Note: I began writing this yesterday, prior to the publication of Gail Collins’ column in today’s NY Times, "Mike Pence Pulls Donald Trump's Strings.” Glad to see that I’m not the only one who thinks that Republicans would be glad to get rid of Trump if it means that Mike Pence would be President.
Only five days into his presidency, Trump is already fueling speculation that he is too mentally unstable to be president. Even last fall, there was speculation that radical right politicians in Congress might be willing to impeach him if they couldn’t control him. Now, it appears that they might be willing to impeach him because Mike Pence would be their dream president: someone who appears rational, yet holds wildly radical, rightwing ideas.
Trump is fulfilling the radical Republicans’ dreams this week. He is going to get rid of “Obamacare,” the Affordable Care Act. He's going to stick it to brown immigrants. Most of all, he’s going to take women’s reproductive health care back 100 years.
Keep in mind that we have a Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, who is not only against abortion, but also against birth control. Keep in mind that Pence has been on record opposing abortion for women whose lives were at risk. Keep in mind that Republicans all over the country have been trying to weaken environmental regulations so that coal and oil companies can make more profits at the expense of people’s health. Keep in mind that it was Republicans who promoted torture and CIA “dark sites” during the Bush years. And keep in mind that Republicans have been denying the science on issues ranging from climate change to evolution for years.
And along with Trump, they are pushing this entire rightwing agenda right down America’s throat.
Trump may be too crazy for even Republican leaders to tolerate. He says things out loud that they would like to hide from the American people. In many ways, Pence would be a much better face to put on their radical agenda — you know, kind of the “well, he LOOKS normal” thinking that allows Paul Ryan to get away with being a rabid ideologue.
As a Democrat, I think Mike Pence is even more dangerous than Trump. Trump’s craziness does appear to be creating a backlash not only against Trump, but against some of the policies he’s pushing, i.e. if he’s crazy, then whatever he says and does must be crazy. And if the Republicans don’t rein him in — which they apparently cannot — there is a real risk that he could take them all down with him. They will not let this happen, not because they care about the country, but because they care about keeping their power.
Mike Pence is the Republicans’ perfect solution: someone who would push their radical agenda, but next to Trump, looks rational and normal. Now, we all know Pence is radically conservative and doesn’t reflect the values of a majority of Americans. He did hateful and dangerous things in Indiana aimed at women, gays, minorities, etc. He is not a nice person. I would even argue that he is mean-spirited in a pathological way.
But next to Trump, he — anyone — looks normal. That is more dangerous than the guy who everyone knows is nuts.
Watch this space.