Nancy Pallozzi, Jefferson County Republican Party Chair, said in a statement posted on social media
When your political instincts are worse than Elizabeth Warren's
Americans worship dogs. How many times have you seen racists call for invading China because they eat dogs there? Killing dogs is like the ultimate way to make westerners hate you
Counterpoint: Americans also love cops and they are professional dog killers
Some Americans worship dogs, but that's a relatively recent development with some pretty significant exceptions. She was clearly trying to play up some rural/farm credentials, where the attitude towards pets is a far cry from "fur baby."
There are still parts of the country where you could tell this story and not get much more than a raised eyebrow, if that. It's a misread of how far the mainstream has shifted on the issue, but you can see the attitude it came from. It's like Mitt Romney telling that story about a cross-country road trip with the family dog in a crate strapped to the roof.
Eh, I don't entirely agree. Even on the "classic farmer" archetype, just casually shooting a dog is pretty crazy. Lots of farmers have a dog roaming around on their property that may not be materially benefitting them. Even if it's not treated like a child, that doesn't mean it's not an emotional connection for a lot of people.
Plenty of people far removed from a context where they regularly kill animals will hurt pets who anger them. "This dog pissed me off and is useless, I'll shoot it with this gun I have already in my hand" is not that big of a step from there.
A farmer being willing to kill a cow or a chicken does not translate to them flippantly shooting their dog, not on average.
There are some animal abusers that would kill a dog without caring yeah, but that's not a sizable voting constituency lol.
but that's not a sizable voting constituency lol
Well yeah, that's why it was a bad idea to tell this story!
All I'm saying is you can see where she got the idea. There are still some places where this might be frowned upon but wouldn't be outrageous, and it wasn't too long ago that much more of the country was like that. A slightly different story would have likely had the intended effect.
Here in rural Australia a friend has a farm and has a sideline raising and training working dogs. He regularly shoots the ones who he says have the wrong temperament. It happens often, as in monthly or so. If one of his own working dog is too old and can't keep up (he has 3 or 4 at any one time) , or it is injured, same thing. I suspended it's fairly ubiquitous in rural areas.
Not kicking a puppy, literally murdering a puppy
Doubling down at the very obvious criticism
you know, maybe the dems do have a shot in 2024. I can't think of a faster way to make yourself look like a saturday morning cartoon villain
If there's literally one thing that I would hope leftists and reactionaries could agreee on, its that animal cruelty is bad actually.
At this point, I know that America will surprise me, but my head is going in the sand on this one.
only if it's their dog. it's the same in-group pet vs out-group animal shit normal people do filtered through their no-empathy-for-their-fellow-man conservative antisociality.
If this story was "I shot someone else's dog because they attacked my chickens" there's a good chance it would have played about as she wanted.
Nancy Pallozzi, Jefferson County Republican Party Chair, said in a statement posted on social media that the group had initially thought the timing for the fundraiser was “perfect,” since the South Dakota governor’s book, "No Going Back," comes out soon. But attitudes have changed towards Noem, as examples of her cruelty towards animals continue to make headlines.
lmao, i love republican high office aspirants' book titles.
- Mitt Romney with No Apology: The Case for American Greatness
- Sarah Palin with Going Rogue: An American Life
- Mike Pence with So Help Me God
they try to go hard and be some call to arms, but it invariably comes across as weak and feckless, or just plain unhinged. i particularly enjoy the rhetorical genre of a prospective leader insisting that their uncompromising certainty of their rightness is their most valuable and critical asset as a leader. like follow me, even if we make a wrong turn, i will stay the course.
the book title, telling the anecdote about blowing away your puppy and then doubling down on it when the reaction is bad. fuckin' A
NO GOING BACK
i hope she rides this story all the way to toxic obscurity and blames the dog for ruining her career when she's 70.
NO GOING BACK
Seriously mixed messaging from the party behind "Take America Back" and "Make America Great Again."
Cheerleading violence is an aesthetic for almost everyone who engages in it. While it has appeal -- everyone can get behind violence if you give them the right reason -- it can also backfire hard if you read the room even slightly wrong. It's easily taken out of context and can quickly become a liability, even when it initially gets you something.
We'll clown on this, we'll clown on how bloodthirsty Israeli officials sound when they say they're fighting "human animals" in Gaza, but we'll rarely apply those criticisms to ourselves.
i guess but I feel like "I shot my puppy on a whim" is different than general cheerleading for political violence
This is what she was going for: https://www.texastribune.org/2010/04/27/rick-perry-shoots-coyote/
But she missed the mark a little, so now even her supporters are going
. Had she just included the part about shooting the goat it probably would have played well to her base. If she said the dog was sick it probably would have been fine. If it was someone else's dog attacking her, maybe. If she made the exact same comment 10 years ago or 10 years from now maybe it comes off differently, too.I'm saying that while this seems obvious in hindsight, the line between acceptable and unacceptable violence is shifting and not always easy to place. It's all aesthetics anyway, so why not pick a more sober approach to violence that anticipates these issues?
Oh gotcha. I do think there's something different between making overtures at violence and actually doing some yourself (even if it's only symbolic). Rare to see real blowback just for rhetoric. And the left is actually somewhat cautious about real violence - for instance most serious discussion of "adventurism".
