One Saturday night in September 2020, texting-while-driving on his way home from a fundraiser, South Dakota’s attorney general veered off the highway and killed a pedestrian. He drove off, and the next day reported to police he’d hit a deer. (See details here.)
There was a big hole in his windshield, and the deer’s eyeglasses were found on the front seat.
Jason Ravensborg (photo left, bio here), 45, a Republican, is a lousy driver. He gets a lot of speeding tickets. The dead man was found the next day. Ravensborg probably never saw him because he was looking at his cellphone instead of the road.
Ravensborg deftly sidestepped the criminal justice system by negotiation a misdemeanor plea deal with no jail time (see story here).
First and foremost, South Dakota’s Republican Party, which dominates state politics, is stuck with this weasel. Despite a torrent of criticism, he refused to resign (see story here). Now, his fellow Republicans may impeach him; the governor wants him gone, and so do a lot of the conservative state’s legislators, who last winter begin circulating an impeachment petition (see story here).
Republicans impeaching and removing a fellow Republican would be a good thing for the party and nation, just as two high-profile Republican candidates refusing to embrace the GOP’s fraudulent-election mantra is (see article about that here). In a rational world of people acting like adults, Ravensborg would be gone. But the Republican Party, drunk on Trumpism, has gone bonkers. Maybe Trump’s toxic influence is finally beginning to wane, and maybe some of the party’s other leaders have looked into the future and seen the party doesn’t have one unless they step back from the craziness now engulfing it.
That would be good for everybody. This country needs two competitive parties, an end to the GOP’s gutter political practices, and a return to the way things used to be. If a human sacrifice is needed to appease the dark gods and make the GOP civilized again, Ravensborg will do just fine.
His term ends in 2022 and hw may or may not run for another term. Removing him through the election process would be more palatable to a lot of members of his ow party in government. Odds are he will serve out his term. [Edited comment.]
It’s about accountability, not when his term ends. Trump was impeached a week before his term ended. Edgar Ray Killen was prosecuted when he was 80 years old. Former Nazi guards were brought to trial in their 90s. The only reason he would serve out his term is if his party decides to let this slide. Right now it doesn’t appear that’s the image they want.