Letter: Mike Pence: hero or opportunist?

Posted 7/8/22

To the editor:

Only once has Mike Pence stood up to Donald Trump and that was a political calculation rather than a courageous response.

Pence’s silence during the Trump presidency, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: Mike Pence: hero or opportunist?

Posted

To the editor:

Only once has Mike Pence stood up to Donald Trump and that was a political calculation rather than a courageous response.

Pence’s silence during the Trump presidency, and even after Trump’s outrageous, and dangerous decisions,and utterances,  really demonstrates a strategic “playing it both ways.”

Pence watched, and stood smilingly by, as Trump incrementally destroyed one Democratic institution after another. Always in the photo ops fawning,and with body language signifying approval,  he should not be honored as a true patriot and hero.

Denying Trump the continuation in office would give Pence the opportunity to run for President or another Federal Office in the future.  A Trumpian  imperial reign would hasten Pence’s retirement from public life and he knew this by the last months of 2020.

Too many Republicans who have made one decent remark, or vote on occasion with Democrats, are deemed heroic.  One out of character gesture does not compensate for all the other democracy eroding votes.

A legislator should be judged by the adherence to the true spirit of equality and fairness as exemplified in the majority of their votes and public pronouncements.

And from the opposite perspective the Republicans repudiate and vilify anyone who dares deviate, even once, from  their established positions.  Both of these reactions are patently wrong and are symptomatic of the corrosive atmosphere in present American politics.

Pence is not a hero, nor an apostate!

Betty Ussach

Dartmouth

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.