Culture

Some Lovely Marathon-Running Grandpa Is Copping All Mike Pence’s Twitter Abuse

He's dealing with it pretty well.

by Meg Watson  17 November 2016

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Mike Pence is not a nice dude. The Vice President-elect and Indiana Governor has repeatedly condemned marriage equality and LGBT rights saying they would lead to “societal collapse”. He’s previously advocated ‘gay conversion therapy’ and suggested funding for it should be taken from HIV/AIDS organisations. Last year he made it legal for business owners to discriminate against LGBT workers if their sexuality “conflicted with their religious beliefs”. He’s tirelessly tried to shut down Planned Parenthood and at one point tried to change the definition of rape to get the state out of paying for survivor’s abortions.

This is not to be confused with the other Mike Pence. The Mike Pence who runs the Twitter handle @mikepence is a 49-year-old software developer, proud grandpa, and charity marathon runner who would very much like to stop receiving a “Christo-fascist” politician’s hate mail. Suffice to say, Mike Pence is having a tough week.

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Pray 4 Mike.

Though Pence was first elected to the House of Reps in 2000 and took over as Indiana Governor in 2013, this year has seen his profile skyrocket with the US election. This is something Nice Pence felt immediately.

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In mid-July, the week Pence was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate for the Republican nomination, Nice Pence switched from posting impenetrable memes about coding and Dad Content to commentary on the US election.

At first, he distanced himself from it:

Then he just went all in, because why the hell not:

As this got noticed by more and more people, Nice Pence was approached by New York Mag where he had an interview to set the record straight. “The vast majority of people are not paying any attention to what I have actually said on my Twitter account,” he said. “[If they did] they would know that I am a liberal, atheist, ex–Jehovah’s Witness computer programmer, and not a bigoted shill for the Republican party who is all-too-happy to throw Muslims under the bus for a chance at power.”

He did, however, say that his unique situation has revealed some interesting home truths about the state of public political debate in 2016. He called out both the “constant barrage of vitriol” he received from the left and the “fan-boy-swooning” from the right. When asked if he would vote for Trump/Pence, he gave a resounding no. Though he grew up a Jehovah’s witness and embraced conservative values in his youth, his beliefs have changed after “opening [his] mind”.

“I deeply regret how I behaved toward gay people and how I shunned those who grew to believe differently than me. That is not love, and that is not the kind of person I want to be, nor is it the kind of thinking I want to see in elected officials.”

With that in mind, it’s no surprise he’s taken a more serious approach in recent weeks:

Maybe chuck him a message of support in the next few days. It’s going to be tough four years.

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Feature image via George Skidmore/Creative Commons.