Once again, former Vice President Mike Pence demands to be heard. It is a given that no liberal should ever feel anything but enmity for Pence as an inchoate fascist who played the role of indefatigable enabler in Donald Trump’s first administration. And yet, Pence has had moments in his post-Trump career, moments in which he sounds more reasonable than the people actually elected. Today, Pence helped pen an op-ed piece in which he cries that the Right has been divided away from its “principles” and that half of these folks are the never-to-be-damned-enough MAGA Repubs that seem intent on breaking the country in the name of Trump instead of sticking to traditional Right-wing ideals.
As The Hill reports, Pence is accurate in noting the deeply disturbing populist drive in this administration:
Former Vice President Pence warned in a new essay that the conservative movement is being threatened by what he describes as “populist fervor” and the “transformation into the anti-woke movement.”
Please don’t ask me what he means by the transformation of the Anti-Woke movment, only ponder whether Pence has ever considered what the opposite of “woke” might mean. Meanwhile, Pence doesn’t recognize his own work, or at least the movement that he helped build:
“An existential identity crisis now grips the American right,”
“A political movement once united by a commitment to limited government, moral order, and a robust defense of American ideals now appears fractured, its purpose clouded by populist grievances and ideological drift.”
He could’ve just as easily said grift, but we know what he meant. And speaking of anti-woke, has Mike Pence been asleep for the last ten years? The Right has been fractured ever since Donald Trump took charge. All the guys over at the Lincoln Project came from somewhere, and it wasn’t Mother Jones. No, Pence is referencing the Right that elected Donald Trump as fractured. He means that MAGA is broken and it’s been broken by, well – fellow MAGAs.
A lot of this has been brought on by the very sudden war with Elon Musk, along with the very real possibility of war with Iran – which is actually a fairly easy to see divide and one that nearly anyone could have predicted. Very few people want the U.S. involved in a war, even fewer want a Musk-Made car. Still, to the extent there is a divide, it is between those who believe that Trump does no wrong, ever, and those who didn’t believe that Trump could do wrong, until very recently when they saw Trump going against all that they saw him doing right.
Mike Pence will never get any sympathy here, not while he continues to war with our LGBTQ family. But the old boy really is miffed about something on the Right. On that we can share some sympathies. If only he would wake up enough to see that he is railing about the division in a movement that he helped create.
We will be waiting a long time if we want to see Pence stir from that nap.
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“the transformation of the Anti-Woke movement … ”
The actual quote was “transformation INTO the Anti-Woke movement … ”
Maybe that’s why you didn’t understand it. What it seems to mean is that this has become their hobby-horse, they are not thinking about anything but these stupid niche issues, they have become, as you say, morans.
I am by no means a fan of Mike Pence, but I was surprised you didn’t mention J6, in which Pence played a very important and (gasp, dare i say it?) heroic role in standing up to Trump for all the right reasons, and I am prepared to believe that this was a transformative experience for man whom you would not expect ever to have a transformative experience. I mean, he’s still Mike Pence, but possibly a BIT wiser?
I think Pence peeked over the precipice on 6 January and felt himself being shoved over the edge by Trump; he would forever be the scapegoat, assigned all blame for the resultant overthrow of the govt, had he not done his duty under the Constitution. Yes, he made a brave move but it was, after all, no more than he was required to do by the oath he’d taken. It’s to the ever-lasting shame of his party that he was one of very few Republicans to honor that oath that day. Pence, in that moment, lifted his head clear of the swamp.
“the transformation of the Anti-Woke movement … ”
The actual quote was “transformation INTO the Anti-Woke movement … ”
Maybe that’s why you didn’t understand what he meant — because that isn’t what he said. What I think he means is that this has become their hobby-horse, they are totally obsessed with these stupid niche issues, they have become, as you say, morans.
I am by no means a fan of Mike Pence, but I was surprised you didn’t mention J6, in which Pence played a very important and (gasp, dare i say it?) heroic role in standing up to Trump for all the right reasons, and I am prepared to believe that this was a transformative experience for man whom you would not expect ever to have a transformative experience. I mean, he’s still Mike Pence, but possibly a BIT wiser?
Problem: We know and understand his standing here. What is is standing and, therefore, impact where it matters among Republicans or, more accurately, on those in Congress who may be bestirred to start turning the tiller to SS US away from any of the various icebergs T is heading towards us, most urgently Iran and then … and then….
No,I don’t expect Pence to be that. There are already Republicans who have gone way beyond that. First to mind are Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
But remember, none of these people or people like them have any influence in the present Republican Party — er, Shitshow — and not through any fault of their own. There still are some moderate Republicans in more local levels of government, especially in cities and in Bluer part of the country, but they don’t have any influence in the national party either. Factio republicana delenda est — sanari non potest.
I took Latin for 2 dismal years because I had to but hated every day of it and retain just about bugger all, so do us plebes a favor and translate for us.