What do you think of when you hear “Hush Puppies.” For me it was a shoe company located in Rockford, Michigan. The company was “Woverine World Wide,” which made Wolverine Work boots. The company was founded in 1882 as a small leather shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. People, like me, who lived in Grand Rapids, understood why they were called “Wolverine Shoes.” The University of Michigan sports team are the “Michigan Wolverines.” I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and some locals claimed to have actually seen a real live wolverine. Officially they were last seen in Michigan during the 1700s and 1800s. In February 2004, some coyote hunters in Ubly, Michigan, about 90 miles north of Detroit, claimed to have seen a real live wolverine. Arnie Karr, a Michigan Department of Natural Resources saw the wolverine for himself and took some pictures of it. It was the first confirmed wolverine sighting in Michigan in over 200 years. Wolverines in Michigan were considered an endangered species until the late 1990s, when the wolverine was removed from the endangered species list because no one expected to ever see one again, at least in Michigan.
First Michigan wolverine spotted in 200 years
This explains why the Michigan football team has weird yellow stripes on its helmets. Those are theoretically supposed to represent wolverines. The wolverine was the unofficial state nickname. I never quite understood the enthusiasm for choosing a creature that hadn’t been seen in over 200 years. But I lived in the Upper Peninsula until I was a Sophomore in high school, and I knew several people who claimed to have seen a wolverine in the wild. The self-righteous snobs in the Lower Peninsula remained skeptical.
In 1958, the Wolverine Shoe Company, known for its work boots, introduced Hush Puppies as a line of comfortable casual shoes. They became very popular and are still available today.
Other people, thought “Hush Puppies” referred to corn meal dumplings popular in the South. Some thought “Hush Puppies” came from slaves tossing corn meal to the dogs to shut them up. Others blamed confederate soldiers for doing the same thing during the Civil War to quiet dogs. Either makes more sense that a spin-off of work boots based on an animal believed to be extinct.
But today, “Hush Puppies” takes on a whole new meaning. I view it as the few remaining democrats with surviving brain cells calling out the professional loud mouths who have been extremely vocal in their support of lost causes. Classic examples are left-wing Democrats who support issues like “defund the police”, “Open borders”, and my favorite, “Transgender males competing with females and winning sporting events.” These people have been very loud and obnoxious, but lately even some Democrats are throwing corn at them in a desperate attempt to shut them up. It turns out that running political campaigns based on ideas opposed by about 80% of the people is not actually a winning strategy. I mean it definitely is a winning strategy, if one is trying to win a Democrat primary. But spouting nonsense, which worked in gerrymandered blue districts, is not necessarily a good strategy for someone trying to be elected to the U.S. senate.
There are, of course, exceptions in places like New Jersey and Virginia where left-wing liberal Democrat women won races for governor by pretending they were normal people. Few people, who bought this and voted for these clowns are overly thrilled with the results.
Perhaps it is wise to remember that while “corn” was used to hush loud puppies, a different kind of corn is being used to silence the liberal left-wing puppies on a regular basis. The best example of this is Spence Pratt, who is running for Mayor of Los Angeles. He regularly makes corn (jokes) about Karen Bass, the current LA mayor, and even if he loses, he has definitely helped quiet her down at least temporarily.
To those of you unfamiliar with Karen Bass, she was one of the final two choices when Joe Biden promised to pick a black female Vice President. Karen Bass was famous for taking trips to Cuba and raving about the world’s greatest humanitarian, Fidel Castro. This may explain why Joe Biden ultimately chose Kamala Harris, with predictable results. Many people were unimpressed with Joe Biden, but few dreamed of President Kamala Harris. Incredibly even Kamala Harris looks good in comparison to someone like Karen Bass.
Democrats have been winning elections with some pathetic candidates but that may be changing. The candidate for Senator in Maine is oyster farmer Graham Platner, who had or has a Nazi Tattoo and thought insulting veterans who were wounded in battle was inspiring. Or James Talarico, running for the Senate from Texas, who thinks there are six genders and “God the Father” is non-binary. The ladies on the view think this is adorable, people living in Texas, not so much.
I think both candidates are going to get trounced in the November elections. Susan Collins in Maine and Ken Paxton are not necessarily great candidates themselves, but they were gifted with these two opponents. Only in this case there is no need to throw corn mean dumplings to shut up their puppy opponents. The louder these clowns bark, and the more people realize what they believe, the better the odds of a Republican landslide.
Hush puppies, whether wonderful shoes or silenced political hounds, are fun to watch.
TDM