Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The return of dogs to the White House feels magnificently American
(CNN)I witnessed a rush of collective pleasure online when the news came, on November 7, that Joe Biden had won the presidential race. Not just because of Biden, but also because of Major and Champ, the new first dogs of the United States.
The excitement was palpable because, among other reasons, these German shepherds serve as a stand-in for our national sentiment -- for the optimism we're feeling as we prepare to embark on a new chapter under a new presidential administration.
For the last four years the White House has not had the slobbery, shedding, panting presence of a dog that it so often has. Until the Trump administration, the last time the White House didn't have a resident dog was during William McKinley's presidency from 1897 to 1901. And despite the fact that keeping dogs didn't start to become a true national pastime until 100 years after the beginning of the republic, two-thirds of all presidents have shared the storied hallways with a recent descendant of the gray wolf. And nearly every president since George Washington has had a presidential pet of some sort -- including a ram, a cow, a badger, raccoons, and a couple parakeets.
Most recently, though, dogs have been used by President Donald Trump not as pets but as a linguistic cudgel. He famously called Omarosa Manigault Newman "that dog", and it was not intended as a compliment about her fidelity and comeliness. He has regularly wielded the simile "like a dog" to emphatically degrade people he dislikes, tweeting that Brent Bozell of the National Review "came to my office begging for money like a dog,"and that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was "sweating like a dog." (Of course, this makes no sense. Dogs, who sweat only through their paws, don't get all sweaty like we do, and if they beg for anything, it's treats and tickles, not money.) Trump's intent seems to have been to equate his enemies with the lowest, most disrespectable of animals -- a status quite at odds with that of the contemporary American dog, some tens of millions of whom joined their people on the couch or bed watching late-night election results start to trickle in on TV on November 3.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/opinions/biden-dogs-white-house-horowitz/index.html
The excitement was palpable because, among other reasons, these German shepherds serve as a stand-in for our national sentiment -- for the optimism we're feeling as we prepare to embark on a new chapter under a new presidential administration.
For the last four years the White House has not had the slobbery, shedding, panting presence of a dog that it so often has. Until the Trump administration, the last time the White House didn't have a resident dog was during William McKinley's presidency from 1897 to 1901. And despite the fact that keeping dogs didn't start to become a true national pastime until 100 years after the beginning of the republic, two-thirds of all presidents have shared the storied hallways with a recent descendant of the gray wolf. And nearly every president since George Washington has had a presidential pet of some sort -- including a ram, a cow, a badger, raccoons, and a couple parakeets.
Most recently, though, dogs have been used by President Donald Trump not as pets but as a linguistic cudgel. He famously called Omarosa Manigault Newman "that dog", and it was not intended as a compliment about her fidelity and comeliness. He has regularly wielded the simile "like a dog" to emphatically degrade people he dislikes, tweeting that Brent Bozell of the National Review "came to my office begging for money like a dog,"and that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was "sweating like a dog." (Of course, this makes no sense. Dogs, who sweat only through their paws, don't get all sweaty like we do, and if they beg for anything, it's treats and tickles, not money.) Trump's intent seems to have been to equate his enemies with the lowest, most disrespectable of animals -- a status quite at odds with that of the contemporary American dog, some tens of millions of whom joined their people on the couch or bed watching late-night election results start to trickle in on TV on November 3.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/opinions/biden-dogs-white-house-horowitz/index.html
Welcome, Champ and Major!
20 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
on Jan. 20th I say we let Champ and Major chase his orange ass out of there. Imagine Trump running through the White House lawn with Champ and Major biting at his heels. 
As I've said before--you can't trust people who don't love animals.
