Beating a high-power Republican field handily, with the last two, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, going kerplunk May 3 after 70-year-old real estate mogul Donald Trump won the Indiana primary, you’d think the GOP would ride the Trump-train to the White House. Instead of congratulating Trump, the GOP convulsed, promising to stop the former reality TV star at the convention. Determined efforts by the Stop Trump Campaign, led by 2012 GOP nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. and GOP candidate Jeb Bush and many others, led Trump’s 67-year-old campaign chairman Paul Manafort to push for a true movement conservative on the ticket. Faced with a mutiny Monday, July 18 at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Manafort pulled out all stops for Trump to pick 57-year-old Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
Picking a career conservative, with a 12-year track record in the House and three years as governor, Manafort silenced lingering voices in the GOP hoping to upend Trump at the convention. With most pundits picking either former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Manafort played it safe to salvage Trump’s nomination. Without picking Pence, Trump faced continued defections at the convention, including concerted efforts by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Az.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Ut.) to lead the charge against Trump on the convention’s floor. Manafort pushed hard for Pence, knowing it was Trump’s best way of beating back the Stop Trump movement. Beyond that, if there were any way to unify the GOP out of Cleveland, it gave Trump the best shot of catching Democratic presumptive nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Pence’s got a long history in the GOP as a Rush Limbaugh-like cultural warrior, pitching the pro-life and anti-gay agenda. Having spent a few years on Indianapolis conservative talk radio, Pence learned the religious and fiscal conservative talking points. Joining the House in 2000, Pence was one of former President George W. Bush’s biggest backers of Oct. 7, 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and March 20, 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pence worked hard after Sept. 11, with key members of Bush’s national security team, like Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin A. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald M. Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and others at the Pentagon, to push for the Iraq War. Pence has never acknowledged, like Trump before the Feb. 27, South Carolina primary, that Iraq was a disaster for the U.S.
Picking Pence undercuts Trump’s courageous opposition to the Iraq War, prompting him during the Feb. 13 CBS debate to call Bush a “liar,” regarding Iraq’s never found weapons of mass destruction, the justification for the war. Pence’s longstanding support as a U.S. Congressman for the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] and, more recently, the Trans Pacific Partnership [TPP] put him at odds with Trump over his campaign speeches opposing the two free trade agreements. Whatever Pence’s prior positions, he wouldn’t accept VP unless he was willing to fully accept Trump’s positions on key issues. Of all the differences with Trump, none is greater than Pence signing March 26, 2015 Indiana’s Religious Freedom Reform Act [RFRA], giving Indiana citizens the right to discriminate against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LBGT] community.
When the Supreme Court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage June 26, 2015, Pence and other religious conservatives concocted the RFRA to allow “persons of conscience” the right to refuse service. “This is not about discrimination—this is about empowering people to confront government overreach,” Pence, showed he doesn’t follow the Constitution, dismissing the High Court’s ruling as “judicial overreach.” Whatever personal religious views prompted Pence to ignore the Supreme Court, he knows has to modify his personal views to match Trump. Accepting Trump’s offer for VP, Pence no longer has the luxury to run afoul with his boss who clearly sets his own agenda. While reluctantly endorsing the GOP platform, Trump has no interest in fighting old cultural battles on abortion, gay marriage, prayer in public schools or any other religious conservatives agenda.
Praising Trump for picking Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is now all in on Trump’s nomination. Whatever Trump’s controversial statements about temporarily banning Muslims from entering the U.S. or building the border wall, Trump enters the RNC mending fences with conservatives. Whatever Pence’s past positions, he now has to align his views with his boss, including his strong backing of the Iraq War or opposition to gay marriage. Trump’s shown he has no interest in wasting time on old Republican platforms. Earning more than 14 million GOP votes in the primaries, Trump’s supporters back Trump’s positions on key issues, not Pence’s. Taking a backseat, letting Trump set the party’s agenda, should reassure independents and crossover Democrats that Trump calls the shots. Getting support from GOP conservatives only goes so far in November.
