Talk about life in a bubble…Mike Pence has been hawking his book (“So Help Me God”) and in a recent interview with Chuck Todd, displayed the perceptive characteristics that prompted what I’ve been told was his law school nickname: dense Pence.
Pence’s smarmy opinions will come as no surprise to Hoosiers who watched Mr. Piety with growing alarm during his gubernatorial term. In the interview, Pence doubled down on his support for anti-choice laws. When Todd asked him to reconcile that support with his purported belief in limited government–to explain how his declared opposition to “invasive government” co-existed with his insistence that government force women to give birth– he simply repeated his clearly theocratic position.
Evidently, using the power of the state to impose the beliefs of fundamentalist Christians on everyone else isn’t “invasive government.” Who knew?
Pence also took the position that a fetus should be afforded constitutional rights–an opinion that places him at the very far reaches of the reactionary right.
As a snarky post on Daily Kos reported, however, he did exempt one medical procedure from the iron arm of the state: IVF–or fertility treatments. And why would this self-appointed “soldier of God” allow science to shape his approach to this method of assistingreproduction, when he pointedly ignores what medical science tells us about pregnancy and abortion generally?
Stay calm, America. While you’re taking some time to regain your breath after facing the raw, masculine courage it must have taken for a Republican to say out loud that maybe American citizens shouldn’t be thrown in prison for using a widely available infertility treatment that a creepy undercult of American society believes they and only they should be in charge of, you don’t need to be too surprised here. Yeah, it turns out a Republican thinks a particular medical procedure should not be criminalized only because it’s one that personally benefited his own family.
As that snarky post pointed out, this willingness to exempt a procedure because his family personally benefitted from it is patently inconsistent with the “theology” of “pro life” Christianists. (But then, giving the state authority over reproduction is also inconsistent with the libertarian conservatism that opposed requiring masks and/or vaccinations during a pandemic…Pence evidently read Emerson to say that consistency–rather than foolish consistency– is the hobgoblin of little minds…) (Silly me–I doubt Mike ever read Emerson, or for that matter, anything but his bible…)
The problem with IVF, then, is that if you believe that the primary role of God is to police everybody’s sex lives and make sure nobody is either making babies or not making babies without the express written consent of Himself, Major League Baseball, and/or whatever local pastor has a bug up his rectory about it, then the IVF process of fertilizing multiple eggs and implanting each of them into the uterus in the hopes that at least one of them will successfully attach and grow means all the fertilized eggs that don’t get used or which don’tsuccessfully attach themselves are all full-fledged human beings and well, now you, your partner, and the doctors are all serial killers for not being able to bring all those fertilized eggs to term as well. Many far-right religious conservatives want would-be parents to go to jail for that, too.
If Mike Pence thinks his incoherent theocracy will sell to the American public, he really does occupy a very small bubble.
Research tells us that 24% of American women will have at least one abortion by age 45. Fifty-nine percent of those women are mothers. According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans identifying as “pro-choice” rose to its highest level in June of this year.
Pro-choice sentiment is now the highest Gallup has measured since 1995 when it was 56% — the only other time it has been at the current level or higher — while the 39% identifying as “pro-life” is the lowest since 1996.
Even among those self-identifying as “pro-life,” there is diminished support for the sort of complete ban favored by Pence and his theocratic cohort.
The latest data show Americans are less likely than a year ago to say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, falling six points to 13%, the lowest Gallup has recorded for this position since 1995. At the same time, the 35% wanting it legal under any circumstances is the highest in Gallup’s trend by one point, after increasing slightly each of the past three years.
Pence’s obvious belief that his intransigence on this issue will help him electorally reminded me of something my kids would say to me after I uttered an observation that was wildly at odds with the national mood: “You don’t get out much, do you?”
Dense Pence doesn’t get out much.
Simply a distraction. Nothing to see there…….moving right along.
And if these politicians could at the same time both hold their religious objections to abortion, and realize we here in the US don’t make laws based on religious beliefs, our country would be so much better off. Where are those people? I might vote for them…
dence pence
pastor pence
I am sure there are more to be used
Pence and others who would advocate for constitutional rights for a fetus while denying the constitutional and universal human rights of women and children are the epitome of hypocrisy. The US is the ONLY country yet to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child guaranteeing rights to children that HAVE been born. And Alito makes it clear in the Dobbs decision that where Roe v. Wade was egregiously wrong from the start was in attempting to balance the constitutional rights of the unborn with the rights of women when NEITHER had any rights under the original bill of rights or even the 14th Amendment. States have rights. That’s why abortion is a now states-rights issue, the same way slavery was a states-rights issue after Plessy v. Ferguson.
The most interesting thing about dense Pence is that he has somehow convinced himself that he is a viable candidate for President. He might just be the most delusional person in our country’s history.
Ah, such memories of Monty Python’s masterpiece Every Sperm Is Sacred.
Do we dare ask how many times did Mother allow him to perform the marital duty with her, or should I say, to her? After all, procreation is the only reason to have intercourse, isn’t it? So if he was a normal hormone induced male, shouldn’t the stiff one have a gaggle of kids ? That would be a fact IF he truly believes his own BS that he spews.
Is he still a Catholic/not-Catholic, or is he Catholic again?
If his religion is going to rule our lives, we have a right to know every personal detail of his beliefs.
Judge not lest ye be judged, Mikey.
Pence and his fans pretend not to see abortion restrictions as a theocratic position because they have assigned life to a fetus. The next step in the theocratic progression is to confer life to sperm and egg cells because, like a fetus, they are potential lives. Voila, we will then be Roman Catholics of the 50s, bringing about what conservatives feared Jack Kennedy, a notorious sperm spreader, would bring about as President.
I like the phrase about the pastor with a bug up his rectory.
It amazes me sometimes how not very smart people are so eager to show their stupidity to the world. Pence takes that observation to new levels. He seems unfazed by the dropped jaws and glassy eyes of his audience, no matter its size.
How does somebody like even get THROUGH law school? How on EARTH did this cretin get elected governor of Indiana? It’s an easy call, therefore, to know that the worst human this country has ever produced picked him to be vice-president. WOW! It seems many of the people in Indiana are equally eager to show the nation how backward they are in choosing their representatives in government. The Hoosiers on this blog generally represent an intellectual sliver of great reason and fairness. Explain how you got that way in light of your social environment.
Vernon, I would like to think that I am part of that intellectual sliver here in Indiana. For myself it was one particularly openminded nun in grade school. She taught our second grade class about the beauty of racial diversity. “See how God made the flowers different colors. He did the same with people.”
But other teachings from those conservative Catholic days feel one by one to the realities I saw around me. At home intelligent and challenging dinner conversations were the norm. We were encouraged to read the paper and discuss current events. Our parents discussed politics when other relatives visited. Our own reasoning was challenged…. “Oh for Pete’s sake. Use your brain!”
Even, by reading widely and thinking carefully. Neither of which sense pence has apparently done.
That was to Vern. I hate spell check.
So, if Dense Pence runs, might it not be good for siphoning off monies, and energy, from the evangelicals?
Might we have a dystopian, black comedy to watch, as Orange TFG unloads on White Haired Cardboard person?
And the nicknames that TFG will produce for him might just be hilarious.
Yes, and save the Dems!
Theresa and Sharon: Thanks for the nod. Just when we think we’ve seen it all… Out pops the white-haired knucklehead and…wait for it…Herschel Walker, someone who defies description.
So, take heart, Indiana. Watch what Georgia does next week. OMG. Walker may lose, but not by much. Say, I hear the old Allman Brothers are giving lip-strumming lessons down in Macon.
So, 56% of Americans are Pro choice. And yet … it seems many of them apparently continue to vote for Republicans. I don’t get it. Perhaps we should blame this on the pro choice people and not the anti choice people. They’re so in love with the letter R and scared to death of the Ds. Many believe Democrats we eat Christian babies and other conspiracy theories. Frankly, I don’t believe they taste like chicken.
Vern, I am sorry to report that Pence and I graduated from the same law school, though I graduated eons before he matriculated. My professors were largely of the New Deal variety and I was neither the best nor the worst student in my class but did pass the bar the first time (before such bar was federalized). I have had occasion to pass two bars afterwards and belonged to the Seventh, Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court bars before resigning from the bar of the latter in protest of the court’s holding in Bush v. Gore, notifying the Clerk in my letter of resignation that I did not wish to be a member of the bar of a court that itself acted unconstitutionally.
Pence represents some but by no means all of the evils that can come from an amalgamation of church and state. One would think we learned our lesson from the history of the Holy Roman Empire, which Voltaire noted was “neither Holy, Roman, nor an Empire.” It was a Central European construct whereby the pope appointed the emperor. One of the more famous appointments by the papacy was Charlemagne (Charles the Great), who was illiterate – which reminds me hundreds of years later of the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, Hersch the Great (Trump’s appointee).
Perhaps Pence sees himself as Miguelmagne.
Thank you, Theresa, for mentioning Monty Python’s Every Sperm is Sacred. For those (like me) who have never seen it, here is the Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUspLVStPbk to all,
I will not purchase his book! Hopefully, few will purchase his BS!
It’s all a ruse. Pence is a performer. He started out in radio and turned politician when it suited him. Same with good ole religion. He read the pious lines, memorized them and repeats. He’s a snake.
Re your sentence:
“If Mike Pence thinks his incoherent theocracy will sell to the American public, he really does occupy a very small bubble.”
That bubble may be larger than we would like to think it is. The evangelicals did say that tRump was chosen by God to be our president.
Choose LOVE! I want that for a bumper sticker. “Choose life” has been weaponized for a rigid ideology that completely leaves out the health of the mother and family.
Pence is nothing but a dickless wonder–he stands for NOTHING, other than “I want power, and
I will say anthing to get it”. I marvel at not just the blatant inconsistencies in his allegedly pious Christian beliefs, like today’s post, but the fact that he still refuses to criticize Trump, who sat and watched television for 187 minutes while his fans were hunting Pence with the intent to lynch him. I mean–how can it be that the threat of imminent death by hanging for simply following the law wasn’t enough to get him to speak out against Trump? Why–because it might get some votes from the deplorables, of which Indiana has lots.
One of the most-obvious pandering I’ve seen is a campaign photo of him and infertile and clueless “Mother”, both wearing jeans and flannel shirts, posing next to a red pick up truck parked in front of a barn. Pence is a law school graduate. Neither of them ever claimed to live on a farm, to be farmers, or to even be related to any farmers. Who do they think they were kidding with this stupid photo? Don’t they understand that modern farms are big business, and such bucolic scenes are a thing of the past?
I love the Pence stories and comments. I regret tossing my no Pence signs…
https://www.theonion.com/mike-pence-asks-waiter-to-remove-mrs-butterworth-from-1819579759
Just another in a long long line of hypocrites including Franklin Graham, my AH “preacher” brother and all the other “Christian” Nationalists. BTW, here’s some light to shine on an otherwise gloomy day: https://www.princeton.edu/news/2022/02/18/nobel-peace-prize-winner-maria-ressa-stopped-her-nj-hometown-en-route-princeton
Pascal: I giggled at that one, too. Great play on words.
LeAnne: Good one as well! Mrs. Butterworth? Too much of a test for No Sense Pence! He cannot be real!
Barbara: Make a handmade sign or go on the ‘Net to find one.
Aging Little Girl: Another good one!
Katherine Ellis Baer: Thanks for the link!
And those on the other side who support absolutely no gestational limits whatsoever, an extremely unpopular position, aren’t taking a position every bit as radical as Pence?