Just in case Pence came off as relatively sane and inoffensive during the debate, here are some fun facts about him over the years: - He's led the fight to defund Planned Parenthood, and the threat to shut down the government until it was defunded - He, with fellow turd Akin, co-sponsored the bill in 2012 that further narrowed the old "except in the case of rape, incest, or health of the mother" chestnut by redefining it as "forcible rape," as if there is such a thing as "nonforcible rape," or that victims of the "nonforcible rape" he was likely referring to (i.e any kind of rape not committed with a weapon in hand by a stranger) are lesser victims not deserving of their rights. (Akin, by the way, was the guy who when talking about that bill said that pregnancy from rape is not that common because "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down.") - This year, he tried to pass a law banning abortion if the reason the woman was getting one was because the fetus was found to have abnormalities or disfiguration, and the law would require funeral services for all fetuses which, since it didn't specify it was just for abortion, meant it would be required for all women who have miscarriages as well. (This led to one of my favorite protests because since that meant if a woman had a miscarriage at home it would be punishable by law if she did not proceed to scoop up all the blood and fetal tissue that was passed and bring it to a funeral home to arrange for services, and because a lot of very early miscarriages can happen right around when a period was expected and can just seem like a very heavy period, women flooded Pence's office with calls describing their periods to him in very graphic detail just to make sure he didn't think it was a miscarriage they could be punished for.) - He criticized Colin Powell for saying on TV that teenagers should use condoms to protect themselves against STDs, claiming that it was "too modern" of a solution to push that instead of abstinence, especially since condoms aren't effective in preventing STDs and saying otherwise would put the country's teenagers at risk. - His slashing of funding for Planned Parenthood in his state caused a center to close in an area where it was the only provider of STD testing, treatment, and other preventative services like education, and the area later had an HIV outbreak that Pence largely ignored, then refused help to by means of funding a needle exchange program, and then eventually caved to pressure after 150 cases happened in one county - He funneled several million dollars of federal funds from a program intended to help low-income families towards funding an organization that runs crisis pregnancy centers, which are deceptive centers masquerading as health centers providing information and health services for pregnancy options, but are almost never run by actual healthcare professionals and rely on completely lying to women and scare tactics in order to trick them into not even considering abortion as an option - He's the guy who brought the Religious Freedom Act to Indiana, which despite his claims otherwise was clearly intended and at least legally open to interpretation that businesses could choose not to serve LGBT people, which cost the state $60 million in boycotts. His attempt to right it was to say that the law should not be used for discrimination, but he's also said that LGBT people should not be covered by any anti-discrimination laws and protections - He supports federal funding going towards conversion therapy, including diverting funds meant for HIV/AIDS protection and treatment toward funding organizations that provide conversion therapy - He's written an op-ed urging businesses not to hire LGBT employees because they're not "able-bodied" people since they carry diseases from their "promiscuous lifestyle" - He opposed gay marriage because he believes recognizing gay couples will bring about "societal collapse," which was not discrimination because it's "God's idea" And those are just off the top of my head and about the issues I follow news of most closely. Perhaps something to think about for the man who may be "the most powerful Vice President in history."
Don't worry. Him being a polished debater doesn't change the fact that he's a human nightmare and garbage person.
The bar for sanity has been lowered so dramatically that an ideologue on either side is a breath fresh air if they can simply sit there and act like an adult.
He's a hard line lives in the 1950s conservative through and through. He's also a climate change denier who not only doesn't want greenhouse gases regulated, he wants education to stop teaching real world climate science. Trickle down, more military spending, less healthcare, etc. He had this to say about citizens united on the supreme court decision. Politicians for sell because 'freedom'. Yeah, I'm sure Thomas Jefferson who had to pay out of pocket to have a secretary would be so proud of our modern campaign finance. Trump isn't a traditional Republican so he picked him to shore up the base. Usually candidates seek out a VP who reflects their ideas, but despite what he has said I doubt Trump actually believes things like he's going to do well with black voters or reach anywhere near that far across party lines.
Gotta reply cause Pence is from my shithole of a state, so a few things: 1) Pence has utterly destroyed education in Indiana. When a democrat, Glenda Ritz, ran a grassroots campaign and won the state superintendent spot, he spent every spare moment stripping her of any power she may have had and reduced her to nothing more than a glorified state school board member. He has pushed standardized testing. He moved Indiana "away from common core standards," but that's bullshit because they're still basically common core, under a different name. He has heavily pushed for charter schools and school privatization. Teachers in Indiana made about $8,000 less than the national average and there is a huge teacher shortage (note: I left after 3 years when we realized daycare for 2 kids actually cost more than my yearly salary for a 4th year teacher). From personal experience, I can tell you students in Indiana spend no less than 20 school days a year (of 180) on standardized testing. That's 4 weeks of class that are gone because of testing. 2) The RFRA stuff utterly fucked the state and especially Indianapolis economically. Cost us millions, and Pence is as socially conservative as it gets. Even in this state (aka the Klan state), he is viewed as extreme. (See everything posted above about his social views towards women and the LGBT community). I know Trump picked him to shore up his conservative base, but most of Indiana hates him. Fiscal conservatives were furious for the RFRA flap and the money it cost the state. For Pence, it was a no brainer, as most early Indiana polls had him getting curb stomped in his reelection campaign. He would have lost, and for a guy with Presidential aspirations, it would've been disastrous for him. Now he can step away "graciously." Which brings me too: 3) That debate last night wasn't about Pence being VP. That was him auditioning for 2020. I believe Pence sees the writing on the wall for the Trump campaign. Trump will shoot himself in the foot repeatedly and lose. He spent all last night denying Trump said the many, many dumb ass things Trump had said (you can find lots of Supercuts of Pence saying "he didn't say that." Followed by Trump saying exactly what Pence denied). That said, Hillary is also hilariously unpopular, so there is a very good chance she is a 1 termer. Republicans could run a trained lemur in 4 years and best Hillary, and Pence is auditioning for that spot. He will appeal to Trump's batshit insane backers because he ran with Trump, and mainstream conservatives will love him, too. It's the same reason Cruz has started to "support" Trump. They all want to keep his "outsider" base, while also courting the mainstream vote. So while we may not have Trump in 2016, it's looking increasingly like we may have Pence in 2020. As someone who has lived in his state, I'll just say: fuck.
Pence in 2020 would have me praying that the Dems has someone moderate to knock Hilldawg off and run against him. Cause Pence vs Hillary or someone like Elizabeth Warren would have me sitting out back to back elections.
I think if Hillary loses this one, we will see someone like Cory Booker running. Young and charismatic is always a winner.
Christ, a Trump vs Hillary election followed by a Pence vs Warren election would be terrible. Elizabeth Warren is a bit of a shithead and a massive hypocrite. She is not well-liked in the state of MA outside of the Ivy bubble. I think the funniest thing I read about Pence was that hes like the opposing team's evil coach in every sports movie.
Booker is also intelligent, articulate and speaks without sounding like brain damaged sea lion. He has education and drawn-out plans for the future. A REAL thinker and worker. I wanted him to run this year but everyone wants these two moose knuckles instead.
The Democrats wouldn't allow Bernie to challenge Hillary in this election when it was merely "her turn", what makes you think they're going to take the near unprecedented step of allowing a challenger to primary a sitting president?
This kind of baffles me. With full sincerity, why Canadians are so invested in US politics? I understand the stakes of this particular one, but in general? I couldn't tell you the heads of any of the Canadian provinces, if there even is such a thing.
Because we're fucking awesome. Seriously though, people are invested in Chinese and Russian politics as well. Obviously you're going to know more about who's next door. Most people in the west know who Merkel is, but probably haven't heard of the Canadian prime minister, which is maybe a fortunate thing for Canada considering the incumbent.
It will be very interesting if Hillary wins how the Republican party will handle itself. You can't blame all of Trump's popularity on racism and bigotry, not that it's a small part. Republicans will have to do a total image reset after an election cycle where a good portion of the republican electorate said, fuck it, core principals and values aren't set in stone as long as we win. I honestly did not follow politics enough to know Pence's super christian faith based politics. He sounded fairly reasoned in the debate. Sad to hear he is another Rick Santorum that looks like Race Bannon.
We're each other's biggest trading partners, allies, and everything that happens in your country has a profound effect on ours as well as most of us live less than 100 miles from your border. And provincial heads are called "Premieres" here, and we hate them. Hate them hate them HATE THEM.
On the one hand, I would think that if Hillary wins this election the Republicans will field a moderate and easily take back the white house in 2020. On the other, I'm not sure if you can be sane and win the Republican primaries these days. McCain feels like a long time ago.
Jon Stewart. I guess he's not on anymore but when I used to have cable a lot of the best channels and shows were from the US so I saw a lot US political content because of that. Now that I've dropped cable in loo of internet services I don't pay nearly as much attention to it.
Along with everything else that's been said, I also think it's a non-American thing to be interested in the political and social goings on of other countries, which is a polite way of saying that every other Western population seems to care more about their national reputation and relationships than the average American. Even on this board, it seems like many of you are not only fine with being ignorant of other countries and what they think of you, you're proud of it. American presidential campaigns are also way more dramatic and showbiz-y than pretty much any other country's. Republicans voting against him is the biggest reason I'm relatively not worried about him actually winning, and I think his campaign could be a kind of rock bottom that will spur positive change within the party. They've spent so long poking and pandering to the absolute worst of their base, then attempting/failing to pivot towards the reasonable, that their base actually considers the pivot a betrayal. It's the perfect situation for a con-man to come into and blow the establishment away because, unlike them, he can say what the base really wants to hear, he's not restrained by things like having to act like an adult, and the base fucking loves it. The party created the monster (I mean the base, not Donald), and they, along with a third lost election, are the only ones who can stop it.
Well I think my original thought was I'm just continually surprised, not that I dont get it. But from the other side of that coin, the US is the center and the top of many categories when it compares to most other nations, so as nationalistic as the sentiment might be, what happens in most other countries really doesn't matter outside of the first world to most Americans.