Witch Hunt

Illustration by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

Republican Vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance has just recently stepped (or rather stumbled) into the national spotlight—no small feat for a man whose foot is constantly in his mouth. Even though in many ways he is a mini-Trump, some of Vance’s views are much more extreme than the former president’s. In fact, to say Vance is simply an ultra-conservative is like saying that Taylor Swift is sort of popular. 

His extreme beliefs about family and women are not only extreme; they are scary. He calls childless people “sociopaths” and has suggested they pay higher taxes than families with children. He has also maintained that Americans with children should have more votes than those who are childless. He also has opposed no-fault divorce, saying that couples should stay together—for the sake of the children—because there’s nothing like living in a broken home. Mr. Vance also opposes abortion in any circumstance, even in cases of rape, incest, or saving the life of the mother. 

One of Mr. Vance’s favorite stump speech tropes is to refer to a specific type of women as “childless cat ladies”, a phrase that has ultimately come back to haunt him after he tried to paste that label on Vice-President Kamala Harris. The cliché of a cat woman as a lonely, eccentric, and miserable middle-aged spinster who has only pet cats for companionship is a well-known archetype. Vice-President Kamala Harris is hardly that. It seems J.D. has once again missed the mark.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fits Vance’s category of childless cat ladies—so does Taylor Swift, and—of course, Kamala Harris (apparently a husband and stepchildren don’t count). It seems that any strong-willed, self-sustaining woman who is not dependent on a man is a threat to Mr. Vance and MAGA Land and therefore is a cat lady.

After Joe Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, Vance attacked her not having biological children, labeling her as a “sad cat lady”. Women everywhere immediately embraced the metaphor. Thousands of them, including Jennifer Aniston, Whoopi Goldberg, and Taylor Swift, proudly defended the life choice of a single, professional, childless woman. Dozens of memes championing cats and strong women flooded social media.

J.D. Vance may be an educated man, but he’s not a very smart one. His sensibilities concerning humanism, justice, compassion, and human rights (and even common sense) are—to be generous—underdeveloped. He has learned few, if any, lessons from history, or gained any insights about the human condition through the study of philosophy or literature. In short, he is a putz.

But somehow, at some point, a smattering of historical fact thrown up against the wall of his skull stuck. When Vance came up with the cat lady trope, was it because his mind had turned to a dimly remembered history lesson about witches? 

Maybe he discovered that witches were masters of the dark arts and in league with Satan himself. They were outsiders—unmarried women who had no need for mortal men. They were seductresses who kidnapped babies and gathered naked in the forest to consummate their unholy rituals. Witches also lived with familiars, spiritual beings that helped them in their practice of the dark arts. Many times, these familiars took the form of a cat. So, in those dark days, a woman living alone with a pet cat was suspect. 

In truth, some of those accused of being witches in our not-so-distant past were simply outliers. Like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, perhaps they were ostracized for sexual promiscuity. And perhaps, also like Hester Prynne, perhaps they had the wherewithal to get by on their own devices—or their wits.  Others were persecuted for their strength and independence and refusal to accede to the strictures of a male-dominated society. 

Apparently, for Vance, women were put on this Earth not to live their lives—or befriend cats, but to make babies. In his warped worldview, any woman that chooses not to bear and raise children needs to be penalized by paying more in taxes and having a diminished voice in our democracy. 

In Vanceworld, these single women, especially if they are well-educated accomplished professionals, must be categorized as outsiders whose only companions are sly and inscrutable felines—devil beasts. They are to be punished and scorned by the strong alpha males wielding the levers of power because they are evil.

To Vance, women who are not bound to the sexual mores of the male patriarchy are dangerous because they cannot be controlled. AOC and Kamala Harris are framed as cat ladies because they are recognized as threats to the power structure, and so (like the witches of yore), they must be subjugated or eliminated.

Project 2025, the new Republican manifesto, lays out the blueprint for these putting women in their places, along with eliminating Obamacare, cutting social programs, and all but eliminating public schools. This is the newest version of the Republican witch hunt. And like the prosecutors of the notorious Salem Witch Trials, the tools for accusing, trying, and condemning these women are born of fear, loathing, and hatred. 

J.D. Vance intended to insult and demean childless women by labelling them as “cat women”, a strategy which has backfired. Megastar Taylor Swift, single and childless—and insanely wealthy—blithely proclaimed that she loves cats. Labelling political powerhouses AOC and Kamala Harris as cat ladies is just—well—stupid. 

Apparently, the primary intention of Vance and Project 2025 (the forward of which, by the way, was written by Vance) is to preserve the ancient foundations of white patriarchy by curtailing reproductive rights, stocking government positions with Trump insiders, and eviscerating social programs and public education—in other words, keeping the American people barefoot and pregnant. 

Our cat ladies are not embarrassed or ashamed. They are loud and proud. Vance’s attempt to silence them by intentionally labelling them as sad and impotent losers (and perhaps unintentionally labelling them as sort of modern-day witches) is in itself a sad and pathetic act. What is the male equivalent of a cat lady? Perhaps the boy living in the basement of his parent’s home engrossed in the internet. Sad, but also, like Vance’s cat lady, a little bit dangerous, too.