Monday, August 28, 2023
I’ve alway thought of Mike Pence as sanctimonious and a phony. As I got to learn more about him while running on the 2016 ticket with Donald Trump I understood that he was both sneaky and conniving. That was as Governor of Indiana. A lot of sneaky people have come from that state. Once Trump won the office I saw Pence as fawning as well. So I have understood Mike Pence to be a sneaky, sanctimonious, fawning, phony for years. The first Republican debate gave even more evidence, which I will get to in a minute, but first let’s deal with an underlying premise of Mike’s and I’d venture to say whatever you want to call these folks who are now running and being elected as Republicans. They call themselves conservatives, but it is not the conservatism I grew up with. It’s really the right wing John Birch Society type of beliefs that have seeped into the conservative discourse and being. At the same time the John Birch Society was spreading their lies and poison William Buckley was going around spreading his. As a kid I remember watching and listening to it and thinking, “This is weird.” I didn’t quite understand why, but it seemed disingenuous. There was a phoniness to it that I couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe I could, but I didn’t know what to call it.
What Buckley would do is to have a guest on, and he’d make some slightly off center remark. He’d use a term or a word in a way that wasn’t the way most people would use the word. he guest would try to explain the misconception or inappropriateness. Buckley didn’t care. He’d keep at it until the guest would relent and use the term in the way Buckley had been using it, all in an attempt to try to get Buckley to understand. As soon as that happened Buckley would turn on the guest in an “ah-ha” kid of moment and skewer the guest. Buckley would then do his verbal equivalent on the church lady superiority dance and the guest would sit there pissed off.
One thing Mike said was, “compromise is not leadership.” That explains a lot about him and the right wing movement. Like Buckley he is letting you know the second he gets the upper hand he’s going to use it to bash your head in. We’ve seen other governors and Republican legislatures doing it as well. Florida removing and banning books, banning abortions, and firing prosecutors. Arkansas too. All through the south they are banning books, abortions, and rights.
Why? Because they can. Compromise is not what they are about. They believe they are right and anything else is wrong so what’s to compromise over?
But let’s get to the debate. I have to thank Brandon R. Grafius and his excellent article in Salon linked here:
which I am going to use for the base of the rest of this screed.
In that first debate Pence quoted the Bible. Except it wasn’t one quote it was two. He pasted them together and made it seem like one. The first part was from Jeremiah and the second from Deuteronomy.
The second part was written hundreds of years before the first. None of this had anything to do with abortion or the sanctity of life.
The first part was God telling Jeremiah he was going to be a prophet. The second was God telling Moses that to choose idolatry was death.
Mike gets around this two quotes problem by saying he opened the Bible.
The next slight of hand (or mouth) is that he said “he read” and “he knew.”
What Grafius points out is that between those two verbs is a giant leap, which is glossed over and that is “I interpreted.” Nice.
Okay, so let me choose my favorite Bible quote, “Thou shalt,” I continue,”commit adultery.”
What do you mean I left some stuff out? Oh. Okay. One word. Big deal. Mike left out whole chapters, verses and books. You think putting the word I missed might change the meaning? Yeah. Maybe.
I learned a big word from that article “hermeneutics” and a new to me term “proof texting.” The first means the study of interpretation. The second means force fitting your interpretation into some quote.
Lemme see, The Second Amendment has been proof texted to say any idiot can carry a weapon anywhere. Got it.
Now that some hermeneutics poop right there.
I think I need to work on my righteous sanctimoniousness.
Lastly, we ate at Chic & Ruth’s, an Annapolis institution. Anyone who is anyone in Maryland has their picture on the wall. They are known for a six pound milkshake called “The Colossal.” Drink that and eat a 1 1/2 pound sandwich in 60 minutes and you get your picture on the wall – and a t-shirt. (I think you don’t have to pay for the meal if you succeed.) The guy next to us tried. Three kids and their parents got one and managed to finish it. The kids were disappointed that they didn’t meet the challenge requirements.
We got the crab cake sandwich. It was okay, barely. A huge bunch of crab, breading and I’m not sure. What was off putting was the center was still soft and mushy. It was, I guess, barely cooked. The service was haphazard. She served us our crabcakes without cocktail sauce but no tartar, and disappeared until we were almost done. The place was grimy. Like years of grease and dirt on the walls. Floor was clean as were the table surfaces, but if you looked around – yikes.
There was a picture of a brunette on the wall. I couldn’t figure out who she was. Probably, in her early forties, string of pearls – tasteful. Looked of Italian heritage. As we were leaving we looked – Connie Morella, former Republican Congresswoman representing Bethesda, Maryland. She looked old when I saw her in the Giant supermarket thirty years ago. She’s now 92. Like Amanda Chase who posts the young blond picture of herself when running for office in Virginia, not the Trump-In-Heels worn out aggrieved look she now sports.
Below is what Mike said at the debate and in 2016:
“‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and see, I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.'”
*********
Here’s the breakdown:
First Part: Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Here’s the context:
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, 3 and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
The Call of Jeremiah
4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
6 “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
Second Part: Deuteronomy: 30:19
Here’s the context:
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
The Shake
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
PS – when we left the guy was slowing down. He had finished the sandwich, but the shake? Eh. Less than halfway and slowing to a stop.
Thank you for the explanation of biblical gobbledygook. I never read it because it is too difficult to try to
Plow through it to find any meaning at all. I was raised as a Catholic and we never referred to the Bible. It was translated by some hierarchical being in the church. The interpretation was called the Catechism.