She didn’t really say it in so many words, but it was obvious to anyone who listened to Gov. Kristi Noem’s budget speech . She’s breaking up with us. Maybe she didn’t want to jinx the next chapter of her life, so she never really came out and said she was leaving us. Read between the lines, though, and you can tell that her bags are packed.
It seems like only yesterday we renewed our vows for another four years. Now, suddenly, it’s over.
We always knew that in her role as governor, there was an expiration date on our relationship. Still, we have to wonder why we weren’t good enough, why South Dakota wasn’t good enough to keep her here. It seems the lure of the nation’s capital and a new job as secretary of Homeland Security was just too enticing, even after all we’ve shared.
There are some hurt feelings in any breakup. In her speech, Noem stressed the state government’s role in providing safety for its citizens. She didn’t mention the way she stretched her notion of providing safety for South Dakotans all the way to the Texas border. Her idea of keeping us safe cost us millions of dollars. It was her investment in those National Guard deployments that was likely one of the factors that led to her big new job. A thank-you would have been nice.