‘I Do Solemnly Swear,’ &c.
On Mike Pence and Donald Trump; dissidents and dictators; marrying outside your party; and more
“You’ll go down as a wimp,” President Trump told his vice president, Mike Pence. That was because Pence was not going to betray his oath of office on January 6, 2021.
To read about this, go here.
In my view, Pence will go down as an American, for his conduct on that critical day. He stood up as an American.
And we could use a lot more of that.
For many years now, I have said that I have two main prayers for Republicans: that they recover a proper sense of patriotism and that they recover a proper sense of manliness.
“Wimp,” indeed. More like a man.
***
Leopoldo López is a Venezuelan democracy leader and a former political prisoner. He now lives in exile, in Spain. I wrote a profile of him in 2021, here. The dictatorship in Caracas is now threatening to strip him of his “nationality,” or citizenship.
López tweeted about this here.
I thought of another democracy leader and former political prisoner, in exile: Nicaragua’s Félix Maradiaga. I wrote about him in 2023, here. That year, he was released from prison and flown to the United States, along with about 200 other prisoners. His wife, daughter, and mother had been in America throughout his imprisonment.
Here is something I wrote, about the prisoners and their transfer:
Their plane landed at Dulles Airport, outside Washington. To see and hug his family was “surreal,” says Maradiaga, and “a miracle.” Other exiles were unluckier—for they had had to leave their families behind.
There was another blow, to all of them: On landing, they learned that the regime had stripped them of their citizenship. The regime regards them as traitors and mercenaries. The ex-prisoners regard themselves, of course, as Nicaraguan patriots, unlike the brutes who rule the country.
Yes. And the likes of Leopoldo López will always be more Venezuelan than the likes of the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro—who is propped up by Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, and other such regimes.
Venezuelan patriots want their country to be neither a police state nor a puppet.
***
You may well have seen this news: “Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, high-profile cryptocurrency figure.” The article underneath that headline says,
The pardon caps a monthslong effort by Zhao, a billionaire commonly known as CZ in the crypto world and one of the biggest names in the industry. He and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family’s crypto enterprises.
Republicans have been very successful with the initials “TDS”—standing for “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” If you think that something smells, or is off, you suffer from “TDS,” you see.
No, you don’t: You are thinking and smelling clearly. Don’t internalize the Trumpers’ criticism, their tag: “TDS.”
That is how they wear you down, and it’s up to the individual citizen not to be worn down.
***
Another headline: “Trump’s Son Is Poised to Profit From Pentagon Drone Proposal.” (Article here.) Again, you are not the problem. Don’t be embarrassed at suspecting that something is off ...
***
Here’s my coach—I mean, the coach of my NBA team, the Detroit Pistons: “Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff says gambling implications are scary for NBA players and coaches.” Find that article here.
Says Bickerstaff, “When you get in bed with sports betting and gambling, there’s a lot of things that come with it. All money ain’t good money.”
***
Care for a language item? Frequently, I hear people say “full circle” when they mean “180.” Something to watch ...
***
An interesting obit, headed “Sirikit, Glamorous Queen of Thailand Who Wielded Power, Dies at 93.” I loved what she said about meeting her husband: “It was hate at first sight, because he said he would arrive at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. He arrived at 7 o’clock, kept me standing there, practicing curtsy after curtsy.”
That obit, incidentally, is written by Seth Mydans, the veteran foreign correspondent: a legend. I once asked him to be a guest on my podcast. He said he was no longer doing public things: talks and interviews and such.
Not a limelight-seeker. Something else unusual about him ...
***
I learned a word from a reader (in England): “saurophile”—a lover of lizards. Responding to a recent column, he wrote,
... love those pictures of Central Park! Beautiful. Do you ever get lizards in the park? I’m a bit of a saurophile. I thought our own local park was rather devoid of reptiles, but one of the volunteers assured me that he had spotted the Eurasian common lizard there on more than one occasion, basking early in the morning. It’s their very secretiveness and small size that makes them so successful—you can find them from Ireland to the Sakhalin Islands, and from the Mediterranean to just inside the Arctic Circle, believe it or not.
I’ll be darned. (I have never seen a lizard in Central Park—but then, I am not exactly on the lookout ...)
***
In a different column, I wrote,
James Jackson Kilpatrick was a conservative political writer. Very conservative. Marianne Means was a liberal political writer. Very liberal. Late in life—when he was in his seventies and she was in her sixties—they married. I would see them toddling around the neighborhood.
That was Georgetown, in D.C.
A reader says,
For decades (I’m 56), I’ve been exasperated by the way partisanship gets in the way of important things. Before I got married—about which more in a moment—I despaired when people told me that they couldn’t imagine being married to someone who didn’t agree with them politically. “That’s small-minded,” I thought, though I kept my opinion to myself.
I got married when I was 47, having been single all the previous years. My wife is a political liberal, a woman of the Left. Her parents are Democrats, too, her father especially so. I’m a conservative. ...
What can I say about the woman I asked to marry me? She’s good, kind, decent, thoughtful, generous, funny, intelligent, responsible, respectable, hard-working; she’s a devoted teacher—we teach in the same music department in a state college—a devoted daughter, sister, and niece. And wife. She and I have lots and lots to talk about. We’ve been carrying on a conversation for more than ten years, and I can’t get enough of it. I don’t love her for her politics. I love her for her.
On their first date, they went to see Fiddler on the Roof—one of whose songs goes,
Matchmaker, matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
Catch me a catch.
(What a great lyric, by the way: Sheldon Harnick.)
Our reader says,
I found me a find—finally—and didn’t let her get away.
Thank you, one and all.
Watch a man’s behavior — consider it without reference to party/side/team/tribe/whatever — judge the guy on himself — respond accordingly — rinse & repeat
Pence is despised by today's "conservatives" (which they aren't), and one can disagree with some of his political views, but yes, he is a man. When Trump said he'd "go down as a wimp," I imagine him having said "I'd prefer that to being a traitor, which is what I would be if I did what you want, Mr. President." Thanks Mr. Nordlinger.