Let’s not put too fine a point on things. Mike Pence is a blowhard. He’s the worst kind of politician. Full of hyperbole. Useless in practical, economic matters. Actively harmful on social issues. This is not the kind of language I use lightly or often, but Pence seems to represent the worst in our public servants; the kind who talks a lot, often in superficial, cartoonish terms, but doesn’t seem to actually do anything except poison the political discourse.
Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times reports that Mike Pence warns of a descent into totalitarianism if he is not elected governor.
Pence warns that
[P]olitics is not about choosing right or left but up or down: “Up to man’s age-old dream — the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”
“That’s the choice Indiana faces today,” Pence said.
“That’s the choice Indiana faces today.” Individual freedom or the ant heap of totalitarianism. Really? I can’t imagine he actually believes that. Particularly when he embraced and continues to embrace the Patriot Act. It’s just something he says for money and votes.
As for legislative accomplishments, I Googled “Legislative accomplishments of Mike Pence,” and turned up a GovTrack page:
Mike Pence has sponsored 62 bills since Jan 3, 2001 of which 59 haven’t made it out of committee and none were successfully enacted.
Reminds me of the scene from Office Space when the Bobs ask Tom Smykowski to describe his function at Initech.
I’ll drink to all of that.
I fear for our state. My right leaning friends eat him up….they are shocked…shocked…that I don’t like him.
I’ll listen. I really will. I have some friends from Winchester who are truly decent people who love him. But I expect that there is some fundamental difference in the way I see the world from the way my friends see the world. And that difference allows them to see something useful in Mike Pence and validity in the things he says where I simply can’t.
The sad thing is, there’s no better option I know of.
Myself, I’d rather have 4 more years than Mitch than 4 years of Mike Pence.
Luke Kenley or David Long would be two that come to mind. I’d enthusiastically support West Lafayette’s Republican mayor, John Dennis.
I don’t know enough about Long, but you’re right that I’d rather have Kenley. Of course his promotion would mean there wouldn’t be any Republican intelligence in the Indiana Senate…
This is the best summary of Mike Pence I have seen, and I agree with it 100%. He represents the worst aspects of politics today–and that’s saying something. Unlike Daron, I don’t have ANY friends who can tolerate him, even less “eat him up.” Of course, I live in Downtown Indianapolis and my friends and neighbors are not his natural constituency.
My personal experience verifies this. I used to be a Republican. I listened to IBC a lot and loved his show. He presses on the “right” buttons and he’s got a great radio voice.
On his show he did a segment about some nursing home legislation that was pending and he railed against it as unneeded and big government intervention in a business that didn’t need the governments help.
Generally I agreed with Pence (and Limbaugh and Garrison) but this struck a cord with me. I emailed Pence telling him how I worked for a company that went around to quite a few nursing homes (I was a mobile phlebotomist) around the state of Indiana and his rosy picture of the state of these facilities were way off base. That many of them were dirty, understaffed, and compromising the health and safety of our Hoosier seniors. He sent a very curt email back in response saying that I was incorrect without providing any proof. He knew better than I even though I’d been to nursing homes in Muncie, Anderson, Richmond, Franklin, Evansville, every side of town in Indianapolis, and many more places around the Hoosier state.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later I figured it out. The sponsor of his show was a group that lobbied on behalf of all the nursing homes in Indiana. Having seen what I’ve witnessed in nursing homes across the state of Indiana, I never again listened to his show.
Let me give you an idea of what I witnessed. One nursing home (now closed) had cockroaches so bad that when you turned the lights on you’d see them scatter. The residents were in their day clothes in bed at night. The place reeked of urine and feces. There was very little lighting and they were woefully understaffed. In each tiny room I’d usually find four unwashed residents. Many times their clothes looked as if they’d not been changed in days or maybe weeks. I hated going in that place. It haunts me to this day that our elderly had to withstand that kind of living in their last days. Those faces, those hearts,… those people.
In the face of such a sellout, I couldn’t stand to listen to him any more. Once you see past his empty suit, you can’t unsee it.
I used to fear for the seniors of Indiana. Now I fear for the state and the country. He’s the most dangerous kind of politician there is. All God, mom, and apple pie in the front, corporate shill/fear monger in the back. He’s definitely poison. And for a state that’s already ill, I truly fear for the state in much the same way I feared for seniors.
I am free – but I would be scared to leave my home if Pense was Governor.
I am free – but all times I would have to watch over my shoulder if Pense were Governor.
I am free – but I could not live in Indiana if Pense was Governo.r
I am free – if Pense were Governor would I remain free?
Thanks for posting this. The GovTrack statistic was especially helpful – a good example of a basic statistic that voters should be aware of in some form, but that rarely makes it into the mainstream narrative about a candidate.
I’ve gone to a number of Pence’s town hall meetings and he does indeed put on quite a good show. As others have noted, I fear for the future of governance in Indiana given how effective that tactic alone seems to be here.
Chris
Good post, and so sad but true. Pence is the epitome of the “empty suit” and as you pointed out, he really has very little legislative, or more importantly, administrative accomplishments — unless you call his moralistic speechifying an accomplishment. Given the freak show that our state and national Republican party has become, we should not be surprised at how the party faithful have embraced this extremist. At least Mitch Daniels had ideas and a thoughtful approach to governing. ( I know, many of you will disagree with this last statement, but at least we had someone with a sense of what he wanted to accomplish — on a practical level — rather than this religious whack job.) Pence’s rhetoric reminds me of that other loon out there, Newt Gingrich, with his constant warnings of the apocolypse. While state government has been on a ride the last few years, I fear for what will happen if Pence gets elected. Let’s hope that John Gregg is able to mount an aggressive campaign that marginalizes this extremist to the few remaining thoughtful and non-partisan independents in the Hoosier state.
I’d be more concerned about a descent into totalitarianism if Mike Pence *were* elected as governor.
Marti: your story is very much in keeping with the experiences I’ve heard from other people regarding Pence. Someone I used to work with asked Pence to visit with some scholarship students. Pence (or one of his staffers) flat out refused and as much as said that the kids were immoral because their families received government assistance in the form of subsidized housing. I guess he doesn’t realize or care that many of his constituents live in subsidized housing or receive some other form of government assistance. What would he do as governor? Would he refuse to visit constituents who lived in “immoral” areas of Indiana?
I’ve had two very brief encounters with Pence, neither of which was pleasant. The first time was during his first (losing) campaign for Phil Sharp’s seat in Congress. Pence could barely look me in the eye and obviously did not want to shake my hand, although the situation required him to. The second time was several years later and after Pence had been elected to Congress. He was working the room, so my sisters and I couldn’t avoid him. He spent the entire few minutes he talked to us staring at our “girls.” We still laugh about it. Pence as governor, however, would be no laughing matter.