The Pence Tragedy

I hope that one day someone will write a tragic play about Mike Pence. The tragedy isn’t that Pence lost his presidential bid for lack of support. The tragedy isn’t that Pence destroyed his entire political future on the altar of the Constitution and his oath to defend it. No, the real tragedy is that Mike Pence lacked the courage and conviction to face the inevitable and tell Trump’s MAGAt’s the truth.

What truth? Where should I start? He should have been forthright and plain-spoken so that even the most uneducated of Trump’s followers would understand him. He should have told them that Trump was an incurious dullard who couldn’t be bothered to learn anything about being President. He couldn’t be bothered with affairs of state or international affairs unless there was a buck in it for him.

He could have told them that, for Trump, the Presidency was not a job. It was an achievement – like a medal or a certificate or perhaps a magazine cover. The Presidency was like a successful mega-rally or perhaps a meeting of luminaries with Trump photo-ops (sometimes his were merely counterfeit luminaries like Rush Limbaugh). For Trump, the Presidency was an opportunity to strut about like an aging, albeit eunuchoid, peacock in a blue suit and ridiculously long red tie (hiding a micro-penis) so that he could bask in the approbation of his adoring followers.

He could have told them that Trump always saw them and spoke of them as marks and losers – especially those who responded like Pavlovian canines to his every appeal for money after having told them at the outset of his debacle of a Presidency that he was so rich that he didn’t need financial contributors. Marks indeed!

He could have told them that any one of them, regardless of background, education, knowledge, skills, and abilities, would have made a better President than the fool they voted for. Why? Because although there are some men who are dumber, lazier, more self-involved, immature, dishonest and downright criminal than Donald Trump, there aren’t that many, and those men would have never voted for Donald Trump.

All of us find ourselves in pickles now and then. Every such situation can test our character. Do we curry favor for temporary advantage? Do we tell the truth? Look at Cassidy Hutchinson and compare her to Mike Pence.

I know which one I respect and admire.