Lessons for Republicans from Mike Pence’s Iowa Implosion

I’ve been watching presidential races since 1964, when I was 9 and backed Goldwater in our 4^th-grade school election. But I’ve never seen a takedown of a candidate like Tucker Carlson’s of Mike Pence. It surpasses even LBJ’s infamous Daisy ad saying Barry would get us all nuked.

Tucker pointed out the cities of this great country are crumbling, the economy is faltering, crime is up, the suicide rate has jumped. Then he said, “And yet, your concern is that the Ukrainians, a country most people can’t find on a map, who’ve received 10s of billions of U.S. tax dollars, don’t have enough tanks. I think it’s a fair question to ask, like, where’s the concern for the United States in that?

“Well, it’s not my concern,” Pence said. Then he made it even worse, adding, “Tucker, I’ve heard that routine from you before, but that’s not my concern.”

Amazing.

Pence was reflecting the views of the Washington Swamp and the Donor Class, especially the Military Industrial Complex. He’s from Indiana and used to understand the Heartland and the concerns of its people. As in fellow Hoosier Johnny Cougar’s “Pink Houses”:

Ah, but ain't that America for you and me?
Ain't that America? Somethin' to see, baby
Ain't that America? Home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses for you and me
Ooh yeah, for you and me

Well, there's a young man in a t-shirt
Listenin' to a rockin' rollin' station
He's got greasy hair, greasy smile
He says, "Lord, this must be my destination"
'Cause they told me when I was younger
Said, "Boy, you're gonna be president"
But just like everything else those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

Ah, but ain't that America for you and me?
Ain't that America? Somethin' to see, baby
Ain't that America? Home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses for you and me
Ah, yeah, baby, for you and me

Well, I don’t think Mike ever had greasy hair. But his presidential dreams sure came and went.

The fact is, even Americans who can’t find Ukraine on a map sure remember some things. Such as the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles perpetrated by a Republican president, George W. Bush. That brought 4,550 U.S. deaths in Iraq and 2,401 in Afghanistan. Plus an incredible 4.5 million deaths in the Bush-Obama-Biden wars throughout the Middle East, according to a new study by Brown University.

And they just heard Biden, a Democrat nobody trusts, called back 3,000 reservists to bolster the Ukraine debacle. Pence added, in his Tucker interview, the billions more he wants to send to Ukraine are only to arm the Ukrainians. This is called “mission creep.” And some of us are old enough to remember when LBJ, after smearing Goldwater, got us “stuck in the Big Muddy” of Vietnam, killing 58,000 American boys and 3 million Vietnamese.  

As to supplying Abrams tanks quicker to the Ukrainians, which Pence advocated, they just will get blown up quickly like the German Leopards. They also have an even bigger logistical footprint that will cost many more billions – before it, too, is blown up.

Republican legislators currently are back home on their summer recess. Because Tucker has such a big footprint – 9.1 million followers on Twitter – it’s his questions the locals will be asking all across this great big country. The “base” is with him and Trump. It’s the “base” that sends its sons – and now daughters – to these senseless wars and deployments.

Those with kids already in the military also are hearing about the “woke” policies imposed by Biden, SecDef Austen and Joint Chiefs Chair Milley. No wonder recruitment is down 25%.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville has tried to roll back some of these policies. That brought assaults by the Left, as in this from Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC blog, “Tuberville tries to avoid blame for his tantrum on military nominees.”

Well, Rachel, Mike, Joe and the rest of you: America’s families, especially the ones most likely to send kids off to the wars, are tired of being snookered. Go fight your own wars.