Taking—or Faking—the Pledge
We knew it was worthless at the time, completely unenforceable, but in another bold show of stupidity, those running the Republican National Committee at the time insisted that candidates who wanted to participate in their rigidly-controlled presidential candidate debates sign a loyalty oath to the party, pledging to support whoever the GOP nominee would be.
Some slid around it, like former governors Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie, by saying they were very much anti-Donald Trump, but since Trump wasn’t going to be the nominee, they’d have no problem supporting the ultimate nominee. Nikki Haley sort of did the same thing, but noted that a “Beat Biden” pledge—as the actual document was called—was wrong because the target should be keeping Kamala Harris from being president; the presumption, of course, was that Biden would not make it through a second full term.
One of those who signed the pledge was former vice president Mike Pence, who this week garnered attention by booking appearances on a number of TV shows and declaring he would not endorse Trump for president. He declined to say if he would vote for him or not, but made it clear he would not endorse him.
Again, we knew at the time the RNC pledge was bogus, as was the whole attempt to control and micro-manage every step of the campaign process. And given how frequently today’s political figures fail to live up to their promises and their solemnly-pronounced word to voters, no one is surprised to learn that folks are ignoring a document they signed. By the way, note I didn’t say “political leaders” because true leadership is in dramatically short supply these days–in great part because no one believes a word virtually any of them says.
Still, I’m not sure what Pence gains from his public declaration of non-support. Perhaps it was a burden on his heart and he had to let it out. Perhaps he’s hoping to land some gig where it’s helpful to keep a distance from Trump.
I frankly did not even want to give it mention here, other than to note that of the eight candidates who stood on the first debate stage, only four—Scott, DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Burgum—have lived up to the pledge. Only half.
That’s what happens when you try to force unity…instead of build a coalition.
