In a 2021 interview on the Tucker Carlson show, vice-presidential nominee JD Vance said that “we’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats . . . by a bunch of childless cat ladies miserable at their own lives.” The resulting performative wrath over “childless cat ladies” is obscuring a trio of truths: ; it is re-making reality in ways that are ever more visible; and it raises once more the question of whether today’s radical atomization is transforming the world for good, or ill.
From shuttered kindergartens to perennially under-staffed nursing homes, the facts behind the theories of a “graying West” are ever more inescapable. As summer tourists in Europe will know, for example, there’s a new meaning to that phrase “the Old Country.” My family and I happened to visit Spain during the week of Orgullo Madrid, one of the largest annual Pride celebrations in the world. Across the city, men and women — mostly men — filled the streets, celebrating their freedom from social convention. And on those same streets, other people who are traditionally the fruits of social convention were conspicuously absent: babies and children.
The arithmetic of demographic freefall is simple. In Spain, which has the lowest European fertility rate outside Malta, women now bear their first child between the ages of 30 and 39. “We have provinces in Spain where for every baby born, more than two people die. And the ratio is moving closer to one to three,” explains one researcher. By 2050, the country is projected to have the highest percentage of elderly people in the world.
As in some other Western countries, dogs now outnumber children in households; in Madrid, there are more cats and dogs than children under 10. Across the map, materially advanced nations are shunning births at similar rates. In Japan, stuffed dolls substituting for absent humans have helped turn one vanishing village into a tourist attraction.
Once, human beings fled the presence of other, more dangerous species. Now, many are fleeing our own species. Is this a problem?
Though today’s partisan sniping pretends otherwise, political leaders of all stripes increasingly say yes. The shrinking tax base imposes new costs, including cuts in social services and rising ages for retirement. Hence President Macron in France has called for “demographic rearmament.” Other leaders across the spectrum agree. Meanwhile, because geriatric populations depend on younger workers, continuing immigration into the West seems all but inevitable, and with it, chronically inflamed domestic politics.
Many authorities agree that the birth dearth amounts to some kind of social problem. But what if it’s even worse than that? Consider the findings of so-called “happiness studies” across the West.
The “paradox of female unhappiness” has been studied in detail for over fifteen years. Surveys taken in different waves of time suggest that many women across the West are ever less content with their lives, even as what are said to be proxies for female happiness have improved (access to education, health advances, cheap and easy birth control).
….What is more likely to put a smile on that 80-year-old self: triceps that are the envy of a 60-year-old; or the uncalculated embrace of a grandchild?
By Mary Eberstadt in First Things
If the childless cat lady wins the presidential election in November, I will never vote in another election again. At that point, America will have passed the totalitarian and secularist tipping point. I already mostly hunker down. It’s that bad out there, and it’s going to get worse.
It depends on how many dead people vote for her.
It’s not how many people vote…it’s how many ballots there are. Registering illegal immigrants to vote doesn’t mean that they will vote — it means that ballots will be created with their names on them. The Democrats have many ways of cheating… The recent Venezuelan vote looks prescient for our 2024 election.
I Can Prove Maduro Got Trounced
https://wallstreetjournal-ny.newsmemory.com/?publink=0ca7f23c5_134d3c6
Democrats are despicable. That’s why none of my friends are Democrats. If I find out someone is a Democrat I stop talking to him/her socially, and I never invite him/her over or out to eat. Only what’s needed for business, and I keep it cool.
Democrats are planning to cheat in the upcoming election. Their plan A of assassinating Trump failed. Now it’s plan B.
Eberstadt is one of the most astute contemporary social analysts. Her Adam & Eve After the Pill – Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution (Ignatius Press) is an excellent book. I’m still reading her Primal Screams – How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. Eberstadt’s work is worth considering. She seems to be one of the finest Catholic minds writing today. And, especially in light of this article, it could be noted that she is an advocate for animal welfare. She just does not see animals as equal to humans. Children are a blessing, though they are considerable work, a labor of love.
Re: Eberstadt. Heartily concur.
It is illegal in every state for a non-citizen to register to vote. Every state election office run by Republicans or Democrats has systems in place to prevent that from happening. The stories that you hear about illegal immigrants voting are not true. After the last election, every allegation was thrown out for lack of evidence in sixty-two court cases in local, state or federal courts. Even the national election agency said it was the cleanest election in our history. Stop pushing untrue stories.
Nice eyeliner, JD.
Sorry, eyeliner, he’s already married.
I think that comment was meant sarcastically. JD has been revealed to have started wearing eyeliner at public appearances. Compare pictures of him from before he became nationally prominent.
Oh, really? I thought that woman was making a comment about his appearance.
I guess I’ll have to reconsider, should one vote for a man who wears eyeliner?
It is a terrible thing to view animal lovers as deplorable and worthless. All people should be taught respect, kindness and love for animals. What is missing in the picture of the “cat ladies,” is a loving husband and children, in a warm, loving family home, complete with loving pets. It is wonderful for children to grow up with animals, and be taught to love and responsibly care for them. Wonderful, classic stories of “a boy and his dog,” or “Mother’s beloved cat, nestled, asleep, on her lap,” as she sits, reading, in her comfy chair– are priceless. Lonely widows/widowers, and seniors, and those living alone, ought to be encouraged to adopt a pet. There are many good, responsible people, with good Christian morals, who shun the evil, sinful, filthy, irresponsible “dating-with-sex” and “shacking-up” situation, who may never find a loving, responsible spouse for marriage and children. These good people ought to consider going down to the SPCA, and adopting a loving, homeless pet, and give the dear little pet a good home–wonderful! Kids need to grow up with good morals, and boys must be taught respect for girls, and self-control. A young man should have good morals, and be taught to date only to find one very special, lovely girl to marry, and he should be prepared to be a responsible, mature, generous, unselfish, loving husband and father. His future wife should be a lovely and responsible girl, with good morals, ready to be a good wife and mother. She should be held in high regard, as a “Princess,” the highly-respected, future “Queen” of their future home and family. (Never, never, never to be viewed as a filthy, irresponsible, worthless, prostitute-like, “sex partner” for a very bad boy.) Boys and girls should be taught to live a mature, responsible, unselfish life, for God, and for spouse, children, and extended family, and for your community and country. Get rid of the hideous, selfish, sinful Satanic 1960s evils, destroying our country, and destroying many other countries, too. Make good, strong laws against these evils. Initiate programs that strongly promote, uphold and support good, Christian-based morality, and traditional (one man/one woman, only) American Marriage, family and children, and extended family, too– grandparents and relatives. That is what will help make a good country. With good, timeless traditions, too, that are cherished by all– like celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving at home, with family. Attending the church/synagogue of your choice should also be greatly encouraged in America, and clergy of all religions should be praised and supported.
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I just read that Jill Biden praised the Drag Queen perverts who presented the sacrilegious parody of the “Last Supper,” at the Olympics in Paris– saying that the presentation was “spectacular.” Can’t wait until her husband is out of office– for good.
He already is out of office. Jill’s been running the country for at least three years.
Earhardt also asked about Vance’s “childless cat ladies” remarks in 2021, which have come under sharp criticism and portrayed as attacks on all women who don’t have children. Sen. Vance has said he was taken out of context.
“I took a moment to look and actually see what he had said and try to understand what the context was and all that, which is something that I really wish people would do a little bit more often. And the reality is he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive, and it had actual meaning,” Usha Vance said of the comments.
Asked about what she would say to anyone offended by her husband’s comments, Usha told Earhardt that her husband “would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really, was struggling with that.”
“He made that clear at the time. And he’s made that clear today. And we have lots of friends who have been in that position. It is challenging and never, ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of…”
Have you ever said anything that was taken out of context or that you later regretted saying that way?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/usha-vance-reveals-how-she-deals-negative-press-coverage-her-husband