Poor Mike Pence.
This week Pence told the Fox audience:
"The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes … essentially to overturn the [2020] election. And to keep faith with the oath that I made to the American people and to Almighty God, I rejected that out of hand."
Maybe this is a tragedy, the fall of a great man, waiting for a modern Sophocles to write the play.
Maybe this is a farce, and Pence is a bumbling fool.
Maybe it is a country song.
It has the elements of a tragedy. As the Vice President, Pence was a man of stature, not the king, but equivalent to a prince. Hamlet was a prince.
Pence had a tragic flaw. He was the symbol of rectitude, giving cover to the king by defending him even when his behavior was venal, dishonest, and indefensible. He chose loyalty over virtue, right up until the king demanded he sacrifice all honor and do treason. Then, finally, he returns to virtue. He expects to be rewarded for this.
Instead, he is scorned and belittled by the leader: "Liddle Mike Pence." He is booed by the chorus. He is 2% in the polls.Now he is experiencing reversal (Aristotle's peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis) of his error. He realizes he threw away virtue and reputation for nothing. His ambitions are doomed. And he did it to himself.
The public experiences catharsis. We see the consequence of Pence's errors.
I see it as tragedy.
Others tell me they see farce. Pence was always a laughable figure, they say. A prig. A goody-goody who called his wife "Mom." He loaned out his reputation for virtue to a flagrant rule breaker, making him a cheap whore. The humor comes from how blind he was to his degradation. And he is still blind.
Too honest??? No. His hat should read "Too little. Too late." He is a fool.
I got nobody to blame but meShe broke all my fishing rodsPut my guns in hockThrew my clothes out in the yardAnd changed out all the locksAnd I got nobody to blame but meI got nobody to blame but meI know right where I went wrongI know just what got her goneTurned my life into this country songAnd I got nobody to blame but meI got nobody to blame but me
Michael Pence could sing this, but he isn't. The tragic arc is still underway. He must sense his doom but he does not acknowledge it yet. His campaign website is still selling the hat. The hat is $27. The tee shirt is $30.
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5 comments:
I read that before the vote Pence called Dan Quayle, a former VP, to ask his opinion on what he should do. Dan told him that he had no choice. His only duty was to count the votes and record them. So, that's what he did. It's wasn't heroic, it was his duty.
When people take a position in service to their country, they take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Refusing to violate that oath isn’t heroic, it’s their duty. When Mike Pence was lauded as some kind of hero – or traitor, depending on the party – for simply doing his duty, I felt we had reached a new low. Let’s hope it isn’t the new normal.
Pence spent hours on the phone trying to find anyone who would help him do Trumps bidding, without suffering any consequences; It was reported by several sources that after speaking to Judge (retired) J. Michael Luttig, among others, he finally called Dan Quayle, who backed what everybody else told him he had to do: Certify the Vote !
Hero, my shiny red behind; He did what he did to stay out of jail, not because he's "too honest". I find it hard to believe that he's polling as high as 2 % in his, imho, quixotic attempt at running for President.
To me it is the height of arrogance for Pence to run for president.This refusal to go along with trump on January 6 is the first time he did so, in four years of trump's presidency. If he was really a man of virtue, he would have resigned the vice-presidency early on, when he saw trump's many misbehaviors.
His other positions on issues are just as reprehensible, especially on abortion.
Nothing will come of his candidacy.
It seems that also DeSatanist's candidacy is beginning to collapse. I hope.
I might worry about Tim Scott, who sounds at least normal, of getting the nomination, but I doubt that the right wing would nominate a Black man.
Ed, seeking legal advice should never be a crime. You are free to not like the guy but it was appropriate for him to do that.
Diane, today's right wing's favorite people list include Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens, Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, Martin Luther King Jr, Chef Rush, and even Chapter Jackson (a food stamp taking rapper from LA). Obama, the first African American president, flipped NINE red states blue.
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