There’s a tread toward cruelty that we have seen practiced by far-right Republicans for a while now. Ron DeSantis and his stunt of having migrants from Venezuela conned into being flown the Martha’s Vineyard and dropped off to “own the libs,” Greg Abbott’s similar moves of bussing migrants to Chicago and Washington D.C. in the dead of winter, some without shoes serve as “shining” examples. And let’s not forget Abbott’s razor wire in the Rio Grande and the resulting deaths of a mother and her children enforced by his wannabe border Gestapo.

But somehow Kristi Noem’s puppy murder and goat sacrifice float to the top of this cesspool.

Many comments have been made over the years about the cruelty preached and practiced by far-right candidates and office holders. One can only surmise that these people think they are appealing to some nether region of humanity where cruelty is seen as a positive trait. Luckily for us, the majority of the human race is not defective in this way and is still possessed of compassion, kindness and empathy.

It takes a particularly frigid heart to take a poorly trained puppy to a gravel pit and shoot it. The same goes with the goat. Kristi Noem calls herself a farmer, but appears to be as deficient in her animal husbandry practices as she is in her behavior toward people.

Plenty of outrage has already been published on her treatment of these two animals and there’s no reason to rehash it here.

The thing that should give us pause is the callousness that Kristi Noem and her cohorts appear to revel in. Cruelty is a sickness, not a tool of governance.

But this is the banner under which the far-right has gathered. Here’s a few of their “ideas.”

• Forced birth for women no matter what.
• Calls to eliminate birth control.
• Callous disregard for the death of migrants of whatever legality.
• Plans for massive detainment camps for anyone who is here “illegally” or opposes Trump.
• Plans to fire government workers who do not swear an oath to Trump (and thus ignoring the oath they already took to defend the Constitution.)
• This list could go on quite a lot longer. In fact it does in the Heritage Foundations Project 2025.

When you get down to the nitty gritty of it, the far right wants to elect candidates who prove their ability to ignore suffering and death inflicted on others, no matter the species.

Sure Trump will get nominated for President again by these people. He’s demonstrated conclusively that he cares nothing for others—except maybe billionaires. But give him enough power and control of the Fed, and these guys will quickly find that he won’t know them and has lost their number.

But Donnie’s gonna need a VP. Many seem to think Noem wants the gig. So maybe her boasts of abject animal cruelty in her recent book are just auditions for the part.

Imagine Trump getting reelected and someone as demonstrably cold-blooded as Kristi Noem is in office as Vice President. Imagine further that there she is in the Naval Observatory, the official residence of the VP. Suddenly there’s a flurry of Secret Service activity, audible radio traffic and texts blowing up phones. She’s snatched up by her detail and whisked to the Oval Office to be sworn in as President because time and McDonald’s had finally caught up to Trump.

Frankly, repeated forced viewings of Plan 9 from Outer Space or Texas Chainsaw Massacre would be more a more pleasant thought.

Whaddaya say we keep these folks out of office from now on and vote people in who like animals and care for other people, no matter where they come from or what they look like?