Something happens every time I see Al Gore or even hear his name. I immediately see and hear in my mind the South Park treatment of the former vice president, failed presidential candidate, and chief climate alarmist.
Specifically, it was this running gag where the other characters would say of Gore, “I feel kind of bad for him. I don’t think he has any friends.”
That same running gag is starting to run through my head now any time I see Mike Pence or hear his name. In a party that’s busy doing the big stuff, he’s Mr. Irrelevant. No one wants to see him, listen to him, or hear from him. But there he is, still hanging around. Why?
Does he think he could get back into elected office, perhaps as president one day? I’m not sure any politician of his ilk would rule that out, but I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s something else. I think Pence wants to be the next Al Gore.
He doesn’t want to be the “climate guy” or a single-issue guy. He wants to be an elder statesmen in the Republican Party, respected, and, above all, listened to, long after Trump exits public life. So, for now, Pence is biding his time and using it to position himself in that way.
Pence knows that while Trump is in office, and while MAGA rules the Republican Party, he doesn’t stand a chance. Better for him to lock in with conservative institutions that may feel as sidelined as he does, and together they will work their way back into the discussion starting in 2028.
He’s on the speaking circuit, delivering remarks at events such as the Sacramento Speakers Series, where he discusses ICE immigration enforcement, saying things like, “Look, the American people deserve to have our laws enforced. We deserve safe streets. But we also deserve confidence that this is being done in a way that respects the rights of everyone involved.”
If words were like marshmallows that’s all you’d ever see coming out of Pence’s mouth. They’re empty of nutritional value, they’re soft, but they feel substantive.
What Pence appears to be counting on is that on that inevitable day when Trump leaves the White House, he’ll take MAGA with him. Or, that MAGA will be so unpopular by then that the majority of Republicans will beg Pence and his fellow milquetoast Republicans to come back and lead. Pence seems to long for a return to a day when the Republican mantra once again is, “Lose with dignity.”
This is a fever dream, of course, but I think it’s his fever dream.
Right after President Donald Trump and Pence lost the 2020 election, and it appeared Trump might never again run for office, Pence experienced a small window of popularity. He was named a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. His tenure there only lasted from 2021 to 2022.
Around that same time, Pence joined Young America’s Foundation as its Ronald Reagan Presidential Scholar in February 2021.
Behind-the-scenes and sometimes publicly, Pence has tried to become a kingmaker, endorsing certain Republican candidates for local and state offices or congressional seats. On certain social issues, he’s stayed true to his Christian roots, opposing abortion and the whole transing of society movement.
But if you want to know what he may be planning to use as his power base moving forward, it may be the Advancing American Freedom (AAF) organization, which he founded. This is his soapbox and the means by which, if he has any hope of remaking conservatism, he will do so.
The organization self-describes as “powered by principled experts, seasoned policy advocates, and dedicated citizens committed to preserving our constitutional heritage. Our team includes leaders from Capitol Hill, think tanks, and grassroots movements, all working together to defend liberty and advance policies that build a stronger America.”
Just reading those words, I can hear that middle-aged, baritone voice that narrated all of Ronald Reagan’s commercials in the 1980s. Sweeping, beautiful, meaningless platitudes that don’t persuade anyone, and don’t resonate with Gen Z or Millennials.
Pence has all of the charisma of a starched shirt. He has the profundity of a birthday card you bought at Dollar General. He has the candor and the fluidity of those wax animatronic robots Disney World has in the Hall of Presidents. Everything about him is predictable, designed not to offend, and in doing so, designed not to accomplish anything.
While the Republican Party under Trump has become the party of the working class with more actual diversity among legal U.S. citizens than the Democrats, one look at AAF’s website and you get the sense it’s a return to the party that doesn’t cuss and doesn’t win. The one that long stood against abortion but never could get Roe v. Wade overturned. The one that would fight against Trump’s tariff strategy — the same one he’s used to finally put America first on the global stage.
Once a traitor, always a traitor. Sit down .@Mike_Pence — you’re so irrelevant 🙄 pic.twitter.com/1gzfqVQu3R
— Erica 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@EricaRN4USA) January 23, 2026
Even if you agree with AAF and Pence on the basic positions of an issue, you can see they tend to approach it in a genteel way that ruffles no feathers and never stands a chance. That’s so Mike Pence.
By 2028, Trump will be getting ready to transition out of the White House, likely working heavily with his handpicked successor to carry forward his America First movement. The Democrats will have declared open warfare on conservatives. Brass knuckles politics will rule the day whether the Republicans want that or not. It’s not their call.
In that environment, expect Pence to try to raise his profile to become the sane and reasoned elder statesman of conservatism. The gentle loser. The one all the legacy media outlets would just love to have as a guest and do a forensic analysis of “the Trump years” so that they can never be repeated again.
He’ll likely be a very popular Republican among leftists. Conservatives who lose with dignity usually are. But the left will never be his friend. It will use him, and he will try to use it to become a de facto leader and senior statesman of a Republican Party that would never win again.
Fortunately, the party has moved on and will not go back to the party of Pence. New conservatives are fighters — they are working class and from all classes, and they stand for common-sense values. Most of all, they are still sick and tired of what the left has done to us and wants to do to us, and the time for niceties is over. They are also tired of feckless Republican leaders like Pence.
Keep your platitudes, Mike, and learn to golf. Join a Tuesday league and try to make some friends. You had your chance, and you blew it.
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