(Plus, I think there's a big LGBT/pro-choice grudge specifically against Pence; they of course hate ALL Republicans for those sins, but because Pence was particularly effective at hitting layups on those issues in a beet-red state, they seem to have this irrational fear that a Pence presidency would be magically more hellish than that of any other Republican out there these days)
But that's a _dangerous_ oversimplification. Pence had just enough of a sliver of conscience left to not cause a constitutional crisis in Jan 2021. He may be a spineless partisan coward, but he's not nearly as coldly cynical as McConnell, and not nearly as shameless as DeSantis or McCarthy, let alone Trump.
Trump's unique shamelessness is what made it all work. To a large extent, yes, Trump broke open a floodgate, and created a brand-new permission structure for a lot more Republicans to act shamelessly in their own ways, and of course we're still dealing with the aftermath right now. But without him, the rest of these guys are playing a dead-end game of one-upping each other. They can keep saying crazier and crazier things, but they can't replicate Trump's genuine appeal to his fans. Trump's "genius" (in that idiot-savant way of his) wasn't in being crazy, it was in knowing what his fans generally wanted to hear, and just kind of freestyling it on the spot. The unpredictability came off as genuine, because most of his wacky ideas were takes that the fever-swamps hadn't come up with before, and the rest were at least rephrased more entertainingly than the GOP establishment's warmed-over talking points.
MTG, Vance, Oz, DeSantis, et al, by contrast, are mostly just chasing whichever meme is trending this week in the right-wing media's fever-swamp boiler-rooms. MTG is like the crazy uncle who actually believes all the shit that comes across his FB feed and just repeats it verbatim to anyone who'll listen; Trump, although senile enough to believe his own shit that the right-wing media regurgitates to him, also has the saving grace of being too senile to _remember_ half that shit - to him, it's all just another applause line for his rallies, not a real policy goal. DeSantis is sane enough to be killing it in Florida right now, but he's not enough of a true believer to rally the kooks to himself over anyone else in an open primary field, which leaves him to fight with Cruz, Christie, and maybe Rubio over the core MAGA voters and normies.
Anyways, in the same way that only a nutjob like Nixon could have the domestic political headroom to negotiate an opening with China, Pence is the only MAGA-ite who can challenge Trump from inside MAGA *world* but outside the MAGA *lane*. Once MTG (or whichever other nutjob is the most extreme) has run out of money and dropped out of the race, anyone who wants a True MAGA Believer will be hard-pressed to find much of a difference between Pence and Cruz-Christie-Rubio-DeSantis -- that one probably comes down to Pence and DeSantis, since Pence was always there with Trumpism from the beginning. And the normies desperate for a sane GOP will be comparing "Pence, who upheld the Constitution on Jan 6" against "those other guys who just spent every say since Jan 6 chasing MTG's crazy right-wing memes" - it's just no contest.
So yeah, that was a long-winded way of saying why I also agree that Pence is the least-bad option. I wouldn't be *happy* with him as president, but I wouldn't be looking up EU citizenship requirements.
If Biden is a one term president, I think the nation could do worse than Pence. Don’t get me wrong I believe he would still be the wrong move for our nation and potentially freedom of expression across the world but he is more of the devil we know. To me is closer to the George W. Bush GOP than the trump GOP.
We would hear a lot more about LGBT issues, abortion access and smaller government. Not sure where he would go on immigration, as not sure if he would build the wall or simply do nothing constructive like many republicans and some democrats. The biggest thing I could see with a Pence administration is that he seems less likely to want to blow the whole system up like trump attempted to do. As much as it saddens me to say, politics as they used to be, inefficient and corrupt, now seem like the good ole days.
I’m interested to see how the primaries go on the democratic side. Biden isn’t as much of a lock as incumbent presidents always are. His age is a factor we can’t ignore. Add that to the potential for an entirely new primary system and you could see things open wide for the Dems.
Ok I had a thought, instead of voting in the primary for pence as the least worst option if the GOP wins the general election, why not take the opposite track? Vote for the most right wing trump-esque candidate under the assumption that the more conservative the eventual GOP candidate is, the better chance a democrat would win? Or is that playing with fire? Just an idea
If Biden is a one term president, I think the nation could do worse than Pence. Don’t get me wrong I believe he would still be the wrong move for our nation and potentially freedom of expression across the world but he is more of the devil we know. To me is closer to the George W. Bush GOP than the trump GOP.
We would hear a lot more about LGBT issues, abortion access and smaller government. Not sure where he would go on immigration, as not sure if he would build the wall or simply do nothing constructive like many republicans and some democrats. The biggest thing I could see with a Pence administration is that he seems less likely to want to blow the whole system up like trump attempted to do. As much as it saddens me to say, politics as they used to be, inefficient and corrupt, now seem like the good ole days.
I’m interested to see how the primaries go on the democratic side. Biden isn’t as much of a lock as incumbent presidents always are. His age is a factor we can’t ignore. Add that to the potential for an entirely new primary system and you could see things open wide for the Dems.
Ok I had a thought, instead of voting in the primary for pence as the least worst option if the GOP wins the general election, why not take the opposite track? Vote for the most right wing trump-esque candidate under the assumption that the more conservative the eventual GOP candidate is, the better chance a democrat would win? Or is that playing with fire? Just an idea