I want to be super fair to Mike Pence. So I am introducing him by citing the Wikipedia entry about him, which is factual.
Note that he is proud to support the Tea Party. Note also his leadership of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, which is affiliated with the State Policy Network. The latter is a hard-right organization that supports charter schools and vouchers and opposes public sector unions. It is affiliated with ALEC, another hard-right group that wants to privatize public schools and eliminate teachers’ unions.
Pence, as we know, supported this agenda as governor. Many Indianans are happy to see him give up his chance to run again, giving them an opportunity to pick a better governor for their state.
In his zeal to reduce the power of government, Pence denies that smoking is dangerous to one’s health.
Pence also denies that climate change is a problem. He has said that “global warming is a myth.”
Maybe his function on the ticket is to make Trump look like a moderate by contrast.
Pence is a hard right winger who would also like to gut, decimate and eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and legal abortions. I saw Trump and Pence being interviewed by Lesley Stahl (a brief segment from tonight’s 60 Minutes) and Pence had the Chris Christie expression on his face; he looked ill at ease, wary, fearful and like a deer caught in the headlights. It’s the Trump effect. I would like to say that I do not condemn, damn or regard as a traitor anyone who says they will not vote for Hillary. I understand that people are tired of voting for the lesser evil or who sincerely think that Hillary is bad for America. I respect the overwhelming majority of the regular commenters to Diane’s blog. I will just have to say that I disagree with opting out or voting 3rd party and I especially disagree with voting for Trump. Trump, the guy who actively promoted the birther nonsense about Obama and who initiated his campaign with verbal hand grenades aimed at Mexicans and Latino-Americans. Peace.
I would feel more comfortable if we had Congress in Democrats’ hands and a strong downticket ticket.
Ohio’s last two elections for governor are a good lesson. In the first, Democrats underestimated voter anger and the penchant for people to pull the lever with emotion, even if against their own interests. Kasich won with a mere plurality and strong Democrats like Courdray were defeated. Prior that election, Democrats were offered a chance to draw districts in a non-partisan manner, but their hubris and shortsightedness means we now have gerrymandered Republican districts in a 50-50 state.
In the second Ohio governor’s election, Democrats nominated a candidate poorly vetted and with credibility problems, dogged by scandal. Kasich won again, but because Democrats were so disappointed in their party, particularly in Cuyahoga county due to corruption, voter turnout was low. Kasich was elected with only 27% of registered voters. Now, Ohio’s Democrat party is in shambles and we have a far right cabal running the State.
The worst thing Democrats can do is call other Democrats traitors or damn them as mentioned in the prior posting. This leads to low voter turnout – a more serious issue than voting third party. Taking Trump for granted ignores the growing voter anger and demand for change. Hillary just seems tone deaf to middle class America. Just like Ohio, if Democrats are complacent, they could lose it all.
Vale Math,
What’s a “Democrat” party?
I’d bet all I own that the legal name of the party is the Ohio “Democratic” Party. Members are known as Democrats, but that word is not used customarily to label the party itself, unless you follow the parlance of the Republics and Conserves over the last twenty or so years. They don’t like using the word “Democratic” when referring to their political opposition, so they have made great efforts to change the name.
Sadly, the misuse of the word to refer to the Democratic Party has fallen into somewhat common usage, even among some Democrats.
You are correct. Ohio Democratic Party. I was actually aware of this confusion and thought I was using the correct name. I should have looked it up.
Mike Pence has been a disaster for Indiana; young people are leaving Indiana in droves because there is no work.
Pence makes the already awful Trump campaign look even worse. Pence disdains public schools, favors diverting public funds to special interest church-run private schools, scorns women’s rights of conscience on abortion, thumbs hos nose at the scientific consensus on evolution and climate change. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
Pence, like Walker and Kasich out of the same mold, does not strike me as someone particularly bright or capable. Rather, they are puppets who use religion as a basis for all decisions, and their skewed version of religion at that. Ohioans have had to suffer through Kasich’s years of proselytizing and podium prayers. Nothing against religion, but it is not science. Anti-intellectualism has reached such fevered absurdity, that we have government sponsored Noah’s Arks drydocked in the hills of Kentucky.
And in one of the many cages is a pair of (ISYN) dinosaurs.
Most disturbing, besides the new earth silliness, is workers must pass a religious test to be employed by a state sanctioned and funded business, then be taxed at an extra 2% going towards the religious organization. Talk about slippery slope.
Or maybe Trump hand picked the next President of the United States to be his running mate because this is the guy he personally wants to run the U.S.
Would Donald Trump Quit if He Wins the Election? He Doesn’t Rule It Out
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-president.html?_r=0
Donald Trump entertains idea he might not actually serve as president of he wins election
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-not-serving-as-president-if-he-wins-election-2016-7
Trump plays coy when asked if he’ll serve as president
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/286856-trump-plays-coy-on-whether-hed-serve-as-president-if
The Mind of Donald Trump
Narcissism, disagreeableness, grandiosity—a psychologist investigates how Trump’s extraordinary personally might shape his possible next presidency
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/
A neuroscientist explains: Trump has a mental disorder that makes him a dangerous world leader
“According to a number of top U.S. psychologists, like Harvard professor and researcher Howard Gardner, Donald Trump is a “textbook” narcissist. In fact, he fits the profile so well that clinical psychologist George Simon told Vanity Fair, “He’s so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops.” This puts Trump in the same category as a number of infamous dictators like Muammar Gaddafi, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Saddam Hussein.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/a-neuroscientist-explains-trump-has-a-mental-disorder-that-makes-him-a-dangerous-world-leader/
The unanswered question is, will Donald Trump resign and hand over the White House to Mike Pence if The Donald is elected president?
Thousands of years ago Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War pointed out why it is so important to know your enemy better than you know yourself.
Lloyd,
Your last response to me was spot on and identical to my feeling as to Common Core and what the purpose of education should be.
I have said this before Trumps mental state does not trouble me. The fact that he would chose Pence is more frightening . Jimmy Carter said that Trump was the least dangerous because he does not have an ideology . Well perhaps he is right . Trump doesn’t have one so he is adopting one.
It is obvious that Trump, the serial lying, narcissist psycho, has adopted an ideology tied to the extreme far right as defined by Koch-fascist, anarchic-tyrannical libertarianism.
They do make a 5 minute edit button for Word Press
(choose )
Thanks, but how do I activate this 5 minute edit button for comments left for a WordPress Blog posts and does the Blog’s host have to activate something on her/his end first?
One thing Wikipedia left out that I’m sure you would want your readers to know. Pence also voted against the Wall Street bailout.
You should read investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson’s article on “who controls the real content of Wikipedia ” before advertising it as the absolute truth.
Not everything on Wikipedia is accurate. But prominent people and not so prominent people fact-check their entries and sometimes embellish them
Carlene
Wiki is no better or worse than the corporate owned press and media these days. Have wanted to throw objects at the LED screen a few times. I’d discontinue Newsday but at least it has local advertisements that the NY Times does not . The accuracy of what passes for reporting may be equally biased.
In addition, Wiki does something the traditional corporate media doesn’t do. Wiki has a system in place where anyone can challenge what they read and if the challenge is convincing thanks to compelling writing linked to reputable sources and data, the listing can be revised. That’s why, if you have paid attention, some listings on Wiki have little boxes on them that point out when something might be incomplete or misleading thanks to one of those challenges.
Those of us who live in Indiana know Pence too well already.
Our hope is that now we have got rid of him in Indiana that he will NOT assume the VP.
For those who doubt anything Wiki publishes, there is an alternative source. It’s called VoteSmart.org and this time the info comes from the candidate himself.
Mike Pence actually filled out Vote Smart’s Political Courage Test in 2008 — something many candidates refuse to do. There’s a lot of info here and to open the info you have to click on each +
http://votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/34024/mike-pence/#.V4wLs7grKUk
“..It is not just a coincidence that tax cuts for the rich have preceded both the 1929 and 2007 depressions. The Revenue acts of 1926 and 1928 worked exactly as the Republican Congresses that pushed them through promised. The dramatic reductions in taxes on the upper income brackets and estates of the wealthy did indeed result in increased savings and investment. However, overinvestment (by 1929 there were over 600 automobile manufacturing companies in the USA) caused the depression that made the rich, and most everyone else, ultimately much poorer.
Since 1969 there has been a tremendous shift in the tax burdens away from the rich and onto the middle class. Corporate income tax receipts, whose incidence falls entirely on the owners of corporations, were 4% of GDP then and are now less than 1%. During that same period, payroll tax rates as percent of GDP have increased dramatically. The overinvestment problem caused by the reduction in taxes on the wealthy is exacerbated by the increased tax burden on the middle class. While overinvestment creates more factories, housing and shopping centers; higher payroll taxes reduces the purchasing power of middle-class consumers..”
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1543642
I see some people are willing to believe anything and everything negative written about Trump. Would we EVER teach our students to think so uncritically and emotionally?
If I was still teaching, I wouldn’t have recommended my students read what Wiki has to say about Pence since this is a weak source to use. I would have sent them to Vote Smart where they could read it all in Pence’s own words and choices when he filled out Vote Smarts Political Courage Q&A page for his entry, something most career politicians often refuse to do.
http://votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/34024/mike-pence/#.V4z7drgrKUk