Please, Dusty — no lectures on civility in politics. Your support for Trump overshadows such pieties

A recent headline: “Dusty Johnson: A call for civility.”

Was this from The Onion, a parody publication? No, this was an actual headline for a column that was published in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, The Washington Post and online.

What’s next?

Willie Nelson’s fans call for tougher drug laws?

LeBron James’s family opposes nepotism?

Kim Kardashian’s followers want respect for her privacy and modesty?

It’s clear that the headline was not parody, but irony. This published opinion column telling everyone to tone down political discourse comes from U.S. Rep. Johnson (seen above in a public domain image posted on wikimedia commons), who has supported Donald Trump for nine years and now says he wants Trump to be president again.

He has joined Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune and the rest of the Republican Party in elevating and enabling the most uncivil major political figure in American history.

These three have gently pushed back a few times — but they have passed up literally hundreds of chances to display a bit of courage and integrity and at least say Trump has crossed the line of civility. To the contrary, they have often joined the choir agreeing with him. Do they think we haven’t noticed?

For nine years, they’ve witnessed Trumps’ thousands of lies, childish nicknaming, personal insults, and hateful comments. The Republican Party has looked the other way and our elected South Dakota voices have been mute.

The list of targets of Trump incivility is long:

Mexicans, Blacks, judges, environmentalists, women, POWs, Jews, journalists, Californians, LGBTQ people, “s___hole African countries,” American Indians, Chinese, Haitians, Muslims, “liberal scum” … on and on.

He's insulted people's race, their looks, their disabilities, and their intelligence. You can probably think of many more, and this was written a few days before it was published, so he’s had time to add to the list. Political figures have traded insults forever, but nobody else comes close to this. 

If you don't agree, I dare you to read a few month's worth of Trump posts on social media.

Johnson (and Thune and Rounds) have absolutely no standing to “both sides” any criticism of uncivil political debate. Their persistent support of what Trump has been all these years is unforgettable and unforgivable.

They’ve all done some good things; Johnson’s performance on Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s staff was particularly notable. But this was a true test of patriotism — and they have failed.

It would have involved considerable political and personal risk, but they chose to fall in line. Please spare us the lectures on political politeness.

This column may be likewise deemed uncivil, but it is more an expression of disappointment than anything. We’ve known what national party members are like, but somehow, we expected better of our South Dakota guys.

I’d still like to think they deep down know how wrong their Trump connection has been.

All these Trump Republicans should not be entirely dismissed as failed public servants. As years pass, they’ll try to rationalize and excuse what they have done to the country, and time will obscure memories of some of the daily absurdities and atrocities. However, they have clearly shown us what they are and we now know they will put the interests of their party over their country.

They can never be trusted again.

Mike Levsen is a former mayor of Aberdeen and a regular contributor to The South Dakota Standard.