Mike Pence goes completely off the rails
This past week, Mike Pence called Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice John Roberts a “disappointment.” Why? Well, apparently because he thinks Chief Justice Roberts “has been a disappointment to conservatives” in light of the outcomes of several high-profile Supreme Court opinions. To that, I say this: Mike, deal with it.
Many people, Mike Pence included, seem to forget that the Supreme Court and Congress are the heads of the Judicial and Legislative Branches, respectively, which make them in equal power to the head of the Executive Branch, i.e. the President. It would make more sense to think of the United States government as a tripartite republic than a nation governed by just one branch of government. Certainly, the Framers of the Constitution had the former in mind with the express intent to prevent a king-like head of state.
In other words, the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts especially, can tell Mike Pence to eat shit. Even if the Supreme Court had a fealty or obligation to political whim, which it doesn’t officially have, I find it rich that Pence would call Chief Justice Roberts a “disappointment.” “Why?” you ask? Well, because there’s a mountain of evidence to suggest that Pence isn’t just a disappointment, he’s also so stupid as to be dangerous.
Infamously, during Pence’s tenure as governor of Indiana, he dropped the ball on one of the worst HIV breakouts in recent American history. Over 200 people became infected with HIV in a county with a population of just about 24,000, and the outbreak only reached that peak because Pence was hesitant to start a needle exchange for drug users.
Pence was so incompetent that even some Indiana Republicans were eager to see him leave office. “Under Mike Pence, Indiana’s lagging economy and poor income strength for Hoosiers has the entire state falling behind the national average… Gov. Pence prioritized a social agenda that included RFRA, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, and a ban on Syrian refugees.” Not a good look. More recently, he’s failed us time and time again in doing something useful to allay the COVID-19 pandemic.
And apparently, being dangerously stupid runs in the family, too. Pence’s older brother, Representative Greg Pence, has “Jim Crow-era memorabilia placed throughout” his mall in Edinburgh, Indiana.
I could go on for some time. But what truly makes Pence a world-class dangerous idiot is this: Pence is a hypocrite and a liar whose legacy will be one of complicity and moral turpitude. For what little he will be remembered, it will be for his role as Trump’s asleep-on-the-job handler—the man who could have helped steer us away from the cliff edge, but did not. For a man who considers himself a patriot, there is surely no worse fate than having a legacy of betrayal against your country. George Will wrote for the Washington Post about how Pence — not Trump — is the worst person in government today, and you know what? He has some good points.
So Pence, next time you want to call somebody a “disappointment,” remember your past, consider your legacy, and then shut up.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness