Friday, November 11, 2016

Mike Pence, the Viceroy of the Trump Administration?

The Real News has run a couple of segments recently about the potential for Mike Pence having a great deal of practical influence and decision-making power in the Trump Administration. This one is post-election, Is Pence the Next Cheney? 11/07/2016:



This one is pre-election, Is Mike Pence the Real Danger? 11/04/2016:



This could be a definite step in that direction: Steve Holland and Luciana Lopez, Pence in, Christie out as head of Trump's transition team Reuters 11/11/2016. They report:

President-elect Donald Trump put vice presidential running mate Mike Pence in charge of his White House transition team on Friday, knocking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie down a peg as he began the work of filling top administration jobs.

Christie will remain as a vice chair of the transition effort, Trump's campaign said, as he deals with the fallout from the 'Bridgegate' lane closure scandal that has damaged his political standing. ...

Trump said three of his five children and his son-in-law Jared Kushner would help oversee the transition.
See also: Glenn Thrush and Louis Nelson, Pence to take over Trump's transition effort from Christie Politico 11/11/2016

The later Real News video above features Amber Stearns, a reporter for an alternative press outlet in Indianapolis called NUVO. They may have some important observations about Vice President Pence since they've been following his governorship.

Glenn Minnis provides a brief review in the Latin Post of Pence's record: Mike Pence Profile: His Stance on Immigration, Gun Rights, Abortion, Healthcare and Same-sex Marriage 07/24/2016. Short version: It ain't pretty!

Pence's role is a strong signal that the Trump Administration will be enthusiastically support most of the neoliberal agenda and rightwing social policies of the "establishment" Republicans.

Prominent Christian Right hatemonger Tony Perkins certainly regards Trump's victory as good news for his cause, as he explains in The Religious Right, Thought Dead, Helped Trump Win Christian Post 11/11/2016:

If the media had questions about the influence of the Religious Right, they were answered early Wednesday morning by the greatest coalescence around a Republican nominee in two decades. It turns out the press had about as much success writing the obituary of the evangelical movement as it had predicting this election.

Anyone who traveled the country these last few months saw how values voters were drawn to Donald Trump, not because of shared values, but because of shared concerns over the damage a Clinton Supreme Court would do to our freedoms. Recognizing that national security hung in the balance, they saw this as an opportunity, after eight years of President Obama's repressive policies, to make freedom mean something again.

They also had the opportunity to hear, along with the rest of America, one of the best arguments against partial-birth abortion the country has ever heard in a presidential debate, in which Trump described — in detail — the barbaric procedure that rips a child out of the womb moments before birth. It may have been the most significant moment — not just of Trump's campaign, but in the history of modern presidential politics. In four short sentences, the GOP nominee closed the deal with millions of pro-life voters, solidifying their support as the best chance to end America's nearly 44 years of Court imposed abortion on demand.
In other words, they're with him.

And even though Perkins doesn't mention Pence in that column, his prominent presence on the Trump team is not doubt one of their reasons to feel encouraged.

This longer profile from the Indianapolis Star focuses on the religious identity that Pence has made so much a part of his public identity: Chris Sikich, Strong faith shapes Mike Pence's politics 07/14/2016.

This suggests that if Mike Pence is going to be the new Dick Cheney, he'll be a more unctuous edition.

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