Americans opposing Trump, calling for his impeachment, may be opening the door to newer, more serious problems. Mike Pence isn’t the solution but what choices do Americans have?
Pence may not be the lesser of two evils. He may be worse.
Bob Hepburn, Toronto Star, has written an opinion piece about Mike Pence which should really be considered very seriously by Americans.
In summary
Pence, former Indiana governor, has extremist policy views liberals may seriously dislike.
Calls for Trump’s impeachment have grown recently in light of his firing of FBI Director James Comey, the revelation that he may have shared intelligence with the Russians and reports that he had allegedly asked Comey to drop the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The supporters of impeachment argue Trump’s actions are an obstruction of justice and constitute grounds for impeachment.
The process to impeach a president is relatively simple.
- A committee of the House of Representatives approves articles of impeachment. The U.S. Constitution says a president can be impeached for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours.” They can’t be impeached just because they are incompetent, as Trump is proving to be.
- The full House then votes to approve the articles.
- The Senate must approve the impeachment articles by a 2/3 majority. Only then would a president be officially removed from office.
No president has ever been kicked out through the impeachment process:
Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 were both impeached by the House but later acquitted in the Senate.
Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before he was actually impeached.
Pence may be another ‘kettle of fish’
- Pence is a true believer, a devout evangelistic Christian, a hard-line conservative on social issues, a get-tough-on-crime advocate, a hawk on foreign and defence issues and a guy with a history of attacks on civil rights and freedoms.
- He has opposed government spending and compared the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding Obamacare to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
- As governor, he signed a controversial Religious Freedom Restoration bill into law in 2015 that discriminated against gay people by allowing businesses to refuse service based on their religious beliefs.
- He also signed one of the strictest abortion bills in the U.S.
- He cut funding for public health departments.
- He favoured moves to turn away Syrian refugees from Indiana.
- He oversaw the Indiana State Police as it raided and shut a voter-registration program for African Americans.
But for now, Trump is constrained by both Republicans and Democrats who are unlikely to pass any of his major political initiatives. Also, the military generals will likely control Trump’s urges to go to war.
However, if Pence takes over the Republicans, who control Congress, may rally behind him, allowing him to push through an overall agenda more conservative than anything Trump might consider.
What do you think?
