Mike Pence was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, in one of the closest races in that state in decades. He picked up just under 50% of the vote, barely getting past his Democratic opponent, John Gregg, winning with less than a 3% margin in a reliably Republican state. That says something about Pence, who had previously served in Congress, in a considerably gerrymandered district, where he established a record as a predictable"traditional conservative". In Indiana, that record should have led to a landslide in the governor's race, and didn't.
During the time he served as governor, in spite of being a traditional conservative in a traditionally conservative state, Pence couldn't manage the Republican majority in the state house. Republicans led an effort which overwhelmingly over-rode one of his vetos, and his tax policy led to several high profile large businesses leaving the state, and his term was characterized by sagging job growth numbers and economic sluggishness. He never managed to get complete control of the Republican majority in the state legislature, and may have set the record for being voted against by his own party in any state legislature anywhere in modern history.
His opponent in 2012, John Gregg, announced another bid for governor in 2016 as Pence sought re-election. Trailing badly in the polls, Pence was "rescued" by Donald Trump's choice of him as his running made in 2016, getting Pence off the hook and so he withdrew from the race, won by a more popular Republican.
The Tipping Point
Though we will never know, it appeared likely that Pence may not have been re-elected governor, and Trump bailed him out of political embarassment. It is difficult to explain why someone with a solid, traditional conservative reputation who had strong connections to the Evangelical wing of the party, would crawl on to the GOP ticket with a con man and pathological liar like Donald Trump, and make himself into a slithering, spineless yes man for a demagogue.
There's really nothing in what he said or did to provide a clue as to what he was thinking when Trump asked him. Perhaps he was just playing the tradition game of party loyalty. He may have been sucked into the power trip of becoming the vice president behind a man whose health and age seemed like a quick path to the White House. Maybe he was selfishly ambitious, and wanted the power and influence of the vice presidency, willing to sacrifice a measure of his integrity, and the perception of his intelligence, in the process. And maybe, like some others in Trump's eventual cabinet, he thought he might be able to temper some of the worst corruption and abuse, and keep Republicans from losing their reputation and their dignity by this nomination.
As far as I am concerned, Mike Pence ended any chance he ever might have had at any future elected office, and particularly the Presidency of the United States, when he set aside his dignity, morals, ethics, integrity, character and sincerity of his faith, and got on the ticket with the worst, most corrupt, evil President in American history. He knew Trump was a con artist, an immoral, self-serving, law hating, money grubber who was as dishonest as they come, and he knew that by a reputation established long before he sought the GOP nomination for President. But he was willing to seek power instead of integrity, as the whole GOP was when they decided to nominate Trump. It was a disaster for the party, and for the country, and specifically, for Pence's hopes of anything beyond the dead-end job of being Trump's vice-president.
Hiding behind a thin veneer of the obligatory pseudo-Christian "faith" that Republicans are supposed to talk about, Pence is a lightweight in every way. He cannot possibly be as ignorant or as uniformed as he comes off, that's got to be an act to make Trumpies feel better about their own ignorance and inability to handle reality and fact. It took some effort for him to step into second place behind someone like Trump, that had to have been, and must continue to be, humiliating in spite of the ambition for power.
What Could Possibly Be Worse Than Being Second Behind Trump?
What makes Pence so absolutely bad is the fact that, as Vice-President, he had to know exactly how dishonest and corrupt Trump was. If he were a man of integrity and truth, a patriot respectful of American law and order, and a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, he would not have sat in silence for four years, smiling, deflecting criticisms of the Trump administration and acting like everything was just fine. If he really believed it was, then he's an idiot for thinking that. If he saw it and chose not to say or do anything to protect his own hide, he deserves to be smacked down and humiliated in this attempt to win the GOP nomination, which has, so far, attracted such a small group of Republican supporters as to be less than pitiful.
We've had enough corruption, lies, threats, tantrums, stealing classified documents putting the country at risk from its enemies and rebellious insurrections against the United States. Clearly a man who was willing to abandon his morals and ethics to serve a President as corrupt as Donald Trump is not qualified to be President himself.
Go home Mike, if Indiana still wants you. You're done.
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