By Michael McDowell
Vice President Mike Pence appeared at an event at 441-451 West End Ave on the Upper West Side on Thursday afternoon, but unless you were fortunate enough—or unfortunate enough, depending on your politics—to be in the room, you would not even have caught a glimpse of the former governor of Indiana.
As Pence’s motorcade arrived, chants of “shame” erupted from a modest crowd of protestors, who were assembled across the street.
“That’s as close as you get to politicians!” a woman walking by yelled out, to no one in particular.
Sirens echoed up and down the avenue as the black SUVs sped through the intersection of 81st Street and West End—which had been blocked by NYPD motorcycles—and the SUV (presumably) carrying the Vice President made a sharp turn toward Riverside, before disappearing out of sight down a small driveway.
More than a dozen Secret Service—or similar—immediately emerged from SUVs parked along 81st, and, strikingly, a large man leapt from a closed trunk, able, apparently, to open the door from the inside.
The commotion drew bathrobe-clad nappers to windows; children gawked and pointed, and a few august Upper West Siders dismissed the scene with a mere shake of the head. They’d seen it all before.
“I’ve had my photo taken with every president since Ford,” a woman told her friend.
Across the street, a few protestors shared their views with the Rag. Why were they here?
“Because we don’t want Pence in our neighborhood, he’s a bigot and his values are antithetical to everything the Upper West Side stands for,” said Eve Proper, who stood with a button-sporting friend, Jenny Heinz. “Ketchup without the money,” Heinz winked.
Lily Blank, in sunglasses, had more to say. What brought her to 81st and West End, to protest the presence of Pence in the neighborhood?
“His values are completely opposite of my values. I like to say that right-wing Christian Evangelicals should hope that atheists like me are right, because if we’re not—if they’re right—they’re not going to a good place. They’re not kind people. If Jesus were alive, I don’t think he would really get them,” she said.
“As Bill Maher once said—and I have mixed feelings about Bill Maher—[Evangelicals] love babies before they’re born, but they don’t care much about people once they’re on the earth.”
Mixed feelings about Bill Maher?
“I watch his show every week, but I yell at the TV as I do,” she added. “I like him, but he’s a little sexist, he’s a little bit too much into the idea that political correctness is bad, I think he goes too far,” she mused.
Now that’s the Upper West Side.
Pence is the largest rat I’ve ever seen on the Upper West Side.
George Carlin – Back in Town 1996:
“Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.
Conservatives don’t give a shit about you until you reach “military age”. Then they think you are just fine. Just what they’ve been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. Pro-life… pro-life… These people aren’t pro-life, they’re killing doctors! What kind of pro-life is that? What, they’ll do anything they can to save a fetus but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it. They’re not pro-life. You know what they are? They’re anti-woman. Simple as it gets, anti-woman. They don’t like them. They don’t like women. They believe a woman’s primary role is to function as a brood mare for the state.”
They’re Pro-Fetus.
We can only become free from all of these idiots like Pence if we finally liberate New York City from the United States. We don’t need people from Indiana and Texas governing us, we can rule ourselves. And don’t forget, for every dollar they take from us we get back less than 70 cents in govenment spending. USA out of NYC!
“He’s a bigot and his values are antithetical to everything the Upper West Side stands for”
Perhaps this woman forgot the recent debacle over the prospect of bringing in poor black and Latino housing project kids into PS 199.
I recall speaking to many self-proclaimed “progressive” and “liberal” UWS parents who were literally screaming bloody murder and threatening to flee to the suburbs if these kids were moved into their kids’ school.
I can’t stand Pence or Trump and I wish they would both go away.
But these UWS lefty hypocrites are in many ways far worse than Pence and Trump.
Sherman,
You actually think that a few loud hypocrites, who were vastly outnumbered by those welcoming (or at least accepting) the change, is in many ways worse than the current administration?
The damage done to the United States and its place in the world isn’t as bad as a few selfish upper west side parents?
Saying “But these UWS lefty hypocrites are in many ways far worse than Pence and Trump” seems so astoundingly out of proportion and out of touch that I have to assume you’ve accidentally omitted your sarcasm tag.
You tell anyone, liberal or not, what can be worse for our country than the administration we have now probably thanks to people like you. Women are still over 50% of the population. The poor ones health is being undercut by bigots like Pence. Same for gun control, climate crisis, education (schools being closed to divert money to the current POTUS’s stupid wall) and everything basically of use to us – citizens. What did the Donald actually do for his base? Give them red baseball hats? You tell us. And I am not even a liberal. I am as moderate as they come.
This was not an “Upper West Side” welcome as the biased headline suggests. It was an anti-Pence welcome by some residents that live here.
Well statistically speaking it was an Upper West Side Welcome as the 2016 republican ticket got between 5 and 10% of the vote in the neighborhood. In fact, you can even look up the specific block where this fundraiser was held and note that the vote was 514-55.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage#15.00/40.78521/-73.97789
If your bag is assembling to boo and heckle people kindly count me out. I’m just not as pure as you are.
Pence is nothing more than Trump’s Boy Robin!
Who hosted the Pence fundraiser?
It’s heartbreaking to think that members of our community would welcome a bigot like Mike Pence into their homes.
Gifts to political candidates are matters of public record. We should not protest politicians – we should protest the donors – – get in their face and make them know they are unwelcome here. Only when Trump donors leave the Upper West Side once and for all will we finally be able to come together as a community.
Oh that’s lovely, UWS Craig. Hate to break it to you but the he Upper West Side has always prided itself on being diverse on matters of race, class, religion, sexual persuasion, and yes, politics. Get with the program and have some tolerance for others.
President Trump is the best thing to happen to this country.
Re: “President Trump is the best thing to happen to this country.”
Yup! The Great Diktator is right up there with other phenomena, along with:
-Increases in bigotry,
-Absence of civil discourse;
-Mass Shootings;
-Income Inequality;
-Disappearance of unions;
etc.