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June 20, 2022

Why are some on the left calling Mike Pence a hero?

By Rajan Laad

All through his tenure as vice president, Mike Pence was the target of the wrath of the Democrats and the Democrat P.R. wing that masquerades as the news media.

Since the Democrats devolved into inexorable lunacy targeting President Trump, the viciousness toward Pence wasn't as apparent.

But they despised Pence, for myriad reasons.

The leading reason is that he was religious and conservative and believed in traditional values.

Pence revealed that he does not eat alone with a woman or attend an event where alcohol is served unless his wife is present.  A marriage is a personal contract between two people.  If Mike and his wife Karen have set themselves a few rules, it is nobody else's business.

Yet Pence was derided.  He was called anachronistic and even misogynic by Democrats.

When a fly landed on Pence's forehead during the 2020 vice presidential debate, the insect received all the attention, while Pence, trouncing an incoherent Kamala Harris, was ignored.

When Pence was baselessly attacked by the cast of Hamilton, when there to watch the famous musical, the Democrats applauded it.

They were appalled when Pence stood by President Trump at public events.  They were repulsed whenever Pence led prayers in the White House alongside Trump.

He was called dangerous, hateful, bigoted, and a variety of other pejorative epithets.

But that hatred seems to be receding.  Some among the Democrats are even calling Pence a hero.

The following is a key excerpt from an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled "Mike Pence, stand-up guy":

Pence certainly showed great courage when he insisted upon remaining at or near the Capitol that day, especially considering that some members of the assembled rioters and protesters were clearly keen on killing him. In preparation, the mob had constructed wooden gallows featuring a noose intended for Pence's neck. A video shown during the hearing captured Trump supporters chanting "Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!"

The following is a key excerpt from an op-ed in the NYT entitled "We Should Thank Mike Pence for His Courage on Jan. 6":

Mr. Pence refused to leave the Capitol, instead staying to fulfill his duty to the Constitution, to the law, and to us. Let us talk about courage and what it meant on that day, and thank Mike Pence for what he did.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who was suspended from CNN for gratifying himself on a Zoom call, is back and is comparing Pence to Harrison Ford. 

Toobin was referring to Ford's cinematic U.S. president, who singlehandedly took on terrorists in Air Force One, or to Ford's deputy director of the CIA, who singlehandedly took on corruption and abuse of power in Washington in Clear and Present Danger.

This was Toobin's way of calling Pence brave, tough, and moral.

The Atlantic magazine said that Congress should honor Mike Pence by naming a building in Pence's honor.  Esquire magazine agreed with that idea.

Even CNN reluctantly joined in, saying Pence "did his duty to the country."

"Republican" Liz Cheney too called Pence a hero, obviously, and so did Democrat Jamie Raskin.

So what's going on here?

We know that the Democrats approve of only two kinds of Republicans.

The first variety is a dead Republican.

For the departed Republicans such as George H.W. Bush and John McCain, they lavished copious blandishments.  But all these glowing tributes are an excuse to conclude that "those days are over" and the GOP has now been hijacked by Trump and his extremist MAGA wing.

But if one revisits the media coverage of Bush and McCain during their presidential runs, against Clinton and Obama, respectively, it was exceedingly partisan and negative.  (Obviously, the viciousness was nowhere close to how they covered Trump.)

The second category of Republicans that the Democrats are fond of are those who publicly attack Trump.

Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, George Will, Bill Kristol, Colin Powell, etc. receive attention and praise for being NeverTrumps.  However, in the Democrat world, they are always second-class citizens.  They may be invited occasionally to galas and soirées, but they will always get the table in the corner that nobody else wants.

The latest entrant in the Second Class Citizen Club seems to be Mike Pence.  This is because he said, "President Trump is wrong" and proceeded to grandstand, saying, "The presidency belongs to the American people.  There is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.  Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election."

Does this wave of Pence fandom exist only because he went against Trump?

Not exactly.  The WaPo revealed its other motives in its op-ed:

Pence deserves broad support to keep Trump away from the 2024 Republican ticket. It is almost enough for Americans to register and vote in the Republican primary in 2024. Whatever follows couldn't be worse than another Trump presidency.

The Democrats know that Biden's catastrophic lack of leadership has crippled America.  There are 40-year high inflation, surging gas prices, and a supply chain crisis.  The border is open, which causes an influx of migrants, human trafficking, and smuggling of illicit drugs.  Biden's foreign policy is an unmitigated fiasco with the chaos in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

The Democrats know that irrespective of what they do, an emphatic shellacking during the midterms in November is certain.

They also know that Trump will win back the presidency in 2024, perhaps in a landslide such that rigging won't help.  If Trump doesn't run, the nominee is likely to be Ron DeSantis.  Both men are fearless in taking on the Democrats and uncompromising in implementing their agenda.

The Democrats probably think that if by some miracle they can keep Trump, DeSantis, and other strong candidates away and have a GOP nominee such as Pence, who is as plain as vanilla ice cream, they do stand a chance of winning.  Perhaps they replace Biden and Harris with relatively younger and brighter candidates to increase their chances.

These Democrats' hopes will always remain dreams.

Mike Pence has no chance of becoming the GOP nominee in 2024.  He never had much of a chance before, and his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, have foreclosed the likelihood that his home address will ever be 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Democrats know this, too, but they are using all they have to stop Trump.

The Democrats think the sharpest and most lethal arrows in their quivers are the January 6 hearings and other bogus investigations.  Propping up Pence is like aiming an arrow that may not travel too far and may not be sharp, but there's "no harm in trying."

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.

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