As a conservative crusader, Mike Pence is an incongruous match for the ideologically flexible Donald Trump.
Perhaps Trump can relate to Pence’s time in show business: The governor was a radio host in the 1990s. Though Pence is reportedly more easygoing than Trump, he has a bit of Trump’s penchant for the bizarre, as when he claimed in a magazine commentary that “smoking doesn’t kill.”
But it is likely that Trump chose Pence because the Hoosier is a more likeable version of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. During his 12 years in Congress, Pence built up a reserve of credibility with movement conservatives and tea party types. He chaired the conservative Republican Study Committee and mounted one of the many right-wing campaigns to unseat Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, as the leader of House Republicans. Boehner later co-opted Pence by appointing him to the House leadership. Now Trump seems to be attempting a similar maneuver — neutralizing complaints from conservative true-believers by bringing one of their own into the fold.
Pence’s policy record suggests he will indeed appeal to right-wing voters — but perhaps not many others. He waged war against Planned Parenthood while in Congress.
A staunch opponent of LGBT rights, he favored a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman. He pressed for a constitutional amendment that would cap federal spending at 20 percent of the economy, which would badly hamstring the government as baby boomers begin drawing retirement benefits. He also voted for and defended free-trade deals of the sort Trump has inaccurately blamed for hollowing out the economy.
Pence has shown some practicality, taking federal money to expand Medicaid in his state under Obamacare as other GOP governors held out in irrational protest. His defining decision, however, was signing into law a “religious freedom” bill that encouraged discrimination against LGBT people. He subsequently scaled the law back after a national uproar. He followed it up with a bill restricting abortions in Indiana. And while he condemned Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, he also tried to suspend the settlement of Syrian refugees in his state.
Pence has called himself “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.” But he has agreed to run on a ticket with an uncharitable man who habitually insults minorities, religions and vulnerable people, who wants to economically isolate the United States and who regularly displays his ignorance of the Constitution and policy. Pence should add “hypocrite” to his list of attributes.
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