Don’t be fooled by January 6 – Mike Pence is still an absolute coward
Three things sum up the essence of Mike Pence, the former vice-president of the US: the first is that he reportedly calls his wife “Mother”. He has denied this, but he is creepy enough that the rumours have never been definitively refuted. The second is that he refuses to eat a meal alone with any woman who isn’t his wife. The third – which may be linked to the first two items – is that he doesn’t have a chance in hell of becoming president.
Ever since announcing his campaign for the 2024 nomination, Pence has been polling in the single digits. But you don’t need to look at the polls to realise that the 64-year-old’s chance of being the Republican nominee, let alone the next president of the US, are nonexistent – you just need to look at him. It may be a cliche, but passing the “would I have a beer with them?” test is still an important component of getting elected as president. Vibes matter. And Pence? He has all the vibes of a resurrected corpse of a 17th-century Puritan minister.
He has the politics of one as well. Pence, who is an evangelical Christian, is a reactionary zealot who spent his vice-presidency kowtowing to Donald Trump. He is the most anti-abortion mainstream presidential hopeful out there, supporting a federal ban on abortions at just six weeks and a ban on abortion even when pregnancies aren’t viable. He has spent his political career fighting to undermine LGBTQ+ rights and once argued that homosexuality was “learned behaviour”. He has downplayed the climate crisis and wants to ramp up fossil fuel use.
The good news is that Pence will never be president. The bad news is, rather than being a genuine presidential run, his campaign feels like a rehabilitation tour. One that seems to be working. And why wouldn’t it? There is nothing that certain factions of the US media seem to love more than whitewashing the reputations of odious politicians. Look at George W Bush: he has gone from being an accused war criminal to being portrayed as a lovable grandpa and latter-day hero. In March, for example, on the 20th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, the New York Times published a piece about all the overlooked good stuff that Bush did, with the headline “In This Story, George W Bush Is the Hero.” It was a fascinating way to mark the anniversary of a war that displaced approximately 9 million people, directly killed at least 300,000 civilians, destabilised the Middle East, and unleashed devastating environmental contamination that is causing birth defects in Iraqi children born long after Bush announced that his mission had been accomplished.
Pence doesn’t even need to wait 20 years for the “hero” treatment to begin. After all, he is the guy that, during the Capitol insurrection on 6 January 2021, bravely told Trump: “Look, mate, I’m not sure all the votes for Joe Biden were fake. I don’t think you did win the election.” During his appearance at the Iowa state fair last week, Pence played up the image of himself as the saviour of
US democracy and a lot of the media seemed to buy into it. “Pence is having a moment. It’s all about Trump and Jan 6,” a Politico headline read. “In Iowa, Mike Pence delivers a powerful message against Trump,” a Washington Post piece opined.
I am glad that Pence had the decency not to try to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election. But, let’s be clear, the fact that he refused to subvert democracy doesn’t make him a hero; it just means he did the bare minimum. One of the many pernicious legacies of the Trump era is how low he has set the bar for everyone else.
Even so, Pence cannot seem to find it in himself to properly stand up to Trump or his rabid supporters. In an interview with NBC over the weekend, Pence dodged questions about whether he considers himself a Maga Republican. Trump supporters wanted Pence hanged over his refusal to overturn the election and he still can’t denounce them!
Pence’s recent appearances are a profile in cowardice. He is clearly watching where the wind blows and if Trump seems to have a shot at another term I am sure we will see Pence grovelling at his feet. If Trump’s fortunes fade, then I’m sure Pence will suddenly become a lot more vociferous about his disgust at the Maga crowds. The sad thing is that there are plenty of people out there who will lap his contrition act right up.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
where things tend to fall over. This is not to disparage farmers: I know most of you care deeply about your stock and take pride in keeping them well and happy. But I also know all of you will have at least one neighbour whose paddocks you look upon with disdain. And at the supermarket, I can’t tell if a steak came from your paddock or theirs.
There isn’t really a term for this way of eating. That is, eating vegetarian except for occasionally sharing an omnivorous family meal made from meat of known provenance, or in circumstances where the host doesn’t know you prefer not to eat meat and would be embarrassed if you point it out. As a dietary preference, it usually deals in absolutes, which is a shame. It’s much easier to keep it up if you’re less strict about it. And the benefits don’t fade away if you eat the occasional beef rendang.
After two decades of this selective vegetarianism I moved back to the country, coincidentally with another Sam. (This is not on purpose, I swear.)
This Sam eats meat. Most of our meals are vegetarian, but he has started cooking red meat once a week. And although we have not grown the animals ourselves – our six sheep are purely ornamental – I don’t feel weird about eating it, because it was killed just down the road. It’s sold just down the road too, in an outlet shop in Kyneton where you can buy things like a whole eye fillet or a half rump or an unsettlingly large bag of mince. No one shopping there could maintain a mental distance between the huge hunk of meat and the animal it was once attached to, and that’s how it should be.
Not all of the suppliers to that abattoir are local, but many are and the animals are predominantly grass-fed, which means they were able to forage and live out on pasture. It’s not as good as knowing all their names, but it’s a start.