Family Plots: Teflon, Hillary and Coe

A recent poll conducted by USA Today revealed that Americans have recently reached a consensus on two topics related to politics and the public sphere in general. The first is that we universally have an unfavorable view of virtually every individual and institution related to such things. We do not have a favorable view of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, the Congress, the Republican or Democratic Parties, many prominent Congress people and especially the media.

"Vice President Pence stands alone.

"In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, Americans say they have mostly unfavorable impressions of just about everybody on a list of public figures and institutions — except, that is, for the vice president, who has become a familiar figure in interviews on Sunday TV shows and elsewhere as he explains and defends President Trump.

"Only Mike Pence scored a net positive rating, with 47% of those surveyed saying they had a generally favorable impression of him and 35% a mostly unfavorable one. The rest were undecided. That 11-point advantage sets him apart from everyone else on the survey, including his boss. Trump's favorable rating has improved a bit since our December poll, but it's still narrowly in negative territory: 45% favorable, 47% unfavorable."

Mike "Teflon" Pence

Its developments like these that have spurred me to start referring to Pence around the homestead as "Teflon." This moniker was originally selected due to the inability of any scandals surrounding the Trump White House to stick to Pence. As my girlfriend pointed out to me, this nickname is most apt in another sense as well: Teflon is highly toxic and poisonous, especially when things start to heat up.

" 'Clinton stated privately this month that she is quietly pushing for a Pence takeover. She stated that Pence is predictable hence defeatable,' Assange wrote. 

" 'Two IC officials close to Pence stated privately this month that they are planning on a Pence takeover. Did not state if Pence agrees,' he further added."

Julian Assange

As can be expected, Pence himself was quick to denounce, Assange's claims, stating:

" 'I would find all of that dialogue to be absurd and frankly offensive,' Pence told radio host Laura Ingraham. 'It is the greatest honor of my life to serve shoulder-to-shoulder with the 45th President of the United States. To see his leadership every day, to see the compassion that he has for the American people every day. I would dismiss that out of hand and tell you that I'm just, I'm so excited about the progress that we've been made strengthening this country, protecting this country, reviving this country's economy and all credit goes to President Donald Trump.' "

Equally predictable is the blogosphere's reaction. No doubt Byzantine narratives are being painstaking compiled to chart Hillary's emergence as the new president once Trump and Pence have been brushed aside.

I, however, believe Hillary's political fortunes are deader than the Wicked Witch of the West. It is far more likely that these developments are being driven by the Christian fundamentalist network variously known as "The Family" or "The Fellowship," a powerful if little acknowledged group with extensive ties to the US deep state. The Family has been considered in depth on this blog before.

The Family sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast which every president since Eisenhower has dutifully attended annually

As was noted before here, Mike Pence is himself a member of The Family, as are other key members of Trump's cabinet such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. What's more, there is a strong Christian fundamentalist current in Trump's cabinet that could easily fall in line behind the Family members if Trump and the current junta of generals is ousted.



That Hillary would now join the fray on the side of Pence is hardly surprising as she has had dealings with The Family before.

"Hillary may well be God's beautiful child, but she's not a member of Coe's Family. Rather, I've been told at Ivanwald, she's a 'friend,' less elect than a member, but more chosen than the rest of us. A fellow traveler but not a sister. Her goals are not their goals; but when on occasion they coincide, Hillary and the Family can work together. Such collaborations, as much as the endeavors of true believers such as Brownback, are a measure of the mainstreaming of American fundamentalism. The theology of Jesus plus nothing is totalitarian in scope, but diplomatic in practice. It doesn't conquer; it infects, as Abram used to preach. Within the body politic, it doesn't confront ideas, it coexists with them, it cells multiplying by absorbing enemies rather than destroying them...

"In her memoir Living History, Hillary describes her first encounter with the Family. It was at a lunch organized on her behalf in February 1993 at the Cedars, 'an estate on the Potomac that serves as the headquarters for the National Prayer Breakfast and the prayer groups it has spawned around the world. Doug Coe, the longtime National Prayer Breakfast organizer, is a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God.'..."

(The Family, Jeff Sharlet, pgs. 272-273) 

A few pages later Jeff Sharlet, the journalist who first exposed The Family and remains its leading authority, goes on to note:

"The Family wants to 'transcend' left and right with a faith that consumes politics, replacing fundamental differences with the unity to be found in submission to religious authority. Conservatives sit pretty in prayer and wait for liberals looking for 'common ground' to come to them in search of compromise. Hillary, Rob Schenck noted, became a regular visitor to the Family's C Street House in 2005. 'She needs that nucleus of energy that the Coe camp produces.' That summer, she appeared as part of the threesome that shocked old school fundamentalist: Bill, Hillary and Billy, live in New York for Graham's less crusade. Before tens of thousands, the patriarch of Christian conservatism said Bill 'ought to let his wife run the country.' Bonhomie and cheap blessing, maybe, but it was the kind of endorsement that Bill never won, despite Graham's custom of speaking sweet nothings to power." 

(The Family, Jeff Sharlet, pgs. 276-277) 

Hillary

Is this then an instance of Hillary and The Family finding "common ground"? No doubt Hillary and her backers are not thrilled with the prospect of a religious extremist like Pence securing the presidency, but they do not seem especially concerned with his longevity. Most bloggers will latch onto this confidence as further evidence of a return of the Hillabeast as being a fait accompli.

But recent history suggests that Hillary is not the best judge of such things. Consider these revelations in the wake of her defeat:

"Republican Donald Trump, a far-right demagogue who campaigned on a slew of bigoted, xenophobic policies, has won the 2016 presidential election in a shocking victory few people predicted.

"What was not often acknowledged in Trump’s heated race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, however, was how her campaign fueled his rise to power.

"An email recently released by the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks shows how the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party bear direct responsibility for propelling the bigoted billionaire to the White House.

"In its self-described 'pied piper' strategy, the Clinton campaign proposed intentionally cultivating extreme right-wing presidential candidates, hoping to turn them into the new 'mainstream of the Republican Party' in order to try to increase Clinton’s chances of winning."

Needless to say, this strategy did not work out especially well for Hillary and her backers. As such, her instincts about Pence being "defeatable" seem no less credible. And if the above-mentioned USA Today poll is any indication, Pence would presently crush Hillary in a general election in the kind of lopsided victory the MSM was projecting Hillary to have over Trump.

Thus, it is far more likely that this is yet another instance of Hillary's friend Doug Coe's Machiavellian manipulations to put one of his soldiers within a heartbeat of the presidency. And Hillary seems poised to do her part to remove that last remaining heartbeat, even if she is being driven by her own delusions.

Meanwhile Pence continues to do and say the right things. He's avoided any fallout from the numerous controversy's surrounding Trump and has contentiously rejected any presidential aspirations of his own. Every day the American public sees him as more and more "presidential." Doug Coe recently shed his mortal coil, but his lifelong ambition of putting a Family man in the Oval Office has never been more attainable. His followers may well believe they are witnessing prophecy unfolding before their eyes.

Douglas "Doug" Coe, 1928-2017