-By John Dillon. John is a member of the blogger Pension Perfection Caucus and writes regularly at Pension Vocabulary.
Pence’s record shows he is Trump’s olive branch to the religious right, who had at first wondered at his willingness to surrender to Christian virtues after flaunting them his entire life. But now they too have endorsed Trump, one of their flock saying the other day on NPR that “those who do God’s work often show up disguised or the least unexpected” and therefore we have now decided to support Trump as our Christian delegate in the religious war to save America.
Argue with that logic, if you will.
And, Mr. Pence will have their undying support for the most part. In his political history, Pence co-sponsored an amendment against same-sex marriage when a member of the 6th District in Indiana’s Congress. Later, he voted against any “hate-crime” status for violence committed against people based on sexual orientation.
Pence voted against raising the minimum wage (2006-2009) and vouchers to assist low-income families with rent assistance.
Pence refused to follow Federal opportunities to reduce the numbers of prison rapes, and instead regarded Indiana as a state with the ability to do its own scrutiny.
“He has supported deporting undocumented children and sick people and favors building a fence on the border (sound familiar?): In 2009, Rep. Pence co-sponsored a bill that would have eliminated automatic citizenship for children born on US soil to undocumented parents. A few years earlier, he voted in favor of bills that would have allowed for the detention of undocumented immigrants seeking hospital treatment. He also voted yes on a bill—foreshadowing Trump’s current platform—to build a fence on the Mexico border.
“He has decimated access to abortion: In March 2016, Gov. Pence signed a measure prohibiting women from obtaining an abortion because of the race, gender, or disability of the fetus, making Indiana only the second state in the nation to do this. (Editor’s note: To link the pain of making the horrendous decision to end a life of a child in the womb with the flippancy of sex or gender is deplorable. )The law also held doctors legally liable for wrongful death if it was found they had performed an abortion motivated by one or more of the prohibited reasons. These sorts of bans are opposed by much of the medical community, out of fear that women will censor themselves when it comes to making difficult decisions with the help of their doctors. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in a landmark abortion case in June, a federal judge blocked this Indiana law from going into effect.
“He slashed Planned Parenthood funding, spurring clinic closures and an HIV outbreak: In 2011, Pence pushed an amendment through the House to defund Planned Parenthood. This amendment helped kick-start a wave of state actions aimed at removing government support from the women’s health provider. Indiana was successful in its efforts, but a federal judge blocked the law from going into effect. When Pence became governor in 2013, Indiana continued to slash resources for the women’s health provider. By 2014, state funding for Planned Parenthood had been cut nearly in half from 2005 levels. The organization was forced to close five of its smaller clinics, none of which had ever provided abortions, but they did provide STD testing. Soon, Scott County, Indiana, home to one of the closed clinics, became the hub of an enormous HIV outbreak.
“He gave protection to businesses in Indiana that discriminate against gay people: In March 2015, Pence signed a bill into law permitting business owners to refuse service to gay and lesbian customers due to their religious beliefs. The bill also allowed religious beliefs to be used as a rationale for other forms of discrimination. As my colleague Molly Redden described it: “An employer who refused to hire Jewish employees could cite his religious beliefs as a defense against discrimination lawsuits. So could a landlord who refused to rent to Muslims, or a business that refused to serve atheists.” In response to this bill’s passage, athletes, celebrities, corporate leaders, and others criticized the state publicly, and some even pulled out of planned business projects there. The band Wilco canceled an Indianapolis show, referring to “thinly disguised legal discrimination,” and Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post slamming the law.”http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/donald-trump-mike-pence-vice-president-abortion-gay
Finally: Periods for Pence has now become Tampons for Trump.
What started as an Indiana-grown protest movement of over 70,000 women against an abortion restriction law has become a broader movement that now targets presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The protest started in March of this year, as Gov. Mike Pence signed a new anti-abortion bill into law. The law would have required burial or cremation for the remains of all miscarriages and abortions. It also would have banned abortion if the sole reason was due to the fetus’ sex, race or a fetal abnormality, like Down syndrome (or umbilical cord prolapse or a hundred other reasons to abort or tragically miscarry?). Again, please note that a would-be mother/parent of a child suffering from anencephaly, which would doom its difficult death in a few days or a week, has been paired with some callous being who would negate a life for gender or race.
Thank goodness, a judge’s injunction stopped the law from going into effect on July first.
Between March and July, Midwestern women began sending their used napkins and tampons to the Governor to ask him – as the self-appointed specialist – to tell them if they had broken the law. Now that the poll-dropping governor has signed on with Trump’s ticket, this same movement has changed their moniker from Periods for Pence to Tampons for Trump. You can find them on Facebook.http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-vp-pick-mike-pence-evangelicals-225623
But do not doubt that Pence, with that polished and fixed politician’s face will be as easily unnerved and unhinged as his boss, 3:20 a.m. Tweeter on Portly Pageant Girls Trump. Pence is the “real deal.” He is a smooth, oily and unflappable twister of facts, truths, and intelligent observations. His motivation is as deeply rooted in basic Biblical principle as a Taliban’s in the Koran.
You can read the entire post here.
Fred Klonsky 