{"id":29779,"date":"2017-10-20T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T09:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=29779"},"modified":"2017-10-19T16:27:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T20:27:53","slug":"why-democrats-will-never-vote-to-impeach-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/10\/why-democrats-will-never-vote-to-impeach-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Democrats Will Never Vote to Impeach Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Mike_Pence_(29241696123)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Democrats\u00a0would love to find a way to impeach President Trump, say if they win back Congress and the Senate in the midterm elections.\u00a0 But they are realizing that if President Trump were ousted, Vice President Mike Pence would take office. And though Liberals hate Donald Trump, they hate cultural and economic conservatives even more.<\/p>\n

The notion that Pence would be worse than Trump has been a theme in Democratic impeachment talk for some time.\u00a0 Here is talk quoted from the New Republic:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf Trump were impeached and convicted, Vice President Mike Pence, a right-wing, evangelical ideologue, would be a much more reliable and competent rubber stamp for the conservative policy agenda.\u201d Jeff Alson,\u00a0In These Times.\u00a0<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pence is not an evangelical but a Roman Catholic.\u00a0 But all religious cultural conservatives get tarred by the same brush.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Pence clearly has more self-control and self-awareness than Trump, that\u2019s exactly what makes him more dangerous. He has all the same ideas and goals as Trump\u2014and, as an added bonus, a religious-right agenda that\u2019s even worse\u2014and a much better chance of actually implementing them.\u201d\u00a0 Cliston Brown, The Observer<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, Pence would make an effective president, so that makes him \u201cmore dangerous\u201d than Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is more likely to blunder into a nuclear war, while Pence is more likely to push America down the road to a rigid theocracy. The worst-case scenario under Trump is the world of\u00a0Mad Max<\/i>, while under Pence it would be\u00a0The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/a><\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 Jeet Heer, The New Republic<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Left really does fear that Christians will impose a theocracy, as if that were possible in an increasingly secular culture and as if that were theologically desirable for more than a tiny number of Christians.<\/p>\n

A recent article by Jane Mayer crystallizes these fears, while also raising other reasons why liberals should prefer Trump to Pence:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Danger of President Pence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The article goes through Pence\u2019s career, emphasizing what most New Yorker<\/em> readers will view with horror, though conservative readers would be impressed:\u00a0 His conservative think-tank background and policy chops; his pro-life convictions; his championing religious liberty against LGBT activists.<\/p>\n

The article also calls attention to the inevitable mistakes and controversies associated with Pence over his long career as a congressman and governor, putting the worst construction on everything.<\/p>\n

The most disturbing part of the article, from a Christian and cultural conservative perspective, is its reports of how President Trump mocks his Vice President\u2019s religion, his pro-life convictions, and his moral position on LGBT issues:<\/p>\n

A staff member from Trump\u2019s campaign recalls him mocking Pence\u2019s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence\u2019s office, Trump would ask them, \u201cDid Mike make you pray?\u201d Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence\u2019s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. \u201cYou see?\u201d Trump asked Pence. \u201cYou\u2019ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it\u2019s not going to end abortion anyway.\u201d When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, \u201cDon\u2019t ask that guy\u2014he wants to hang them all!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judging from the article, liberals believe that Trump lacks religious convictions, is only half-heartedly pro-life, and\u00a0supports the LGBT agenda.\u00a0 All of which makes him a better president, for all of his faults, than Mike Pence would be.<\/p>\n

A major\u00a0theme of the article is that Pence has always been supported by the Koch brothers.\u00a0 Charles and David Koch are wealthy businessmen from Wichita, Kansas, who give a great deal of money to promote free market economics.\u00a0 Significantly, they are not<\/em> religious.\u00a0 They are essentially libertarians.<\/p>\n

You would think that the Koch brothers\u2019 lack of religion\u2013they would surely be the last to support any kind of theocracy\u2013would reassure liberals.\u00a0 And that\u00a0the Kochs have always supported Pence, despite his faith, would be evidence that as president he would not be a theocrat after all.<\/p>\n

But the Kochs have become the arch-villains in liberal mythology.\u00a0 They are \u201cthe rich\u201d who supposedly are out to control America by buying politicians.\u00a0 A belief they strangely do not apply to George Soros, the billionaire who similarly funds the left.<\/p>\n

Throughout, the article\u00a0draws on interviews with Steve Bannon, Trump\u2019s ousted advisor:\u00a0 \u201cBannon is equally alarmed at the prospect of a Pence Presidency. He told me, \u2018I\u2019m concerned he\u2019d be a President that the Kochs would own.'\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon,\u00a0the spokesman for Trump\u2019s economic nationalism, also dislikes the Koch brothers.\u00a0 The Kochs, who did not support Trump,\u00a0promote free market economics.\u00a0 Bannon and Trump promote protectionism, limits on trade, and\u00a0populist limits on corporations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s odd to read an overtly liberal publication that is in such agreement with Bannon, usually demonized as the Rasputin of the alt.right.<\/p>\n

But clearly, liberals prefer the Trump\/Bannon style of economic populism to the Pence\/Koch\u00a0allegiance to free market capitalism.<\/p>\n

So even if the Democrats take over the Senate and the House of Representatives in the midterm elections.\u00a0 And even if investigators find some trumped up (sorry!) charges of wrongdoing, liberals are unlikely to impeach the President.\u00a0 Though they despise him, in their heart of hearts, they\u00a0consider him (rightly or wrongly) closer to their policies than the thorough-going conservative Mike Pence would be.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo of Mike Pence by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (Mike Pence) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats\u00a0would love to find a way to impeach President Trump, say if they win back Congress and the Senate in the midterm elections.\u00a0 But they are realizing that if President Trump were ousted, Vice President Mike Pence would take office. And though Liberals hate Donald Trump, they hate cultural and economic conservatives even more. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":29785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36],"tags":[5832,657,5833,869,5831,1074,1292,4923,3817,5251],"class_list":["post-29779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-politics","tag-cultural-conservatives","tag-democrats","tag-economic-nationalism","tag-free-market-economics","tag-impeaching-trump","tag-impeachment","tag-liberals","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-religious-right","tag-vice-president-mike-pence"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Democrats Will Never Vote to Impeach Donald Trump<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Democrats are noting that impeaching Trump would make Mike Pence president. 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