I’ve written before about the bizarre hatred leftists hold for the exceedingly pleasant and friendly Vice President Mike Pence. It’s a paradox when you think about it: everything the left claims to hate about Trump – his brashness, cockiness, braggadocio, lack of filter, petulance, peevishness, and the contempt he seems to hold for his political opponents – is at odds with everything that Mike Pence is. Pence is the “perfect” counterbalance to Trump. If you hate the style of one, you should appreciate the other.

But hatred is never overly concerned with logic or lucid reasoning. Hatred assumes the worst of people; and so in the case of Pence, it manifests in one of the most affable men in D.C. being characterized as some kind of insidious monster.

Pause and consider what has been one of the more talked about topics amongst 2020 Democrat presidential contenders over the last week or two. Not the economy, not trade, not immigration. No, it’s been the pressing national dilemma: is Mike Pence a “decent” human being.

It started with former Vice President Joe Biden making what should have been one of the safest and most obvious observations in our current political environment: Mike Pence is a decent guy. Liberals who have spent hours watching The Handmaid’s Tale and convincing themselves that Pence electrocutes gay people on the weekends were apoplectic. Biden’s presidential bid almost died right there, prompting him to walk it back.

Calculating that if seized upon effectively, this pulsating hatred for Pence might serve as an effective vehicle to pluck his campaign from obscurity, Mayor Pete Buttigieg unleashed his own Pence broadside:

“It chills a lot of us, especially in the LGBTQ community, to see that somebody like that can be in that kind of position of power.”

Don’t mistake what Buttigieg is saying here in so many words. By “somebody like that,” he is unquestionably referring to orthodox Christians. Buttigieg is saying, not only unconcerned with pushback but with the earnest belief it will actually bolster his campaign credentials, that a Christian who believes that the Bible is a better moral guide for human conduct than the spirit of the age should not be in a “position of power.” That’s astoundingly Christophobic on its own.

But then when you consider that Buttigieg, before it was politically expedient to be “chilled” by Pence, openly referred to him as a “super nice guy,” it leaves you with questions about the Mayor’s own character. And there’s more:

When Buttigieg, a member of the Naval Reserve, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 for example, a noticeably moved Pence called Buttigieg the day he was driving to the base.

Apparently joining in the character assassination of a “super nice guy” is how Buttigieg repays those who have been kind to him despite personal and political differences of opinion. To a sane person that reflects poorly on Pete, not Pence.

And the pile-on continued unabated by Democrat candidates hoping to prove their worth by hating Pence more than the next. Elizabeth Warren accused Pence of “homophobia” and said he was, “not an honorable person.” Elizabeth Warren, who lied about being a Native American for decades, judging the honor of another. Interesting.

Kamala Harris mocked Pence’s respect of his own wife, calling his policy of not meeting privately with females without his wife present, “outrageous.” This is the same woman who apparently specialized in private meetings with married men, specifically former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown who admitted his affair with Harris when she was young and looking to gain career advancement. One wonders if Mrs. Brown would agree that the Pence policy is “outrageous.”

Harris also joined the tired attack on Pence for being anti-gay. I say tired because there is absolutely nothing in the personal conduct of Mike Pence that would suggest he has any animus towards people who have same-sex attractions or relationships. But don’t take my word for it. Take the word of one who is part of that community but who also knows Pence well, Ambassador Richard Grenell:

“For those of us in the LGBT community who deal in facts, we are chilled by recklessly repeated gossip. Mike Pence is a humble Christian who loves God, and all His creation. I know him.”

It’s apparent that the increasingly crowded 2020 Democrat presidential field either doesn’t, or they pretend not to for their own political gain. Time will tell whether this bold “Pence is Satan” strategy pays off.