All progressives, liberals, Democrats, and generally patriotic citizens of the U.S.A. who yearn not just to breathe free but to (soon) breathe in the smell of Trump’s impeachment in the morning should probably stop and think a bit longer term in what that ultimately would mean. After reading Jane Mayer’s impressively thorough bio on Mike Pence in the New Yorker, The Danger of President Pence, I strongly believe that it is absolutely in our best interests to keep Pence from becoming president, even if it means Trump remains president for a full four years. Now how we do this I do not know, but I do know that impeaching Trump while Pence sits next in line of succession is a very very bad idea indeed.
The reasons for this might be obvious, but I will briefly explain.
Currently with Trump we have a somewhat dysfunctional situation where, at least legislatively, nothing destructive is getting done. Judicial nominations and cabinet appointments and the resulting agency/policy changes are of course another matter entirely, but I ask: do we really think those very same ideological problems with a Republican president will somehow go away with a President Pence? Of course they won’t, and in fact they will almost certainly be significantly worse. Add to that frightening prospect the virtual guarantee that legislation will suddenly break our current Trumpian logjam when Pence and the sycophantic McConnell/Ryan cabal hyper-grease the rails of congress with their true right-wing believer voodoo and actually begin to pass shit.
To put the proof to my argument let’s go to some Mayer excerpts:
… Pence has the political experience, the connections, the discipline, and the ideological mooring that Trump lacks. He also has a close relationship with the conservative billionaire donors who have captured the Republican Party’s agenda in recent years.
On the off chance you were not aware, these billionaire donors include most notoriously the Kochs, who are absolutely thrilled that Pence is now where he is, and Mayer carefully details the long history of their relationship. For further evidence of how genuine this connection is we have none other than Steve Bannon himself quoted in reference to Pence:
“I’m concerned he’d be a President that the Kochs would own.”
and the proof is already well in the pudding as we get a run down of just how entrenched the Koch interets are in this administration:
- Marc Short, former Koch operative, is director of legislative affairs.
- Scott Pruitt, once nominated to be director of the EPA, was backed by the Kochs to the tune of 3.1 million dollars.
- Patrick Traylor, an energy industry lawyer and Koch favorite was immediately brought on to enforce (or not) key anti-pollution laws as head of EPA’s enforcement.
- Don McGahn became White House counsel. He is from Freedom Partners, an umbrella Koch group described by Politico as the Koch’s “Secret Bank”.
- Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, though her own billionairess, may as well be a Koch family member, their interests are so completely aligned as Mayer explained back in January.
- Mike Pompeo, director of the C.I.A. was congressman in Charles Koch’s district in Wichita. Mayer thus summarizes this entire evilly assembled ‘Koched up’ morass:
… before Pompeo ran for office, the Kochs had invested in his aerospace business. Pompeo, the former transition-team member said, “wasn’t even on Trump’s radar, but he was brought in to meet him and got appointed, like, the next day.” A recent analysis by the Checks & Balances Project found that sixteen high-ranking officials in the Trump White House had ties to the Kochs. The pattern continued among lower-level political appointees, including in Pence’s office, which was stocked with Koch alumni. Pence reportedly consulted with Charles Koch before hiring his speechwriter, Stephen Ford, who previously worked at Freedom Partners.
This should all give us a fairly good idea of how entrenched the Koch’s economic interests already are in this administration.
On Pence’s belief in imposing ultra conservative social values through the truly horrid Religious Freedom Restoration Act as governor of Indiana, we hear from Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend:
“He just inhabits a different reality. It’s very difficult for him to lay aside the social agenda. He’s a zealot.”
On his zealotry, Mayer details what is perhaps Pence’s most shameful transgression: his refusal to grant a pardon (which his successor Eric Holcomb ultimately and immediately did on becoming governor) to Keith Cooper -imprisoned nine years for an armed robbery that DNA evidence, witness recantations, and even the prosecutor and Parole Board all came to converge on the irrefutable truth that he did not commit. On his release Cooper thanked and forgave them all- All except Pence whom he branded a Christian hypocrite:
“… I don’t forgive Mike Pence, and never will. He talks all this God stuff, but he’s biased. He hates Muslims, he hates gay people, and he hates minorities. He didn’t want to be the first white man in Indiana to pardon an innocent black man.”
and in further evidence of his religious fundamentalism and right wing anti-science attitude, we learn that
In 2002, he declared that “educators around America must teach evolution not as fact but as theory,” alongside such theories as intelligent design, which argues that life on Earth is too complex to have emerged through random mutation. Pence has described intelligent design as the only “remotely rational explanation for the known universe.”
The bottom line is that in truth, Donald Trump does not really believe any of this right wing nonsense, and at this point there is a growing consensus that Trump truly lacks any strong moral convictions. His central interest is limited to himself and his inflated ego. As evidence that Trump is not a true believer in conservative causes, Mayer cites several instances where Trump in fact makes fun of Pence: for proselytizing visitors (“Did Mike make you pray?” ), mocking him that overturing Roe V. Wade is ultimately a futile quest and waste of his time, and how Pence really does want to go backwards on gay rights (Trump jokes “...he wants to hang them all!”)
So considering all of the evidence so far, impeaching Trump would be for progressives and most Democrats not just a pyrrich victory, but in the end, no victory at all if the result is President Pence- a Faustian bargain by virtually any measure.
Finally, if you haven’t already, read the article!