it will allow Mike Pence (aka. the Holy Ghost) to ascend to the throne as our next Douchebag-in-Chief, and that's even scarier.
Well, I could not possibly disagree more...
I'm not a social conservative, and Mike Pence before The Rise Of Trump would not have made the top 20 on my list of Presidential preferences. (If I wanted to support someone from Indiana, I would have
much preferred his predecessor, Mitch Daniels, who I think would have made an excellent President).
But I've looked at his record as Governor of Indiana, and it's a pretty pragmatic one. Despite his rhetorical expressions of strong fundamentalist religious convictions, and some oddball quirks (like refusing to be alone with any woman not his wife) there's certainly
no substantive indication that he was on a crusade to turn the state of Indiana into some sort of "Theocracy".
And I'm sure that just strictly on the basis of those policy areas that I consider to be important, (economic policy, defense policy, national security policy) Pence is much more likely to support and pursue policies closer to my own views than just about anyone the Democrats would nominate.
This does
not mean that I would automatically support a President Pence for election in his own right. Primarily because I've been not
at all happy with the level of public slavish support that he has shown to Il Boobce.
I will cut a VP more slack in this regard than I would other politicians, because there would be something
unseemly about the next guy in line for the job being an outspoken public critic of a President. But even applying that standard, Pence seems to me to go much further than necessary in his public affirmations of support. (Though when you're the Vice President to the most insecure President in history, maybe that's what he feels he needs to do.)
If you go back and look at the speeches and interviews that Gerald Ford gave during the nine months he was Vice-President, he was pretty much an unabashed "good soldier" defender of Nixon. (Until the "smoking gun" tape came out three days before Nixon resigned, at which point he issued a statement saying that he would no longer have anything to say about Watergate.) But obviously once he became President, he did not conduct the office in any way like Richard Nixon had.
I'm certainly not suggesting that Mike Pence is any kind of Gerald Ford, but if he became President by virtue of Trump's departure, I would reserve judgement on him, and see how he asserted himself as President before deciding whether or not I could support him for election.
I obviously don't expect any of my liberal or Democratic friends here to take that attitude; I expect they would oppose Pence from the get-go because they disagree with him on policy, and that they would support pretty much anyone the Democrats would nominate to oppose him, and that's perfectly fair.
But I would argue that no matter where one is coming from ideologically, they should really think long and hard before coming to the conclusion that they'd rather have
Donald Trump in office then Mike Pence...
In my view, every day that Donald Trump remains in office represents a clear and present danger to the fundamental well being of our Republic, and no matter
what one thinks of Pence, (and as I've made clear, I'm far from a big fan) the same cannot be said of him.
For a whole host of reasons, Trump represents a
uniquely dangerous and malevolent presence in the Presidency. Whatever else you want to say about Pence, here are a few things we would not have with him as President that we have currently:
We would not have to worry that he would wake up one morning and decide to pull out of NATO...(Indeed just based on the role he's played in
this Administration, I would expect a President Pence to work pretty hard repairing the relations with traditional allies that Trump has shredded, and reassuring them of US support.)
We would not have our foreign policy subordinated to the interests and dictates of a hostile foreign power. (Pence would most likely pursue a traditional Republican Hawkish defense and foreign policy, and you may not care for that, but surely it has to be preferable to having a President who is a Russian Asset.)
We would not have a President who day in and day out conducts a war on the rule of law by systematically seeking to undermine and discredit our federal law enforcement agencies, our court system and our free press. (And even if you believed he
would try to do those things, Pence would still be preferable to Trump because he lacks the devoted cult-following fan base that would support his authoritarian aims.)
We would not have a President launching economically destructive trade wars, or keeping the government partially shutdown for four weeks (and counting) just to get funding for a mythical wall, or a President who spends more time tweeting and watching television about himself than he does reading briefing papers...
We would not have a President who is more influenced by foreign despots than he is by his own intelligence services and Defense Department...
We would not have a President who is incapable of representing his office with even the most minimally acceptable probity and dignity at any public occasion in the US or abroad...
We would not have a President who
constantly demeans his office and embarrasses our country with his incessant, obsessive displays of pettiness and narcissistic self-obsession...
And probably most importantly, we would not have a President who, (unlike every other President we have ever had) doesn't give one small damn about the best interests of the United States...(Pence, like every other President we have had besides Trump, would at a minimum fall into that category of, "Well, I don't like his polices or his judgement, but I don't doubt that he sincerely believes he is trying to do what he thinks would be best for the country")
Liberals who want to take the position, "Well, Trump is terrible of course, but probably better than Pence so we should just put up with him for another two years" seem to me to be a lot like some of my conservative friends who say, "Well, Trump is terrible of course, but I agree with him on a lot of his economic policies, and I like his judicial picks, and I think you're really exaggerating the threat to the country he represents, so I'm going to continue to support him".
Seems to me both positions wrongly minimize the unique threats posed by having this morally and intellectually bankrupt, sociopathic malignant narcissist (backed by hardcore of uncritical cult-followers) remaining in the highest office in the land...
It seems to me that for anyone who truly cares about the fundamental well being of our country, (left, right, or center) the
first priority needs to be, "Get rid of Donald Trump"...
Then we can all go back to arguing over policy choices...
Gee wouldn't that be nice...
