The basics of training dogs (and Democrats)
If you want to teach your dog not to jump on the couch, you have to say “no!” as soon as she does it. You can’t wait a few hours or until the next day and say, “oh, hey, remember when you jumped on the couch? That was a no-no.” Doesn’t work.
Doesn’t work with children either, not little ones. In fact, I don’t think it works with any kind of creature, at least not when the lesson is a novel one. And if you wait years between the couch-jumping and the “no!” — well, just forget about it.
Which is why I respectfully disagree with the wonderful Susie Madrak. She says she’s planning to cast a nose-holding vote for Obama, but vows that “this is the LAST TIME I’m going to vote holding my nose.” She relates a conversation with a like-minded acquaintance:
“After what happened in the primary to Hillary Clinton, there’s no way. I’m not working against Obama, or for McCain, but I’m not helping them, either.”
She nodded vehemently. “Exactly! I feel the same way.”
There’s a lot of us out there. We won’t forget.
Well, you might not forget. But the Democrats will.
If you want to reprimand the Democrats for what they did to Hillary Clinton — and to the entire party and our democratic process and to women as a political class — you have to do it now. There is no other time. If you want to make it clear that misogyny against women candidates is unacceptable — even when the candidate is a Republican, like Sarah Palin — you have to do it now. There is no other time. You cannot wait four years and then try to teach the lesson. You cannot let them jump on the couch, let them snooze there and fart and get their hair on the cushions and burp up their kibble and chew the fringe off the pillows, and then four years later say, “Oh, hey, you know back years ago when you jumped on the couch? That was a no-no!”
62 Responses to “The basics of training dogs (and Democrats)”
-
djmm says:
Very true. I love Ms. Madrack’s writing (and music selections), but later will be too late. There is only now.
djmm
October 29th, 2008 at 6:24 pm EST -
Maddog says:
This is the old “this is the LAST TIME I’m going to vote (for the misogynist) holding my nose. . .” argument. Yuck.
Some years back I came to the understanding that my congressional representative, David Wu had attempted to rape a young woman while he was attending college. I no longer vote for Mr. Wu. Not because I disagree with his policy positions but because I do not vote for Rapists or attempted Rapists. Standards are standards and if one does not hold to them one has no ethical moorings. Down that path lies madness.
Mark
-
CoolAunt says:
From OBiden’s point of view, if he can get your vote for 2008, that’s good enough for now. He’ll worry about 2012 when that campaign comes around. If you can just hold your nose and ignore his misogyny to this point, that’s good enough for him.
Don’t vote for OBiden. If you can’t bring yourself to vote McCain/Palin, then vote for a third party candidate or write yourself in (if your state allows it). Just don’t vote for OBiden.
-
Cyn says:
Absolutely, Violet. If one can’t vote 3rd party or Palin, simply not voting the top line still speaks volumes.
To reward bad or criminal behavior, even if it’s a political party rather than an individual, is just nuts.
-
propertius says:
Well, I held my nose this time and voted for McCain/Palin (on the first day of early voting here). I had to burn the village to save it.
-
Lisa says:
“I had to burn the village to save it.”
What a great line. -
propertius says:
Thanks, Lisa. I suspect that most of you are too young to recall where it comes from.
-
Lisa says:
I’m not young but I don’t remember it. Where did it come from?
-
samanthasmom says:
It’s from the Vietnam War. It describes our carpet bombing strategy.
-
Lisa says:
yeah, I was very young during the vietnam war, I don’t remember that.
It also sounds like a strategy used during the civil war. -
propertius says:
Besides, Donna Brazile said they didn’t want my vote, anyway.
-
C D Ward says:
The post reminded me of the refrain I hear from Democrats most often these days, “We’ll hold his feet to the fire once we get him in office”.
Hah! As if! The ONLY way to hold politicians to account is by not voting for them.
Maybe if we were to rename “Election Day” to something like “Feet-To-The-Fire Day” THEN they’d get the idea.
-
Kiuku says:
It’s the amazing human ability, actually not unlike a victim mentality to think that the oppressor will change, of hope in the face of all odds, that Obama will actually serve their interests in the office…because you see how well his campaign has united us so far.
-
Kiuku says:
Come election day the world is suddenly going to be filled with rainbows and roses, butterflies and sunshine, Obama will stop the war and everyone will unite under The One.
-
Dakinikat says:
I held my nose for John Kerry. I will never DO that again. I either get the rights I’ve been asking for for at least 40 years or they get forget it!!!
I want the ERA, i want reproductive rights, I want civil rights for ALL people, and I want equal pay…. not LIP SERVICE!
-
CoolAunt says:
Kiuku says:
Come election day the world is suddenly going to be filled with rainbows and roses, butterflies and sunshine, Obama will stop the war and everyone will unite under The One.
You left out the clouds parting and the angels singing.
-
DYB says:
It’s all about leverage. What leverage do those who hold their noses and vote for Obama have if he wins the election? Everything he has done would have been justified and somebody else will do it in 4 or 8 years. The time is most definitely now! Obama isn’t listening now. Who really thinks he’ll listen if he wins?
-
Alwaysthinking says:
Right. We have to vote against Obama now. Any votes he gets will do nothing but convince him and the Democratic Party (and perhaps a whole generation of young people) that his tactics are perfectly fine.
(Actually, I already have voted against him. I feel better just knowing that I’ve swatted him with the newspaper — or at least punched the button on the electronic ballot.)
-
Kat says:
C D Ward says:
The post reminded me of the refrain I hear from Democrats most often these days, “We’ll hold his feet to the fire once we get him in office”.
Hah! As if! The ONLY way to hold politicians to account is by not voting for them.
Agreed.
I’ve seen nothing to suggest that BO supporters will hold his feet to the fire. I call them on this BS. I simply don’t believe this.
If they’ll accept all they have already, what won’t they accept?
-
Rachel H says:
Hi there,
Recently found your blog and I wanted to privately email this comment but couldn’t see a place to do that. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your posts and how spot on you are. It is a relief to read something that is actually matching up with what I have been thinking about the tone of this election. Keep it up and thank you for voicing what too FEW women are!! -
sister of ye says:
I’m not yet at the point of voting McCain, though I’m close. But I’m getting tired of arguments like, “But McCain voted for the Military Commissions Act! He voted for torture!” Yeah, well, so did my “liberal” senator, Carl Levin.
Levin was also, despite being chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, blissfully unaware of the horrid conditions injured soldiers were housed in at Walter flippin’ Reed. Never thought of visiting those guys, didja, Carl?
I have never been so tempted to just skip the damn vote for the whole worthless, corrupt lot of ‘em — and I’ve been voting since 1973. But I’m sure that old Catholic sense of duty will kick in. Damn busybody nuns.
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Once again, ma’am, you nail it.
I love your brain, if you don’t mind me saying so.
Best regards,
YZ
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Kiuku says:
It’s the amazing human ability, actually not unlike a victim mentality to think that the oppressor will change, of hope in the face of all odds, that Obama will actually serve their interests in the office…because you see how well his campaign has united us so far.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:53 pm EST
I disagree with you on a number of things.
This is not one of them.
Well said.
YZ
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Standards are standards and if one does not hold to them one has no ethical moorings. Down that path lies madness.
Mark
Dude. Exactly.
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Vote for Obama/Biden after what they’ve done and all you’re doing is encouraging them to do it again in four years.
-
Marge Twain says:
In four years they’ll be dangling our reproductive rights over our heads yet again while doing nothing to actually protect them. I’ve had enough. Never again.
-
Kat says:
Remember the book “No Bad Dogs: The Woodhouse Way” by Barbara Woodhouse?
“No Bad Democrats: The Socks Way” by Violet Socks.
-
myiq2xu says:
“this is the LAST TIME I’m going to vote holding my nose.”
Did Susie add “and THIS TIME I mean it?”
-
votermom says:
Timing is also important for rewarding good behavior. When you ask the dog to sit,and he does, that’s when you give him a treat or say “Good dog!”
Regardless of whatever else feminists don’t like about McCain, the fact is that he chose a woman to be on his ticket. It’s an open appeal to women voters who want to see more women in power. It’s a good thing. Dems could have forestalled it by having Hillary on the ticket, but they didn’t care about the women’s vote.
McCain deserves a timely reward for asking for the women’s vote, imo. If women can swing the election to McCain, it guarantees that 4 years from now both parties will have women on the ticket,and we can choose the better woman candidate.
-
Lisa says:
votermom I agree. I sent a letter to John McCain months ago saying that as long as he was going to listen to women, support women, and put women in his cabinet, I was going to support him. Politicians need to know that we are a voting block worth courting.
-
kenoshaMarge says:
Because I believe in the 30% solution I voted early and voted McCain/Palin. It wasn’t even that traumatic for this life-long liberal. Sarah Palin may not be the epitomy of all I believe in but she is a good, decent, IMO, woman who is worthy of my support. Obama, the DNC and the Democratic Party? Not so much!
I would never be able to hold my nose hard enough and long enough to vote for Obama. Reward bad behavior with my vote? Reward him and his supporters for blatent misogyny? Not this female!
Democrats will get my vote when they earn it. And not until.
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Alwaysthinking:
You get the prize.
I’ve been stifling myself just to see who was the first one to use the “rolled up newspaper” analogy.
Best regards,
YZ
-
Lisa says:
LOL. I have been resisting the urge to use the “rub their nose in it” analogy.
-
soopermouse says:
oh thank Dog someone finally said this.
-
DancingOpossum says:
Did you hear that our beloved Democratic Party is running 12–count’em, TWELVE–antichoice candidates, because that’s the “only way” in their twisted fool minds, to win in the South? Yes, the great heroes of our reproductive rights, responding to all that feet-holding-to-the-fire we keep doing by voting for the sniveling cowardly jerks. NO MORE, not this time.
For me the decision was cast in stone on May 21, anyway: Vote theft is unacceptable to me. So are mass disenfranchisement and cheating. I didn’t like it when the Republicans did it and I sure didn’t like it when my own party did it. Because of May 31, the GOP could run Old Nick himself and the Dems could run Jesus and I’d have to pull for Beelzebub.
-
DancingOpossum says:
Correcton: May 21.
-
DancingOpossum says:
ARRGGGHH Correction again: MAY 31.
-
Level Best says:
I early voted and wrote in Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff for president (Heart, who is running on the Free Soil Party ticket). Then I voted for every woman running locally, regardless of party. It feel good. Rock on, Violet.
-
Level Best says:
That’s “felt good.” Sorry.
-
Greenconsciousness says:
OK BO announced that if he loses he will go back to the senate and run again in four years. Do you think it wont be the same thing with the party operatives telling Hillary she is a spoiler? If he wins he will perform or fail and then we can move on. But if he loses we go through this again in 4 years. Hillary will not abandon the party of the dammed. BO and the male left will always work to defeat her and any woman.
I ask again - what do we gain by voting for McCain? What is the plan to achieve feminist goals and economic justice and green energy?
-
Keri says:
Yeah, Kerry was the last time I held my nose and voted for the Dem candiadte. He was weak on women’s issues (not as much as Obama though!) And the real kicker was the contempt with which he regarded the southern Democrats (a snotty “I don’t need them”. He found out that oh yes he did need those Democrats when Edwards kicked his ass in the southern states and he had to choose Edwards as his VP or he would have lost for real, not had it stolen.)
-
Marge Twain says:
I’ve been reading other discussion boards where women are telling one another not to give to their usual causes, like Planned Parenthood, instead give more to Obama so he can win and take care of EVERYTHING. It’s like they’re preparing for the rapture.
-
Kiuku says:
creepy
-
octogalore says:
Marge — that is truly scary.
But it’s unfortunately not surprising. Many online “feminist” discussion boards have relinquished focus on feminist issues to concentrate instead on liberal causes generally, and now Obama. This is just them wanting to put their money where their mouths are. Focusing on women’s rights is so yesterday.
-
indie in CA says:
Living in CA I thought it wasn’t as important to cast a protest vote. I wasn’t going to vote for Obama — no how, no way, but was thinking Nader or McKinney. I finally realized that I needed to vote for the McCain ticket. This realization came in large part because of this blog. The 30% solution will inform how I vote and how I participate in politics.
-
Violet says:
OK BO announced that if he loses he will go back to the senate and run again in four years.
Nooooooooooo!!! But Michelle said he would never run again! That we only had once chance to elect him! That’s what I’m counting on!
Christ, you mean even if he loses he’ll keep coming back, like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead?
-
Keri says:
Well, you know how Obama lies about everything. Hopefully if he runs again if he loses this time, he’ll act so Republican pandering in congress that he’ll get a quick rejection next time. Sadly, Hillary is doubtful she’ll run again for president (but didn’t count it out completely)
-
Lauren says:
Hey Violet,
I’ve been lurking for awhile now reading your arguments against Obama. If your appeals are against voting for, even if not a candidate, but for a party that has been historically better than the other for women, what is the argument *for* McCain. Surely there is something other than his Palin pick. I agree that the Clinton-Obama primary was infuriating to the nth degree, but also consider how current Republicans and McCain himself have treated women. I can’t see how McCain, or even Palin, is any better for American women overall than a Democratic presidency would be.
Feel free not to answer, my vote is cast but I’m curious.
-
Violet says:
Lauren, sorry to give you links, but I’ve written on this topic repeatedly:
It’s not about Obama vs. McCain
Archimedes’ Lever
Why I will not vote for Obama even if he’s the nominee — and why you shouldn’t either
The Democrats really, really don’t deserve our votesBottom line, as far as I’m concerned, is that all Obama is offering us is the opportunity to turn the Democratic party into a hopelessly sexist and corrupt clone of the GOP. That’s what a vote for him means. If we elect Obama, we will have the equivalent of two Republican parties. The Democratic Party will no longer be, even nominally, the party of women’s rights, nor the party of working people or the poor or the elderly or people who live on farms or belong to unions. It will be the party of rich kids who shop at Whole Foods, and everybody else be damned. And furthermore, the Democrats will have been rewarded for misogyny and fraud.
If George Bush suddenly turned Democrat and ran for office (assuming term limits weren’t a problem), promising to re-create the Democratic Party in his image, would you vote for him? There’s really nothing magic about the label “Democrat.” Doesn’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
I’ve been arguing all that since long before Palin was on the Republican ticket, but with her on the scene, there is now a positive and not just a negative reason to reject the Democrats. A woman in the White House (and not Michelle “I wouldn’t identify as a feminist” Obama) — a woman in the second-highest position in the land would be a remarkable role model for girls and women everywhere. The power of the role model is enormous. That’s a hell of a lot more positive than the new, anti-woman version of the Democratic Party offered by Barack Obama.
-
Yanni Znaio says:
I’d thought about writing a blog piece about 0bama being described by an old Southern expression “a pig in a poke”, but with all the lipstick/pig lunacy that went on, I never did.
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Lisa says:
LOL. I have been resisting the urge to use the “rub their nose in it” analogy.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am EST
I predict that they’ll “get their noses rubbed in it some time in the early hours of November 5th.
As I’ve said earlier, I haven’t seen this much youthful enthusiasm in a political campaign since McGovern ‘72.
And we all know how well that one worked out.
I predict Blowout Mc/P, and if not blowout, strong enough victory to keep it from being drug out in the courts ad nauseum.
And the PUMAs will have played a very significant role in that victory, and for that I thank you all.
-
Kiuku says:
This may be one of those areas where we disagree Yanni. I think that an Obama win is likely here, but that McCain/Palin fought valiantly, and played fair, and that means a lot. But I believe that we should all brace ourselves for an Obama presidency. We are going to have a lot of work to do.
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Violet says:
OK BO announced that if he loses he will go back to the senate and run again in four years.
Nooooooooooo!!! But Michelle said he would never run again! That we only had once chance to elect him! That’s what I’m counting on!
Christ, you mean even if he loses he’ll keep coming back, like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead?
October 30th, 2008 at 6:40 pm EST
If he loses he becomes radioactive.
Besides, does anybody really believe any of Barack or Michelle’s shit any more?
Except for the dimwitted and self-deluded?
YZ
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Correcton: May 21.
Comment by DancingOpossum — @
Are you trying to decide whether to use the Gregorian or Julian calendar?
:-)
YZ
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Kiuku says:
This may be one of those areas where we disagree Yanni. I think that an Obama win is likely here, but that McCain/Palin fought valiantly, and played fair, and that means a lot. But I believe that we should all brace ourselves for an Obama presidency. We are going to have a lot of work to do.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:09 pm EST
I still don’t think it’ll happen.
I heard somebody on the radio [Dick Morris, I believe] say that the trending is towards Mc/P for all age groups except 65+, and that 0’s commercials about Social Security are what’s scaring them…
If a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court believe the Constitution is a “living document” i.e., ignore stare decisis, then We Have No Constitution any more.
And any of our rights, including the unalienable ones enumerated in the Bill of Rights, are eradicable pursuant to the whims of nine men and women who wear black robes.
That’s what really frightens me.
YZ
-
Greenconsciousness says:
But then I thought maybe it is a psy ops like his race baiting to make the dissidents feel they cannot get rid of him by voting for McCain. But this is the male left — they are narcissistic enough to run him again — what do they have to lose — the repubs will make sure they have all the money they need.
WE NEED A THIRD PARTY AND HILLARY - let the dammed hold their crooked caucuses and hold their rules com meetings until they choke themselves to death. We need to run her in a party clean of them.
-
Greenconsciousness says:
And Violet
The Dems have never been the party of women’s rights. They are the party that takes credit for the rights women won in the second wave but they have never added or strengthened any of the rights we won. They made abortion rare - lost equal pay for equal work - never did a thing about trafficking or global women’s rights under Mad Albrecht — that was all Condi rice. No- you bought the lie — we all wanted no more of the agony of organizing so we closed our eyes. The Dems except for the Clintons are as sexist as the Repubs - they are working for the corporations.
If BO gets elected he would make a record - something we need to strangle his mantra of HOPE with - then we could point to the record and say this is what hope gets you — but it is too late McCain will win on Tuesday.
-
Kiuku says:
Yea it’s kinda scary. I wish more people would realize who they are putting into office. They are not thinking.
-
Kiuku says:
But maybe that’s what is necessary for these idiots: An Obama Presidency and a total turnover of our Constitution. Then maybe they’ll think before they vote, when we no longer have a vote. Lol look at this:
“Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.
In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Obama appeared to be engaged already in expectation lowering. Asked about his goals for the first hundred days, he said he would need more time to tackle such big and costly issues as health care reform, global warming and Iraq.
The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference,” he said. He has also been reminding crowds in recent days how “hard” it will be to achieve his goals, and that it will take time.”
-
Kiuku says:
all these people preaching “change” “unity” and “hope” are going to look like supreme morons after this. Not that they don’t already, especially on the “unity” front
-
Yanni Znaio says:
Kiuku says:
But maybe that’s what is necessary for these idiots: An Obama Presidency and a total turnover of our Constitution.
Once we lose it we’ll never get it back.
I’d say “study your history”–
But I’m sure you already have.
Therefore I would not deign to condescend in your direction.
I’m a bit long in the tooth [Violet recently said that shd didn't remember the JFK assassination - I do; I was in elementary school at the time, so that makes me older than she...] to head for the hills and do the partisan thing…I could do it, mind you, but these days my mind is a far more effective weapon than my body.
But we already had four years of brother killing brother in this country with far less advanced technology and it turned parts of this nation into abattoirs.
It would be far worse today.
-
Branjor says:
Kiuku said:
***“Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.***Sounds like “Yes We Can” is turning into “No We Can’t”.
