Mike Pence and the 'Rise of Mediocrity'

He began as a talk show host in 1994 in small-town Indiana, fulminating about the global warming “myth,” the perfidy of Washington, and the verities of an evangelical Christianity menaced by cosmopolites. Piety swiftly merged with
pragmatism: ambitious for office, Pence learned what worked — an antichoice, antigay agenda served up with reckless
rhetoric couched in a pose of rectitude. He informed his
audience that Clarence Thomas was being “lynched,” and
that “despite the hysteria from the political class and the
media, smoking doesn’t kill.” A quarter-century later, Pence remains as small as his beginnings.

The flexibility of his conscience surfaced in his first race for Congress. He used campaign funds to pay for his mortgage,
car, credit card, golf, and groceries. Once in Congress, he
joined the Tea Party and displayed a rigid intolerance for
anything outside the crabbed confines of evangelical conservatism. He attacked sex education and reproductive choice with the zeal of Savonarola, decrying stem cell
research and the use of condoms to prevent STDs.

Trump recognized his appeal to the low information,
uneducated masses and tapped him for VP, and the
rest is history, as he stands behind the Orange Clown as a bobble-head, reminding us of why Trump shouldn't be impeached.

His war against LGBT rights is unyielding. He called
banning gay marriage “God’s idea.” He advocated
diverting money for AIDS research to “ex- gay” therapy
programs.

As governor, Pence spearheaded a “religious freedom” law allowing business owners to deny service to LGBT citizens. Struggling to defend this, he gave an incoherent interview to George Stephanopoulos which exposed his excruciating
inability to transcend robotic talking points. More than narrow,
he looked dense.

Shamelessly, he combined obsequious testimonials to Trump
as leader, family man, and Christian with transparent
calculation. Particularly revealing was Pence’s oscillation between toady and schemer in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” tape, where he bragged about 'grabbing pussy'. 

That’s Pence. His public persona reeks of smarmy
sanctimony — every untruth, evasion, and vacuous
 bromide delivered in a portentous pipe organ voice
 accompanied by squints, nods, and shakes of the head
which, Pence clearly imagines, convey a pious gravity. The
effect is that of an unctuous church elder selling pyramid schemes to credulous parishioners, never doubting he is
 doing God’s work. Every self-serving self-deception
reveals the depths of his shallowness, the breadth of his hypocrisy.

Yup, Pence is the culmination of an air-headed hypocrite's
rise to power among the people who believe a literal Bible,
 hate gays and actually believe FOXNews, picked by a
Barnum and Bailey huckster who needed more of a
connection to the yokels who fall for that stuff, AND VOTE.

Well played, Donald...