VP Elect Mike Pence

Post Reply New Topic

If circumstances should lead to it, sometime over the next four years Mike Pence could become the American President. I saw him in the vice-presidential debate and was concerned about his anti-women's freedom views on abortion. So I googled him:

Washington Post: Who is Mike Pence?

Telegraph: Who is Mike Pence - the man who looks like he'll be Donald Trump’s vice president

In 2015 he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which meant that Indiana businesses did not have to serve same-sex couples.

In 2016 he made it illegal to abort a fetus due to disability in Indiana.

He is a Evangelical Christian and a Tea Partier.



I suspect with the Republican Congress and House that Trump and Pence will quickly change abortion and gay marriage laws.

So what do you think of Mike Pence? He seems like a family guy, which is nice.

Yep....I think there will be discussions about Roe Vs. Wade over the coming months.

And about things such as gay marriage.

I don't care if somebody is a "family man." I've known some pretty nasty "family men."

Pence is horrible. Worse than Trump.

Fortunately, I don't believe anyone can overturn Supreme Court judgements unless a similar-but-different case comes before the Supreme Court. Abortion and gay marriage are probably safe - although access to them could be restricted.

To be honest, I find that it would be relatively easy for a "test case" to be promulgated which would test the constitutionality of Roe Vs. Wade.

It would be somewhat more difficult to overturn gay marriage, in my opinion. This is because it has been legislated by Congress, rather than decided upon in a judicial setting (where the concept of precedence is the key).

I hope you guys are right. But sometimes people make things happen.

Instead of bemoaning how bad Trump and Pence are, shouldn't the national dialogue focus on why Clinton and Kaine lost? All political parties have choices. They might choose to kvetch about their opponents. They might choose to offer opinions. But, they are responsible about their own campaigns' wins and losses. So, Hillary lost. That is her fault.

Back in 1980 when Ronald Reagan won the presidency, the Democratic National Committee launched a quest to find its apparently lost soul. It (and me in a weird, tangential way) spent years searching for the best advice, strategies and tactics from the "best and brightest" Democrats out there at the time and the Democratic Leadership Council. But, all the party's horses and all the party's men couldn't put Camelot back together again. The party was a castaway from the White House for 12 years! Apparently, the quest didn't work out as expected. Looking back, the party, in the form of Paul Kirk went too far afield from its voters' expectations by jettisoning its caucuses and "many voices."

So, is it too much to consider that, maybe, just maybe, the 2016 Clinton-Kaine campaign shot itself in the foot? Not every political loss is the responsibility of its opponents.

It is very unlikely an also will take longer than 4 years.

I can tell you right now why she lost. The Democratic party has been losing the support of working class whites for years now as the Democrats just took the union vote for granted, even as unions have weakened exponentially, and wages and benefits have fallen. While it's been the Republicans who have been responsible for this, white working people rarely saw the Democrats coming to their defense as they had once done. While the Democrats had, much to their credit, stood for the rights of the poor, racial minorities, and LGBT citizens, white working people felt they had been forgotten, and very often, I'm afraid to admit, they're right. Unfortunately, the right has been opening the door to the white working class by playing up to resentment at being left behind at the expense of others, and encouraging racism by scapegoating "the other."
As for how to fix it; for one thing, just listen to the white working people instead of dismissing them as whiners, and find out what they need. Help organized labor make a comeback by revitalizing existing unions, and helping to create more of them, as well as reeducate those American workers who have been spoonfed the lie that unions are detrimental to workers. And separate good, honest working Americans from the right wing agitators and deplorables.

I agree completely. Having been a union officer for my stage-hands local, I learned how organized labor suffered the one-two punches of union officials demanding their dues even when members weren't working, or playing favorites in job bids. The second punch came from political candidates who, while accepting contributions, discovered that they were dismissed summarily once the checks cleared. The Democratic Party became quite "corporatized" in the 1980s when it believed it needed great huge wodges of cash to win against Reagan. How did that turn out for them? Yep. Now, it is at least as corrupt as the Republican Party.

I think he sucks, and hopefully wont be able to religiously influence the government too much...last I checked freedom of religion means you can have whatever religion you want or none at all, not trying to enforce Christian morals on the public...doesn't seem like he understand that.

I am not a Christian. It frankly kind of irritates me that my son is learning Christian things at his preschool, but it's the best preschool so I deal with it. His grandparents are Christians so it's also probably good for him to know what they're talking about.

I'm kind of meh on (early) abortion, which I think is the common opinion.

HOWEVER, when I was SEVEN months pregnant, here in Virginia, I was offered a late term abortion because I am disabled and my son has a 50/50 chance of having my disability. I was horrified. Obviously, he would have been able to survive if I had simply given birth at seven months. I had no idea that they did that in my state unless the kid had, like, no head or something. But it really is something that CAN happen, I can't speak to how often it DOES happen.

I don't mind that Pence said how he felt about that, or his other Christian stuff. I think he has a good heart and just doesn't understand some things, like being gay. Lots of people are like that. He still may yet change his mind. There was a standing ovation at the RNC for LGBTQ rights. That's something.

I don't like second or third-trimester abortion AT ALL.

If the baby has ANY chance of surviving, all resources must be used to effect that survival.

I'm still sickened when I think about it. The doctor offered to murder my son because I would be in a wheelchair for a week or two (big deal) and because he might be "like me." I mean, jesus.

Pence supports conversion therapy, so no, he isn't a good person. Also he's done and continues to do a myriad of terrible things. He once funneled $3.5 million dollars from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families into programs counseling against abortion. He claims to be pro life but clearly doesn't give a s**t once the life has been brought into this world. Like most pro lifers.

One of my mentors in undergraduate school was a younger professor, a lesbian, who was very hard on us, but popular. It was HARD to get an A from her but she was a great teacher. She did her dissertation on conversion programs. Once she told us about her research and it was probably the only time we got to see a human side of her. Keep in mind that I went to an all-girls undergrad school and most of my friends are gay. My school was VERY pro-diversity of all kinds.

So she said that during the time she was taking interviews from the people in these conversion programs she started drinking (she doesn't drink) and smoking (she doesn't smoke) and she became very depressed. She had to empathize with them and accept that they chose to turn their backs on what to her (and all of us in class) was a natural and perfectly normal lifestyle. We found conversion programs gross and horrible. She said she was forced to understand that some people choose them and we can't take away their choice. She said many people viewed those programs as positive life savers.

Personally, I don't think state funding should be used on EITHER- not abortion or weirdo conversion programs, but I don't make those decisions. My point is that some people really believe in these things, with all their hearts. I felt profound sympathy for those folks. If they want to have their camps and people want to VOLUNTEER to go to them, let them. It's like people who want to "cure" their autism. Different strokes.

I don't care if he's a christian and doesn't understand things like being gay, my concern is that he'll try and legislate Christian morality. Also I think most abortions are early term outside of health emergencies, I certainly think it is reasonable to have a limit on how late one can have an abortion(outside medical emergency) but outlawing abortion in general would be a terrible idea...so I am concerned he won't keep his religious beliefs to himself rather than trying to influnce government policy with it.