This is a real question. Is it better for the country if Trump is impeached and Pence replaces him?
The fact that our military industrial complex and intelligence community are so actively trying to discredit Trump and push him out has many on both sides of the aisle giddy with glee. The never Trumpers are happy because they didn’t want an idiot, who they cant control, without their principles guiding and representing their party, and the Democrats and Progressives are happy because we see Trump as the embodiment of the rich-poor divide, racism and bigotry, the epitome of anti-intellectualism, and an embracing of fear rather than hope. With the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel I think it is only a matter of time before the Republicans decide the winds have sufficiently shifted to support impeachment. They will make this calculation with the knowledge that they will get someone who they really want in exchange for the incompetent one. They will get Pence as president. This is a guy who embodies all of the problems with the Republican party, he’s anti-women, anti-gay, anti-equality, etc. .., but is relatively coherent, controllable, and will be scandal free. So the question is, is this something that we as progressives really want?
Generally I find myself not in line with what the intelligence community and military industrial complex wants. I think that they see Trumps unpredictability as something they cant control and Trump is not as obviously a hawk like Clinton was and I assume Pence is. So while he might do stupid things like launch useless missiles at Syria after warning them that he’s gonna do it to prove how much of a leader he is, he isn’t as likely to start a war with North Korea or Iran just because it will benefit the military industrial complex. I’m not saying he wont get us embroiled in another war but he is more likely to do this on a whim rather than as some preconceived notion which I feel is more of a sure thing if we have Pence in charge. It’s true that Trump will enrich himself to the tune of a billion or two at the countries expense. But the true Republican goals, cutting the social safety net, destroying the environment, and letting wall street and big companies completely off the leash, isn’t an ideological necessity for Trump. It’s quite apparent that he will abandon those commitments if it can benefit him personally and isn’t particularly invested in them. That coupled with the sheer and utter incompetence of the current administration means that he might not be able to get those things accomplished. But with Pence in charge, along with a Republican congress, the cutting of medicare, medicaid, and social security are a sure thing.
So the question stands, is it better to have an incompetent idiot running the Republican party, who is a clear embarrassment and is only looking out for himself, or is it better to impeach him, with whatever damage that does to the Republican brand and party and have Pence in charge? We might be able to regain the house (even with the gerrymandered distracts) in 2018 or 2020 if Trump is still in charge. A democratic Congress united against an idiot who is so clearly unqualified might be better than one which will waffle and compromise with the same policy suggestions made by Pence. Since Trump is so incompetent he might not be able to get that much of his agenda accomplished. It’s a weird thing to argue for since Trump as president annoys and angers me. But Pence as president might be worse. What do you guys think?