Johnson shouldn’t let conservative credentials get in the way of statesmanship

In South Dakota, there’s a reasonably easy process for changing your name. You fill out a form, pay a fee, publish a public notice and get the OK from a judge. Do that, and you can call yourself anything you want.

Or, if you’re a congressman running in a primary, just buy a bunch of commercials like Dusty Johnson did last year. In his commercials, South Dakota’s incumbent member of the House of Representatives was no longer known as Dusty Johnson. He was Conservative Dusty Johnson.

Getting that conservative label and keeping it is obviously an important part of Johnson’s political identity. He has faced opponents in the last two primaries who claimed that he was not conservative enough. In the midst of his third two-year term, Johnson has focused on China as an issue and an adversary that will help him polish his resume as a card-carrying conservative.

To that end, in late April Johnson convened a roundtable discussion in Sioux Falls about “the impact of the Chinese Communist Party.” That impact, according to those who attended, was not quite what Johnson had in mind. Johnson, the conservative, would like farmers to wean themselves off Chinese markets and find other customers. He would prefer that industry supply chains not wind their way through China.

The leaders in business and agriculture who attended the roundtable told Johnson that they value their Chinese customers. Coming off a costly tariff war during the Trump administration, South Dakota farmers don’t want to go through the expensive chore of finding new customers when they already have a steady market in China.

Events like the one in Sioux Falls put Johnson in a precarious position. He has to burnish his conservative credentials by taking a tough stand on China while at the same time watching out for the economic well-being of his constituents.

He faces a similar problem in the looming debt ceiling crisis. Like most other Republicans in the House, Johnson voted in favor of what the GOP is calling the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” which is designed to raise the debt ceiling while also calling for a series of budget cuts to rein in federal spending.

The bill caps spending at a 1% increase in annual growth for the next 10 years. That spending cap is going to require some likely painful budget cuts that have yet to be enumerated by Republicans.

The act also makes an attempt to roll back most of the legislative successes of President Joe Biden’s first two years: eliminating funding for new IRS agents, reclaiming unspent Covid dollars, repealing “Green New Deal” tax credits and subsidies and scrapping the plan to forgive student loans.

Democrats have blustered quite a bit about wanting a clean debt ceiling bill without the added burden of negotiating budget cuts. That’s unreasonable given that they have to deal with a slim Republican majority in the House. However, that majority is also peppered with zealots who seem to be more interested in rocking the ship of state or even sinking it altogether just to prove a point.

In negotiations on the debt ceiling and Republican-favored budget cuts, Johnson will have to decide which is more important: standing fast to keep his conservative credential or voting for a compromise that will keep the government from going into default and consequently roiling the entire economy.

Here’s hoping Johnson makes the right choices for his constituents, working to keep lucrative markets open in China for South Dakota farmers and businesses and voting for a reasonable compromise to ensure the nation can still pay its bills. If he can accomplish that, maybe the next time he’s looking for a name change he’ll be able to call himself Statesman Dusty Johnson.