Notes on Pence
Falling into the background is the becoming finish to his dance with MAGA.
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Sunday 29 October 2023
· 10 feedback
Here is what I believe is true about Mike Pence.
- He was a 3rd stringer at finest in his prime. Which means that whereas he was a bit within the political large leagues, he would by no means begin. (As governor, he was legitimately within the dialog to be a presidential candidate, however simply barely).
- When Trump made him his operating mate, Pence was on the verge of being out of the league, so to talk.
- Pence believed, cynically in my view, that regardless of Trump’s apparent weaknesses, Pence might use Trump as a automobile to get again into the sport, with the precise hope that if Trump gained, it might put Pence subsequent in line.
- Pence was a idiot, or an enormous hypocrite (or each, actually) to assume he might use Trump as a automobile for his model of Christian conservatism.
- Pence did the fitting factor about Trump’s try and steal the election, and that may put him within the historical past books (for varied causes, good and dangerous), however he got here out of all of it, each tarnished, as a result of he hitched his wagon to Trump in first spherical, and harm himself together with his personal supporters as a result of he went towards Trump.
- Ergo: Pence is again the place he began, really worse off than when he determined to get on the Trump practice within the first place.
All of that is to say that whereas, sure, Pence’s failure to achieve traction could be a commentary on the fashionable GOP, I believe that is not the primary takeaway. Pence is the place Pence is as a result of he’s Pence (though, maybe mockingly, since he was Trump’s veep, there’s much less room within the celebration for Pence now than there was in 2016). I can not think about a situation the place he did a lot better within the polls than he did in the course of the 2024 preseason. Even when Trump had served two phrases and Pence was emperor for eight years, I believe he would have come out badly. He isn’t dynamic and he has no abilities to enchantment to MAGA. Additional, no vital anti-MAGA faction would ever rally round Vice President MAGA.
Whereas I discover it very optimistic that Pence didn’t associate with the plan to attempt to steal the election, I believe he’s largely a pathetic particular person who was fairly clearly prepared, regardless of his apparent religiosity, to enter deep compromises for the sake of energy.
That his present marketing campaign ended with a whimper is fully becoming and may shock nobody.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. His most important areas of experience embody events, elections and the institutional design of democracies. His newest e book is co-authored A Completely different Democracy: American Authorities in a 31-Nation Perspective. He received his Ph.D. from the College of Texas and his BA from the College of California, Irvine. He has been running a blog since 2003 (initially on the now defunct Poliblog). Comply with Steven additional Twitter
