Following up on yesterday’s blog entry about the potential for up to 23 Republican Senators voting to remove Donald Trump from the Oval Office if there was an impeachment trial in upcoming months, there is speculation that many Republican Senators would prefer Mike Pence in the Presidency.
The argument is that Mike Pence would represent all of the “good things” about conservatism—the promotion of more right wing judges; more cutting of regulations; more tax cuts for the wealthy; more promotion of “Christian values”; and all without the instability and drama of Donald Trump.
And under this scenario, if Mike Pence came into office, assuredly, he would pardon Donald Trump, as Gerald Ford did with Richard Nixon 45 years ago, and nothing could be done to prevent that.
Understand, as if there is any doubt, that this blogger and author would be totally opposed to any such development, and what it would mean in promoting conservatism without the disaster of Donald Trump.
But it does seem to be a reasonable situation that could develop in the next few months of this impeachment drama.
It’s not reasonable to suggest than any more than a handful of GOP Senators – ones in atypical situations – are potential votes for impeachment. Not one of the rest would survive their next primary, no matter how much money they had.
Reading through your blog, I can’t shake the feeling that you would benefit greatly from having an understanding of the political conversation going on on the other side of the fence.
The recent phenomenon of people being accused of heinous crimes, often anonymously, on scant or even no evidence, being unable to face one’s accusers and getting convicted by the media without trial, has completely unified the GOP base behind Trump. Everybody feels that if this can be done to even the POTUS, no one else is safe.
We have a series of examples: the “#MeToo” thing, Crossfire Hurricane, the constant leaks to the media, Mueller, the Kavanaugh affair, racial hoaxes such as Smolett and the recent one at Karen Pence’s school and the Oberlin bakery situation, and now these Ukraine allegations. Even if Democrats have not been informed of these things by their favorite media sources, every single conservative that pays any attention to politics knows all about all of them.
The depth of GOP base voters’ resolve to fight this particular trend is being vastly underestimated, probably because it’s been a long time since Republicans stood firm against Democratic political assaults.
If you know for sure that your number is coming up next after Trump goes down, you simply can’t afford to let him go down, no matter what. And that’s the position the entire GOP is in right now.