Dictionary.com: ‘We have a word for someone like Mike Pence’

In the midst of GOP celebrations over the passage of their tax plan, Vice President Mike Pence went viral thanks to a bizarre moment during a cabinet meeting this Wednesday where be offered a prayer-like North Koreaesque speech praising his Dear Leader.

The video of the event was just as astounding as it was grotesque. After asking HUD Secretary Ben Carson to lead the group in prayer, Trump turned to Pence and said, “Mike, would you like to say a few words?”

As Trump sat with his arms folded, looking like a glaring king taking in his subject’s servitude, Pence launched into a three-minute speech that, as The Washington Post pointed out, lavished praise upon Trump every 12-seconds, at one point gushing that Trump had “unleashed American energy,” whatever the hell that means.

The internet’s reaction to the spectacle was brutal. “Mike Pence = lap dog,” one Twitter user tweeted. “Listening to Mike Pence talk to Trump at these cabinet meetings is like watching a documentary on prison bitches,” tweeted another.

Joining in the mockery was the official Twitter account for Dictionary.com.

“There’s a word for a person who would praise someone every 12 seconds,” the site’s Twitter account posted Thursday, while linking to the dictionary’s definition for “sycophant.”

According to Dictionary.com, “sycophant” is a noun referring to a “self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.” The entry included synonyms for the words such as “toady, yes man, flunky, fawner, flatterer.”

The site has a history of tweeting out snarky observations of Trumplandia:

They’ve taken issue with the president’s vocabulary as well:

According to The Daily Beast‘s Matt Lewis, Pence’s almost religious adulation of Trump is “patently un-American.

This sort of slavish hero worship offends me on a couple of levels. First, it strikes me as patently un-American. We don’t have a king in this country—because we overthrew one. Our aversion to strongmen is so visceral that criticizing a president—any president—almost feels like one’s patriotic duty. In this regard, one wonders if feeding Trump’s authoritarian tendencies satiates these tendencies or encourages them.  This deference to authority also feels a bit antiquated. Granted, the position of Potus deserves respect. But the saying goes that one salutes the rank and not the man. This feels like they are saluting the man.

Featured image via screen grab (YouTube)

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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