Mike Pence is cut from the same bolt of cloth as Captain Renault in Casablanca. He goes whichever way the wind blows, as long as he believes it will blow him one inch closer to power. These guys are not big on principles, only preservation. What a shame that only one of them is fictional, the other was a vice president who willingly sold out the values of his country and refused to stand up for either truth or the rule of law — and found himself running for his life with the Secret Service as a result, when Donald Trump finally and predictably went off his rocker and sent the mob after Pence on January 6.
Mike Pence has had ample opportunity to be a force for good, but that interests him far less than staying on top. A case in point, is the Christchurch Call To Action, which was convened by leaders from around the world in order to address the issue of far-right, extremist violence and to discuss how to deal with it, particularly on social media. It goes without saying that Donald Trump blew it off, but there was hope that Pence would attend and bring at least the appearance of the United States remaining a responsible force on the world stage. Nope, didn’t happen. The Bulwark:
Most people in the White House knew there was no chance that Trump would participate in the announcement of the Call to Action, but at one point those of us in Vice President Mike Pence’s office had convinced him to go instead. It would have put him on the stage with the world leaders committed to countering extremist networks.
But fear of losing “the base” led Pence to pull out of the event just three days beforehand. There was considerable debate within our office about whether the Call to Action represented a possible infringement of First or Second Amendment rights, during which it became clear that such concerns were excuses not to alienate key constituencies—with some White House advisers conflating gun rights and right-wing extremism as if the two couldn’t be dealt with separately.
Ultimately, the United States was represented at the Christchurch Call to Action meeting not by the president or the vice president or even the secretary of state, but by Kash Patel, who at the time was deputy senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council—or, in diplomatic terms, basically a nobody. The message about the Trump administration’s approach to far-right extremist violence couldn’t have been clearer. Given the challenges we were encountering on the issue of right-wing extremism, the absence of prominent American leadership at this event was notable—and noted.
The event included the launch of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) as an independent organization designed to help governments, the private sector, and experts counter extremist threats online. The first director of GIFCT is an American, Nicholas Rasmussen, who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center and on the National Security Council staff under both Bush and Obama.
As a non-signatory of the Christchurch Call to Action, the United States remains an outlier among democracies—a legacy of Donald Trump.
And it is precisely this legacy, which Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and the rest of their motley crew, you know of whom we speak, used as part of the foundation for their America First caucus. They were only up and running for a few days and then backed down immediately, when the blow back got too intense, but make no mistake, whereas the evangelicals and the Nazis and the gun fetishists may have once been fringe groups in the Republican party, in 2016, they coalesced and they became the Republican party.
Donald Trump was the GOP’s standard bearer because he represented what the party was about, what it had become. That was ghastly to contemplate then and it is a realization that sinks in more as we get past the Trump era and begin to see things with the perspective of hindsight. And now, the white nationalist, paternalistic, gun crazy doctrine that put Trump on the GOP ticket has manifested in the America First caucus, or Trumpism without Trump.
America First’s initial foray out into the world was met with coldness. But like the Terminator, they’ll be back. And God help us then. Because nationalism and fascism go hand in glove, always have always will.
” and Jesus don’t like killing, no matter what the reason’s for.” John Prine. Hard for me to believe anyone who hides behind Christ, while violating everything he taught, by word & example. Jesus called the devil the “father of all lies”(John 8:44). What’s his boy up to these days? 35,000-40,000 to date? The times that Jesus railed against hypocrisy are numerous. Geez, Qtip, get a phucking clue. Maybe next time the ex-president leads a violent insurrection, the democrats can send you out to ‘reason’ with your party. Pray first.
The cutting voice of Katherine Hepburn rings in my ears on Pence: “You’re a dull boy, dull as plainswords, la la la la, forever on one note. I gave the church up out of boredom, darling. I could do much the same for you.” True when she said it in The Lion In Winter, true now.
Renault had more personality and could be persuaded to do the right thing, unlike Pence (on both counts).
As to the America Last caucus (yeah, I meant that), they’re going to have smarten up considerably if they plan to get anywhere. And they need an ACTUAL leader, a position none of them are qualified to hold. The realistic scenario is that the Boomers will be dead and gone by the time they figure it out. Gen Xers like me are going to have the dubious distinction of dealing with their nonsense when it gets effective. They are SUCH slow learners.