Cats, dogs, and foreign relations
One of big issues in the debate on Friday was how we should deal with non-friendly nations (Iran and North Korea were of particular interest) - but of course the next president will have to deal with all nations...and right now, the number of friendlies is at an all-time low. And it struck me - I wish we knew more about what pets the candidates have, or prefer, because it strikes me you can learn a lot about a person by their feelings towards cats and dogs.
As everyone knows, the two are quite different. Dogs are pack animals; they naturally look to a leader, and tend to view you as that leader. And the leader is God, the sun, the moon, the center of the universe. Cats, on the other hand, are loners. They view you as an equal (if you are lucky.) They are aware you are in their life, may even be an important part of that life - but the cat is very clear that she is the center of the universe. It's a fundamentally different world view. You give a dog a command, the dog hurries to obey and then says "Please, please, tell me you are happy with me". Give a cat a command, and the response is "...and I should interrupt my life for you because.....?" Cats will follow commands, of course, if there is a reward, or it fits their current interests, or sometimes (I suspect) just out of curiosity, and even because they love you...but they make the choice. And they will expect you to occasionally do what they want, in return. Because it's only fair.
Now, our current leader is famously a dog person. He does have a cat, or at least he did when elected. I remember watching a tour-of-the-White-House sort of news item, a bit after 9/11, when he was talking about being hustled into a safe room by the Secret Service that night. He described who carried Barney and the other dog down - then said "Kitty had to take care of herself". And I remember the look on his face - as if he didn't really care how Kitty managed, and was perhaps less than pleased that she had. Definitely a dog person.
And he has treated the rest of the world as if they were dogs, who would leap to do his bidding, just because he said to do it. The problem is, the rest of the world are cats. They think their concerns should be central to their own actions (and they are absolutely right). And some of them are pretty big cats, and they are more than a little irritated at being ordered around, and expected to automatically treat U.S. interests as of primary importance. Ordering a tiger around is really not a healthy thing to do. You can get a tiger to do what you want, and there are different ways to do it...and the method you chose has very predictable consequences.
After watching the debate, I strongly suspect one candidate is a dog person, and the other a cat person. I'd be curious to see if I'm right...but I hope I don't find out from their foreign policy decisions.
As everyone knows, the two are quite different. Dogs are pack animals; they naturally look to a leader, and tend to view you as that leader. And the leader is God, the sun, the moon, the center of the universe. Cats, on the other hand, are loners. They view you as an equal (if you are lucky.) They are aware you are in their life, may even be an important part of that life - but the cat is very clear that she is the center of the universe. It's a fundamentally different world view. You give a dog a command, the dog hurries to obey and then says "Please, please, tell me you are happy with me". Give a cat a command, and the response is "...and I should interrupt my life for you because.....?" Cats will follow commands, of course, if there is a reward, or it fits their current interests, or sometimes (I suspect) just out of curiosity, and even because they love you...but they make the choice. And they will expect you to occasionally do what they want, in return. Because it's only fair.
Now, our current leader is famously a dog person. He does have a cat, or at least he did when elected. I remember watching a tour-of-the-White-House sort of news item, a bit after 9/11, when he was talking about being hustled into a safe room by the Secret Service that night. He described who carried Barney and the other dog down - then said "Kitty had to take care of herself". And I remember the look on his face - as if he didn't really care how Kitty managed, and was perhaps less than pleased that she had. Definitely a dog person.
And he has treated the rest of the world as if they were dogs, who would leap to do his bidding, just because he said to do it. The problem is, the rest of the world are cats. They think their concerns should be central to their own actions (and they are absolutely right). And some of them are pretty big cats, and they are more than a little irritated at being ordered around, and expected to automatically treat U.S. interests as of primary importance. Ordering a tiger around is really not a healthy thing to do. You can get a tiger to do what you want, and there are different ways to do it...and the method you chose has very predictable consequences.
After watching the debate, I strongly suspect one candidate is a dog person, and the other a cat person. I'd be curious to see if I'm right...but I hope I don't find out from their foreign policy decisions.