“The choice could not be more clear,” tweeted Vice President Mike Pence last week. “And I want to make you a promise: This President, this Vice President, and this Administration will ALWAYS stand up for the freedom of speech of every American, and we will always stand for LIFE.”

Pence was in Florida for an event sponsored by the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, and he had plenty to talk about on that front. He is, after all, an integral part of the most pro-life administration in our lifetime. Indeed, his early afternoon visit to a Tampa-area pregnancy center marked the first time a sitting vice president had visited such a clinic.

But times being what they are, Pence also talked about politics. As The Daily Signal reports, the vice president noted the stark contrast that the American people will face at the polls in November. “We stand at a crossroads of freedom,” he said. “Before us lie two paths: one based on the dignity and worth of every individual, and the other on the growing control of the state. One road leads to greater freedom and opportunity, and the other road leads to socialism and decline.”

“The choice we face,” he said, “is whether America remains America.”

And that’s really it, isn’t it? The Democrat Party long ago ran its mainstream voices and its moderating influences out of town. The party’s agenda these days isn’t one of American renewal but of revolution, of anarchy. And while a younger, more forceful Joe Biden would’ve spoken out against this violent lurch to the left, the gaffe-prone and cognitively challenged candidate we see today is but a feeble figurehead for a future that is ardently anti-American.

Take law and order, for example. While the Democrats talk of defunding the police, Pence doubles down on behalf of them. “President Trump and I know that the men and women who put on the uniform of law enforcement every day are the best people in this country,” he said to applause. “With this president and this administration, we will always back the blue. We will always stand with the men and women on the Thin Blue Line of law enforcement. We’re not going to defund the police — not now, not ever.”

“We don’t need to choose between supporting law enforcement and supporting our minority communities,” Pence continued. “This president has done both every single day, and we will continue to deliver. We will support law enforcement [and] we will support our minority communities, with liberty and justice for all.”

Always decent, always deferential. That’s Mike Pence. And because presidential campaigns necessarily focus their attention on the top of the ticket, too often we forget that the other guy is just one heartbeat away from the most awesome responsibilities on the planet.

Thus, while the Biden campaign continues to thrash around for just the right president-in-waiting, our current commander-in-chief already has himself an ace in the hole. While the Biden campaign embraces identity politics and confronts the reality of a shrinking short list without a single good alternative, President Donald Trump can take comfort in knowing that he couldn’t have made a better call in his first and most important expression of presidential decision-making.

Mike Pence: former congressman, former governor, loyal husband, devoted father, devout Christian. Let’s be thankful we have him, and let’s enjoy him while he’s here.