The Politician's Whisperer

Katy Grimes: Jerry Brown is known for the “uncanny ability to reinvent himself.” However, Brown’s political record is all over the place – he’s raised taxes, he’s cut taxes. He’s pro-union, and claims his support for “a living wage” is justification. Yet he’s championed school choice — go figure. His record does not make sense.

Last night, while laboring away late into the evening at my writing desk, with my sweet German Shepherd at my feet, I was analyzing Brown’s record and trying to understand his ideology and political positions.

And then I had a breakthrough – Brown lives in the moment just like a dog does.

Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer, every week, explains to dog owners,  that dogs live in the moment.

Millan’s philosophy is that healthy, balanced dogs require strong ‘pack leadership’ from their owners — because they live in the moment, ruled by instinct. Milan retrains people psychologically, to use common sense and deal realistically with the curve balls in life. The dog behavioral changes seem to be a byproduct of his skills.

My colleague Steve Greenhut correctly called Brown an “opportunistic leftist,” and wrote back in April, “When he was governor, Brown governed as a slow-growther, whose anti-infrastructure campaign paved the way (or, actually, didn’t pave the way) for the state’s sometimes-gridlock level of traffic congestion. And it was Brown, don’t forget, who legalized public employee unions and played a key role in creating the massive level of debt the state is bearing to pay for gold-plated retirements for public employees.”

I just finished reading “Jerry Brown, The Man On The White Horse,” written in 1978. Author J.D. Lorenz made it abundantly clear that Brown during his two previous gubernatorial terms, used a weathervane to take the temperature of the state on any given day, and then makes his decisions.

We call that political expediency.

The only campaign employee Jerry Brown should have is the Dog Whisperer – a master of dog behavior as well as human psychology. Milan advocates calm, assertive leadership, and he says dogs need discipline, too. “Give them rules, boundaries, and limitations as well as love.”

Milan says that a calm, submissive state, by owners, is necessary to balance dogs.

“It’s the human who fights it,” says Milan. “We are the only species that follows unstable pack leaders.”

SEPT. 15, 2010