@ impeachment folks, February 19th 2017 is your last day to get this shit done and still break William Henry Harrison’s record for shortest presidential term
If we’re going to impeach Trump though, we need to impeach Pence as well while we’re at it because THAT’S who gets the presidency if Trump is impeached.
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m in agreement with you and I support what you’re saying, but it is also important to note that impeaching both Trump and Pence would leave us with President Paul Ryan, which wouldn’t be all that different from President Mike Pence. The fact that the line of succession is, at the moment, five republicans deep, should not deter us from the fact that it’s absolutely necessary that Donald Trump be immediately impeached, convicted, removed from office in disgrace, and legally barred from holding any future public post as quickly as possible. Pence and Ryan are both absolutely vile, wretched, pathetic excuses for human beings, but they would be doing a lot less damage if their Nazi Figurehead Boss didn’t have a death grip on the world’s largest mouthpiece. I agree that both Trump and Pence should be removed from office as quickly and as disgracefully as possible (through legal channels, of course) but given the choice between Trump and Pence, I’d say Pence is about 1% less unspeakably evil (although still unspeakably evil) and I’d trade an arm and a leg to choose Pence over Trump at this point.
It’s been pointed out that, venal as Pence is, he doesn’t have the popularity, or, more accurately, the NOTORIETY, to BEGIN to get away with the shit that Trump has been pushing for the last two weeks.
This fascist movement is like every other: it’s deeply invested in the Myth of the Strong Leader, and even if removing Lord Dampnut from office were merely a symbolic act (instead of taking the baseball bat away from the petulant, unpredictable child in the throes of a constant tantrum), that symbolic act will be immensely powerful against the fascist myth-complex.
The other thing people forget is that if Trump gts impeached, then a line is drawn. Pence knows that if he goes THAT far, he gets removed from office too. The rest of the Executive Branch knows not to support him. The Rule of Law is re-established. “Don’t Impeach Trump because Pence is just as bad” completely misses the point of Impeachment, which is to establish that the other two branches of the government have the power to reign in a runaway Executive.
Pence would still be bad, but he could not be nearly AS bad because Congress would have set a standard and demonstrated they’ll hold a President to it.
Impeach Trump, and you put the Fear of the People in Pence.
And honestly, who do you people think is behind a lot of Trump’s choices anyway?
Do you think it’s a coincidence that the populist rabble rouser has made universally ultra-conservative choices for every appointment?
Pence, Bannon, and people like him are already running things. They’re already handling whatever Trump doesn’t feel like handling.
If we impeach Trump, we strip away the populist mask and shine the spotlight directly on Pence. It will still be bad, but at least we’ll be looking in the right direction for the cause.
I feel like @larathia’s comment still applies best: two, or even three bosses does not mean we don’t take the boss out it just means WE KNOW THERE’S ANOTHER BOSS TO DEAL WITH AFTERWARDS.
