Mike Pence is a fascist, a coward, and a traitor to his oath and nation. He will continue to support Donald Trump's every act so long as Trump has power he wants; if this requires justifying Trump's obvious psychopathies in the language of pseudo-Christianity, he remains fully willing to do so. He deserves not a stitch of respect, and it might well be a sin to give him any.
In a Politico article noting Pence's dismissive 2016 campaign trail call to "set aside this talk" about institutional racism in law enforcement, Pence is portrayed as the person tasked with translating the frothing, anti-American rhetoric of his idiot manchild boss into the stuff of church bake sales and backyard authoritarianism. This is suggested to be a good thing, or at least a neutral one. It is not.
"Pence allies said one of his defining characteristics—something that sets him apart from his defiant boss and could benefit the administration in this historic moment of social unrest—is his ability to adapt to the times and modify his posture as needed," says Politico. Yes, even Pence's allies consider his ability to "modify" his past convictions into new ones whenever the situation calls for it to be one of the man's defining traits. Couldn't have put it better myself.
Politico says Pence met with "prominent black conservatives" to chart a path forward. They mean people like Candace Owens: far-right rabid Trump loyalists whose dubious careers revolve around justifying Trump's every twitch and bum-scratch. This, too, is emblematic of the man. Pence continues to be portrayed as an adult in the room, solely because he refrains from throwing his feces at onlookers. Any closer look reveals a radicalism so thorough that Trump's relentless racism, personal corruption, criminal and crime-adjacent acts in office, and authoritarian decrees are all supportable, and indeed enabled.
What is not delved into, by any media outlet, is whether Pence's behavior is the noble moderating force his allies portray it to be or if he is merely a sycophant, a suck-up who, like newest Attorney General William Barr, approves wholeheartedly of Trump's worst objectives and works behind the scenes to shore up Trump's moves even as Trump himself botches them by tweeting his illegal motivations or, you know, being demonstrably insane. What is not explored is just how efficiently the Republicans of the White House not just defend Trump's worst instincts, but prod them on. We are putting children in prison camps because Trump's Republican staff wanted them there, not because Trump himself gave a particular damn either way.
There's talk of Pence wanting to run in 2024, presuming elections are still held then and Trump has not nuked the American countryside into a fine powder after being shown one bad poll too many. Again, though, nobody talks about how very odd that would be. An architect of Trump's brand of stupidity-infused fascism, a key right-hand man, making a new pitch as reasonable voice from amidst the very destruction—of norms, of laws, and in the pandemic, of people—he abetted.
What is the endgame here, for Republicans? It is not that. Surely, the Mike Pences of the world cannot seriously believe that they can saunter and side-step their way into dignity, after declarations that tax-dodging nation-betraying rapists Are Good Now. For Pence, for McConnell, for Rubio, for Cruz and Paul and the others, there is too much footage now. They have shown who they are. Even if Trump is disgraced, they will be known only as the ones who propped him up.
It seems likely that the next Republican to run will be someone, indeed, like Mike Pence. Someone who can pretend at a dignity Trump does not have, in service to the same ideals. Child prisons for refugees, but without the tweeting. The Barr theory of absolute presidential power to violate laws, and absolute presidential power to nullify congressional powers to probe those acts, and the refashioning of the Justice Department into Dear Leader's secret investigators and public militia.
If we do not purge every last one of these enablers, presuming there is an election in November and that Mike Pence and allies lose it, they will metastasize into something worse. Trump has shown us there is an enormous appetite for true fascism in America, with flags and rallies and badge-less federal police and a wholesale stripping of the rights of anyone who is not a certain kind of white and a certain kind of "Christian." Barr has shown that law enforcement will follow whatever orders they are given. McConnell has shown the Senate can be neutered to allow it.
If the movement had a leader who was not continually falling over his own feet, what would happen then?