By now, everyone on God’s green Earth has heard the story of how South Dakota rancher and Gov. Kristi Noem shot her 14-month-old dog “Cricket” after it attacked and killed a neighbor’s chickens. Horrified by the carnage, she tried to restrain the chicken-loving canine who bit her for her efforts. Things escalated from there.
“At that moment,” writes Noem, “I realized I had to put her down.” The story is from her upcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.
One might reasonably ask what’s wrong with Noem’s editor. Desensitized though Americans are to the annihilation of the unborn, this is a story few of them can properly categorize. According to Pew Forum, many millions of U.S. households own a dog, and 97 percent of American pet owners consider their pets a part of the family. The inclusion of this episode in her book wasn’t stupidity. It was a failure to read the country beyond the confines of a working ranch or farm, and that is something no candidate for public office can afford to do.
The book is timed to boost the governor’s profile and therefore her chances to be President Trump’s choice as a running mate. But it was more than Cricket that Noem put down that day 20 years ago; it was very probably her vice-presidential hopes. Social media was made for such moments, and Noem has been memed, GIFed, and pilloried as if she had started
