Poor Pence

[Content Note: Homophobia.]

Poor Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence. What is a professional homophobe to do when a judge rules same-sex marriage legal in his state, and the older half of his disgusting garbage base wants him to do everything he can to fight this bit of equality, but the younger half of his base supports that bit of equality, and he's definitely on the losing side of history but totally wants to run for president? It's quite a conundrum!

Mike Pence is in a tough spot. The Republican governor of Indiana and potential presidential contender must now decide whether to recognize gay marriages in his state. His decision, and the response to it, could be an early sign of how the GOP might try to finesse an awkward issue as 2016 approaches.

...The political peril is clear. If Pence chooses to recognize same-sex marriages, he risks alienating the socially conservative Republican base and hurting his chances in the 2016 presidential primary, should he run. But an image as a culture warrior could cause big problems for Pence down the road.

Oh dear! What to do, what to do.

In case I'm not laying on the sarcasm thick enough, I don't give a hot fuck that my shitty governor is stuck between decency and pandering to his contemptible base, and I sure as hell don't care that it might impede his presidential ambitions, because I wouldn't wish this guy on the nation.

I do, however, care quite a bit that the framing of this story (by the great liberal devil MSNBC) is that Mike Pence is in "a tough spot."

You know who's actually in a tough spot? The same-sex Hoosier couples who got married before the stay and now don't know the legal status of their own marriage. And the couples who didn't rush to get married before the stay and now can't legally get married, until it's resolved.

They're in a tough spot.

Their governor is not in a tough spot, so much as he is making a calculated choice to try to thread a needle in service to his own ambitions, with absolutely no regard for the people of his state whose basic equality he will happily deny if it proves to be the most politically expedient option.

That's not being in a tough spot. That's being an unprincipled opportunist who is being minorly inconvenienced by having to wait to see which way the wind is blowing.