could not get elected dogcatcher

English

Etymology

Dogcatchers are virtually never elected to their posts; the phrase is hyperbole, using dogcatcher to indicate the most lowly conceivable office.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəd ˌnɒt ɡɛt ɪˌlɛktɪd ˈdɒɡkæt͡ʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəd ˌnɑt ɡɛt əˌlɛktɪd ˈdɔɡˌkæt͡ʃəɹ/, /-iˌlɛktɪd-/

• Audio (AU)

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• Hyphenation: could not get elect‧ed dog‧catch‧er

Phrase

could not get elected dogcatcher

1. (idiomatic, chiefly US, politics, hyperbolic) Said of someone, particularly a politician, who is extremely unpopular.
   • 1889 February 18, Chicago Herald, quotee, “Unpopular with rascals”, in The Courier-Journal, volume LXXIV, number 7,355 (New Series), Louisville, Ky.: Louisville Courier-Journal Print. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 6:

     An insolent Republican newspaper asserts that Mr. Cleveland [i.e., Grover Cleveland] is so unpopular in Washington that he could not be elected dog catcher for the district. This may be true, yet Mr. Cleveland has caught a great many dogs in his day—stealing. His success in that line would naturally make him unpopular with the claims agents and other parasites that throng the capital.

   • 1918 October 15, “The City Manager Plan. ”, in J. W. Scroogs, editor, University of Oklahoma Bulletin (New Series; no. 156; University Extension Series; no. 43), Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma, →OCLC, page 60:

     It is a well known fact that the average American town will not elect well educated men to municipal offices if they can help it. A man who wears kid gloves and a plug hat couldn't be elected dog catcher in any town in Oklahoma. That is why the affirmative wish the city manager to be elected by a commission.

   • 2006 October, credited to Robert Ludlum, chapter 15, in The Bancroft Strategy, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 264:

     Men like him couldn't get elected dogcatcher. He was a natural lieutenant, not a leader, and it was a fact he accepted with neither bitterness nor regret.

     The title page of the work states: “Since his death the Estate of Robert Ludlum has worked with a carefully selected author and editor to prepare and edit this work for publication.”

   • 2010 September 12, Philip Eliot, “GOP Tries to Take Out Tea Party-backed Candidate”, in Yahoo! News‎, archived from the original on 2010-09-22:

     "She's [Christine O'Donnell's] not a viable candidate for any office in the state of Delaware," said the state party chairman, Tom Ross, who is backing [Mike] Castle. "She could not be elected dog catcher."

   • 2017 October 25, John L. Micek, “Trump just keeps digging deeper and deeper”, in The Courier-Journal‎, Louisville, Ky.: Gannett, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     [Donald] Trump, who has a glancing relationship with the truth and speaks English only as a second language, has hurled his insults at [Bob] Corker (whom he said couldn't get elected dog-catcher in his home state) and at [John] McCain — even as he journeyed to Capitol Hill to try to build support for tax reform.

Usage notes

• Also appears in variant forms such as could not be elected dogcatcher and couldn’t get elected dogcatcher.

Related terms

• unelectable

Translations

See also

• run like a dry creek

References