A friend reported that he was playing chess with a guy who, during a pause said with furrowed brow, "What's this about someone trying to kill Mike Pence?"
The friend paused to take in this and consider how to answer. "Uh, it happened January 6. You know, when Trump sent the mob down to the Capitol. Some of them planned to kill Mike Pence if they could get him."
No-brainer asked, "Why did they want to kill him?"
Patient pause. "Well, Trump wanted him not to ratify that Biden won the election."
"Oh. Why Pence?"
"The vice president is the one who does that-- counts the electoral votes and says Biden won. It's just a formality, but Trump wanted to stop it."
No brainer said, "Wait. Mike Pence was vice president? I thought he was governor." (They live in Indiana.)
Friend had gotten tired of explaining, but felt like he had to ask: "Who did you vote for?"
Trump, of course.
Now the no-brainer is wandering around in a fog, no doubt, unable to get it straight. I can imagine him muttering, "So... Pence beat Trump? Does that mean Pence is president now?"
My friend's point is-- perhaps many Trump voters are completely clueless, completely unread, unwilling/unable to read headlines or use google. Then again, apparently this no-brainer doesn't even watch Fox News. Alas, he was aware just enough to remember he was registered to vote, and he probably obediently went down to vote and saw Trump's name on the ballot and thought, hmm. I think I've heard that name before. I'll vote for him.
But... I guess the good news is, at least he heard enough floating in the ether to have captured a fragment of reality, that someone somewhere somehow wanted to kill Mike Pence.
This is another thing we have to deal with when saving democracy... or maybe we can just pat them on the head and say, "Yeah, isn't it weird that Trump wanted to kill someone. I don't like that, do you?"
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