The outpouring of Jan. 6 journalism is proof that Kamala was right to compare it to 9/11. But I vote for Heather MacDonald’s astringent take on all the hypocrisy it has inspired:
You've heard the expression when you're a hammer, everything's a nail? Heather's a hammer. I don't disagree with her on lots of mainstream media hypocrisy. There was definitely that when you look at the coverage of the riots just six months prior, which destroyed a lot more property and got a lot more people killed - not per capita, but because there were so many of them. Though five people did die during January 6th, and it's hard to credibly suggest that wouldn't have happened had they been at home sitting on their couch, instead of gang-fighting over an election that had already been demonstrably lost. And that's not including the police officers who took their own lives afterwards. Though it is including Officer Brian Sicknick, who it's now fashionable to lie about. An otherwise healthy 42 year old drops dead of natural causes the day after he got bear-sprayed and had the fight of his life? C'mon. His family doesn't buy it. And if you actually read the medical examiner's report, it doesn't fully acquit the rioters either. As the Washington Post reported: "Diaz’s ruling does not mean Sicknick was not assaulted or that the violent events at the Capitol did not contribute to his death. The medical examiner noted Sicknick was among the officers who engaged the mob and said 'all that transpired played a role in his condition.' The Capitol Police said in its statement that the ruling “does not change the fact Officer Brian Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.” Trump apologists completely gloss over that, dishonestly. Though they're right that all these media types who are newly concerned about police safety didn't seem to give a toss when lefty activists were beating the snot out of cops night after night just months earlier. That's fair to say. The fundamental difference, however, between BLM/Antifa events and what transpired at the Capitol is that Joe Biden and company didn't directly lead them into battle, even if they looked the other way for their misdeeds, and were sometimes even apologists and bail-posters for them. Trump did. And he did it for a reason: to overturn an election and undo democracy to serve his selfish ends. Which he's still trying to do. Almost every day. It wasn't a one-time slip. That's unforgivable and dangerous, and it's helping to destabilize the country. Still.
You’ve done a lot more homework than I have, particularly on Officer Sicknick. So if Heather The Hammer got that wrong, I’m just as guilty. But neither of us is guilty of making excuses for Trump, or of whataboutism with respect to 1/6. What Trump did may be uniquely evil, but I think that if Trump’s objective was to destabilize the country, he did a piss-poor job of it. (See the messaging of his allies while it was happening.) I’m willing to accept that people think there was an insurrection that threatened democracy (I don’t really have a choice , do I?), but I simply can’t believe it was an existential moment for our country For me, the common thread connecting the BLM riots and the attack on the capitol is terrorism—the attempt to cause political change by violent means. Those responsible should be publicly shamed and prosecuted, especially including Trump. Biden (and his party) should focus on that rather than trying to score political points off an ugly and tragic event. Again, like Heather, I think a number of people were disappointed that nothing bad happened on Jan. 6, 2022. Those people are no better than Trump, just less open about their cynical lust for power.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my comment.
To me, your thinking is coming from a lack of imagination. I am not saying to build a fairy tale but a logical, straight line of what would have happened if all that was planned came to fruition.
- they planned on bombs going off at both the RNC and DNC
- they had planned for more 'soldiers' to come across the Potomac WITH guns
- they planned to HANG the VP AND speaker of the house - taking out the next two in line for the presidency
- they planned to HOLD as many members of congress HOSTAGE!!!!! perhaps killing them every so often until their demands were met
This is just for Jan 6. I assume that there is more we don't know publicly.
If ALL of what they had planned happened, would you still have this point of view that it wasn't an existential threat to democracy?
Imagine, if you will, all of these that we know were planned but failed to be executed, what the threat really is.
Of course, it isn't just Jan 6. That is only the visible symptom. We have one of our two major parties that has authoritarians in control with it's own propaganda network and with the internet, it's own propaganda machinery.
Please consider what is at stake. Most people who live through a coop, NEVER SAW IT COMING!
Well, maybe it’s a failure of imagination on my part; but from what I’ve read, at least one of the public safety agencies was aware of the potential for mayhem and couldn’t get it together to adequately prepare. So I guess forewarned is not necessarily forearmed, and even those who “saw it coming” were impotent to stop it—although I think they might have, and well short of the death and destruction in detail laid out in your worst case scenario.
If I flew at you a little hard, Dennis, I didn't mean to. You've been here a lot, and I know you're a good man. I have just been in conflict with a lot of otherwise reasonable people I know over 1/6 - people who should know better - so I'm a little extra peppy on this subject. I actually hope you're right, more than I hope I'm right, and that as horrible as the visuals were, it didn't amount to much. That it wasn't some crossing-the-Rubicon moment. Just another blip in the Absurdity Olympiad. I'd be more willing to believe that, however, if I didn't hear the rhetoric that animated what caused 1/6 parroted over and over again by pundits and congresspersons and people I know, who try to make it all okay. It wasn't okay. And if we ever try to make it okay, then shame on us. (Not saying you were doing that.) And by the way, I'm all for consistency. Violence on any side is unforgivable, and there has been violence on both sides. That is not something we want to get used to. Once we do, all bets are off.
Sorry, Lorraine. (Great last name.) I try not to force it if not inspired. But since we were writing about gallows, here's maybe the best hanging song ever recorded (admittedly, not a lot of competition)- Billie Holiday's haunting "Strange Fruit": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI
Matt, you can do better than that! I was considering The Who ''Won't get fooled again'' but it is obvious that not only will they but they haven't stopped! ;-) I need to consider this some more.
As a youngest boomer CO3 voter, it’s most disappointing to see QBoert support out here, but not as disappointing that fellow critics fail to use my favorite #housedunceofcongress
All in all, thank you for your p of v that informs your writing. Who can quibble with one who so clearly understands and honors the tribe within (our dog buddies)? But it frosts my nuggies that you all keep capitalizing the gop. In fact they don’t deserve either capitalization or capitolization!!! How about the FOP or the OFP or the GDFAH? Also, I don’t believe that having , say 8 members of the gop can be considered to constitute a political party. Time to move on and kick out the jams!
It is hard to believe the beautiful words of your Spots in Time essay and the cheap shot, cool kids, middle school comment about Pence came from the same place.
Well, I contain multitudes. What can I say? Most of us do. It might have been cheap, which isn't exactly the same as saying it wasn't well-deserved. Pence enabled behavior over the years that he should be ashamed of. And it came home to roost, right on him. So I don't have much in the way of pity for the guy. If someone flirts with overturning democracy, they're going to get a sharp elbow from me. He ultimately did the right thing, but just barely. And probably only because he thought he couldn't get away with doing the wrong thing.
The conversation with Quayle isn’t at all convincing on the question of what Pence WANTED to do. It’s hardly surprising that Pence consulted with people like Quayle who had informed views on the powers of a VP. That would make it possible for Pence go back to Trump and say, “I talked to all the experts. I even talked to Dan Quayle. They all say it would be wrong.” Doing due diligence gave Pence a credible out. It doesn’t follow from the fact that Trump was leaning on Pence like a ton of bricks that Pence WANTED to yield to that pressure.
Nor would I blame Pence if he actually DID think seriously about doing what Trump wanted. Leaders hardly ever reach good decisions without first thinking about the lousy options. The evils of wrong choices don’t always come into clear focus till you look at them from all sides. I think that’s what Pence did.
2 cent's worth here, offered with no animus toward you or your comment...or even Mike Pence, really.
While "leaders" do, no doubt, think about "the lousy options" in reaching "good decisions", referring to Pence as a leader, even tangentially, is on par with referring to him as a "hero" in its inappropriateness.
While I am quite glad and grateful that in the end he made a "good decision", I see him as neither leader nor hero. He was just a politician and, as VP, a fawning enabler, who took the spot in furtherance of Mike Pence more than in furtherance of the "good" of the country.
I doubt he's the sharpest tool in the shed, but he ain't stupid. He knew, or should have known, perfectly well what he was getting into when he signed on, and if he didn't, well, Trump had conned a lot harder marks than him by then, but I doubt it took Pence long to figure it out. And he was more than willing to play the role. Probably should have gotten an Oscar for it. No one can fawn like Mike.
Again, glad he did what he did, no matter his motivation or reasoning. But all he is in the end is a guy who did one thing right after doing a lot of other things wrong vis a vie his VP-in-charge-of-fawning & enablement role.
The fact that he had to seek advice and didn't just see all other "options" besides the one he ultimately chose as being lousy all on his own pretty much defines the guy for me.
Pence spent four years covering for Trumpian atrocities - purportedly against his own religious convictions. He's spent the year since minimizing what happened, which could've very well gotten Pence and his wife and his daughter killed or injured if it had gone a little differently. Not to mention half of congress. Which was mostly his boss's fault. But why was that Pence's response? Because he's a political jello sculpture who wants to keep his options open. It doesn't speak well of his intellectual heft that a guy who is famous for spending 4/5ths of his life on a golf course and who doesn't even know how to spell potato had to set him straight. And with all due respect, it isn't even a "lousy" option to consider throwing out the Constitution and throwing over democracy, the straw that stirs the drink. The very thing that makes this country possible. Doing so would've been an act of treason. So I'm not going to give Pence a gold star for not committing treason, the same way I wouldn't give him a gold star for not committing murder. Any civilized person just wouldn't do it. If not committing treason at your boss's behest (even and especially if he's the president) is considered worthy of a merit badge, we're in much bigger trouble than I thought.
With all due respect, I think both of you, Mssrs. Trosino and Labash, have unrealistic expectations of human nature. It's way too easy for us, sitting self-righteously at home with our iPads in our laps, to tell ourselves that, if it had been us in the VP's office, we would have yelled "Get thee behind me, Satan" the second we saw the John Eastman memo. Yet even our Lord, who knew very well the "right" thing for him to do, prayed long and hard that he be permitted to forgo it. The temptation for Pence must likewise have been tremendous.
So Pence was never much of a "leader" in office (yes, vice presidents are traditionally included among our nation's "leaders" -- don't make too much of it). So he did made a lot of us cringe for four years with his obsequious book-licking. So he never took his eye off the main chance. I'm with George Eliot, who wrote: "The blessed work of helping the world forward happily does not wait to be done by perfect men; and I should imagine that neither Luther nor John Bunyan, for example, would have satisfied the modern demand for an ideal hero, who believes nothing but what is true, feels nothing but what is exalted, and does nothing but what is graceful. The real heroes of God's making are quite different: they have their natural heritage of love and conscience which they drew in with their mother's milk; they know one or two of those deep spiritual truths which are only to be won by long wrestling with their own sins and their own sorrows . . . ."
For a year Trump and his cult have been calling Pence a "coward" for not giving into pressure from Trump and the mob. I don't insist that Pence be held up as a "hero". But the least we can do is give the man credit for wrestling with it all and finding his spine at the moment when it counted the most.
Maybe Pence SHOULD'VE been the guest at a necktie party. & he was once quoted as saying that the " voice of God ", " Heavenly voice " told him that he could've been a better president than # 45, which ain't exactly a ringing endorsement.
I’m such a rule follower, that it’s hard for me to not vote. And I actually love voting day. I love waiting in line with my neighbors, cheering for first-time voters, getting my sticker, I eat it up. Even if I am voting for third-party candidates that are never going to win. In 2020 I actually wrote in a candidate for the first time, which was exciting as well! However your Boebert/Cawthorn ticket could be the one stop me from voting - so congrats on that! I hate to wish for a party to burn itself to the ground, but it it might be the best thing for the Republicans at this point. Hilarious as always!
I hear ya'. I've done and felt most of the above at one time or another over the years. While I have to admit my enthusiasm has waned, my determination to continue to vote each and every time has increased exponentially. I just keep waiting for the ballot to have a place for me to mark my preferred choice: None of the above.
But in 2016 I did something I'd never done before, which I think might be an example of how much we take for granted sometimes. And what little effort it took turned out to be quite worthwhile for an unexpected reason.
I live in a rural area of MI near a 1-stoplight town, which is where my voting precinct is. This is dyed-in-the-wool Trump Country around here. But the local township and city officials have always run and been elected as Democrats. Go figure.
When I went to vote in '16, the township hall was crowded, as expected. But the atmosphere was different from all the times I'd been there over the past 3+ decades. There was a perceptible tension in the air, that air having been filled with the odor of all that ugly and foul noise about rigged elections. Not as many smiles or as much laughter and open casual conversation as in the past. A lot more low voices and whispers. Things were almost somber during the time I was there.
Don't really know why it occurred to me to do this, but as I encountered each poll worker in going through the process of getting my ballot, many of whom had been doing their jobs for years, I simply said "Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it." From their responses, I gathered they didn't hear that sort of thing very often.
As I was leaving, I saw the lady who was in charge of running the show, someone who had also been doing that job for a long time. On impulse, I walked over to say something to her, not knowing the effect the few words I would say to her would have. I told her that in spite of all the ugly BS that had been bandied about concerning rigged elections and such, my wife and I had every confidence that everything here was on the up & up and would be done properly, and I thanked her for her efforts.
She looked at me silently for a second or two, and I realized that tears were starting to well in her eyes. She put her hand over her mouth for a second to compose herself. Then she sort of patted me on the side of my shoulder and told me that I couldn't know how much hearing that meant to her. She was retiring, and this would be the last election in which she played this role. And things had been tough this time around. She didn't elaborate on the meaning of "tough". She just sort of gazed around the hall as she spoke the words. It was starting to get a little dusty for some reason at that moment, so I just wished her a happy retirement and beat feet for the door.
So, there are two things I do now when I vote. I cast my ballot. And I say thank you. Don't want taking things for granted to be my style anymore.
Thank you so much for writing this. And you are absolutely right. I actually had a similar thought in 2020, and told the woman that was in charge of the registration verification that I was very thankful for her work and that I was sure it had been a long day. However, I like I how specific you were with your words and how you expressed confidence in the process. That extra step is extremely meaningful and I think my thank yous could possibly use a refresher. I’m struck more and more every day about how desperate we are for human kindness. I don’t want to take things for granted anymore either!
Thank you, Matt. Your writing, insight and choice of topics has been a consistent buoy for the past few months. Hats off the JVL for insisting I subscribe, his wisdom is remarkable. This, like the Keillor piece earlier in the week has managed to keep me in good spirits as I quarantine for 10 days. (Okay, you don’t have to feel sorry, I am in the Turks and Caicos islands, but still..) Every read since Bluebirds has hit me perfectly square. I can’t wait until fishing season starts! I hope you and your family are on the other side of this insidious virus.
Your Gerald Ford quip brought back memories, that was my first real vote as a Republican. I'd turned 18 a few months before, and continued to vote for every Republican nominee for the next 40 years. I left the GOP for good in 2016 even before Trump was the official nominee; I knew if he was the best the party could do we were in real trouble. I couldn't have imagined how much worse the reality would be.
If a slicker, saner, less narcissistic, more mature, less - obviously UNHINGED version of # 45 decides to run in '24, WE ARE TRULY IN DEEP MERDE. The " Trumpvangelicals " will go after him like Elvis fans hearing that they successfully cloned The King.
That was awesome Matt, sorry I am so late, been really busy with life these days...lol
This article really nailed it for me. It restored my faith in humanity. Thank you for taking the time to make it so very enjoyable to read.
" All I have to go by" really sets the table.
The outpouring of Jan. 6 journalism is proof that Kamala was right to compare it to 9/11. But I vote for Heather MacDonald’s astringent take on all the hypocrisy it has inspired:
https://www.city-journal.org/insurrections-and-double-standards
You've heard the expression when you're a hammer, everything's a nail? Heather's a hammer. I don't disagree with her on lots of mainstream media hypocrisy. There was definitely that when you look at the coverage of the riots just six months prior, which destroyed a lot more property and got a lot more people killed - not per capita, but because there were so many of them. Though five people did die during January 6th, and it's hard to credibly suggest that wouldn't have happened had they been at home sitting on their couch, instead of gang-fighting over an election that had already been demonstrably lost. And that's not including the police officers who took their own lives afterwards. Though it is including Officer Brian Sicknick, who it's now fashionable to lie about. An otherwise healthy 42 year old drops dead of natural causes the day after he got bear-sprayed and had the fight of his life? C'mon. His family doesn't buy it. And if you actually read the medical examiner's report, it doesn't fully acquit the rioters either. As the Washington Post reported: "Diaz’s ruling does not mean Sicknick was not assaulted or that the violent events at the Capitol did not contribute to his death. The medical examiner noted Sicknick was among the officers who engaged the mob and said 'all that transpired played a role in his condition.' The Capitol Police said in its statement that the ruling “does not change the fact Officer Brian Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.” Trump apologists completely gloss over that, dishonestly. Though they're right that all these media types who are newly concerned about police safety didn't seem to give a toss when lefty activists were beating the snot out of cops night after night just months earlier. That's fair to say. The fundamental difference, however, between BLM/Antifa events and what transpired at the Capitol is that Joe Biden and company didn't directly lead them into battle, even if they looked the other way for their misdeeds, and were sometimes even apologists and bail-posters for them. Trump did. And he did it for a reason: to overturn an election and undo democracy to serve his selfish ends. Which he's still trying to do. Almost every day. It wasn't a one-time slip. That's unforgivable and dangerous, and it's helping to destabilize the country. Still.
You’ve done a lot more homework than I have, particularly on Officer Sicknick. So if Heather The Hammer got that wrong, I’m just as guilty. But neither of us is guilty of making excuses for Trump, or of whataboutism with respect to 1/6. What Trump did may be uniquely evil, but I think that if Trump’s objective was to destabilize the country, he did a piss-poor job of it. (See the messaging of his allies while it was happening.) I’m willing to accept that people think there was an insurrection that threatened democracy (I don’t really have a choice , do I?), but I simply can’t believe it was an existential moment for our country For me, the common thread connecting the BLM riots and the attack on the capitol is terrorism—the attempt to cause political change by violent means. Those responsible should be publicly shamed and prosecuted, especially including Trump. Biden (and his party) should focus on that rather than trying to score political points off an ugly and tragic event. Again, like Heather, I think a number of people were disappointed that nothing bad happened on Jan. 6, 2022. Those people are no better than Trump, just less open about their cynical lust for power.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my comment.
To me, your thinking is coming from a lack of imagination. I am not saying to build a fairy tale but a logical, straight line of what would have happened if all that was planned came to fruition.
- they planned on bombs going off at both the RNC and DNC
- they had planned for more 'soldiers' to come across the Potomac WITH guns
- they planned to HANG the VP AND speaker of the house - taking out the next two in line for the presidency
- they planned to HOLD as many members of congress HOSTAGE!!!!! perhaps killing them every so often until their demands were met
This is just for Jan 6. I assume that there is more we don't know publicly.
If ALL of what they had planned happened, would you still have this point of view that it wasn't an existential threat to democracy?
Imagine, if you will, all of these that we know were planned but failed to be executed, what the threat really is.
Of course, it isn't just Jan 6. That is only the visible symptom. We have one of our two major parties that has authoritarians in control with it's own propaganda network and with the internet, it's own propaganda machinery.
Please consider what is at stake. Most people who live through a coop, NEVER SAW IT COMING!
Well, maybe it’s a failure of imagination on my part; but from what I’ve read, at least one of the public safety agencies was aware of the potential for mayhem and couldn’t get it together to adequately prepare. So I guess forewarned is not necessarily forearmed, and even those who “saw it coming” were impotent to stop it—although I think they might have, and well short of the death and destruction in detail laid out in your worst case scenario.
If I flew at you a little hard, Dennis, I didn't mean to. You've been here a lot, and I know you're a good man. I have just been in conflict with a lot of otherwise reasonable people I know over 1/6 - people who should know better - so I'm a little extra peppy on this subject. I actually hope you're right, more than I hope I'm right, and that as horrible as the visuals were, it didn't amount to much. That it wasn't some crossing-the-Rubicon moment. Just another blip in the Absurdity Olympiad. I'd be more willing to believe that, however, if I didn't hear the rhetoric that animated what caused 1/6 parroted over and over again by pundits and congresspersons and people I know, who try to make it all okay. It wasn't okay. And if we ever try to make it okay, then shame on us. (Not saying you were doing that.) And by the way, I'm all for consistency. Violence on any side is unforgivable, and there has been violence on both sides. That is not something we want to get used to. Once we do, all bets are off.
No music at the end? That's why I continue reading these articles. Oh well, I'll read the next article to see if at the end there's music.
Sorry, Lorraine. (Great last name.) I try not to force it if not inspired. But since we were writing about gallows, here's maybe the best hanging song ever recorded (admittedly, not a lot of competition)- Billie Holiday's haunting "Strange Fruit": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI
No “Gallows Pole” by Zep?
Dammit, that's a good one, Kev. Hindsight is 20/20. We'll get 'em next hanging piece.
You forget The Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley”
Matt, you can do better than that! I was considering The Who ''Won't get fooled again'' but it is obvious that not only will they but they haven't stopped! ;-) I need to consider this some more.
Read Roger Daltrey's book if you haven't, Brian. It's wonderfully entertaining.
As a youngest boomer CO3 voter, it’s most disappointing to see QBoert support out here, but not as disappointing that fellow critics fail to use my favorite #housedunceofcongress
Hashtag. What’s wrong with people?
They're people. No apparent cure for it.
All in all, thank you for your p of v that informs your writing. Who can quibble with one who so clearly understands and honors the tribe within (our dog buddies)? But it frosts my nuggies that you all keep capitalizing the gop. In fact they don’t deserve either capitalization or capitolization!!! How about the FOP or the OFP or the GDFAH? Also, I don’t believe that having , say 8 members of the gop can be considered to constitute a political party. Time to move on and kick out the jams!
Thank you for taking time to respond to me.
your humour is top notch political satire,keep it up
It is hard to believe the beautiful words of your Spots in Time essay and the cheap shot, cool kids, middle school comment about Pence came from the same place.
Well, I contain multitudes. What can I say? Most of us do. It might have been cheap, which isn't exactly the same as saying it wasn't well-deserved. Pence enabled behavior over the years that he should be ashamed of. And it came home to roost, right on him. So I don't have much in the way of pity for the guy. If someone flirts with overturning democracy, they're going to get a sharp elbow from me. He ultimately did the right thing, but just barely. And probably only because he thought he couldn't get away with doing the wrong thing.
What is with Pence, Pompeo and Trump doing those Moonies speeches? A grift? Or is the Moonies cult support on the ground or something? I don't get it.
I think that last is a bit unfair, and almost certainly not true.
Not according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who reported he consulted Dan Quayle (Dan Quayle!) to see if there was any way of giving Trump what he wanted, before being talked out of it: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/dan-quayle-talked-mike-pence-rejecting-trump-what-story-n1279406
The conversation with Quayle isn’t at all convincing on the question of what Pence WANTED to do. It’s hardly surprising that Pence consulted with people like Quayle who had informed views on the powers of a VP. That would make it possible for Pence go back to Trump and say, “I talked to all the experts. I even talked to Dan Quayle. They all say it would be wrong.” Doing due diligence gave Pence a credible out. It doesn’t follow from the fact that Trump was leaning on Pence like a ton of bricks that Pence WANTED to yield to that pressure.
Nor would I blame Pence if he actually DID think seriously about doing what Trump wanted. Leaders hardly ever reach good decisions without first thinking about the lousy options. The evils of wrong choices don’t always come into clear focus till you look at them from all sides. I think that’s what Pence did.
They don’t come into focus when you lack a moral compass.
He debased himself for Donald Trump for four years. As far as I’m concerned he’s human filth, just like all Trump enablers. He’s scum.
2 cent's worth here, offered with no animus toward you or your comment...or even Mike Pence, really.
While "leaders" do, no doubt, think about "the lousy options" in reaching "good decisions", referring to Pence as a leader, even tangentially, is on par with referring to him as a "hero" in its inappropriateness.
While I am quite glad and grateful that in the end he made a "good decision", I see him as neither leader nor hero. He was just a politician and, as VP, a fawning enabler, who took the spot in furtherance of Mike Pence more than in furtherance of the "good" of the country.
I doubt he's the sharpest tool in the shed, but he ain't stupid. He knew, or should have known, perfectly well what he was getting into when he signed on, and if he didn't, well, Trump had conned a lot harder marks than him by then, but I doubt it took Pence long to figure it out. And he was more than willing to play the role. Probably should have gotten an Oscar for it. No one can fawn like Mike.
Again, glad he did what he did, no matter his motivation or reasoning. But all he is in the end is a guy who did one thing right after doing a lot of other things wrong vis a vie his VP-in-charge-of-fawning & enablement role.
The fact that he had to seek advice and didn't just see all other "options" besides the one he ultimately chose as being lousy all on his own pretty much defines the guy for me.
Pence spent four years covering for Trumpian atrocities - purportedly against his own religious convictions. He's spent the year since minimizing what happened, which could've very well gotten Pence and his wife and his daughter killed or injured if it had gone a little differently. Not to mention half of congress. Which was mostly his boss's fault. But why was that Pence's response? Because he's a political jello sculpture who wants to keep his options open. It doesn't speak well of his intellectual heft that a guy who is famous for spending 4/5ths of his life on a golf course and who doesn't even know how to spell potato had to set him straight. And with all due respect, it isn't even a "lousy" option to consider throwing out the Constitution and throwing over democracy, the straw that stirs the drink. The very thing that makes this country possible. Doing so would've been an act of treason. So I'm not going to give Pence a gold star for not committing treason, the same way I wouldn't give him a gold star for not committing murder. Any civilized person just wouldn't do it. If not committing treason at your boss's behest (even and especially if he's the president) is considered worthy of a merit badge, we're in much bigger trouble than I thought.
With all due respect, I think both of you, Mssrs. Trosino and Labash, have unrealistic expectations of human nature. It's way too easy for us, sitting self-righteously at home with our iPads in our laps, to tell ourselves that, if it had been us in the VP's office, we would have yelled "Get thee behind me, Satan" the second we saw the John Eastman memo. Yet even our Lord, who knew very well the "right" thing for him to do, prayed long and hard that he be permitted to forgo it. The temptation for Pence must likewise have been tremendous.
So Pence was never much of a "leader" in office (yes, vice presidents are traditionally included among our nation's "leaders" -- don't make too much of it). So he did made a lot of us cringe for four years with his obsequious book-licking. So he never took his eye off the main chance. I'm with George Eliot, who wrote: "The blessed work of helping the world forward happily does not wait to be done by perfect men; and I should imagine that neither Luther nor John Bunyan, for example, would have satisfied the modern demand for an ideal hero, who believes nothing but what is true, feels nothing but what is exalted, and does nothing but what is graceful. The real heroes of God's making are quite different: they have their natural heritage of love and conscience which they drew in with their mother's milk; they know one or two of those deep spiritual truths which are only to be won by long wrestling with their own sins and their own sorrows . . . ."
For a year Trump and his cult have been calling Pence a "coward" for not giving into pressure from Trump and the mob. I don't insist that Pence be held up as a "hero". But the least we can do is give the man credit for wrestling with it all and finding his spine at the moment when it counted the most.
Amen.
Maybe Pence SHOULD'VE been the guest at a necktie party. & he was once quoted as saying that the " voice of God ", " Heavenly voice " told him that he could've been a better president than # 45, which ain't exactly a ringing endorsement.
Kudos on making your point in such a deviously humorous way.
Thank you for helping me cling to sanity through saw toothed humor. I had platform shoes too and an afro to go with it! Ahh the goodle days.
Man, you're lucky. I didn't go the full fro route. Missed opportunities.
I’m such a rule follower, that it’s hard for me to not vote. And I actually love voting day. I love waiting in line with my neighbors, cheering for first-time voters, getting my sticker, I eat it up. Even if I am voting for third-party candidates that are never going to win. In 2020 I actually wrote in a candidate for the first time, which was exciting as well! However your Boebert/Cawthorn ticket could be the one stop me from voting - so congrats on that! I hate to wish for a party to burn itself to the ground, but it it might be the best thing for the Republicans at this point. Hilarious as always!
I hear ya'. I've done and felt most of the above at one time or another over the years. While I have to admit my enthusiasm has waned, my determination to continue to vote each and every time has increased exponentially. I just keep waiting for the ballot to have a place for me to mark my preferred choice: None of the above.
But in 2016 I did something I'd never done before, which I think might be an example of how much we take for granted sometimes. And what little effort it took turned out to be quite worthwhile for an unexpected reason.
I live in a rural area of MI near a 1-stoplight town, which is where my voting precinct is. This is dyed-in-the-wool Trump Country around here. But the local township and city officials have always run and been elected as Democrats. Go figure.
When I went to vote in '16, the township hall was crowded, as expected. But the atmosphere was different from all the times I'd been there over the past 3+ decades. There was a perceptible tension in the air, that air having been filled with the odor of all that ugly and foul noise about rigged elections. Not as many smiles or as much laughter and open casual conversation as in the past. A lot more low voices and whispers. Things were almost somber during the time I was there.
Don't really know why it occurred to me to do this, but as I encountered each poll worker in going through the process of getting my ballot, many of whom had been doing their jobs for years, I simply said "Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it." From their responses, I gathered they didn't hear that sort of thing very often.
As I was leaving, I saw the lady who was in charge of running the show, someone who had also been doing that job for a long time. On impulse, I walked over to say something to her, not knowing the effect the few words I would say to her would have. I told her that in spite of all the ugly BS that had been bandied about concerning rigged elections and such, my wife and I had every confidence that everything here was on the up & up and would be done properly, and I thanked her for her efforts.
She looked at me silently for a second or two, and I realized that tears were starting to well in her eyes. She put her hand over her mouth for a second to compose herself. Then she sort of patted me on the side of my shoulder and told me that I couldn't know how much hearing that meant to her. She was retiring, and this would be the last election in which she played this role. And things had been tough this time around. She didn't elaborate on the meaning of "tough". She just sort of gazed around the hall as she spoke the words. It was starting to get a little dusty for some reason at that moment, so I just wished her a happy retirement and beat feet for the door.
So, there are two things I do now when I vote. I cast my ballot. And I say thank you. Don't want taking things for granted to be my style anymore.
No need to wait for “None of the Above” on the ballot. That was my write-in for the 2016 presidential race. True story.
Thank you so much for writing this. And you are absolutely right. I actually had a similar thought in 2020, and told the woman that was in charge of the registration verification that I was very thankful for her work and that I was sure it had been a long day. However, I like I how specific you were with your words and how you expressed confidence in the process. That extra step is extremely meaningful and I think my thank yous could possibly use a refresher. I’m struck more and more every day about how desperate we are for human kindness. I don’t want to take things for granted anymore either!
Thank you, Matt. Your writing, insight and choice of topics has been a consistent buoy for the past few months. Hats off the JVL for insisting I subscribe, his wisdom is remarkable. This, like the Keillor piece earlier in the week has managed to keep me in good spirits as I quarantine for 10 days. (Okay, you don’t have to feel sorry, I am in the Turks and Caicos islands, but still..) Every read since Bluebirds has hit me perfectly square. I can’t wait until fishing season starts! I hope you and your family are on the other side of this insidious virus.
Thanks, Firefour. Now I'm jealous.
A fine exposition. A+
Your Gerald Ford quip brought back memories, that was my first real vote as a Republican. I'd turned 18 a few months before, and continued to vote for every Republican nominee for the next 40 years. I left the GOP for good in 2016 even before Trump was the official nominee; I knew if he was the best the party could do we were in real trouble. I couldn't have imagined how much worse the reality would be.
If a slicker, saner, less narcissistic, more mature, less - obviously UNHINGED version of # 45 decides to run in '24, WE ARE TRULY IN DEEP MERDE. The " Trumpvangelicals " will go after him like Elvis fans hearing that they successfully cloned The King.