And yet, this isn’t really about cat people. Both Frey and Vance felt safe making cutting remarks about cat owners, because we are, ostensibly, a group of people you can make jokes about. We’re not a protected class — and nor should we be!
But if they feel comfortable punching down on cat owners in public, who are they punching down on in private?
You only have to look at their actions and the policies they support to find out who they really see as miserable losers. Vance has ridden a wave of MAGA-brained, racist, xenophobic, anti-trans misogyny to a Senate seat and a shot at the vice presidency. Here in Minneapolis, Frey has demonized unhoused people for years, while continuing a brutal policy of encampment sweeps that his own chief of police admits doesn’t work. Both demean their own constituents who they’re elected to represent — constituents they clearly don’t feel worthy of compassion or concern.
Cat people are not the victims of these men’s policies — just of their “jokes.” But today, on National Cat Day, we’ll raise our voices and say we object to being used as a way for powerful men to deflect from their own shortcomings.
Amanda Zimmerman is a Minneapolis resident and work-from-home cat mom.
