Not saying what she should do … only that something has to change.

Getting right to the point, top Trump VP candidate and governor or South Dakota Kristi Noem is in the news because she is bragging about killing a 14 month old puppy in a forthcoming book.

Noem is standing pat and defending what she did. At this point, politically, she doesn’t have much choice. Politically, she would lose more if she reversed track now. It seems that only Trump can survive flipping around like a shoe store air puppet. And politically, there are lots of folks in South Dakota who thoroughly agree with her. There are lots of folks outside South Dakota who don’t. It’s part of the great divide in America.

John McCain tried this gambit when he picked Sarah Palin as his VP running mate in 2008. A quote from Palin says it all.

“There will always be a place for wildlife in Alaska. Right there beside the potatoes.”

It was an  “In your face, liberals!” thing to say that didn’t do the McCain-Palin ticket any good in the final analysis. Wikipedia quotes David Brooks (who has historically been a Republican but seems to be wavering now), “he took a disease that was running through the Republican party – anti-intellectualism, disrespect for facts – and he put it right at the center of the party”. McCain not only lost, he laid a foundation that has now resulted in MAGA people and Trump.

I’ve thought a lot about this kind of issue. The overarching title for all of it is “Values”. Everybody has them. And every person’s values are equal – not better and not worse – equal. So, if Kristi Noem thinks killing her puppy is a good thing to do. Bottom line, that is her value and she has a right to think that.

I would never do that. Here’s my value.

My wife and I adopted a puppy that had been caught in a coyote trap. He was helpless in the trap and things out on the desert were trying to eat him. One front paw was mangled but a rescue group decided to invest in veterinary rehabilitation. When we adopted him, I would describe him as having a dog version of PTSD. He was subject to flash episodes of aggression, and he was a big dog with a powerful bite. But otherwise, he was intelligent, well-behaved, and a loving pet. The flash episodes would pass quickly.

I learned how to deal with it. For the 17 years we had him, I would get bit in about six month intervals, but the wounds would heal in a couple of weeks. We made sure he was always on a leash when other people were around and the veterinary always had me put a muzzle on him (which was easy to do). When he got really old, I had to carry him up and down stairs because he couldn’t make it on his own anymore (70 pounds!).  I never got bit doing that. I think he understood.

Civilization is a condition of shared values. When we stop sharing them, our civilization crumbles and dies. I wish Kristi and I could get together on this. Our civilization depends on it.