I just returned from six weeks in France

If you are one of this column's six or seven regular readers, you know I recently spent some time in France. My wife and I had the opportunity to housesit for an in-law in Calais for about six weeks. We got back to the states right after Labor Day. As a result, I haven’t followed the presidential race as closely as I usually do.

Now, I’ve never been much of a cat person. I often chide my children because our family’s social media feeds are full of their cat photos. In reality, I don’t have anything against cats, but I’d never admit that to my kids. The house in Calais came complete with a cat named Pop Tart — a name the French don’t quite understand. Pop Tart is a black cat with white paws, a white face, and white whiskers. During my time in France, Pop Tart and I became buddies. I think it’s because we both have black hair and white whiskers. When I was working on my computer, Pop Tart liked to climb up on the table and rub his whiskers against mine. My kids were shocked when I started posting cat pictures on social media.

It's funny how, while I was making friends with a cat in France, back home the political world was having its own feline fascination. I didn’t pay much attention to the Republican National Convention before I left for France. I attended the RNC as a delegate in 2008 and 2016, so I know it is primarily a party. Once Trump tapped JD Vance as his running mate, there was very little to see. I was in France during the Democratic National Convention, so the time difference made watching it difficult. But, listening to the BBC and following social media, I noticed a surprising number of posts and stories about cats.

After some searching online, it seems that this fascination began in 2021 when Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was campaigning for the Senate. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Vance called Democrats, “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

The Harris campaign retweeted the interview, and several prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, criticized Vance for his remarks. Even Trump supporter, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, commented on Vance’s statement, saying, “you should never say anything to hurt anybody’s feelings.”

After Tuesday’s debate, cats seem to have taken over the news cycle. During the debate, Trump said, “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. This is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame.”

Trump was referring to the trope that the large population of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, was eating people’s pets. As I scroll through my social media feed, it's a mixed bag: some people are ridiculing the absurdity of the claim, while others are arguing that it is a fact.

I have to interject here and say that, being of Asian descent, I am thankful. In the past, all the memes about eating cats or dogs were aimed at Asians. Now, our Haitian friends have taken the pressure off us in the pet-eating meme wars!

The pet-eating story seems to have originated from a video of a Springfield City Commission meeting. A man addressed the commission, claiming that Haitians were catching ducks in the park and eating them. No one has provided photo or video evidence of such incidents, and the primary issue the man addressed was immigrants driving dangerously on Springfield streets.

Springfield has indeed seen a significant influx of Haitians. But how did we get from complaints about bad driving and poaching to eating pets, specifically cats? The origin is likely tied to an incident in Canton, Ohio. According to Google, Canton is a 2 hour and 45 minute drive from Springfield. In August, a woman in Canton was arrested for stomping on a cat’s head and eating it in front of multiple people in the neighborhood. According to Canton police, the woman is a U.S. citizen.

Since I’ve come home from France, so much energy has been spent discussing cats. The Harris campaign resurrected Vance’s previous remark about childless cat ladies, and Vance himself pushed the pet-eating narrative. Trump even referred to it in the debate. The American people deserve better than a campaign of competing cat memes. Both sides have spent so much time attacking each other that it’s hard to tell what they stand for. It’s time for both campaigns to spell out what they want to do if elected and, equally important, how they plan to do it.

David Chung is a Gazette editorial fellow. david.chung@thegazette.com