RealLindaL wrote:Agree that Pence is a truly frightening alternative. On the other hand, at least he's apparently not severely personality disordered ("apparently" and "severely" being the operative words here). Yes, he's a religious nut and an annoyingly unctuous preacher's boy -- perhaps dangerously so -- but I'll take him over disgusting Trump and his own brand of danger any day.
As for 2018, I have little hope for Democratic wins no matter who's in the White House. The Dems have yet to come up with a coherent redefinition of themselves, and it's hurting them big time.
I don't think it's the lack of messaging by the Democrats. There are several problems: gerrymandering and voter suppression, including electronic voting machines that may or may not record votes accurately; "dark" money because of the horrible SCOTUS decisions in Citizens United and McCutcheon; the almost complete obstruction of President Obama's agenda; a president who continually stirs up hatred and division, scapegoating anyone and everyone who opposes his totalitarianism, dividing the people into factions..., etcetera, ad nauseum. Pence is no viable alternative; he's corrupt as hell.
PENCE’S POLITICAL CAREER WAS SO FRAUDULENT, THE FEC CHANGED CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS JUST TO STOP HIM
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/pences-political-career-was-so-fraudulent-the-fec-changed-campaign-finance-laws-just-to-stop-him/
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The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-radical-crusade-of-mike-pence-w462223
"...Here's a quick story.
While Mike Pence was governor, his relationship with the Democratic minority in the legislature was crap. Someone on his staff suggested having the Democratic leaders over to the governor's mansion for dinner. The table was set for 20, but there were only around seven in attendance. One unlucky legislator stuck next to Pence tried to make conversation, but found even at dinner she couldn't shift Pence off his talking points. Gov. Pence shouted to his wife, Karen, his closest adviser, at the other end of the table.
"Mother, Mother, who prepared our meal this evening?"
The legislators looked at one another, speaking with their eyes: He just called his wife "Mother."
Maybe it was a joke, the legislator reasoned. But a few minutes later, Pence shouted again.
"Mother, Mother, whose china are we eating on?"
Mother Pence went on a long discourse about where the china was from. A little later, the legislators stumbled out, wondering what was weirder: Pence's inability to make conversation, or calling his wife "Mother" in the second decade of the 21st century.
Pence was raised in the Sixties as a nice Irish-Catholic boy in Columbus, Indiana, a quiet bedroom community where, Pence likes to say, he "grew up with a cornfield" in his backyard. He was named after his grandfather, who emigrated from Ireland and became a Chicago bus driver. Mike was one of six children, and his dad ran a chain of gas stations. An astute altar boy, Pence genuinely seemed to want to serve his community. The local paper tells a story of Pence befriending two kids with muscular dystrophy and later serving as a pall-bearer at each of their funerals.
He stayed close to home and went to Hanover College. There, he became fascinated with evangelical Christianity and had a religious epiphany at a Christian music festival in Kentucky.
His conversion reportedly caused consternation among his family, especially for his mother. He met Karen at church while he was studying at Indiana University Law School. Karen carried a gold cross with the word "yes" on it in her purse in anticipation of the moment when Mike would propose. Their faith deepened together, and they were wed in 1985, eventually having three children. Pence reportedly calls Karen the "prayer warrior" of the family.
Pence went to work at an Indianapolis law firm, where he began each day in prayer with a colleague. In 1988, at 29, he made his first bid for Congress, capturing attention by riding a bicycle across the district. He lost, but the campaign was seen as a dry run for a 1990 campaign against Democrat Phillip Sharp.
The race was initially close. And then Billy Linville, Sharp's campaign manager, swung by the Statehouse to pick up Pence's financial-disclosure forms.
"It was clear upon observing his expenditures that he was using campaign funds for personal use," Linville told me. "He was making his mortgage payments. He was making a car payment for his wife. He was making payments for his personal credit card, and he was even spending money for his family groceries."
While this was not an illegal practice at the time, there was a delicious irony, since Pence's main campaign plank was that Sharp was beholden to special interests, and here was Pence buying spaghetti with his donors' money.
Pence's campaign entered a death spiral. Revealing a pattern that would rear its head again when he was a governor and a vice-presidential candidate, Pence doggedly repeated his campaign talking points no matter what reporters asked. Meanwhile, he doubled down on smear tactics. He sent out a mailer with a picture of a razor and lines of cocaine, suggesting Sharp was soft on drugs. He had campaign volunteers call voters and tell them Sharp was going to sell his family farm to a nuclear-waste facility, which wasn't true. But the most infamous tactic was a cheaply produced television ad with an actor portraying an Arab sheik that suggested Sharp was in the pocket of foreign oil. The ad was denounced by editorial boards and Arab-American groups as low-class and sleazy. Pence lost the race by 19 points. After he lost, Pence wrote an essay about his political disaster. He called it "Confessions of a Negative Campaigner."..."
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Why Mike Pence scares me more than Donald Trumphttp://theweek.com/articles/637051/why-mike-pence-scares-more-than-donald-trump
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