Mike Pence: America's Most Out-Of-Touch Presidential Candidate.

by Jon Kurpis

On a recent episode of the Jordan B. Peterson podcast, Peterson interviewed former Vice President Mike Pence to discuss his current campaign for the 2024 presidency. This article will cover one particular interaction that happened during that interview.

Peterson: “Having presidential candidates sit down and do long-form podcasts like this...it's new…what made you decide to take or grab the advantage or the opportunity to do a podcast with me?”

Pence: “I’m not someone who looks backwards or who wants to turn the clock back…but you know there was a season…where a Republican ticket stepped forward literally their message was A Return to Normalcy and I get a sense that the American people would like to get back to the policies that were advanced under a President I deeply admire which was…”

Before we continue, what President do you think Pence deeply admires and is referring to?

Who is this top of the pack Republican President who 2024 Presidential hopeful Mike Pence senses the American people want to get back to?

Reagan certainly comes to mind as his two terms are something many Republicans long for and his Presidency was certainly a return to normalcy after the Carter Administration.

Eisenhower’s two terms definitely represent a bi-gone era that people miss and his Presidency was a return to normalcy after 20 straight years of a Democrat in the Oval Office.

Some conservatives like Bush 41, but his one term after Reagan wasn’t a return to normalcy.

And war thirsty neocons gush over Bush 43, but strengthening the deep state, lying us into a trillion dollar war and failing to kill Bin Laden aren’t exactly policies that a more populist current GOP base is looking to return to.

Nixon and Hoover were both exceptionally competent men. However, both of their administrations were plagued by disastrous issues; Watergate for Nixon and the Great Depression for Hoover. More often than not those are presidencies GOP voters would tend to distance themselves from.

Maybe Teddy Roosevelt? Lincoln?? Ford???

Who could it be?

Well if you guessed any of the Republican Presidents mentioned above, you would be wrong.

Presidential hopeful and former Vice President Mike Pence “senses” that Americans are clamoring to get back to the days of…drumroll please…President Calvin Coolidge.

What? Who? Calvin Coolidge!!!

The reason why Coolidge didn’t immediately come to mind; the reason why he wasn’t any of the Presidents mentioned above; and the reason why you have no clue what he even looks like is because Calvin Coolidge was a sub-par, highly unremarkable President and a man with documented character flaws.

Initially Coolidge was not elected to the nation’s highest office. Then Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumed the Presidency when the popular Warren G. Harding died suddenly in 1923. Coolidge served out the remainder of Harding’s term and then was re-elected for a first term of his own in 1924. President Coolidge chose not to pursue a 2^nd term in 1928 and left an economy on the verge of collapse to fellow Republican Herbert Hoover.

For the entirety of his presidential tenure, Coolidge presided over what we now refer to as the ‘Roaring Twenties’.

The Roaring Twenties was an unusual time in American history. Commonly thought of as a time of prosperity, the truth is the era was mostly illusionary gains fueled by easy access to debt and a ‘get rich quick’ mentality. And if gains were made, it was by no means universal.

During the Coolidge presidency, 60% of Americans lived below the poverty level. Black Americans and people outside of urban centers generally suffered while white Americans living in cities prospered. Additionally, twenty million Americans gambled on the stock market with money they borrowed and this mass speculation resulted in overvalued shares and the eventual crash of 1929.

Culturally, the Coolidge presidency was an era of the ‘Speakeasy’, casual sex, mass advertising and new forms of entertainment.

These cultural and economic happenings were mostly things that President Coolidge personally opposed and yet he refused to do anything to curtail the unbridled areas of excess that were ultimately terrible for the country.

Overall, President Coolidge did little while in office compared to his predecessors. He had a personal laissez-faire approach to the extreme and made the country neither better nor worse. He is credited with being fiscally conservative, relatively good with social issues and cleaning up a few embarrassing messes left over from the Harding administration. That is the extent of Coolidge’s positives.

But along with those positives, Coolidge let an economy and banking system run wild and agricultural economy fall apart. He appointed the infamous J. Edgar Hoover to what was the predecessor of the FBI and put a liberal Republican on SCOTUS. Coolidge also had an essentially non-existent foreign policy that was by all accounts to our detriment.

If there is one thing that guided the Coolidge administration, it was the bizarre behavior and personality of the President himself.

Coolidge was considered a mean man to people closest to him and frugal to a fault. Despite being financially well off, he didn’t believe in home ownership and would only rent throughout his own lifetime.

President Coolidge was also lazy. As President, he refused to work more than four hours per day. He also slept from 10 pm to 9 am, took an hour nap at noon and a three-to-four hour nap later in the afternoon.

President Coolidge was also known to rarely speak, other than the occasional “yes” or “no” in a meeting. This got him the nickname “Silent Cal” and drove those around him crazy. Coolidge is also said to have taken joy in the death of President Warren G. Harding. In fact, it was obvious to the people around him and they thought it extremely repugnant.

Last but not least, President Coolidge didn’t even attempt to run the country and this was by design. He expected all major initiatives to be done by the heads of their respective Departments and without input from Coolidge. In the rare times when he was called upon to be involved, Coolidge would literally threaten to remove the Department Head if he couldn’t get it done without bothering the President. Beyond that, Coolidge believed all other matters were the responsibility of Congress. Never before and never since has America had such a hands-off Chief Executive.

Now coming back full circle, why would Mike Pence deeply admire Calvin Coolidge and how could he possibly get the “sense” that Americans want to return to that type of administration?

What are we to make of this?

The bottom line is that two possibilities exist:

1. Someone Pence hired came up with it for him

OR

2. He came up with this peculiar comparison himself

Either way it isn’t very favorable for the former Vice President.

If this line pertaining to Coolidge was fed to him by someone else, it means the “experts” hired to advise Pence are giving him terrible talking points.

Moreover, it would also suggest that Mike Pence didn’t actually know anything about Calvin Coolidge himself. And if Pence didn’t know anything about the Coolidge administration, it undermines all his talking points.

How could Pence “sense” that Americans want to get back to the Coolidge Administration when he himself doesn’t even know anything about it? And if former VP Pence doesn’t know about it, why would he think everyone else not only knows about it, but longs to return to it?

If Pence WASN’T fed this talking point and he actually came up with it himself, then he would also have to know about the numerous negative aspects of Calvin Coolidge’s personality and his Administration.

And if Pence is aware of the considerable downside connected to Coolidge, that means he’s OK with it. Furthermore, it suggests Pence would see himself as a silent, hands-off, essentially do-nothing President whose primary job is to be frugal and smooth over scandals from prior administration’s just as Coolidge did for Harding.

This position is legitimately absurd as a return to the Coolidge presidency is in NO WAY what GOP voters are looking for.

· GOP voters do NOT want non-existent economic policy, risky banking and uncontrolled speculation that could lead to a Great Depression.

· GOP voters do NOT want a President who prioritizes napping over meetings and who refuses to work more than four hours per day.

· GOP voters do NOT want a President who won’t communicate or who only gives one-word answers.

· GOP voters do NOT want a President who forgoes foreign policy at our nation’s expense.

· GOP voters do NOT want their President to place liberal Rinos on SCOTUS

· GOP voters do NOT want men like J Edgar Hoover placed into positions of power.

· And GOP voters certainly do NOT want a leader who takes joy in the downfall of the previous Republican President for whom he served.

President Calvin Coolidge represents ALL of these things and Mike Pence knows it.

While no one mistake or talking point should be used to totally judge a man running for office, it’s extremely difficult to see past Pence’s absurd connection to Calvin Coolidge and his do-nothing administration.

Pence starts off by saying “I’m not someone who looks backwards or who wants to turn the clock back…”, but then he goes and immediately turns the clock back.

He follows up by saying “but you know there was a season…where a Republican ticket stepped forward literally their message was a return to normalcy”. However, the “Return to Normalcy” message was not from the Coolidge Presidential campaign. The slogan was the brainchild of Republican President Harding, under whom Coolidge served as his VP, and then actually took joy in his untimely death.

And lastly, Pence said, “I get a sense that the American people would like to get back to the policies that were advanced under a President I deeply admire which was President Calvin Coolidge.” This couldn’t be further from reality.

In fact, everything about Pence’s comment was strange, troubling and extremely telling in regards to his vision as to how a future presidency would look and play out. From an objective standpoint, Pence exposed himself as someone who lacks the judgment to adequately represent the needs and wants of the current Republican electorate. And overall, it demonstrated that Mike Pence is in fact America’s Most Out-Of-Touch Presidential Candidate.

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~ Jon Kurpis

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✉️ Email | jonkurpis@protonmail.com