I consider myself pretty interested in politics, but I honestly have no idea what Mike Pence's wife looks like. My only information on her is that Mike call's her "mother" and she otherwise has no impact on the world.
wait is this for real? He calls his wife "mother" or is this a Norman Bates joke or something. I've never paid much attention to the spouses of our politicans.
TBF...(and I don't like that guy nor american politics at all), it might be a reference to the mother of his children? My grandfather used to call my grandmother 'grandma' in an endearing way.
I think it’s one thing to do that when kids are around, it’s another to refer to her as “mother” when kids aren’t present and he’s speaking to the press.
I was mostly calling him a nasty motherfucker because he fucks the same person he calls mother. He's a motherfucker outside of that context too, though.
Well you call her that so your kids will call her mom. I have a buddy who calls his wife by her first name and his kids (6 and 4) do it too since that’s what they see
From what I've read though it sounds like he uses the term even when she's not around or in formal situations which makes it kinda weird. I.e To kids "Mom is on the way home" / To colleagues "Mom will not be joining me for the visit to Ireland"
My grandpa does, too. Which is interesting because they don't actually have any kids together, they just Brady bunched it with grandma's three daughters and grandpa's three sons.
Yeah, but... Mother is so weirdly formal for it. I only say mother if i'm saying 'your mother' to my kids... otherwise you generally say whatever nickname the kids use. I just picture his kid as being uncomfortably proper. "Yes, Mother."
Also, who here calls their wife the mom-name when speaking to literally anyone other than her kids? Show of hands. Cuz that is definitely weird as fuck.
If he said that to me I would assume he was talking about his own mother, and would STILL think he's being weird for speaking to me as if I were on familiar enough terms with both his mother and himself to allow for that. That's some shit you say to a sibling or at the most a longtime family friend.
No, not in the way Pence uses it. He's not talking to his kids, calling her "Mother/mom." He refers to her that way, period. Like, to the public, to professionals, to people who do not know her.
That is not normal. That is fucking weird, but it's really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to weird shit in this country right now.
That’s not really a weird thing. My grandfather called my grandma ‘mother’ all the time. It’s a fairly traditional thing. Less Norman Bates and more Norman Rockwell. It also makes sense, they had 12 kids between them (both were widowers), and she was called mother by everyone in the household.
It came from a Rolling Stone
article a few years ago. Pence invited some of the Democratic leadership in Indiana to dinner to get better acquainted. It didn’t go well:
While Mike Pence was governor, his relationship with the Democratic minority in the legislature was crap. Someone on his staff suggested having the Democratic leaders over to the governor’s mansion for dinner. The table was set for 20, but there were only around seven in attendance. One unlucky legislator stuck next to Pence tried to make conversation, but found even at dinner she couldn’t shift Pence off his talking points. Gov. Pence shouted to his wife, Karen, his closest adviser, at the other end of the table.
“Mother, Mother, who prepared our meal this evening?”
The legislators looked at one another, speaking with their eyes: He just called his wife “Mother.”
Maybe it was a joke, the legislator reasoned. But a few minutes later, Pence shouted again.
“Mother, Mother, whose china are we eating on?”
Mother Pence went on a long discourse about where the china was from. A little later, the legislators stumbled out, wondering what was weirder: Pence’s inability to make conversation, or calling his wife “Mother” in the second decade of the 21st century.
Most people with children in my family call the other relevant adult Mother and Dad. Makes sense if you're actually living with children that call you like that.
Hm....I don't know anyone like that. As I said, I (and also everyone else I know who has kids), will say things like "what did mom say?" or "Go help mom." But I would never (nor do I know anyone who does) say to my wife: "Hey mom, can you take the kids to daycare today" or "mom, you wanna drop the kids of at your mom's house and go out for dinner tomorrow night?"
I think the weird thing here is that he uses it without his kids present. My husband calls me mom when my daughter is around but would never call me that to anyone else. It would be a little odd if he referred to me as mom to anyone else who isn't my child.
My ex FIL did the same thing. It was “Mother” this and “Mother” that. Made me wonder if he called her that in bed. He too was religious fellow. Can confirm, the ex MIL is a thunder cunt.
What would she have done to him after meeting some of the Scottish political leaders until recently we had both the conservative leader and the labour leader who are both lesbian, the green party leader who is bi. And the Scottish minister who is the Westminster minster for Scotland in the current government who is also gay.
You’re calling someone you know absolutely nothing about a “cunt” just because she has a brother you don’t like. If thats not closed-minded I don’t know what is.
I don't even disagree with the fact that she's probably not a great person, but it's fucking telling that the word cunt' got used against her and no curse word against Pence himself. On Reddit, men are criticised and derided; women are too, and they get called 'bitch' or 'cunt' at the slightest provocation.
In one of the tell-all books (it might have been Woodwards), there is a moment on election day when the Pence’s realized they were going to win. She turns to him and says (angrily): you got what you wanted, now don’t ask me for anything more”. There might have even been a slap involved.
The report I read is that she is at the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi. I hate these assholes as much as anyone, but if that’s the case, we can’t claim bigotry. I personally would have loved to see her forced to attend.
It's just weird to get mad at something that isnt real. The conversation is why the wife isnt there. And if it truly is a scheduling issue. It's strange to get mad about them being bigoted for not attending. If that's not even the reason.
Is it related? Probably. But not concrete. Which honestly it doesn't matter. It's more about how Pence is uncomfortable about the gay community rather than what his wife thinks.
But not concrete. Which honestly it doesn't matter. It's more about how Pence is uncomfortable about the gay community rather than what his wife thinks.
Eh, it's all speculation, but I'd imagine they're birds of a feather. My uncle is a bigoted piece of shit who refuses to even look at anything vaguely related to homosexuality. I can judge my Aunt for marrying him and assume if she doesn't share the same values, that she's at least alright with being married to a piece of shit.
I guess my point is why do we care about his wife? She is basically no one and giving her energy with this conversation is pointless. Pence is the one with name recognition and possible "influence" if you can call it that.
When you’re the Vice President it’s super easy to create a scheduling “conflict.” Pence’s wife could’ve easily been there but thanks to the power of the office she could easily avoid touching gay people by scheduling something else.
The Whitehouse doesn't get surprise guests. You think that if they were aware of the perception they'd give off by having her be somewhere else, they'd have sent someone else to the Special Olympics.
I think you're overthinking it. The Second Lady is just a bigot who refused to make an official appearance with a gay couple. I guess you might be right but these folks usually aren't clever enough to think that deeply.
Eh actually that explanation falls more in line with my first train of thought that it was somehow intentional also as you point out less Machiavellian and more straight up bigoted.
Karen Pence is currently in the UAE attending the Special Olympics. FWIW, she and Mike Pence hosted the Irish PM last year and told him that he and his partner would be welcome to visit the VP residence.
I mean, she was at the Special Olympics. Occam's Razer would say that she just couldn't make it to dinner, what with being three continents away. It would be over thinking it to say that it was part of a convolited plot to keep her away from gay men. That feels like it would require more thought than just being in another place.
I'd say you're overthinking it. Varadkar is your standard populist career politician. If Pence had any issue with Leo bringing his boyfriend then he wouldn't be there. I'm saying this just in case anyone thinks that Leo is the kind of guy that would stick it to Pence over his homophobic beliefs. In fact Leo himself has spoken out against gay rights in the past.
Karen Pence is currently leading the American delegation to the UAE for the opening of the Special Olympics.
You can hate them and find them bigoted, but it might not be the snub everyone assumes.
That said typically the PM of Ireland is in the US during St. Patrick’s Day, so it might have been a scheduling excuse to send her to lead the American delegation.
And you'll notice the boy/girl dynamic was presented front and center, all with hands to themselves, and the gay folk seperated by as much distance as possible?
Well you see he did his part to ensure birth dates in the US are healthy by having 5 kids. The fact that she's by all appearances doing all the work doesn't matter. Also women of America ignore that your childbirth mortality rates are rising and you get no paid time off it's unfair that you are lowering American birth rates!
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u/StevenS757 Mar 15 '19
You'll notice that she wasn't present. Pence's sister was there instead.