"Either go away or go all the way in
Look at what you hold
Come back down on a spear of silence
When it flies
You go on through
You come on through"
Grace Slick, "Hey Fredrick," Jefferson Airplane, 1969
Grace slick was saying many things at once. Who knew what? Either she was talking about sex with an inexperienced lover. Or meth addiction. Or Nietzsche. Or losing a childlike faith. In a song, ambiguity works, if the music is good and the band catches the mood of an era.
Michael Pence is less fortunate. He is a shining example of the problem with failure either to go away or go all the way in. His semi-in/semi-out political messaging isn't working. He is mired at near zero percent and he gets boos. He is speaking out now, saying that "in 2016 Trump promised to govern as a conservative, and together we did." But now Trump has changed, Pence continues.
He was with Trump, but now isn't, not exactly, not anymore.
Pence has what he must have thought was a good, solid understandable message. He was all-in with Trump through 2016's campaign and even the Access Hollywood moment, and then all-in for four years of his presidency right up to the last two weeks. January 6 was the breaking point, though. Pence's case has a logic: If you like tax cuts, the anti-abortion judges, the Bible held up in the park, and the pushback on trans people and taking a knee at the national anthem, then you get a cleaner, purer form of Trump-ism -- but without the insurrection and the crazy tweets. A cleaned-up presidential Trump. Perfect, right?
No.
Pence misses an essential ingredient in Trump's appeal. Trump is all-in on being Trump, without reservation or apology. It makes Trump read as authentic, which many Americans read as honest. Trump isn't hedging.
Pence is half-in/half-out.
Pence, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswami, and Doug Burgum want support from Trump's supporters, so they send complicated messages of praise and disapproval. They like Trump and the MAGA vibe, but not outright criminality -- but it wasn't really criminal. Trump and his crowds were misunderstood. Or patriots.
Trump’s opponents’ positions look calculating because they are indeed calculated. Not Trump’s. Trump is conspicuous in his careless bluntness. Democratic and mainstream media pundits count 30,000-plus Trump lies, and they bemoan and marvel that Trump supporters believe the flagrant, ongoing con. How can he be so persuasive, they wonder?
Trump is persuasive because he sees and believes what he wants to see and believe so he has the salesman’s gift of sounding utterly sincere. This may serve him well in his upcoming court cases. He knew what he wanted to hear, so he integrated the election information and legal advice he wanted and only that. Democratic pundits can call it narcissistic and crazy; Republicans see it differently, as being resolute. Trump's imperviousness to unwelcome counsel is real. It was maddening for his former close advisors and cabinet officers, who are near-unanimous in their condemnation of Trump, and now are saying publicly that he is dangerously unfit. But to the wider audience of the GOP electorate, Trump's willfulness comes across as inner strength, integrity, fortitude.
Rambo-Trump flags are sold and displayed un-ironically.
That is what Pence cannot duplicate. Pence is an other-directed man, a slave to conscience, to faith, to a wife, to the GOP, to laws, to being consistent to his own prior statements. To outside reality. We see him calculating the political landscape and attempting to thread a needle on tiptoes.
Meanwhile, square-jawed Rambo Trump carries a big gun. He does what the hell he wants. He makes liberals cry.
I don't know any liberals tearing up at Trump's insults. The opposite seems to be true among those I know trying to survive in a very red part of Oregon. They love to gather and laugh about the latest right-wing insults, antics and political lechery perpetrated by Trump and his local followers who've managed to get themselves elected to public office. And they aren't just laughing. They were out saving the Mayor of Grants Pass from a senseless recall and are now working on restructuring county government.
It’s a shame how dispersed among the populace the trump cult is, listening & believing the lies of trump
& the other well known liars on fox, newsmax, bannon’s war room, Mike Flynn & their churches, all of whom who should lose their tax exempt status since they’re such the politicians now. Looks like the south was never defeated in the Civil War, as enemies within our government are simply more emboldened with each passing day. I reduce another landslide victory against the gop in 2024. The decent people of this country aren’t believing the lies & we are in the majority.