Prevarication Versus Lying

Mike Pence just published his autobiography So Help Me God and been on every talk show around. He proved to be the master of prevarication, the ability to talk evasively (beat around the bush, hedge, shilly-shally, little white lie). Pence was absolutely amazing at it and could easily do a TedTalk.

Pence has the voice of an emotionless newsreader. He almost makes Zuckerberg seem human. This would seem to be a problem for most politicians, but it’s worked for him. Pence on this score is the antithesis of Trump, perhaps his greatest asset in Trump’s mind. After all, there is no way he would upstage Trump. Pence claimed his guiding principles were for God and the Constitution. Not a problem for Trump who would make the same claims, but I assume Pence would believe them.

The prevaricating was mainly about being Trump’s VP. Start with January 6—the mob, “hang Mike Pence,” … Pence blamed it on bad advice Trump received from his lawyers. Ditto, about everything other reason to be critical of Trump. Bad advice from the Chief of Staff or someone else. Problems with Covid-19 were Fauci’s fault. God before science. Wow! It was brilliant. Granted, there was no nuance, but that seldom appears in politics anyway.

Pence was most honest about his opposition to abortion, a position he really believes in. Politically, this was a loser for Republicans but a win for Pence. No problem with that, except he accused Democrats of supporting abortion anytime up to birth. That was the closest he came to an outright lie. He may have believed it. He’s not the sharpest pin in the cushion. He may have said something equally over the top about the border, but I missed it.

In any case, consider him the Yoda of prevarication. Bow down before the master and learn. May the farce be with you.