South Dakota

As I have been to the state a couple of times and enjoyed both visits greatly, this piece on First Things caught my eye: in South Dakota Dreamin’ R. R. Reno discusses the positive and hopeful cultural and political climate in South Dakota:

Thus my optimism, encouraged by my experience on the Great Plains. Most of us do not want to live in the political equivalent of a housing project administered by remote bureaucrats. Nor do we want to live in the political equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange where every dimension of civic life has a selling price. And because we don’t, if we are reasonably vigilant and energetic, odds are we won’t.