Great Plains Politics

Center for Great Plains Studies Author

10/10/2018 Added

33 Plays

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Author Peter Longo (UNK, political science) talks about his book "Great Plains Politics," part of the Discover the Great Plains series from the Center for Great Plains Studies and the University of Nebraska Press.

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[00:00:03.794]Great Plains Politics is about the people who have built
[00:00:07.721]communities on the Great Plains in the best sense.
[00:00:11.348]"Why would you wanna live in that
[00:00:12.797]"particular town in the Great Plains?"
[00:00:14.385]Well, it's because we have so many people
[00:00:16.814]who have invested their social capital in the town.
[00:00:20.133]It's a place you desire to live,
[00:00:23.156]and sometimes it's a little scary
[00:00:25.130]because the economy might be bad,
[00:00:27.285]and populations might be dwindling, but we still wanna focus
[00:00:31.603]in on the community builders of the Great Plains.
[00:00:38.409]Well, politics is, you have to come at it
[00:00:41.441]from multiple variables, not just,
[00:00:44.469]"Here's one explanation of how things work."
[00:00:46.805]If you think of a traditional notion
[00:00:49.106]of friendship, that's really
[00:00:51.853]Aristotelian, where you look at shared values,
[00:00:54.717]and you think,
[00:00:55.794]"Well, those are positive, virtuous values
[00:00:58.118]"that we can actually govern."
[00:01:00.149]But if you jump ahead to...
[00:01:03.972]Modern times in which electoral politics
[00:01:07.257]becomes so dominant, and pundits are quick to
[00:01:10.994]identify the red reaction, or the blue reaction,
[00:01:14.709]or the gr-
[00:01:15.542]A republican or democrat you lose the multi-varied
[00:01:19.058]approach to discussing possibilities of the
[00:01:21.629]great plains.
[00:01:22.909]So if you say,
[00:01:23.742]"Well, in Kansas it's all red."
[00:01:27.409]But then you say,
[00:01:28.242]"Well, why is it that in many towns,
[00:01:29.929]"they pass school bond issues, or library bond issues?
[00:01:34.460]"Or bond issues for a new swimming pool?"
[00:01:36.764]Then you realize that there's more to
[00:01:39.194]studying politics of the great plains
[00:01:41.000]than just reacting to...
[00:01:43.120]Yes, there are a lot of republican voters
[00:01:46.657]on the great plains and it's truly a
[00:01:49.937]red blotch on the U.S map.
[00:01:52.257]To me, it's much more interesting than
[00:01:55.181]just looking at the larger aggregate response
[00:01:58.706]to electoral politics.
[00:02:04.654]Whenever we talk about community, I think we always have to
[00:02:07.178]put in the caveat that not everyone is
[00:02:10.372]nice in a community.
[00:02:11.682]So, even though I'm trying to emphasize the
[00:02:14.562]positive aspects of community, every....
[00:02:18.827]Perhaps, nearly every small town, not every small town but,
[00:02:22.681]suffers from perhaps,
[00:02:25.436]some elitism, or some exclusionary practices,
[00:02:29.976]racism, sexism.
[00:02:34.076]I push those aside and said,
[00:02:35.427]"Yes, that exists in our human endeavors
[00:02:38.841]"in working with people."
[00:02:40.375]But the best of community is when we
[00:02:42.557]are inclusive, and we then focus in on,
[00:02:47.172]"How can we make life better?"
[00:02:49.367]"How can politics lead us to a good life?"
[00:02:52.401]And so when you look at the illustrations
[00:02:55.341]from the book, I hope people can pull out that
[00:02:59.621]it is truly possible to provide good activity,
[00:03:03.598]good politics, and good community.
[00:03:05.810]So, that's the emphasis on community.
[00:03:11.463]I think maybe they won't recognize
[00:03:14.450]every example in the book,
[00:03:18.868]to me the best governor in the book,
[00:03:20.588]when I say governor I mean those who lead the community,
[00:03:23.907]not governor of state.
[00:03:25.588]The best governor I think in the book,
[00:03:27.828]that I used was probably my mother.
[00:03:30.428]She raised nine of us, didn't raise her voice once.
[00:03:33.883]But she was a woman of the plains.
[00:03:37.896]Mobridge, South Dakota,
[00:03:39.404]Aberdeen, South Dakota.
[00:03:41.901]But she could, bring a richness to
[00:03:46.550]the understanding of place.
[00:03:48.972]And a richness to how important it is
[00:03:51.778]to contribute to your place, and communities, so.
[00:03:58.652]I started with my man-killer,
[00:04:00.763]who really was the first Cherokee chief.
[00:04:04.308]Really not quite on the great plains,
[00:04:05.818]but looking west into the great plains, Oklahoma.
[00:04:09.689]And I end with Harriet Eliz Byrd,
[00:04:13.713]who is one of the first...
[00:04:15.533]Well, the first black representative,
[00:04:18.834]state representative in Wyoming, and
[00:04:22.089]she's in Cheyenne clearly on the plains,
[00:04:24.129]but I have her position there, so their book ends.
[00:04:27.039]So she's...
[00:04:29.673]Liz is looking into the plains from the west and,
[00:04:33.858]Harriet is looking into the plains from the east,
[00:04:36.342]and so it's...
[00:04:37.867]How do you fill that out?
[00:04:39.267]So they're really two powerful women,
[00:04:41.901]who made profound impacts on their community.
[00:04:44.482]And so when you look in, you find people
[00:04:48.562]who have been really prominent,
[00:04:52.175]influencers of good politics, and I included
[00:04:58.389]Virginia smith, a long time Nebraska representative
[00:05:02.088]from the third district, that vast remote area.
[00:05:05.813]And then I did a little duet,
[00:05:07.681]I did a George McGovern from South Dakota,
[00:05:11.452]who often times talked to the next chapter,
[00:05:17.806]Bob Dole from Kansas.
[00:05:20.010]So you see, and then I thought,
[00:05:22.344]"Well there's more... I need better illustration
[00:05:26.079]"of how you can make up an impact."
[00:05:28.460]And so, there's a chapter on Junius Groves
[00:05:33.240]Junius Groves was a slave, and when he was freed
[00:05:36.219]he walked all the way to Kansas,
[00:05:38.400]and slowly convinced the people you were working for,
[00:05:42.249]to sell land and he had a nice farm,
[00:05:45.074]and he became the potato king of the Kaw Valley.
[00:05:48.944]But he did more than that,
[00:05:50.040]he established a golf course because at that time
[00:05:55.500]blacks were not allowed to golf
[00:05:56.868]in the Kansas City area.
[00:05:58.289]He was an active community-minded churchgoer.
[00:06:04.771]He had a roller-skating rink, so that
[00:06:09.024]people could come to his farm and participate.
[00:06:12.698]And he truly knew how to build a community.
[00:06:18.465]I think...
[00:06:19.572]For one thing I think we cannot underestimate
[00:06:24.056]the power of being kind to your neighbor.
[00:06:26.916]Somehow we must underscore that,
[00:06:31.781]I guarantee we all like to be treated
[00:06:33.594]with kindness, and love,
[00:06:35.252]rather than with hate, and meanness.
[00:06:39.332]So, I don't have any empirical data,
[00:06:43.088]'cause I'm not a really good political scientist on that.
[00:06:45.613]But I just really believe in that.
[00:06:48.833]So I think we can start by reminding ourself
[00:06:51.643]of the power that we have in
[00:06:54.327]positively impacting our community.
[00:06:56.897]And the notion again...
[00:06:58.122]It's a classical notion,
[00:06:59.352]that your good activity will lead you
[00:07:01.127]into a good political life.
[00:07:03.381]I think that's something that I'd like
[00:07:05.745]to be reminded of from time-to-time,
[00:07:07.881]that I'm in charge of my own happiness,
[00:07:09.826]I got that from my mom.
[00:07:11.266]Don't turn to anyone else,
[00:07:12.505]you have to turn to that, and then share that with others.
[00:07:15.246]Bring about good activity, and I think
[00:07:17.210]everyone in the book brought such
[00:07:20.606]good activity to the communities,
[00:07:22.751]and hence good political life.

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Great Plains Politics

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