Stop saying “…but Mike Pence is worse.” First we must oust Donald Trump. Then we’ll oust Pence.
Whenever I write about the parameters for ousting Donald Trump from office, the comments from readers are always predictable: “…but Mike Pence is worse.” And on some level I agree. While Trump is dangerously deranged and corrupt in a manner which goes beyond political ideology, Pence is a conservative extremist with horrifying social beliefs. But in terms of political strategy, I say bring on Pence. And it’s not just because he’s less likely to get us all nuked.
If Trump had resigned two weeks into his presidency, it would have been spectacularly scandalous, but it would have fallen entirely on his own head. Moderates and undecideds and non-political types might have been inclined to give “President Pence” a chance. After all, whoever this Pence guy is, at least he didn’t quit like a baby after two weeks. Eventually they’d have figured out that Pence is such an extremist he makes George W. Bush look enlightened, but he might have had a productive year or two where he could advance his medieval social agenda before he got cornered. But I think that window has now closed.
Trump has now been on the job long enough to taint his entire administration. The average politically uncommitted American has now concluded that everyone in his administration is either a total buffoon who can’t complete a sentence, or a Russian spy who’s being investigated by the FBI. The first hundred days, where the majority party in Congress can be counted on to remain united before ultimately starting to worry about individually positioning themselves for midterm reelection, have been wasted. His approval rating is in the toilet, and any semblance of momentum is gone.
Worse for Mike Pence, the Russia scandal has grown so out of control that even he’s been caught lying about Michael Flynn’s lies. No one knows for sure why Pence is participating in the coverup, but he sure is making himself look dirty. If Trump resigns in frustration now, or if he’s nudged into resigning by congressional Republicans in six months because they’re tired of having to answer for him, Pence is simply going to inherit the mess Trump has made – and he’s going to be seen by the mainstream public as having been part of the problem.
If “President Mike Pence” enters office at this point, he won’t get a grace period. He’ll face immense immediate pressure to answer for and deal with the Russia scandal. No matter how he handles it, he can’t win. If Trump gets indicted or convicted or imprisoned after leaving office, Pence looks guilty for having been his running mate in a rigged election. If Pence pardons Trump, then Pence becomes irrelevant right then and there (see Gerald Ford). And even though conservative Republicans in Congress will want to work with Pence to the extent that they can, by that time the entire administration will have become a black hole that they’re afraid of getting sucked into by association.
So I say bring on that evil bastard Mike Pence. Let’s get rid of Donald Trump, who could get us all killed at any moment, and let’s put a phenomenally scandalized and crippled Pence in the Oval Office. Then we fight him at every turn. We make sure he can’t harm the civil rights of those in America who don’t look like him. We drive his approval rating into the gutter. We force him to nominate a new VP who’s more toward the center. And then if it turns out Pence was guilty on Russia, then we oust him too. Then we finish out the term with the third guy, who by then will have absolutely no political capital at all. This was always going to be a four year fight. But ousting Trump is the biggest and most important step in surviving that fight. Contribute to Palmer Report
