DOG PARK POLITICS FOR COMMON GOOD

Does a dog park seem like a strange place for politics?

Not when the engagement leads to common good for everyone.

When common good is the goal, a dog park is the perfect model.

Here’s why:

Dog park patrons know not to leave a mess for others to clean up.

An old man brought his old dog to the fenced park in downtown Tigard.

The man was as creaky walking as his dog.

He sat under the shade cover with others who watched their dogs.

Any dog that dropped a deuce had their owner up and at it with the poo bag.

The old guy looked like he couldn’t make the move for his dog, couldn’t bend over that far based on the way he sat down.

But there he was, like everyone else onsite, looking after his dog. He popped up and grabbed a bag, scooped, and left.

In spite of his age, he made the effort, and it wasn’t easy.

The dog crew under the shade were impressed.

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What’s a dog park got to do with politics?

We all know the difference between doing the right thing and doing the other thing.

The ‘other thing’ at the dog park would have been explaining how a small dog leaves small doodle, too small to worry about, then leaving.

Or they could explain how others doing the work to keep a dog park clean for all dogs wouldn’t suffer if only one dog pile was left untended.

And they’re probably right, but that’s not how things work.

Attack Dogs Not Welcome In Dog Park

They say dogs are a reflection of their owners, that there are no bad dogs just bad dog owners.

If an aggressive dog shows up and tangles with other dogs, they get one of two treatments: Either the mean dog leaves, or everyone else leaves.

Check me on this, but I don’t think there’s such a place as a dog park for wild dogs. Those dogs are backyard dogs.

The only dog that gets a break is the little dog who comes in barking to let the others know.

Turns out the small dog in a two dog household usually rules the other dog.

It’s the same rule at the park. Small dog looks mean at first, then calms down once their rule is accepted.

And it’s always accepted because that’s what dogs do in dog world.

2

People world takes a different tack.

An untrained dog can get educated; so can people.

Results vary when men and women from elite educational institutions pretend they are common to attract votes.

People graduate from Harvard and Yale and Princeton, rub elbows with famous alumni, then switch gears to address a Town Hall meeting filled with people who decided eighth grade was more than enough for them.

When smart guys work together to bamboozle their constituents, what are they called?

Republicans.

Josh ‘Running Late’ Hawley Current Poster Boy

Senator Josh Hawley, R. Missouri, is reliving an infamous moment, or two.

In one he gives a raised fist to the insurrection crowd in the street.

It was a classic ‘I’m with you’ gesture of solidarity with the great unwashed.

However, Hawley isn’t one of them. In fact he’s as sparkling clean as a BA from Stanford and JD from Yale can get.

But he is a man of the people, so he raised a defiant fist with a determined flex effort on his face.

The other moment comes when Man Of The People Hawley is a little too close to his people.

Like any reasonable person, he sensed danger and fled. What isn’t reasonable is he’s alone.

Wouldn’t a forty-two year old man in peak health feel an obligation to his colleagues, to help the old people he shares a chamber with?

He didn’t wait to assist others from the looks of him running away from danger like a normal person.

What isn’t normal is the expression on Hawley’s face in too many pictures. He looks like he’d have trouble remembering his own name. It’s a confused look.

Maybe that’s what Missouri polling says gets the most votes?

Dog Park Review

Does the ‘Show Me’ state want a confused looking man with paper from Stanford and Yale?

It seems more than a little disingenuous, but that’s the game.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said he won’t “run away” from his feud with liberals a day after the January 6 committee presented a video of him running away from a pro-Trump crowd during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. 

“And I just want to say to all of those liberals out there and the liberal media, just in case you haven’t gotten the message yet, I do not regret it,” Hawley said during a speech at Turning Point USA’s conference in Florida on Friday. “And I am not backing down. I’m not gonna apologize, I’m not gonna cower, I’m not gonna run from you.”

Everyone’s a brave man until it’s time to do what brave men do. Hawley works to turn running away and cowering and backing down in the face of danger into something positive.

Who needs to hear that? Who believes he’s got a backbone?

Most important in this post, how would Josh Hawley do in a dog park?

What kind of a dog would he be?

A running dog.