This article is alarming. It describes Mike Pence’s blend of religious and political views.
I know that Pence was terrible for public schools. He fought State Superintendent Glenda Ritz at every turn. He created a parallel education agency to compete with the one in the state constitution in hopes of undermining her authority. He got the legislature to pass laws to whittle away her powers in office. He tried to make her irrelevant because she was not aligned with his agenda of charters and vouchers.
But there is more:
Pence’s ascent to the second most powerful position in the U.S. government is a tremendous coup for the radical religious right. Pence — and his fellow Christian supremacist militants — would not have been able to win the White House on their own. For them, Donald Trump was a godsend. “This may not be our preferred candidate, but that doesn’t mean it may not be God’s candidate to do something that we don’t see,” said David Barton, a prominent Christian-right activist and president of Wall Builders, an organization dedicated to making the U.S. government enforce “biblical values.” In June, Barton prophesied: “We may look back in a few years and say, ‘Wow, [Trump] really did some things that none of us expected.’”
Trump is a Trojan horse for a cabal of vicious zealots who have long craved an extremist Christian theocracy, and Pence is one of its most prized warriors. With Republican control of the House and Senate and the prospect of dramatically and decisively tilting the balance of the Supreme Court to the far right, the incoming administration will have a real shot at bringing the fire and brimstone of the second coming to Washington.
“The enemy, to them, is secularism. They want a God-led government. That’s the only legitimate government,” contends Jeff Sharlet, author of two books on the radical religious right, including “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.” “So when they speak of business, they’re speaking not of something separate from God, but they’re speaking of what, in Mike Pence’s circles, would be called biblical capitalism, the idea that this economic system is God-ordained…”
While Trump has flip-flopped on a variety of issues, Pence has been a reliable stalwart throughout his public life in the cause of Christian jihad.
How the GOP foisted Pence on Trump is undoubtedly a fascinating story that hopefully will some day be revealed. Obviously, Pence gave Trump badly needed credibility with evangelical voters and the GOP establishment, but Pence’s selection portends a governing apocalypse. While Trump has flip-flopped on a variety of issues, from abortion to immigration to war and health care, Pence has been a reliable stalwart throughout his public life in the cause of Christian jihad — never wavering in his commitment to America-First militarism, the criminalizing of abortion, and utter hatred for gay people (unless they go into conversion therapy “to change their sexual behavior,” which Pence has suggested the government pay for).
He supported making the Patriot Act permanent and wants to ban the burning of the U.S. flag. Pence does not believe federal law enforcement agencies should have to get a FISA warrant to conduct domestic surveillance and voted against requiring any warrant for domestic wiretapping. As governor of Indiana, he did quietly sign a bill to limit the use of Stingray devices by local law enforcement, though it was during the early stages of the Snowden revelations and the public concern about government surveillance was intense.
Pence supported giving retroactive immunity to telecom companies implicated in warrantless surveillance. He does not want congressional oversight of CIA interrogations — which Trump believes should include waterboarding and other torture “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” Pence has paid lip service to the illegality of torture but said that “enhanced interrogation” has saved lives. He has characterized relationship-building, non-coercive interrogation strategies as “Oprah Winfrey methods.” Pence is against whistleblower protections that would prohibit retaliation for reporting crimes or misdeeds. In 2002, the ACLU gave him a 7 percent rating on civil rights.
If you think the article is wrong, please say so, with evidence. It is alarming.
Is this the change that Americans voted for?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
America did not vote for this? Some did but most didn’t.
As the ballot count continues, Hillary now has more than 1 million votes than Trump, and the total is breaking historical records for a candidate who won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College often with slim margins in rust belt states.
This Christian fundamentalist tyranny, if it comes to pass, will gain its power by losing the popular majority vote. The only way they can keep this power is to change the government from a republic to a fundamentalist religious government simliar to the ISIS Caliphate or Iran.
Next up, World War III.
Trump was right. The election was rigged. It was rigged to favor Trump in the Electoral College so a minority faction in the U.S. would come to power and bring on the Apocalypse.
“Millions of Evangelical Christians Want to Start WW III to Speed the Second Coming.
“Bill Moyers reports that the organization Christians United for Israel – led by highly-influential Pastor John C. Hagee – is a universal call to all Christians to help factions in Israel fund the Jewish settlements, throw out all the Palestinians and lobby for a pre-emptive invasion of Iran. All to bring Russia into a war against us causing World War III followed by Armageddon, the Second Coming and The Rapture.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/evangelical-christians-want-to-start-wwiii-to-speed-the-second-coming-and-atheist-neocons-are-using-religion-to-rile-them-up-to-justify-war-against-iran.html
He missed Dewey’s memo. Dewey’s Pedagogic Creed statement of 1897
In part:
“Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper
social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way the teacher is always the
prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of heaven.”
The whole Trump presidency is alarming, worse than I imagined. Sessions for AG, Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn has accepted the position of national security adviser. Flynn would just love to attack Iran. All the working class people who voted for trump will be stabbed in the back when the GOP dices and cuts Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, food stamps, banking regulations, environmental regulations and the list goes on and on.
Trump a man of the people??!!? Ha, ha. He has a throng of Wall Street bankers ready to go to work in his administration. He’s not a populist. The damage that this guy will do along with the GOP regressives will last for a very long time.
While agreeing, I find it hard to say that those who voted for Mr. Trump will be “stabbed in the back.” With even the most limited effort, any citizen had the chance to look directly at the Republican record and Trump’s personal business model of self-directed opportunism. For me, it felt that the voting for Trump was more a “cut off your nose to spite your face” reaction from people unwilling to face reality.
Nicely put, Ciedie….
A temper tantrum.
yes
Please do not identify those who would commit atrocity in the name of Christ as Christian. Surely Christians listen to Jesus, who wants us to love our enmities In a sacrificial relationship. Why do we allow the descendants of the moral majority to keep this label to themselves for political purposes?
If we give Trump ed reformers 20 billion for charters and vouchers will they leave the kids who remain in public schools alone?
They’ll have to cut a lot of DC ed reformer jobs, admittedly, but this may be a good deal for public schools.
RttT cost Ohio public schools much more than the grant money. It was a net loss for public schools.
Similarly, those who commit atrocities in the name of Allah (God) should not be identified as Muslim. Terrorists do not belong to any faith; they belong only to each other.
He’s a genuinely creepy guy, right out of Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The Medicare Killers from Paul Krugman: During the campaign, Donald Trump often promised to … represent the interests of working-class voters who depend on major government programs. “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” he declared, under the headline “Why Donald Trump Won’t Touch Your Entitlements.”
It was, of course, a lie. The transition team’s point man on Social Security is a longtime advocate of privatization, and all indications are that the incoming administration is getting ready to kill Medicare, replacing it with vouchers that can be applied to the purchase of private insurance. Oh, and it’s also likely to raise the age of Medicare eligibility. …http://economistsview.typepad.com
The working class seniors who voted for Trump will be eviscerated.
Are any of the thousands of ed reform researchers able to answer this question?
Did Pence IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS? All I see is cheerleading for offering “choice”
I never see any ed reform analysis on whether any of these people improve public schools.
They haven’t in Ohio. Our schools are ranked lower now than when this started. Ditto for Michigan. Michigan public schools are worse off than they were when 15 years ago.
What about Indiana?
Can we get ONE researcher who values public schools enough to look at whether any of this is improving them? Or is that just not fashionable?
Ed reform has been PARTICULARLY detrimental in the upper midwest.
No. Test scores have dipped for second year in a row. His policies and those of the republican legislators has not resulted in higher test scores. Political opposition to Glenda Ritz’s effort consumed much time and effort. The state test is a mess. It’s too much info to insert here. Mrs. Ritz just lost reelection and maybe they will let the Republican woman just elected function. Most likely they will as she’ll follow their agenda to convert schools from public to private. She and Pence clashed over many issues. He does not like women to have any independence and if they are Democrats then its open season. I have no hope at this point for any improvement in education in Indiana. The republicans want it to fail so they can turn it over to their campaign funders for privatization and profit. The big money behind much of it is from Fred Klipsch. The legislators do not listen to citizens. They take orders from corporate sponsors. Teachers are leaving their jobs and retired or changing profession. Laws have been enacted to provide certification of noneducators for teaching positions. Downward spiral is the name of the game.
I just finished reading the Pence article in its entirety. I have spent my life in a bubble. I am gasping for air. I have been reading nonstop since the day following the election and bare outlines are emerging in my hazy mind. It would be hard to determine decisively, which elements are most dangerous, but I would put the discussion of internment camps at the top of the list.
Some have stated and there is at least oome measure of truth in it.
In some ways Pence is worse than Trump – if possible. certainly this country will NEVER be the same because of them. And that is NOT a compliment.
Now we finally know the meaning of “Make America Great Again”,
In 1968 I was in the process of divorce; my husband beat the dog with a broom, he knocked his own son down and broke his eyeglasses. He was a brilliant computer scientist who works don Apollo at MIT. I fear that we have a lot of men like that now who are in the role of using authoritarian ideas to fulfill their own ego needs and increased megalomania. I was a doctoral student at BU at the time so I found a group going to Moscow at Christmas ; I did not want to be anywhere near the celebrations in the U.S. and wanted to go where they didn’t even celebrate the holiday. Today I feel I am in a similar mood and I want to avoid the christian bigots who built a coalition with racists and have brought this terrible four years now down on our heads. The safety and security needs are uppermost — know where your handbag is with your car keys, some cash and get far away when they implement their policies. (They were his children so I had no obligation to get them out of the house but psychiatric care for the abused was part of the divorce agreement). I fear that we are in for a few years of this and Charlie Baker in MA (governor) says go along so MA will not be deprived of federal dollars… this is not leadership, Mr. Baker. I send him 5 emails a day on his contact page and there is a campaign to call Baker’s office (over 6,000 phone calls already registered). Baker says we should not “pre-judge” the administration and the people that Trump is brining into the oval office but my experiences tell me differently.