Can we cats talk color for a minute? Taken together, we are a tortie, a calico, and two gray girls. Our owners, however, are white. Which means that they're highly embarrassed by national politics these days.
When they hear commentators in Pundit World talk about Willard Mitt Romney's and the Republicans' "dog whistles" to the right — stuff like "the 47 percent," "feeling entitled," or "not taking responsibility for their own lives" — they want to dive into a sinkhole, or at least deface every Romney lawn sign they see. To them, this language is racism of the worst sort.
Now, obviously, we don't know anything about dog whistles. We are cats. But we can tell you one thing. There are plenty — tons, in fact — of white people who are shocked, appalled and disgusted by what Willard Mitt Romney said to that roomful of zillionaires in Boca Raton last May. The arrogance, the assumptions, the elbows and winks — all are too repulsive to be borne.
And, like all clear-thinking Americans, our owners are freaked out by the Republican-engineered voter ID laws. Who would have thought that the election of the first African-American President would lead the GOP to try to roll back the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act? Talk about irony!
But unlike Willard Mitt Romney, we cats still believe in America. Why? Well, here's a recent example. Last weekend, our owners attended a training session for voter-protection volunteers for Election Day. Hundreds of people were in the room. Many of them were white. To a person, they were very concerned about minority-voter suppression — and willing to put themselves on the line to defend voters' rights at the polls. All voters' rights.
So, here's the deal. Although we're cats, when the media talk about dog whistles, we're sure that only a tiny, disgusting sliver of white people in the Republican Party is hearing them. Which helps us, well — believe in America.
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