Good grief, has Mike Pence ever listened to Hamilton before? He ought to have known that everything in that musical is antithetical to what the Trump/Pence administration stands for, from its central hero’s support for a strong central government to it’s praise for diversity and immigration. But he bought tickets (I wonder how much those cost? I know I couldn’t afford to get tickets to that Broadway play, as much as I’d like to), but he showed up anyway, was deservedly booed by the audience, and even got a special message from the cast.
I see you walking out but I hope you will hear us. Nothing to boo here, we’re all sharing a story of love. We welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical — we really do. We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of all of us. We truly thank you for sharing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.
Keep in mind that that was said by a gay black man, demonstrating more tolerance in a minute than Mike Pence has in a lifetime.
Some of the lines in the musical acquired a special resonance, too. The audience roared when King George sang these lines:
What comes next?
You’ve been freed
Do you know how hard it is to lead?You’re on your own
Awesome. Wow
Do you have a clue what happens now?Oceans rise
Empires fall
It’s much harder when it’s all your callAll alone, across the sea
When your people say they hate you
Don’t come crawling back to meYou’re on your own…
The people are already saying they hate you, Mike Pence, and you haven’t even taken office yet.
Sweet Jesus. Trump is already complaining.
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
Now you want a “safe space”? You asshole.
Also he’s lying again. The cast was not rude, quite the opposite. They were much nicer than I could have been. What do they have to apologize for?
“Nothing to boo here”. SORRY. Lots to boo.
“we’re all sharing a story of love.” SORRY. We shouldn’t share a story of love with you haters.
“We welcome you.” SORRY. You’re not welcome here.
“we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical — we really do.” Sorry. We don’t. Fuck off now.
“We are the diverse America.” SORRY. We’re not white straight people.
“who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.” SORRY that you’re so goddamned scary and hate us so much.
“But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values.” SORRY. We shouldn’t expect a gang of thugs to support our values.
“and work on behalf of all of us.” SORRY. We don’t really believe for half a second that you’ll do that.
“We truly thank you for sharing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.” SORRY, so terribly SORRY, that we exist.
I’m betting there’s ways to “cherry pick” that Histo-musical to have it say what he wants to hear. While he smirks at the rest of it, thinking “wrong”.
[Cross-posted from Moments of Political Madness]
The future US President, folks.
I always figured the people railing against “safe spaces” were actually arguing “I don’t want YOU to have a safe space,” so it’s nice to get some confirmation.
“…from it’s central hero’s support…”
Ouch, PZ! “from IT IS central hero’s support…”?!
Obligatory hashtag.
And it’s not as if there’s a history of the theatre doing this kind of thing. Oh, wait…
Read Trump’s tweets in the context of this history, Trump’s years of insulting Obama and trying to delegitimize his presidency, and his vicious and dishonest campaign against Clinton, and also in the context of what’s happening in Turkey.
This is a democracy, you thin-skinned blood blister. We have a Constitution, which enshrines free speech. There’s no lèse-majesté here.
All of us have to commit to exercising our right to speak truth to, criticize, and mock elected officials, especially Trump and Pence and their gang of thugs. If Trump can’t be made to understand that our Constitution and traditions mean they’ll face four years of constant examination, criticism, and mockery and cannot use or threaten to use the weapons of the state to silence their critics, he should not take the oath of office, which will require him to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Not rude enough. If it had been Les Miserables, maybe they could have shown ci-devant Pence a more appropriate expression of popular resentment.
#5, #6
The theatre BEGAN as an expression of democratic sentiment and a forum for civic self-examination. It is no accident that its origins lie in classical Athens, and that its first flowering of vitality – the age of Aeschlyus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes – was pretty much coterminous with the great democratic experiment of the fifth century BC.
Aristophanes in particular would have known very well where to tell Mike Pence to get off. The premier demagogue and wannabe tyrant of his day – Cleon of Cydathenaeum – came in for constant and sustained scorn in Aristophanes’ middle plays. Cleon tried to sue and silence Aristophanes many times with lawsuits – in the case of Aristophanes’ Babylonians of 426BC he actually succeeded, and lumbered the playwright with a heavy fine (Aristophanes had taken serious issue with Athens’s entire military establishment, and presented its allied cities in the Delian League as a gang of Babylonian slaves on a treadmill to represent their oppression within the league – all for a festival where representatives of those cities were present). Four years later the lawsuit itself, and the whole issue of judicial corruption, nuisance litigation for profit and jury pay, became the theme of his Wasps. The main characters in Wasps are literally named pro-Cleon and anti-Cleon, and the chorus leader appears at the end wearing a mask of Aristophanes himself to make utterly explicit how little the playwright thinks of Cleon’s bullying, and how it absolutely isn’t going to shut him up and stop him speaking out.
LOL! Doesn’t that libtard tRump realize that no place in ‘Murica is safe anymore?
Deer Mr. Pence,
Suck it up, buttercup. You will be Vice President, not the sub-dictator nor Prince of the United States of America, and the majority of votes were not for you. If you don’t like criticism, you should have stayed out of politics.
As usual, conservative concerns about political correctness fly right out the window when they want to complain about something they don’t like. Dear Mr. Trump, all this political correctness is hurting America somehow. STOP HURTING AMERICA BY BEING SUCH A SHRIEKING MAN-BABY!
Cartomancer,
You always say exactly what I was thinking, but in a much more eloquent way than I ever could, thanks to my chronic pain and illnesses. My mind simply doesn’t work the way it used to. You must have an education in the Classics similar to my own.
Thank you for the historical perspectives that you bring to these conversations!
He won’t have learned a thing. Well, why would one assume the shitstain is capable of learning anything. I consider it a miracle that the dumbass is able to feed and dress himself without assistance.
@4 tragically the sort of people who would boycott Hamilton don’t earn enough to afford a ticket.
Also Donny, take a spoon full of concrete and harden the fuck up.
Oooh, I can hardly wait for the smash musical Trump! I guess I’ll have to wait a few years until the fallout settles.
Magistramarla, #12
Aww, shucks – I’m blushing now. Gratias maximas tibi ago!
I do indeed have a background in Classics (well, my doctoral studies were actually in Medieval intellectual history, but the ancient world has always been my first love). As I’ve taught Classics and history over the years it has become increasingly apparent to me how relevant a lot of ancient history can be to our modern situation. Since it’s not a mainstream subject in schools anymore most people tend to have little awareness of just how far back many of our modern debates and issues go. I sometimes think I’m being a tad presumptuous when I whip out the “aha, there’s a Greek or Roman parallel for that!” card, but I just remind myself how parochially modern political discussions usually are and it fades. Mary Beard is unashamed in her calls for us to engage with the Classics where it matters, so we’re in very good company!
The more perspective we can get in times like this the better I say.
[grain of salt, hint hint]
I think Drumph picked Pence as his safety net, knowing that Pence is so awful that no matter how bad Drumph becomes we will avoid charging Drumph with impeachment, to avoid giving the reins to Pence. /satire
In the meantime, enjoy this scene from The Tower.
cartomancer:
I’m glad for that. I enjoy your comments immensely.
“my favorite scene in hamilton is where the president elect has to pay $25 million for defrauding 6,000 college students”
Heh.
@Trump:
I offer my sincere hopes that the theater will be as safe a place for President Trump as it was for President Lincoln.
Can’t say I’ve ever really thought of a theater, movie or otherwise, as a safe space.
just another example of how most modern conservatives and this particular bunch of so and so’s do not understand the principles of democracy nor support them.
@13
How do you know he can dress himself? I doubt he chooses his own wardrobe all by himself (image consultants, political groomers and all ) though he can probably put them on all by himself.
uncle frogy
I read somewhere that Mr. Pence showing up in the theatre was a diversion tactic of some kind. I am not sure the Trump camp can organise that well but I guess we should not underestimate them.
@13 How do you know he can!? (There is supposed to be a smiley face emoticon here, but even I have principles).
@24 OOPS! Sorry unclefrogy!
maybe not exactly a diversionary tactic but a very clearly a PR event to try and reassure the voters or marks that might be getting nervous about the new administration that they were real Americans and held true American patriotic beliefs.
he just did not have the chutzpa or the discipline to really pull it off
as an aside I heard someone on the radio or TV the other day wondering just how all the people involved in the new administration will actually get along. I do not think many of them so far are noted for being team players starting from the top on down. They all seem to have that maverick tendency and to be “know it all’s”
uncle frogy
ACLU: “Americans don’t need to apologize-not even to presidents or vice presidents-for the lawful & proper exercise of their constitutional rights.”
I would change “not even” to “especially.”
Hmm, perhaps Mike Pence enjoys theater. And I would never fault a person for stepping outside one’s comfort zone! But as slithery tove in comment number one suggests, perhaps some cherry picking is involved. How could we cherry pick Hamilton (the man, not the musical) to fit Mike’s politics? It could be as easy as X+Y+Z = WAR. War with France, after all they insulted us didn’t they. And a short hop, skip and a jump from there gives us Hampton’s and his Federalist congress Alien acts. Detain, deport and deprive immigrants of their rights. Where have I heard that before? From there we get the Sedition act. Lest anyone dare criticize the Federalist government- off to prison they go. And if that wasn’t enough there is his manly man method of solving individual political disagreements – Saturday night specials at 20 paces. I mean, what’s not to like about old Alex?
So there’s a group of people that Pence will allow to entertain him, but not talk to him. He wants the show, but not an interaction. He likes their art, but not their opinion.
That little speech was not rude at all. Insufficiently groveling perhaps, but at least they didn’t ignore him.
Amnesty International: “Raise a glass to @HamiltonMusical for exercising their right to freedom of expression. #AmericaIBelieveIn”
@Trump:
I saw the video of the event and remain puzzled at what you consider “very rude”. He asked politely Pence to listen, told the audience to not boo, and simply described the cast was diverse an anxious about the prospects they’ve been reading about. “we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values,… ”
There were no insults, nor accusations, just descriptions of the cast and their hopes. Not their assumptions nor lists of supposed atrocities by Pence. Where is the “rude” part? I seem to have missed it. I hope this is not rude, asking how to be polite.
only the offender would infer, from that quoted line, that one does NOT uphold American values. It simply says they hope that the show will inspire him to uphold American values, even though he may already do so. [guess what I’m trying to imply.] So by asking for apology you are “tell” [poker term], that Pence does NOT uphold American values, and it rude to call him out about it. *spit*
re 33:
tpyo alert:
left out:[ showing a ] preceeding “tell”
Trump asking for a Safe Space was hilarious! I noticed his fans on reddit cut that bit out of his tweet. Hahaha!
Well, now we see exactly what happens when we “give him a chance”, like Munoz did.
Can’t wait for all those articles denouncing Trump as an over-emotional, sensitive cry-baby too quick to take offense at some challenging entertainment – I mean, if Trump can’t handle the theatre, maybe he should just forbid his members of cabinet from ever seeing another play or show or performance ever again.
(Also, Artor @9, “libtard”? Not cool.)
“He ought to have known that everything in that musical is antithetical to what the Trump/Pence administration stands for…”
Oh, come on, man. Are you kidding?
What he “ought to know” doesn’t matter. He showed up there as part of the exercise to normalize the administration-elect. He didn’t show up there to make the administration more palatable to anyone who already knows the reason why he showed up (including the cast members). He showed up so his fellow liars can attest that he and his pal and cohorts in deceit can say they resonate with the ‘message’ – and have gobs of ignorant supporters regurgitate that tall one with the same regularity that they’ve been indoctrinated to repeat every other lie they’ve been handed.
That’s the object of this pathetic game: so ‘history’ will be properly characterized for the Trump Presidential Library (I know, I feel queasy too)…after all, the writing of ‘history’ is a responsibility that ultimately falls to the conquerors, doesn’t it? They should then easily be able to cite that Pence attended a showing of Hamilton as a ‘clear demonstration’ of common cause between the Administration and the other half of America who – along with the cast members – know they are full of bullshit.
Do we believe Mike Pence went to see Hamilton because he loves musical theater? Or is this Trump’s usual game where he stirs up a kerfuffle in the media to distract attention from, say, admitting to fraud and coughing up $25M as a penalty?
I think we’ve been played.
I shudder to think of what the Deplorable Duo will do when it is foreign leaders booing them.
Speaking of vanity, solipsism, and general preposterousness, “Spamalot’’ has been updated to include an extended, quite funny spoof of Donald Trump.
Who’s up for getting He Of The Thin Orange Skin tickets?