A few days ago I hoped that Pence would channel his personal grudge against Trump to move the party in a different direction.
His actual announcement video is ‘highly produced’, full of standard quotes and standard images, which is normal. Until this month I would have dismissed this as meaningless, but this month gives us a different baseline. Both DeSantis and RFK chose to let Elon control their announcements, and Elon fucked them over, which is what Elon always does. A politician who submits to Elon exhibits poor judgment.
Pence took the older route and controlled his own announcement. The images and quotes make two points that show his determination to take revenge on Trump.
1. He says that Repooflicans should “appeal to the better angels of our nature”. He doesn’t explicitly contrast this with what Trump always does, but the contrast is obvious.
2. When he talks about tyranny the images are full of strangulation torture devices. When he talks about a better future the people are breathing.
He hasn’t converged YET. Good start.
Polistra's Mill 