Would We Be Better Off With a President Pence Right Now?

Imagine our response to the pandemic and the protests if Donald Trump had been removed from office.

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What would a President Pence do?

It’s a question no one is asking, so I guess it falls to me.

 In January 2020 it was almost as if God, the universe, or our Lizard People overlords were giving the Republicans one last chance to separate their fate from Trump’s. The Higher Power couldn’t actually tell the GOP, “If you don’t choose wisely, you’ll be stuck with him during a time of trials, tribulations, and even a plague.” But it’s not like they weren’t warned that the president would one day be tested beyond his abilities. Prophets don’t predict, they warn. And such warnings have been thick in the air for a very long time.

 But few Republicans heeded, and a complaisance just shy of Stockholm syndrome finally set in. After all, the economy was humming, the normal rules of politics had not applied to this president for so long, and the base was so invested in Trump, best to keep your head down. Sodom and Gomorrah were fun towns while they lasted, too.

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  1. Tommy

    Presidential politics has been a "Hobson's Choice" for years. Decent Candidates with moderate, rational, and principled views don't exist and don't apply. (Today, neither Gerald Ford or Daniel Patrick Moynihan could be elected to office.) Because Congress is dysfunctional, the Executive Branch has filled the power vacuum, exercising outsized control over American life. Hence, we see exaggerated political volatility. These days, the specter of any Political Party obtaining absolute power over all three branches of government should fill anyone with dread.

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    Michael Darwin

    I don't know that the results of the pandemic would have been much better or worse, though I suspect there might have been less knee-jerk opposition to whatever the President said.

    Carrying it forward, I wonder who his veep would be, and whether he would have been able to win the Republican primary. It would have been an opportunity for a clean break from Trump, though there are definitely those who would resist that.

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    David Chen

    I'm still holding out for Biden collapsing during the debate in a fit of imaginary squirrels, Trump OD'ing on bleach, and Justin Amash parachutes in to save the country maybe with a cheesy one-liner like 'Just-in Time!'

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    Mark Badger

    The USA would have been will be better off with Trump out of office. But not by all that much. The Gorn will still be around.

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      Bill Nelson

      Wish that were true, but the democrats have gone so far left, there will be nothing to hold them back.

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    Johntadian

    And here, dear reader, is Jonah's white whale.

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  6. rob

    Trump (despite some trip ups in a historic pandemic) frightens me less than democrats who no longer believe in the 1st, 2nd, or 14th amendment. And having Pence as president... well i dont see that he would necessarily be in any better of a position to win.

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  7. Chuckles the Clown

    to my NBA brothers going to Orlando to play basketball. Are you not submitting to the white man, by staying on his plantation bubble and not being allowed to leave and than putting on a minstrel show on TV for him. You should be ashamded. Or on the other hand, will you escape the plantation/bubble so you can hit the strip clubs and chase after white booty.

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    Victor Clairmont

    If trump had been removed from office Jonah, there would be more blood in the water of the culture wars. This cycle is going to be vicious. The backing of Trump would never die down if he were removed prematurely.

    Baaaaaaad idea. I don't like Trump, but elections have consequences. Let it play out till November and let America decide again. Ukraine while nasty, wasn't honestly worth the time of day. I agree with Charlie Cooke, of all the things to impeach him over, the Democrats picked this?Ewwww....

    You're still an amazing writer by the way. More Faffoon please.

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    1. David Mancke

      The right thing to do was to remove him. Elections have consequences, and so do terrible self-serving choices at the expense of a country one swore to serve faithfully.

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    DougCLE

    I have no love for the Republican party, except as a useful foil for that other block of idiots. But their usefulness does mean I don't want to see them disappear completely. Unfortunately, there is no President Pence, and there never could be, for reasons many have already outlined below.

    And however 2020 goes, I don't see a way back to the pre-Trump unity for the GOP. Opposing a Biden admin might provide some temporary semblance of unity, but only until 2024. Who is the candidate who can excite the Trump base without being anathema to everyone else? Full disclosure: I think the 90% Republican approval polls of him are a load of tosh. (And yes, Pat, that's based on anecdotal evidence, but I know a lot of 2016 Trump voters, and they are NOT pleased with him right now, even if they do plan to vote for him - or against Biden - in 2020.)

    I think at some point, the only way forward is to shed one side or the other. My guess is that it will be the Trump hardliners who take a walk, because the party is still run by guys like Cocaine, and there's a good chance they'll step up to avoid a repeat in 2024, and the Trumpists will take their ball and go home. I could be wrong, and maybe it's the other guys who bounce; but either way, I just don't see how they stay together after all the blood that's been spilled in this intra-party war.

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      Victor Clairmont

      A centrist new political party would have a lot of good will buy in. Would it last? Dunno, but definitely would have political buy in at the start. Begin politically from ground zero without all the baggage.

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      Pat Riot

      They won't disappear insofar as there is not another party to take their place. Moreover, political forces will necessarily balance themselves over time (and not even a very long time).

      If you strip away the parties and just look at what Americans *want*, you can probably draw up some entirely new coalitions that don't look like either of today's parties.

      And besides anecdotes, I would remind people that bases of voters do *not* act rationally per se. Biden's nomination was the closest we've ever seen to that (i.e. voters voting for an *outcome* and not a man or policy), and there was still 25% of Democratic primary voters who were ready to ignore the Trump head-to-head polls and support Bernie because that's what their feelings told them.

      Remember that most of the "in crowd" in the GOP assumed Trump would be a disaster for them in 2016 (viz. Lindsey Graham and his famous, "we'll get killed and we will deserve it" remark). That was the base of the party not acting rationally, based on the evidence that was before them at that moment (and here talking purely about electoral victory and nothing else).

      Now, all that said, let's talk about what W. Bush called his, "other constituency": The Money.

      People forget that Trump had *his own money* (which in turn might have been Russian money but no matter). This meant that he didn't initially need the funding spigot from the Chamber's of Commerces, Koch Brothers, etc. etc. He controlled enough money himself that he was able to *capture* the GOP base, and *then* The Money had no choice but to come along with him. (And also a part of The Money is the owner of Fox News Inc., one Rupert Murdoch).

      Unlike the unwashed masses, here the anecdotes *do* work because we're talking about a few thousand people in the US give or take, and they are highly plugged-in.

      And what we also don't know is how much of the "coalition effect" there is going on. In other words, lots of people *say* they care about something (viz. a pro-lifer suddenly concerned about trade with China) because they know they belong to a coalition that requires the whole package to be widely accepted.

      So lots of things to consider here...

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        DougCLE

        I don't really think they would disappear; that was just a way of speaking. Not a bad analysis, though. Especially the part about how Trump having his own money allowed him to slip past the watch dogs and speak to the voters directly.

        I do still think the two groups (elites and yokels) need to file for a divorce; they're already sleeping in separate beds. The only question is who gets the kids - do the majority of R voters want another Trump, or do they want the "return to normalcy"?

        I know you (and others) keep looking at those poll numbers, but they don't match what I'm hearing from my more R-leaning friends & family. They will probably vote for him in 2020 against the D's, but I don't think they'd be looking for another 8 years of crazy in the 2024 primaries, whereas I think guys like kurtpiper very much would. Of course, a lot of that depends on how the culture wars go, and what the D's do over the next 4 years. Guess we'll see.

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    Brian Ruff

    I appreciate the fact that this column tries to reset deviancy back to something a little less, um, deviant. Sometimes it's hard to remember the lack of normalcy that has been with us for three years. Looking at the November choice between Trump and Biden is pit-of-despair depressing. Not only do I desperately wish for a political party to challenge our broken nomination process, but I've come to the conclusion that while I honestly don't consider myself racist, sexist or homophobic, I am undeniably ageist. Having two men older than Reagan at the start of his second term calls into question who will really be running the executive branch. No doubt there are millions of Americans over 75 who are mentally as sharp as they were when they were 45, but the probability of something going wrong very quickly is just too high for the country's most powerful job.

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      DougCLE

      Pit of Despair, eh? Let's see: "I've just sucked one year of your life away. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don't know what that would do to you."

      Yep, sounds about right.

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        Brian Ruff

        All life *is* pain... everyone who says differently is selling something.

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          Victor Clairmont

          I will sell you snake oil if you will buy it sir. It allows you to live forever.

          Buy it for $999.99! I take visa, debit, cash or check.

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