POLING: Petting the dog-eat-dog world of politics

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, July 19, 2022

My dog doesn’t know if I’m a Democrat or a Republican.

Your dog doesn’t know if you’re a Republican or a Democrat.

More importantly, my dog doesn’t know if you’re a Democrat or a Republican and your dog doesn’t know if I’m a Republican or a Democrat. You may think you know and I may think I know and even if one of us is telling you, me, him, her, everybody, including the dog our political party affiliation, our dogs still don’t know if we’re a Republican or a Democrat.

And they don’t care.

Dogs don’t care who’s a Democrat or who’s a Republican. We may want them to care but they don’t know, and they don’t care. 

After all when’s the last time you’ve seen a dog barking about politics?

Our dogs don’t care if we voted for Trump or Biden. Our dogs don’t even know who they are.

Our dogs don’t know if we watch CNN or Fox News. They don’t judge folks by the news channels they watch. Though some dogs do like having the TV left on while we’re at work. Personally, I think dogs like “The Price is Right” and “Jeopardy.”

Our dogs don’t care if someone thinks the election is stolen or not. Our dogs don’t even know what elections are, though they have some idea of theft; for example, if someone takes their bone and doesn’t give it back, they know.

Someone might dress a dog in a blue Biden vest or a red Make America Great Again sweater but most dogs are likely going to slink around embarrassed. Not because they’re embarrassed about the politics but because most dogs don’t like wearing vests and sweaters. Though if a dog understood it was being turned into a political billboard, it would probably be embarrassed by that, too.

As much as we might think of our dogs as being either Democrat or Republican, depending on what we are, our dogs are neither Democrats nor Republicans. They are neither donkeys nor elephants. Dogs are dogs.

Thank goodness.

Dogs don’t go sniffing for people who think like us or think differently than us. They sniff for treats and they sniff for information. Not about politics. But whether the dog thinks we’re good people or bad people.

My dog thinks some Republicans are good people and some Democrats are good people while thinking some Democrats are bad people and some Republicans are bad people. Your dog does, too.

Our dogs accept belly rubs from the people they like and bark at the people they don’t like. Whether we like it or not, our dogs would roll over for both Democrats and Republicans.

Most importantly, most dogs love their people, whether their people are Democrats or Republicans. 

My dog likes me.

Your dog likes you.

And my dog would probably like you and your dog would probably like me. 

Even if we are Democrat or Republican.

Dogs are smarter than both.

Dean Poling is an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times and the editor of The Tifton Gazette.