Unlike his boss, Vice President Mike Pence is an experienced politician. In fact, before becoming VP, Pence was the governor of Indiana. So we should be able to get some idea of what kind of president Pence might be, if (for some reason) Donald Trump stops being the president.
Which is why this report from an Indiana newspaper is worrisome. The article is titled “With Pence gone, fellow Republicans undo his work in Indiana”.
When Pence became the vice president, he was able to handpick Eric Holcomb (who had been his lieutenant governor) to be his successor as Indiana governor. Plus Republicans hold supermajorities of both chambers of the Indiana legislature. One might think that not much would have changed after Pence left the state to join the White House.
One would be wrong. The new governor and the legislature immediately started reversing Pence’s policies in the state:
- Pence had struck a tentative deal to lease state-owned cell towers to an Ohio company. Holcomb cancelled that deal.
- Pence refused to pardon Keith Cooper, who had been wrongfully convicted of robbery almost 20 years ago. This despite a pardon recommendation from the Indiana parole board and a petition for Cooper’s pardon that had collected 100,000 signatures. All eyewitnesses in the case had recanted their testimony and DNA evidence did not implicate Cooper in the crime. Holcomb pardoned Cooper.
- Pence refused to declare an emergency for an East Chicago neighborhood where residents have been forced to leave because of lead contamination. Holcomb reversed that decision and declared an emergency so that federal funds can be used to solve the contamination problem.
- Pence opposed needle exchange programs to stop the spread of disease among drug abusers. Holcomb has announced his support for that program.
- Pence opposed tax increases to pay for road improvements, while Holcomb has endorsed them.
- For their part, the legislature overturned Pence’s most recent vetoes. One was a veto of environmental rules (overturned by a vote of 93 to 2), and the other affected universities in the state.
Why are Republicans trying to seemingly erase Pence’s legacy? Because Pence is an ideologue. Some might even call him a religious zealot, who governs based on his religious convictions. That may have made his religious base happy, but was not good for the state. There is no doubt that he would do the same thing as president.
But perhaps even more important to Pence than his religion is his ambition, which is why he supports Donald Trump with unquestioning devotion, even though Donald Trump is a completely non-religious person who is only too happy to commit grievous religious sins (coveting other’s wives, adultery, lying, bearing false witness, stealing, etc.) and even brag about them.
This does not bode well for the future, as Time magazine has already published an editorial calling for Trump’s impeachment.
UPDATE: Plus bookmakers are very close on the question of whether Trump will make it through his first term. The question doesn’t seem to be whether Trump deserves to be impeached, but whether the Republicans will have the guts to do it.
6 Comments
I’ve always contended that Trump was the lesser of two evils, but recently I have started to rethink this. I guess there is just no win in this situation. Pence is a wacko religious ideologue, with not a drop of empathy and a lot of ambition and Trump, well we all know what Trump is. Which is worse? Impeach them both and we get Paul Ryan, another proven Pub winner. Not a lick of sense, ethics, morals or compassion among the three of them. Might as well keep Trump. At least he keeps the comedians in business and look what he’s done for SNL. Bet there have been new jobs created on that show that Trump can finally truthfully, lay claim to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE
Re: Trump’s lying. John Oliver shows why Trump is not lying. He believes Breitbart news and passes it on to his believers who also believe. That is too scary. Miller is lying. BAnnon from BReitbart is sitting on Trump’s shoulder to make sure he still parrots Breitbart.
Pence is a Religious zealot. Congress will control that.
The telling on is the Pipeline still in dispute. According to the parrot it will create 28,000 jobs. According to the engineers, it will create 3900 jobs (not 28,000) with 35 jobs left after the two years construction to maintain the line. Now part of that 28000 is peripheral windfall to the motels, restaurants,prostitutes, police for the crime, etc. But that isn’t creation as those people have to sleep and eat where they came from.
What scares me more than the ideologues, authoritarians and dictatorial despots that are infused in our current administration is that a large number of our fellow citizens seem to actually welcome and cheer their successes. We can undo a tyrannical president in a few years but reversing 20-30 years of right wing radio and Fox News indoctrination seems a Sisyphean task to me.
This administration is a joke and utterly incompetent
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-north-korea-mar-a-lago-meeting-photos-2017-2
and so much for cleaning the swamp http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-new-ethics-rules-let-a-lobbyist-help-run-an-agency-he-lobbied-2017-2
I will eat my hat… Hell, I’ll eat ALL of my hats if Republicans work up the spine to impeach Trump. Too many of their voters are Trump supporters for them to get away with it. As Jwhat references, these people have been brainwashed by decades of nonsense media into distrusting anyone who isn’t pandering directly to them. The GOP’s impeachment of Trump would be the ultimate self-sacrifice for the benefit of the country. I’m surprised the odds aren’t longer.
Pence is chomping at the bit to send troops into the Middle East because he “knows” that his god can beat their god and is willing to put the whole world at risk to prove what he believes is pre-ordained.
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