own state, truly.

Of course, then Noem went back to the well this week with a new website for the governor’s race not debating issues, not discussing plans for South Dakota. No, the new website?

Making connections, sometimes very stretched and ludicrous ones, between Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith and President Joe Biden.

If your choice for politics is not working toward something and instead consistently finding someone or something to work against, I guess the current office holders have shown they’re down with that.

If not, perhaps it’s time to remind those elected officials exactly who they serve and who gives them the modicum of control they have, and it’s not the people who put the big checks into their fundraising wallets.