Social Darwinism and Mike Pence

An echo opinion essay by by Ronald L. Feinman published in the History News Newtork electronic newsletter. 

Ronald L. Feinman is the author of Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, August 2015)

The 48th Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, has been a miserable disappointment in so many ways. 

Definition below

Indeed, he's certainly not Gerald Ford, who faced a similar situation as the Vice President during the last eight months of the Watergate Scandal, under Richard Nixon,from December 1973 to August 1974.

At the time, Ford had the advantage that he was not Vice President when the investigation of the Nixon scandals commenced, while Pence has been present in all the events from the Republican National Convention, where he was nominated, through the election campaign, during the transition from the day after Election Day to the inauguration of Donald Trump, and through all of the scandelous events in the past sixteen months.

Mike Pence is fully aware of much of the morass that is the Trump Presidency: He was directly involved in the events leading up to the firing of the first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn. He defended the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Assuming he reads the newspapers, he knows about the revelations unearthed by the Mueller investigation and the allegations leveled against Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney.

Through it all, Pence has been a (too willing) cheerleader for the President, with that serious and stern look on his face as he stands behind the President in every photograph and video at any public event or statement. He has been extremely loyal to the President by every measure imaginable, and his demeanor is one of obsequiousness. He has been unwilling, as far as we can know, to challenge Trump openly on any matter.

Then, just this past week he demanded that the Mueller investigation should end. 

This (obstruction of justice!) is uncalled for. Gerald Ford never intervened in any way to obstruct or interfere with the investigation of Richard Nixon. Also, Pence’s defense and endorsement of former Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was given a pardon by Donald Trump, is highly unseemly as Arpaio was clearly an abuser of the law in his years in that position, particularly victimizing Latinos.

At the same time, Mike Pence has his own agenda, with his history of being extremely anti-gay rights, anti-women’s rights, and his defense of the tobacco industry. He is beloved by the Religious Right, and follows them in lockstep. A born again Christian who converted from Catholicism, he takes the extreme view that it’s improper for him to eat a meal with any woman not his wife unless there are others present. (He calls his wife, Karen Pence, who is also extremely devout, by the appellation “Mother.”)

A “principled Christian, conservative, and a Republican in that order,” he was a founding member of the Tea Party Movement in 2009, while being Chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009-2011. His extreme religious orientation conflicts with a President who has no true religious convictions except his own aggrandizement and glory. 

But Pence has no qualms about defending Trump, who of course has been accused of numerous violations of the moral codes Pence professes to uphold.

Pence’s background: He started out as a Democrat who supported Jimmy Carter over Ronald Reagan in 1980. He has stated that he was influenced in his earlier life by the leadership of the first and only Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, as well as the civil rights leadership model of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

In the 1980s he switched parties, became a dedicated born again Christian (to his mother’s astonishment), and emerged as a rightwing radio talk show host (1988-1999). Pence described himself as a “Rush Limbaugh on decaf.”

In Congress from 2001-2013, Pence worked against the George W. Bush initiatives on “No Child Left Behind” and the Medicare Prescription Drug program, and challenged Ohio Congressman John Boehner for House Minority Leader at the end of 2006. The Values Voters Summit in 2010 promoted him for President, and he was considered a possible nominee earlier in 2008 and later in 2012, but chose not to run. 

In his time in Congress, Pence introduced 90 bills; none passed into law. In 2012, after a dozen years in the House of Representatives, he ran for Governor of Indiana and won. In his highly controversial one term he alienated voters. Polls indicated he was likely going to face defeat in his reelection campaign in 2016. But then Donald Trump selected him to be his vice president.

As governor Pence opposed labor rights and teachers unions, and worked for charter schools over public schools. He also worked against renewable energy standards, supported the National Rifle Association, and while expanding Medicaid placed requirements on recipients. He tried to defund Planned Parenthood and worked to restrict abortion rights. His most controversial move was to support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, which limited the rights of gay people. Many businesses and organizations opposed the measure, which he eventually was forced to modify. The embarrassing imbroglio made him very unpopular as he faced reelection. So being chosen for Vice President likely saved his public career.

Pence has totally backed every initiative of Donald Trump in office, therefore being connected to his record of racism, nativism, misogyny, homophobia, and Islamophobia, as well as his denial of climate change, and his opposition to free trade and hostility to our traditional allies. He has stood by silently as Trump cozied up to dictators like Vladimir Putin. He has demonstrated, sadly, that he has no compassion, empathy, or common concern for those less fortunate. He is already considered the most conservative Vice President since Spiro Agnew, and it is hard to separate him from the views and actions of his boss. His public persona is one of sternness and stiffness and no conscience.

Comparing him to Gerald Ford, who avoided any open support of his boss, Richard Nixon, and Ford’s public 25 year record of moderate conservatism in the House of Representatives, including his nearly nine years as House Minority Leader, leads to the clear cut conclusion that Mike Pence is no Gerald Ford, and if he became President, he would be the most conservative Republican President since Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Indianan, who served in the Presidency from 1889-1893. Even Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan were not as rightwing as Pence.

A Mike Pence America would be less dramatic and less publicity oriented than Donald Trump’s, but would mark a return in many ways to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, and to the concept of Social Darwinism*. Wealthy and white male Americans would benefit, while the middle and lower classes, women, people of color, and those not straight or religiously devout would suffer massively.

* Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform. The term is now established in the common vernacular and it is loaded with associations of racism, cruelty, and the pseudo scientific concept of ranking human ‘races’ on a ladder of progress.

Voter Fraud and the Democratic National Convention

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/stephen-colbert-shows-fox-news-pundits-fawning-over-michelle-obamas-speech

Even if your television was on moot to prevent hearing the political noise, it was impossible to ignore the stark rainbow differences between audiences at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Fl and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte NC.

This demographic difference between the color spectrum attending each of the two political parties is one of the underlying reasons why right wing Republicans, which seems to be most of the political party, is hyped up about voter fraud.  These fear stirring zealots have a way of coining certain words to mask bigotry. Voter fraud is this kind of race baiting pseudonym.  Some Republicans seem fixated on ways to morph the myth of voter fraud into a flimsy fact by hammering it into America's consciousness. If this "voter fraud" myth prevails, it will motivate a closing down of voter protection rights whereby elections will become an occasion when chosen groups, deemed worthy, will be allowed access to the ballot box.

There's no evidence to support voter fraud. Republicans say it's difficult to prove voter fraud because the data is not collected to identify where it occurs. Therefore, they want to clamp down on all voters by requiring onerous identification verification, to fix a problem they can't prove exists.  If a citizen can't prove their identity with a birth certificate and photo ID, they won't be permitted to vote.  Who are these people who can't produce a birth certificate and a photo ID?

Of course, people impacted by voter fraud laws are the poor, the naturalized immigrant who may not have access to the original documents of their birth, those who cannot afford to own an automobile, and driver's license and those who don't have access to the resources for obtaining sufficient identification.

Republican voter fraud police neglect to acknowledge that America's ethnic minorities are clearly growing in numbers and will soon be the collective majority, regardless of how many laws or policies are promulgated to control power among the elite by false voter fraud claims.  In other words, right wing Republicans who are distressed by racial color differences evident at the two national conventions know they are outnumbered. They can see it's only a matter of time when white upper middle class Americans will soon be out of the American mainstream, regardless of the pace of the nation's economic recovery.

Certainly, the pundit comedian Steven Colbert was able to conceptualize the racial diversity at the DNC  (link above).

Ten Reasons Why the Republican National Convention in Tampa Failed

If I had bi-location abilities like a mystic, my first act of rescue at Tampa's Republican National Convention would have been to wake up the group of enraptured fans who were, apparently, hypnotized for television cameras, while watching a litany of boring political speeches.  I wonder if white, upper middle class fans in the convention arena rehearsed their glowing poses. They were ready for their close up photographs, like they were on a "kiss cam", their glowing faces fixated, like neon magnets, on staged events in front of them.

Rather than rouse the independent voters or cement the right wing political base, the speeches left viewers wondering if they missed something?  

http://themoderatevoice.com/158125/romney-entered-the-gop-convention-the-underdog-and-left-the-convention-the-underdog/ 

Simon Owens writes in "The Moderate Voice", how Romney entered the convention as an underdog and left as one, too. 

Unfortunately, it was hard to endure the mis-cues, the negativity, the "blaming everything on President Obama" rhetoric and lies, but I watched, because, I didn't want to miss "the big one".  

Surely, I thought, something big would come out of this convention, when Governor Mitt Romney accepted the nomination to run against President Obama in November.  Instead, I found 10 reasons why, in my opinion, the convention failed to win voters who might have been waiting to see how a potential President Romney might lead our nation.  Although Romney's wife, Ann Romney, told the beaming audience how her husband "would not fail", he did, in fact, fail to lead Republicans through a stellar celebration, framed to showcase his introduction to American voters.

Here's my top ten reasons for the failure:

1.  Sarah Palin, the pretty right wing darling, was nowhere to be found. The woman is charismatic!  She would have lifted the ceiling of the convention with right wing enthusiasm. In fact, even Fox news snubbed her.http://tinyurl.com/8g7lvw6

2.  Republican National Party Chairman, Reince Priebus, thought he could get away with spreading Republican rhetoric on Wednesday's, MSNBC's "Morning Joe", spewing racist euphemisms for the purpose of muckraking negative sentiment against Obama, just to stir up white angry men voters.  Instead, the conversation enraged pundit Chris Matthews who put Priebus in his place. Nonetheless, Republicans called MSNBC to fire Matthews.  Priebus went whining to reporters about how he thought Mathews was "a jerk", but he couldn't say Matthews was lying or wrong in his attacking remarks.

.http://politics.kfyi.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=104707&article=10375935

"Priebus also said the the two shook hands and that someone from MSNBC had been trying to call him all day, possibly to make amends. And while he said no amends was needed, he did refer to Matthews as an Obama “surrogate.”

3.  The convention was boring. 

4.  Many keynote speakers didn't mention Governor Mitt Romney's name, until about half way through their self gratifying speeches. New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie's unconventional convention speech, somehow forgot to shower praise on candidate Mitt Romney:  http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/republican-convention-biggest-moments-2012-mitt-romney-nominated/story?id=17127301#6

5.  Mrs. Ann Romney's important speech was scheduled on the same night with Governor Chris Christie, but he missed delivering a rousing Romney endorsement. 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/28/ann-romney-soars-chris-christie-stumbles-in-kicking-off-the-republican-convention.html

Moreover, one review says Ann Romney overplayed her "being poor" stories. http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/08/31/ann-romney-overstepped-playing-poor/tSVWCAFoIdh96hb1vxh9sL/story.html

Did anybody notice the designer wrist watch Mrs. Romney wore with her pretty red dress?  

Boston Globe blogger Joanne Weiss writes:

"Inside, (the convention) it’s easy to get caught up in the fervor, project the partisan cheers onto a nation. But when you’re watching in a quiet room with your spouse and your Twitter feed, you view these speeches more skeptically. You approach them with...questions, like.. 'What’s that Ann Romney just said about tuna fish?'" 

6. US Congressman Paul Ryan filled his acceptance speech with lies, especially falsely claiming that an automotive factory in his district of Wisconsin was closed during President Obama's administration.  Ryan lied.  In fact, the factory closed while President George Bush was still in office.   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772804577621551971442634.html 

7.  Actor Clint Eastwood upstaged Governor Mitt Romney's official acceptance speech.  As the delusional "mystery guest" Eastwood decided to go rogue with his anecdotal remarks.  Was the nomination of Governor Romney about Eastwood's legacy?  

http://tinyurl.com/8slmg7j

8. Americans never heard how a Romney-Ryan would be able to deliver a better America. There were absolutely no specifics. In fact, when Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie asked Ann Romney to name one specific policy her husband supported to help women, she sidestepped the question. She did not have an answer.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt6s5l_nbc-today-show-ann-romney-thrilled-by-support-and-speech_news

9.  The Republican Party Platform is unbridled right wing extremism

Regarding women's health and reproductive rights, the Party's platform is regressive. It's time for the Republicans to stop pandering to right wing extremists and tear up the entire platform document.

Ezra Klein writes about the 10 Oddest Things in the Republican Party Platform in his Wonkblog:  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/29/gop-platform-the-10-oddest-items/

10.  Nowhere in the Republican Convention was there a mention of the wars Americans are engaged in nor was time taken to provide sympathy and support for millions of victims of the raging Hurricane Isaac, battering the Gulf Coast.  In fact, for the first time since 1952 there was no mention of war in a Republican National Convention.  This is strange given the Republicans in the US Congress are determined to raise the US Defense spending as their way of providing stimulus money to preferential voting districts.  

http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/top-news/first-since-52-no-talk-of-war-in-gop-speech/nRQY7/

By any measure, the Romney-Ryan Republican National Convention lacked coordination and was certainly void of positive star power (Clint Eastwood certainly failed to provide this element, if that's what was intended). Chairman Reince Priebus is responsible for the failures.  Although Priebus knew Tampa sits square in the path of the risk for tropical storms and Gulf hurricanes. There were no contingency plans for the program in case weather caused glitches.  

Romney-Ryan-Preibus were unable to coordinate a National Convention.  I sincerely doubt they can run our nation.

Incredulously, the Republicans will get a political poll "bounce" out of this fiasco.  This is quite irresponsible on the part of the voters who should give this convention a C minus grade.

Next week, Democrats have their week in the limelight.  Fortunately, the Democratic Convention organizers cannot do any worse than their Republican counterparts.  Hopefully, I can write about 10 reasons the Democratic National Convention is a huge and convincing success!