Even the remote prospect of a President Mike Pence should be feared as much as any Trump redux, if not more so. RossBarkan writes
Not the candidate anyone should be looking for. Photo: John. Amis/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Mike Pence, erstwhile Trumpian, is making more noise about running for president in 2024. The former vice-president has been campaigning for Brian Kemp’s reelection in the Georgia governor’s race and traveling to Iowa, where he is attempting to carve out a new path for himself in the Republican Party.
But even the remote prospect of a President Mike Pence should be feared as much as any Trump redux, if not more so. Respectability politics will be merged with the Evangelical, anti-government hard right that liberals only had a taste of under Trump. A Pence presidency would be the ultimate triumph of the Koch family–and–Mitch McConnell–wing of the GOP, one that has practiced a dark fusion of Ayn Rand–ian economics and Christian fervor for decades.
What Trump ultimately did, in most circumstances, was what any Republican president in the late 2010s would have done. He aggressively deported immigrants, though Barack Obama didn’t show much leniency for most of his eight years, either. Trump gutted the EPA and slashed various environmental regulations, turning the government over to energy lobbyists. He pulled out of the Paris climate accord. He exited the Iran nuclear deal.
In Pence, America would quickly come to understand the most sinister aspects of the Republican Party. Deeply socially conservative, Pence would have a pliant Supreme Court to defend whatever measures his White House undertook; it’s not hard to envision a President Pence marshaling a federal abortion ban through a GOP-controlled Congress, or quietly encouraging a legal challenge of Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The 2015 decision was 5-4.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mike Collier wins Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor and will face uphill battle against Dan PatrickCollier came within 4 percentage points of unseating the incumbent in 2018. But this year, Democrats face even stronger headwinds in trying to unseat Texas Republicans.
Read more »
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman Blasts City Council Members' Trip To ParisThose on the city council are given a $7,000 a year travel budget. But the mayor thinks the people shouldn't have to pay for international trips.
Read more »
Nancy Dahlstrom, Alaska’s corrections commissioner, will be Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s running mateDahlstrom, a former Republican state representative, seeks to replace Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer, who announced last year that he would not seek reelection.
Read more »
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman Criticizes City Council Members' $3,500 Trip To Paris: 'Insult To Hardworking Taxpayers'‘Insult To Hardworking Taxpayers’: Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman Criticizes City Council Members’ $3,500 Trip To Paris
Read more »
Feds recorded Mike Madigan learning about secret payments to ex-aide accused of harassment: recordsIn the affidavit, FBI special agent Edward McNamara interpreted their exchange as Madigan informing lobbyist confidant Michael McClain 'that he wanted to be able to appear to have no knowledge of the payments.'
Read more »
Rep. Mike Quigley sells West De Paul town home for $667,500U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, and his wife, Barbara, on April 5 sold their two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot town home in the West De Paul neighborhood of Lincoln Park for $667,500.
Read more »