Mike Pence's big national debut came in March 2015, just after he signed into law a "license to discriminate" bill that legalized religious-based bigotry against LGBTQ Americans. You could refuse to serve gay and transgender individuals at your business, deny them housing, or even fire them as your employees so long you as you were motivated by your religious beliefs to treat them as lesser human beings.
As we have written before, when Pence's monstrous law made national headlines and began sucking the economic life out of Indiana, the governor's clean up efforts crashed, burned, and killed his presidential hopes.
People might ask themselves, why would anyone agree to jump on Donald Trump's crazy train presidential bid? The answer: Because you've already derailed your own political career. Pence had not only dashed his presidential ambitions with his heinous "religious freedom" law, he was almost a sure loser for re-election in his own state this year. Republicans in Indiana were begging Trump to snatch Pence out of the Hoosier State so they might have a chance of retaining the governorship this November. They got their wish.
Pence deserved to be cross-examined on his bigoted law in front of a national audience during Tuesday night's debate. In fact, he has never found a good defense for rushing to legalize discrimination in his state and was ultimately forced to sign a partial "fix" to the law, which nonetheless remains mostly intact.
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But as much as he has flailed on the very issue that brought him to national prominence, the moderator never saw fit to bring it up and Tim Kaine made only a passing reference to LGBTQ issues while mentioning Vladimir Putin's persecution of gay and transgender folks.
While this was undoubtedly a missed opportunity, it's also a ticking time bomb. Republicans walked away from Tuesday night mourning the fact that Mike Pence isn’t at the top of their ticket and, indeed, Pence spent the night boosting his 2020 chances.
Bring it! Pence's unabashed targeting of LGBTQ Americans was already antiquated and out of step with everyone but a small slice of social conservatives when he signed the law last year. Just imagine how Pence will defend that law in 2020.
By any measure, attitudes on LGBTQ issues have moved at lightning speed in comparison with other social issues. Pence's 2015 embrace of the bigoted law and rigorous efforts to defend the indefensible will be incomprehensible four years from now. If Trump/Pence goes down in flames next month and Pence somehow manages to survive until 2020, it will be up to Democrats to fully air what was clearly the most definitive moment in his political career. And then Pence will have the opportunity to do for the GOP nationally what he did perfectly for Republicans as governor of Indiana—kill their electoral chances.