09/01/2026
The Cat on the Tree: How Did We Let It Get There? - By Sara Torres
We've all heard the saying about a cat stuck at the top of a tree. The immediate question is usually, “How do we get the cat down?”
But perhaps we're asking the wrong question.
How did the cat get to the top in the first place?
And more importantly, can we really afford to let the cat get that far up before we realize what we've done?
Because once that cat reaches the top, getting it down isn't simple. It takes tremendous effort, coordination, strategy, patience and sometimes an entire team to undo what could have been prevented in the first place.
Politics is no different.
Too often, conservative voters are presented with candidates who know exactly what to say to capture the conservative vote. They learn the language. They repeat the talking points. They talk about faith, family, freedom, limited government, law and order, the Constitution and America First.
But saying conservative things doesn't necessarily make someone conservative.
A candidate's political label should never be more important than his political record, his convictions, and his willingness to stand by those convictions when doing so comes at a cost.
Unfortunately, too many voters have become exhausted.
We're told, “Yes, I know he's not perfect, but he's better than the alternative.”
So we hold our noses, pull the lever and move on. Watch it! That's exactly how the cat gets higher into the tree.
Eventually, candidates realize they don't necessarily have to earn the conservative vote. They simply have to convince conservatives and literally centered voters that the other candidate is worse not that they're in fact better.
That's not conservatism. That's political exhaustion.
And when that candidate finally reaches the top, suddenly everyone wants to know how we're going to get him down.
But getting him down requires an enormous amount of work. It requires strategy. It requires organization. It requires people willing to sacrifice their time, money and political capital. It requires rebuilding trust with voters and, sometimes, rebuilding the very political infrastructure that allowed the problem to happen.
So perhaps conservatives need to ask a different question before election day:
Did we properly vet the cat before we handed it the ladder?
What did this candidate believe before he needed our vote?
What has he actually done not just what has he promised?
Who has he stood with when there was nothing to gain?
What principles has he defended when doing so was politically inconvenient?
And perhaps most importantly:
Would we recognize this person as a conservative if the word “Republican” wasn't next to his name?
Conservatism cannot survive on labels alone.
We need candidates who don't simply pretend to be conservative long enough to get elected, but who actually believe in the principles they ask us to trust them with.
Because the goal shouldn't be to become experts at rescuing cats from trees.
The goal should be to become much better at deciding which cats we allow to climb the ladder in the first place.
And when we do make a mistake and we inevitably will we cannot be afraid to admit it, organize, strategize and do the hard work necessary to bring that cat back down.
But watch it (again), let's not confuse the rescue mission with success.
Success is making sure we don't keep putting the same kind of cat back in the tree.
Sara Torres
