February 25, 2021

By Bill Berkowitz

In April 1865, after retreating to the Deep South with the Confederacy was on its last legs, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured, charged with treason, and imprisoned for two years. The editor of the Richmond Examiner, once wrote of Davis that he “has alienated the hearts of the people by his stubborn follies” and “chronic hallucinations that he is a great military genius.”

Davis spent some of his last years attending Lost Cause ceremonies, where he was showered with affection. 

Now, barely two months after encouraging the White/Christian nationalist mob to invade the Capitol, former president Donald Trump will make his first public appearance at the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He will undoubtedly receive adulation from the crowd. With numerous investigations of the former president unfolding, like Davis, he may yet serve time in prison.

Former vice president Mike Pence, a steadfast defender of Trump, will be nowhere to be found when CPAC convenes, as he’s declined an invitation to speak. Perhaps he’s worried that the “Hang Mike Pence” chants that were heard at the Capitol, will resound once again. An obedient toady during the reign of President Donald Trump? Absolutely! A anti-gay Christian nationalist crusader? Indeed! A purveyor – up until the very last moments – of The Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election? Totally!

The last time we saw Pence, he had returned to the Senate floor to finish the process of confirming Joe Biden’s election as president. Not long before that, Pence and his family had to be rushed from the Senate chamber and hidden from the rioters, who were chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” “Hang Mike Pence.”

Mike Pence has never been known as a deep thinker, so, it makes you wonder what role the former vice president will be playing as a newly named distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, one of the nation’s premier conservative think tanks. Will he take up the Foundation’s longtime history of opposing LGBTQ rights, likely couched in “family values?” Will he have a platform to start raising money for a future presidential run? Of course! Will he replace Rush Limbaugh on talk radio? Not gonna happen; too bland a personality! Should we expect a tell-all book? No way; Trumpsters would eat him alive!

One thing is certain: The Heritage Foundation provides a comfortable landing spot, and could be a launching pad for a 2024 run at the GOP’s presidential nomination.

“Pence likely sees the job at Heritage as a well-paying sinecure where he can perch for a few years until he can announce that he will seek the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election,” Rob Boston Editor of Americans United for Church and State’s Church & State magazine, told me.

“Pence got tossed under the bus hard by Trump and his supporters during the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, and in light of that, he no doubt sees a need to reassert himself as a standard bearer for the Christian nationalist movement. He likely wants to restore his bona fides as a conservative politician who will erase church-state separation by promoting laws and policies that will incorporate his and his allies' religious views, to the detriment of LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, the nonreligious and many others. A job at Heritage gives him that platform.”

On the news of Limbaugh’s death, Pence tweeted: “Today America lost a Giant with the passing of Rush Limbaugh, and Karen and I send our most heartfelt sympathies to Kathryn, his brother David, and the millions of Americans who loved and cherished his incomparable voice.”

According to a Heritage Foundation press release, Pence, who served as a U.S. Congressman and governor of Indiana before becoming Vice President, will collaborate with the Foundation’s experts on public policy issues, will deliver a series of speeches on policy issues, “and will contribute a monthly column for The Daily Signal, Heritage’s multimedia news outlet.” 

Pence, Heritage and Anti-Gay Crusading

Founded in 1973, the Heritage Foundation, which claims to have 500,000 dues-paying members, has played a leading role in providing information and research to a series of Republican administrations and legislators.  

Over the years, the Heritage Foundation has also been a major league battler against LGBTQ rights, and, “backed legislation that some believe is hostile towards the LGBTQ community,” John Riley recently reported in the Metro Weekly. “That includes bills that would carve out religiously-based exemptions for small business owners, government employees, and others with personal moral beliefs opposing homosexuality.”

“Heritage has had a very large role in shaping the policy of the conservative movement,” Charlotte Clymer, a prominent LGBTQ advocate, writer, and consultant, told Metro Weekly in an interview. “They were the ones who brought together this unholy alliance between social conservatives and the trans-exclusionary radical feminists in the United Kingdom. And that became what has been the primary messaging strategy of the Republican Party against LGBTQ people, but specifically trans people and more specifically, trans women.

“So to see Mike Pence, who is by far the most anti-LGBTQ vice president in history, go over to Heritage to reinforce and enable their policy, it completely makes sense,” Clymer said. “And I will say this is not a retirement move. This is how Mike Pence is going to continue to have enormous influence within the conservative movement and particularly within the policy that the Republican Party pushes officially.”

According to Politico, Pence will also be part of a podcast hosted by the Young America’s Foundation, and will become part of YAF’s campus lecture circuit once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides and it becomes possible to host large-scale, in-person events.

In December, the Metro Weekly’s Riley reported that “[t]he anti-LGBTQ Virginia Christian school [Immanuel Christian School, in Springfield, Va.] where Second Lady Karen Pence teaches art classes received almost $725,000 in government money through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program for COVID-19 relief.” Riley noted that “The school also requires parents to sign an agreement that their children may be expelled or denied admission if either the student or their parent is engaged in conduct that runs counter to the school’s emphasis on ‘a biblical worldview.’”

Founded in 1973, the Heritage Foundation, which claims to have 500,000 dues-paying members, has played a leading role in providing information and research to a series of Republican administrations and legislators.  

Heritage and the Trump administration

“Over the course of the past four years, our team at Heritage has worked closely with members of the Trump administration on a host of policy accomplishments,” said Heritage President Kay C. James. “That’s why I am excited Vice President Mike Pence will join forces with Heritage to ensure we continue to advance conservative principles and policy solutions. His allegiance to the Constitution and commitment to advancing a conservative policy agenda make him an outstanding fit for The Heritage Foundation.”

“The Heritage Foundation is a flagship of the conservative movement and I am profoundly honored to join them as a distinguished visiting fellow to advance conservative policies that will benefit every American,” Pence said. “The Heritage Foundation helped shape my conservative philosophy for decades and played a pivotal role advancing conservative policies throughout the Trump Administration. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and working with the all-star team at Heritage as we continue to take the case for a strong national defense, free markets and traditional values to policymakers across the Nation and to every American who cherishes our Heritage of Freedom.”

In addition to its influence on Pence, Heritage played an important role in the staffing of the Trump administration, recommending a roster of unqualified and corrupt individuals such as Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt, Mick Mulvaney, Rick Perry and Jeff Sessions.

In January 2021, Heritage announced that it had brought on Chad Wolf, who served as acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before departing in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and former deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli, former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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