Mackinac Island in Michigan is a unique place. The tiny resort destination in Lake Huron is one of the few locales in the United States where motorized vehicles are mostly banned. It was also the site of the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference last weekend, an event that featured Vice President Mike Pence. Given security concerns, obviously something had to give — which meant Pence had a motorcade of secure vehicles to travel in.
For the professionally outraged, this was a field day.
Take Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member in good standing of “the squad.” Tlaib is from Michigan, and although her Detroit-area district isn’t exactly that close to Mackinac Island, she took it upon herself to be outraged for the Mackinacians. (Mackinackers? Mackinacois?)
“Banned for a century people, and here comes the Trump Administration trampling all over it, like they do the U.S. Constitution,” she tweeted on Sept. 22.
“This video of the cars driving on our beautiful #MackinacIsland makes my stomach turn.”
Oh, now that’s a burn. Just like they’re doing with the Constitution! Can we get some clapping hand emojis in between those words just to emphasize it?
The one problem with that clapback is it’s not particularly accurate:
The ban on motorized vehicles has exceptions, generally for vehicles that aren’t there for reasons of personal travel.
I’m sure if it was possible for Pence to bike like most of the residents of and visitors to Mackinac, he would. That’s not a reality in the world we live in. Secure presidential vehicles are just as necessary as emergency ambulances and snowmobiles on the island.
All right, some said, but what about when President Gerald Ford visited the island in 1975? He rode in a carriage, as the Detroit Free Press noted.
Those were different times, first off. This was before an attempt on Ford’s life by Charles Manson devotee Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme later that year, or the attempt on President Reagan’s life in 1981.
Perhaps more importantly, this was before the specter of organized, globalized terrorism. Presidential assassins and would-be assassins were generally deranged losers.
Abraham Lincoln was killed by an outraged actor with delusions of grandeur, James Garfield was assassinated by a thoroughly batty spurned White House job seeker and John F. Kennedy by a communist who couldn’t hack it in the Soviet Union. Squeaky Fromme still thought following Charlie Manson was a good idea in 1975 and John Hinckley tried to kill Reagan because he thought it would impress actress Jodie Foster.
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