In Alaska, there is a town with a cat for a mayor. The feline ascended to power as a protest against the mayor at the time, and just sort of stayed there. The 15 year old named Stubbs has been a tourist attraction ever since, and his position is largely honorary. Right now in Halifax a cat named Tuxedo Stan is vying for the mayor's seat, though it's actually a campaign to promote spaying and neutering and deal with a stray cat problem in the city. In Virginia, there is a cat running for a senate seat. It is time to remind everyone that a cat in general is a terrible choice for any public office, on any level.
The problem is that cats are fickle, and easily bribed and influenced. They cannot consider issues with a calm and impartial mind. Whoever has the most treats, wins, and all the cats I know are easily influenced by a scratch on the chin. If you want to get a cat off your case, that's just as easy, throw out a string and it's going to be running after that and completely disregarding any responsibilities it might have at the given moment. The Rt. Hon. Cat MP might have to put its paw down for a major vote, but then a string is thrown and it's going to be chasing that for the next several hours.
Of course, a cat can't debate either, mostly because it can speak neither official language in this country. Oh sure, it can meow at you, but that could mean anything, from an expression of hunger to a disagreement over budget priorities. The unknown meanings of a cat's utterances make it very difficult for it to represent the issues important to the electorate. The mystery of what a cat is actually trying to say makes it difficult to engage in a serious conversation with the animal, which is not important when it's just a creature that sleeps on the arm of your couch, but is important in an elected representative.
Sleeping is another point where a cat is ill qualified. Every time an MP, MLA, or municipal politician is caught sleeping on the job it's a major controversy. What happens when it's a cat, something that spends the majority of its day sleeping? It's not a matter of if the cat is sleeping on the job, but when, and how much. It could be asleep for the entirety of its term, not accomplishing much at all and generally being a drain on taxpayers.
There's also the matter of public appearances, something any politician has to do a large number of times every week. That's fine for a human, even a relatively grumpy human, but a cat is going to be terrible at this part of politics. Some might disagree, even going so far to suggest a cat would be great - see the aforementioned cat mayor in Alaska - but it is clear that a cat is going to be poor at this, due to the above points. It cannot actually do public speaking, it is going to fall asleep in conversations, it will get easily distracted by all of the stimuli in the area, and eventually your elected representative will hide under a table and lick itself. Not the behavior one expects in their politicians.
So plainly, cats shouldn't be elected to any position, it's just not something that is within their skill set. It's not to say cats aren't good for anything, they can keep pests at bay and can liven up the house with their antics. But when it comes to elected officials, we don't have any options other than the traditional human selections.
