The Man Who Would be Vice King

                     

        I know what you're thinking, "Who is Mike Pence" and what do he and Der Trumpster have in common?  His family were Irish Catholic Democrats. He was named after his grandfather, Richard Michael Cawley, a Chicago bus driver and Irish immigrant who came from County Sligo to the United States through Ellis Island. His maternal grandmother's parents were from Doonbeg, County Clare.

        Of course, his grandparents as Irish immigrants were subjected to just about exactly the same sort of ethnic discrimination he now proposes for others! Irish American people faced much prejudice, racism and discrimination after their immigration to the United States because they were poor, uneducated, less skilled, considered disruptive and were Catholics in a land of Protestant dominance. At the hands of other citizens, especially those of German protestant descent,   Irish-Americans faced stereotypes that associated men with drunkenness and laziness, and their women depicted as primitive. American Protestants feared the high birth rates shown by the Catholics would ultimately result in Protestant minority. They also feared that Irish political takeovers could occur, and Catholicism would become the dominant faith. Irish women were stereotyped as reckless ‘‘breeders’’ owing to the large family sizes compared to those of the Protestants.

Note the Irish were classified (L to R) as terrorists, fraudulent voters, enemies of the owner class and lazy welfare bums. Sound familiar? Pence has a short memory, because with a History degree, he should know this.

        Apparently, however, Pence is ignorant of all the above, as he now espouses his running mate's position re: immigration of groups which he (Trump) characterizes almost exactly as earlier Americans did Pence's ancestors.

        Pence graduated from Columbus North High School, in 1977. He earned a B.A. in history from Hanover College, in 1981 and a J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, in 1986. After graduating from Hanover, Pence worked as an admissions counselor at the college, from 1981 to 1983. He ran unsuccessfully (twice!)  for a congressional seat in 1988 and 1990. In 1991, he became the president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a self-described free-market think tank and a member of the State Policy Network. By now Pence had abandoned his ancestry and traditions for the Far Right's hate speech and discriminatory policies, especially as regards women's issues.

        Meanwhile, Tim Kaine, also Irish and Scots and also Catholic was born  in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is the eldest of three sons born to Mary Kathleen (née Burns), a home economics teacher, and Albert Alexander Kaine, Jr., a welder and the owner of a small iron-working shop.  In 1976, he graduated from Rockhurst High School.  He earned received his B.A. in economics from the University of Missouri in 1979, completing his degree in three years and graduating summa cum laude, then attended Harvard Law School, taking a break during law school to work with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Honduras. Kaine worked in Honduras for nine months from 1980 to 1981, helping Jesuit missionaries who ran a  school,  running a vocational center that taught carpentry and welding. Kaine is fluent in Spanish as a result of his year in Honduras.

        Meanwhile, back in Indiana, Pence left the Indiana Policy Review Foundation in 1994, when he began a career in talk radio. (Bad lawyer, failed politician?) He hosted The Mike Pence Show, calling himself "Rush Limbaugh on decaf" since he considered himself politically conservative while not as outspoken as Limbaugh.   Pence also hosted a weekend political talk show out of Indianapolis. As previously alluded to, Pence ran for Congress twice against Democratic incumbent Phil Sharp, losing  both times. In 1990, Pence  quit his job in order to work full-time in the campaign. Sharp won again. During the race, Pence used political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife.  While the spending was not illegal at the time, it seriously  undermined his campaign.

        During the 1990 campaign, Pence also ran an attack ad  in which an actor, dressed in a robe and headdress and speaking in a thick Middle Eastern accent, thanked his opponent for doing nothing to wean the United States off imported oil as chairman of a House subcommittee on energy and power. In response to criticism, Pence's campaign responded that the ad was not about Arabs, it was "about Sharp's lack of leadership".  As we now know, after a mediocre Congressional 12 years, Pence opted not to run for the US Senate. where he would actually have to put forth a positive campaign and instead became Indiana's Governor.

        Politically, to any  thinking American, Mike Pence is a train wreck. His record in the US House shows him voting in favor of only two really significant issues: The Patriot Act and the Iraqi War, where he thinks we should still be engaged. Seriously, folks, that's pretty much it.

        On the other hand, as Tevye would say,  look at what he voted against (or to undo):

Pence began seeking to defund Planned Parenthood in 2007

Pence opposes birthright citizenship principle set forth by the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that all persons born on U.S. soil are citizens citizen.

He has been a proponent of a flat federal tax rate. 

Pence opposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program  (the "Wall Street bailout") of 2008.  Pence also opposed the auto industry rescue package of 2008–09, which guided General Motors and Chevrolet through bankruptcy.(both paid back with interest!)

In 2007, Pence voted against raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 (from $5.15) an hour over two years.

He voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

 He voted against Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. (ed: And  just watch him attack Clinton/Warren on the same issue on which he turned his back!)

While in the House, Pence voted to  prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

Pence also repeatedly voted against energy efficiency and renewable energy funding and rules and voted for several bills that supported fossil fuel development, including legislation promoting offshore drilling. The League of Conservation Voters, an environmentalist group, gave Pence a lifetime rating of 4 percent!

Pence was a supporter of earmark reform, voting against the $139.7 billion transportation-treasury spending bill in June 2006, and in favor of a series of amendments proposed that same month that would strip other members' earmarks from the federal budget. However, Pence had no issues with securing earmarks for projects in his own district.

Pence supported the Iraq War Resolution, which authorized military action against Iraq. During the Iraq War, Pence opposed setting a public withdrawal date from Iraq. During an April 2007 visit to Baghdad, Pence and John McCain visited Shorja market, describing the visit as evidence that the security situation in Iraqi markets has improved.  the New York Times reported that the visit gave a false indication of how secure the area was due to the extremely heavy security forces protecting McCain.

Pence chaired the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and was a prominent supporter of George W. Bush's Iraq War troop surge of 2007. At the time, Pence stated that "the surge is working" and defended the initial decision to invade in 2003.

Pence has stated his support of Israel and its right to attack facilities in Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons, has defended the actions of Israel in its use of deadly force in enforcing the blockade of Gaza, and has referred to Israel as "America's most cherished ally

Pence voted against the act that created Medicare Part D, a Medicare prescription-drug benefit.

 He also voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In 2010, Pence voted against the DREAM Act, which would grant the undocumented children of illegal immigrants conditional non-immigrant status if they met certain requirements

Pence "does not accept the scientific consensus that human activity is the primary driver of climate change, writing in 2001  in an op-ed that "Global warming is a myth,"  that "the earth is actually cooler today than it was about 50 years ago

In 2009, Pence led the Republican effort to defeat the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a  bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Pence opposed President Obama's executive order eliminating restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research. He asserted that "scientific breakthroughs have rendered embryonic stem-cell research obsolete". (This last still has biologists wondering what he meant by it, especially since stem cell research has recently yielded numerous breakthroughs in potential treatments and therapies.)

In 2001, Pence wrote an op-ed arguing that "despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill." (yes, no shit, he wrote those exact words!) Pence asserted that , "2 out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness (which of course means that 1/3 do, moron!) and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer. In 2009, Pence voted against the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which allows the FDA to regulate tobacco products.

In 2002, Pence criticized a speech by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell where Powell stated that it was "important for young people... to protect themselves from the possibility of acquiring any sexually transmitted disease" through the use of condoms.

Pence supported President George W. Bush's unsuccessful 2005 proposal to partially privatize Social Security. When asked in 2010 if he would be willing to make cuts to Social Security, Pence answered, "I think everything has to be on the table."

Pence "has been a longtime, aggressive advocate of trade deals" between the U.S. and foreign countries. Pence supported  North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and while in the US House  voted for every free-trade agreement that came before him and in favor of permanent normal trade relations with China. Pence also supported bilateral free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, Panama, Peru, Oman, Chile and Singapore. This of course places him in diametric opposition to Herr Trump, who has condemned globalization and the liberalization of trade.

In 2000, Pence stated "Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a 'discrete and insular minority' entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities."

 He called for an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that "celebrate and encourage?" the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus [sic]" and instead advocated for resources to be directed toward conversion therapy programs.

Pence has said "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in the ranks weakens unit cohesion. " Pence opposed the repeal of don't ask, don't tell, saying in 2010 that allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military would "have an impact on unit cohesion."  All this of course from a man who has absolutely zero military experience, and in spite of an ever growing body of proof that the reverse is actually true, that  military personnel are generally more tolerant than many of the politicians who would send them in harm's way.

In 2007, Pence voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Pence opposed the 2009 Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, actually stating, if one can believe it,  that Barack Obama wanted to "advance a radical social agenda" and said that pastors "could be charged or be subject to intimidation for simply expressing a Biblical worldview on the issue of homosexual behavior."

Pence opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions.

On March 26, 2015, Pence signed Indiana Senate Bill 101, also known as the Indiana "religious objections" bill (RFRA), into law. The law's signing was met with widespread criticism by people and groups who felt the law was carefully worded in a way that would permit discrimination against LGBT persons. Organizations as the NCAA, the gamer convention Gen Con, and even  the Disciples of Christ (not a misprint!) spoke out against the law.  Thousands protested against the policy. Five GOP state representatives voted against the bill, and Greg Ballard, the Republican mayor of Indianapolis, criticized it as sending the "wrong signal" about the state. Pence, on the other hand,  repeatedly defended the law, stating that it was not about discrimination.  Although Pence denied the law permitted discrimination, he later signed a bill modifying the law as to insure non-discrimination.

In June 2012, after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act,  Pence likened the ruling to the September 11 terrorist attacks in a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference. Even other Republicans shunned him.

      This, then,  is the body of work of the man who would be "vice king." He is a bad man, who has a short memory of his origins and heritage.  He  should scare you more than Donald Trump. The fact that Trump chose him should tell you a lot about Trump's willingness to pander to the worst in and of us.