Saturday, July 16, 2016

HIGH HOPES

The last experienced Vice Presidential candidate running with an inexperienced Presidential nominee to come to power, Dick Cheney, was able to place his own agenda, Neo Conservatism, whose primary goal was the military conquest of Iraq ahead of any national interest.  

Republicans are again running an inexperienced presidential candidate, Donald Trump, with a politically savvy, Mike Pence, whose agenda is Christian Conservatism.  Evangelicals are excited by their prospects in the next General Election where they hope for the opportunity to turn back the clock when abortions had to be performed with coat hangers; religious sects were not required to obey any laws , and the promotion of the Apocalypse is a meritorious pursuit of our Foreign Policy.  

10 comments:

  1. However, I might have a slight disagreement with calling Pence "politically savvy". Compared to Trump, of course he is, but in his years is the House, he put forth no bills and he was looking as if he was not going to be able to hold on to his Governor's chair in Indiana. He also has been shown to be slow to respond to questions he is not fully prepared for.

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    1. Your point about calling Pence "politically savvy" is well taken. Not only is it relative but also in the context of there not being a single person, in Indiana capable enough to understand "politics" since Dick Lugar was primaried in 2013.

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    2. Sounds like someone was paying attention to TRMS! Encouraging. However, she did remind us of the Nixon/Agnew and Poppy Bush/Quayle combination ... which we were not spared. How many offerings to the gods for saving us from McCain/Palin? HELP!

      (His hair looks good!)

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    3. The combinations that Rachel spoke about were where Presidential candidates chose vice-Presidents ho were weaker than they, whereas my comparison is between weaker Presidential candidates and more competent Vice Presidents. The Trump-Pence matchup more closely resembles that of Bush Cheney. I suspect that there is another thing that is causing elation with Evangelicals: at no time in our history has it been more likely that a President would not finish his ter in office which is the case when one considers all the pending law suits that are facing Trump even before Election Day.

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    4. Yikes! Agreed. Is Cheney weeping in his beer? "I coulda been a contender!" Nah! Does that mean the Koch brothers get their dream through the back door? Hmm.

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  2. However, I might have a slight disagreement with calling Pence "politically savvy". Compared to Trump, of course he is, but in his years is the House, he put forth no bills and he was looking as if he was not going to be able to hold on to his Governor's chair in Indiana. He also has been shown to be slow to respond to questions he is not fully prepared for.

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  3. The Trump/Pence campaign slogan remains as "Make America Great Again" so let's consider the change they would bring. Urban Dictionary has a new entry: trumpence (a hash-up of Trump & Pence) defined as "chump change" ... I find that definition perfectly appropriate.

    What bothers me even more is the GOP's new party platform. All of the GOP candidates leading up to the convention spoke of their support of Justice Scalia's strict constructionist view of our constitution. The new GOP party platform is 66 pages long and runs contrary to that argument. Seven of those pages aim to do away with separation of church and state. It seamlessly weaves together some of the most radical ideas offered by modern day libertarian scholars with the rhetoric of Christian conservatism based on the theory that Christian conservatives know better than the constitution.

    So, although I do fear what harm the executive branch of government could bring under Trumpence, I'm also very aware that the platform of the entire GOP could have devastating effects on all three branches of our government. By eliminating the separation of church and state put forth by our constitution, they could essentially transform our government into the Christian version of Sharia Law.

    So yes, preventing the GOP from gaining control of the executive branch and inserting their agenda is vitally important, but securing the remaining two branches is vitally important as well. No worries ... right?!

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  4. Regrettably, your scenario becomes quite plausible with a Pence Vice Presidency, if the Cheney Bush model should be repeated, or if Trump legal problems forced his resignation.

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