“I think it’s important to explain why calling Pence “a decent guy” is an affront to the real meaning of the word”
Cynthia Nixon
CPAC, the circus of Fox/AM stars, is the nation’s most toxic echo chamber. Once a year at the National Harbor, America’s true snowflakes meet to assure each other their pain is shared… and legitimate. They meet to draw the line squarely between righteous resentment and bigotry. They spend three days reminding each other over and over, the better to make it true, that the names they are called for expressing their beliefs are simply the sour grapes of those who have lost the argument. At CPAC all are vindicated because everyone agrees with one another.
Since 2016 Mike Pence has been the gathering’s true keynote speaker. While the President has appeared faithfully as well, his monologues can never be counted on to be coherent, let alone provide flesh to CPAC’s mission. It is left to Pence to stick to his script, first robotically rehashing Trump accomplishments in his patently servile manner, and then anointing attendees in the moral righteousness only his bible thumping can bestow, allowing them to fan out afterwards reinvigorated to kick some serious liberal, socialist, queer, illegal, climate changing, BLM, anthem kneeling, Caitlyn Jenner ass!
Pence doesn’t orate so much as hisses folksiness. He’s vanilla that has turned, exuding a faint acridness. At CPAC, like most other red meat gatherings he specializes in, the Vice President creates symmetry between his twin purposes. First, define the villain and then make sure everybody knows Trump is leading the charge against them. Coding and subtext are advanced and well understood at CPAC. Kicking the LGBT community back into the closet is not mentioned at all, it doesn’t have to be. The “war on religion” covers vast swaths of bigoted muck. Casting hate as victimhood is a Pence specialty, and he personalized it this year.
At Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia they take their demands for spiritual purity very seriously. Indeed, the contract for employment at the school spells things out clearly, particularly its 8th article:
“I understand that the term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman,” it reads, adding that certain “moral misconduct” would be disqualifying, such as “heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female.”
Tough love to be sure. Heroic Karen Pence had no problem signing away her privacy, and made no apologies for doing so. At CPAC, the Vice President, feted “mommy” as a heroine to the packed house, the whitest of snowflakes, withstanding the worst of MSM scorn with dignity and grace. One was reminded of Kentucky’s Kim Davis, basking in the prophood Mike Huckabee accorded after she stood bravely on the courthouse steps to deny sodomites marriage licenses, a culture warrior standing her ground.
CPAC used to be a curiosity, a gathering of extremist freaks without filters, unabashed Beck and O’Reilly groupies, a cautionary omen of the dystopian specter Fox/AM run amok could create. Of course, those of us too concerned about that possibility were ostracized as pseudo-conspiracists, obsessed with ghosts and frightened by fantasy. Now it’s real and Pence crystallizes how bad it has become, and how much worse it can get. What was nothing is still nothing…. but it now occupies the White House.
Anybody truly familiar with evangelical America is not the least bit surprised it can worship a serial philanderer; that was never part of its criteria for loyalty. Personal peccadillos may rule the day over at Immanuel Christian, but as far as Presidents go, it’s all about the womb. Abortion fanaticism is the Rosetta Stone of right wing obedience. Trump’s calculus has never considered anything else. Offending most American women never phased Trump. He is, after all…. offensive. But a full embrace of A Hand Maiden’s Tale sensibilities on a woman’s control of her body ensures a pass on anything as pedestrian as porn star payoffs or other seditious corruption. Last week’s House Oversight fiasco served notice the GOP will enforce such selectivity. Through it all will be steady Mike Pence, the nation’s leading homophobe and misogynist, ever ready to pound the good book and rally the zealots, just as he did Saturday.
Trumpism is a crisis at so many levels, but none more significant than this critical question: is overt bigotry against traditional Democrat constituencies such as women intent on keeping government out of their uterus; those interested in being allowed to enjoy non-heterosexual intimacy free from scorn and disdain by Puritan busybodies with nothing better to do; and brown-skinned immigrants classified as verminous interlopers bent on violent crime sprees, now simply a legitimate sector of our national discussion and quite naturally subject to rhetoric abided within other areas of debate? Trump’s ugly assault on near every White House convention has been fully normalized by the GOP; ascribing credibility to Trumpism’s nastiest policy sensibilities naturally follows. CPAC’s carnival barkers, keynoted by Pence and his unhinged hero, punctuated that desire this weekend. What boundaries? It’s all fair except calling us names.
Pence will keep at false equivalency because it’s in his wheelhouse. His is a constant whine of circular resentment. He announced long ago a sense of shame wasn’t a concept he pondered much. Now he uses his bully pulpit near exclusively to argue for the legal sanction of vast groups of Americans, legitimated by theocracy yet motivated by little more than fear and disdain… the foundations of Trumpism. At the end of the day Pence is simply vacant, a huckster with little to sell. He and his need to hear two words often… Get Lost! BC