Friday, September 08, 2023

Well done Mike Pence! But Michael Brown gets a fail.

My second look at Mike Pence and Michael Brown....

Mike Pence under the Shadow of Trump

Michael Brown (left) once spoke out against Trump's "prophets" (Right).

Mike Pence, ex-vice president under Trump, has spoken out against Trump and as a result is now on the receiving end of Trump's insults and lies.....



I did my last post on Pence and Michael Brown here: In that post I applauded Pence for his stand against Trump in favour of the American democratic constitution. I also applauded Brown for being a voice of reason and moderation in the crazy world of Trumpite evangelical dominionism. He also appeared to be attempting to ween his right-wing readership off Trump. 

Since my last article on Pence and Brown, Mike Pence has consolidated his anti-Trump position by default simply by coming out as a potential POTUS candidate; by merely running as a candidate Trump regards Pence as a rival, traitor and enemy. It goes to show that as far as Trump's perception is concerned the presidency isn't about policy, even Republican policy, but it's all about Trump-truth and Trump-power.  For Trump there only two kinds of people in the world: Those who have fealty to him and those he targets as enemies & rivals to be dominated. This man is a would-be-despot and an indicted criminal.  He must be stopped. I wish Pence Godspeed and protection with his campaign. I'd be very happy if he became president.

But since my last post on Pence and Brown, Brown has stayed remarkably mute about Trump. In his newsletters (which I receive) he continues to harp-on about issues he knows are a safe bet with his right-wing constituency and won't alienate them (Viz: attacks on gays, blended gender, abortion, and the far left), but says next to nothing about Trump. The reason for this is undoubtedly because he knows that if he comes over as anti-Trump he would lose a lot of support, support that is his bread and butter.  And yet a candidate like Mike Pence would share many of Brown's views, but Brown knows his career will take a hit if he publicly supports Pence.

A Warning to Michael Brown
It is important to understand that I am not talking here about Christians coming down on the side of either the politics of traditional Democrats or traditional Republicans, where presumably the politics of both parties doesn't threaten the American democratic system. No, what is at issue here is the Trump personality cult which brings to my mind the prophet Samuel's warning against Israel's desire for the potentially despotic rule of an earthly king. This personality cult, egged-on by none other than Trump himself and Vladimir Putin, threatens both Democrat and Republican and above all America's peaceful democracy. It is this which Michael Brown has so conspicuously failed to speak out against.  Moreover, why hasn't he disowned the cranky conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Green and Mike Huckabee to mention just two of a whole nest of right-wing conspiracy fantasists? This isn't about party politics, it's about an encroaching evil. 

I suppose it's easy for me to criticize Brown as, unlike Brown, I have no audience constituency to keep sweet. Perhaps Brown should retire on a pension and then he can become a real independent prophet and not a crowd pleaser. 

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The following article on Trump-Pence relations is reproduced below:

'Absolutely False': Donald Trump Slams Ex-VP Mike Pence for Going to the 'Dark Side' and 'Making Up Stories' About Him (msn.com)

Donald Trump isn't very happy with his former vice president.

The embattled ex-prez took to his Truth Social platform to slam Mike Pence for allegedly spreading lies about his actions surrounding the January 6th Capitol riots. 

"For 7 years Mike Pence only spoke well of me. Now he’s decided to go to the 'Dark Side,'" Trump wrote on Wednesday, September 6. "Why didn’t he do this years before, just like why didn’t DOJ and Deranged Jack Smith bring these Fake Indictments three years ago."

"Why did they wait until the middle of my Campaign where I am beating DeSanctimonious and all others badly, and beating Biden in almost every Poll?" he ranted.

Trump continued to trash his ex-VP in a second message, claiming that he'd just watched Pence "make up stories" about him that he insisted were "absolutely false."

"I never said for him to put me before the Constitution — I don’t talk that way, and wouldn’t even think to suggest it," he argued. "Mike failed badly on calling out Voter Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, and based on the fact that he is at approximately 2 percent in the Polls, with no money or support, he obviously did the wrong thing."

"His advisors have led him down a very bad path!" he concluded

Despite his hesitance to believe the 77-year-old committed a crime, Pence has still repeatedly called out the former POTUS for his behavior on January 6, 2021.

"I believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United Sates again," the 64-year-old politician said when launching his own presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, September 6, Pence gave a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, declaring that Republican voters must choose between conservative values and the populist movement within the party.

"When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. And together, we did just that," he told the crowd. "But it’s important for Republicans to know that he and his imitators in this Republican primary make no such promise today."