J.D. Vance and his childless cat ladies

J.D. Vance

"We’re effectively run in this country—via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs—by 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.”

- J.D. Vance in a 2021 interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson.  Vance then mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris by name.

Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, has really opened up a Pandora's Box.  His 2021 comments have come back to haunt him.  That' why, he tried to backtrack in a July 26, 2024 interview with Megyn Kelly.  The junior senator from Ohio told Kelly that "Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment.  He addend, "I've got nothing against dogs.  I've got one dog at home, and I love him, Megyn.  "But, he continued, "people are focusing so much on sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said, and the substance of what I said, Megyn, I'm sorry, it's true.  It's true that we've become anti-family.  It is true that the left has become anti-child."

Vance tried to cover up his odious views by using sarcasm as an excuse.  So, J.D., tell us how we are supposed to know whether you are being so sarcastic or not?  Furthermore, what right do you have to judge women?  What right do you have to claim that non-conservatives are anti-family and anti-child?.  How dare you!

Vance's comments about childlessness are are deeply disturbing, incredibly vile and profoundly offensive.  Full disclosure.  I am one of J.D. Vance's "childless cat ladies."  However, I would still feel the same way if I were a biological mother.  Vance's comments are terribly insulting to all women, and especially insulting to stepmothers and adoptive parents, who are not "childless."  If I could vote against the Trump ticket, I would.  However, I am a Canadian citizen and will not be able to vote on November 5th.

It's is nobody else's business why a couple is childless.  The couple may be painfully infertile.  There may have been miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies or endometriosis.  There could be a number of medical reasons, or they may just be childless by choice.  Not everyone is fit to be a parent.  

Perhaps a couple or an individual prefer to adopt a child who is already in the world.  Misogynous males such as Trump and Vance should mind their own business.  They devalue women.  The regard females, especially non-white females, as second class citizens.  They don't think that women who do not have biological children deserve as much stake in a democracy.  They would relegate these women to third class citizenship.

Kamala Harris is looking to the future.  She said, "We are not gong back."  Trump and Vance would like to retore 1950s America.  They would like to return to June Cleaver's America., which is gone forever. Theirs is a falsely idyllic vision of America that doesn't exist anymore.  It is an America controlled by white males, an America where women did not have a choice to be anything but homemakers.  This is definitely not to demean homemakers, but women have far more choices now, and they have fought hard for those choices.

It's interesting, but not surprising, that Vance has said nothing about childless men.  Americans need to be reminded that their first president George Washington, the father of their country, had no biological children  On January 6th, 1959, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a 27-year-old widow with two children, John Parke Cutis "Jacky" and Martha Parke Custis "Patsy."  He became a devoted stepfather to the two children.  He and Martha raised them together.

Below is a portrait, circa 1759, of George Washington with Martha and his stepchildren.

When Kamala Harris married Doug Emhoff in 2014, she became the devoted stepmother to her husband's two children, Cole, 29 and Ella 25,, from his first marriage.  Ella and Cole affectionally refer to her as "mamala."  

Kamala with Doug and Ella and Cole

Doug's ex-wife, film producer Kerstin Emhoff, described Vance's comments as "baseless."  In a statement to NBC News, she said, "For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has be a co-parent with Doug and I.  She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present.  I love our blended family and am greateful to have her in it."

In a recent Instagram story, Ella Emhoff said, "How can you be 'childless when you have cutie kids like Cole and I?  I love my three parents."

- Joanne