The Official Blog of Benjamin L. Corey
Excited about the potential impeachment of Donald Trump? So was I at first, but here’s a few things to consider that might keep you up at night:
Pence could be a worse president, because he is just as extreme as Trump but comes across much more “presidential” which would more quickly normalize extreme beliefs. There’s nothing worse than extremist beliefs packaged up presentably to make it all seem palatable or normal.
Pence would be able to rally the Republican base, because unlike Trump, the Republican party can trust Pence to be a loyal member of the party. This means that Pence may be able to accomplish so many of the things Trump would love to accomplish, but never will because of his personality and style. You’ll have a Republican house, senate, and White House, and they’ll potentially work well together– that’s bad news for the poor, marginalized groups, the environment… I could go on.
And if they all keep working “well” together and at least passing laws that please the upper class? Well, it’s hard to defeat someone for reelection if the economy is good and rich people are happy.
And here’s the real thing we should take into account: If an impeachment takes a while and Trump is impeached after 2 years and 1 day of his presidency, the constitution would allow Pence to complete 2 years of a Trump presidency and then serve two FULL terms of his own, as a President can serve in office a total of not 8 years, but 10. So, yes, the potential that Mike Pence could be president for 10 years is a real possibility– and imagine what the laws of the land or SCOTUS would like like then?
While it might be exciting to see Trump thrown out, if such an event is delayed until the second half of his term, we could end up with an extremist Pence presidency that could last a full decade— and I might just prefer watching Trump flounder for four years, and lose his reelection.
Sometimes what you have is better than what you’ll get– we saw that in Iraq, and I worry that we might forget that lesson.
What do you think?
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