I support Mike Pence as an Independent

Politics & Elections
1

No, I’m not crazy. Hear me out.

For a while after 1/6 many of us believed that Trump couldn’t possibly get the nomination but that he would make up for that by running as an Independent, whether or not that killed Republican chances.

The world has flipped. Trump has a gigantic lead over DeSantis, with no one else a possibility. That may change as the indictments and criminal trials pile up but we can’t wait. We need someone to throw his body on the grenade. I nominate Mike Pence.

Why Pence? That person has to have some name recognition nationally. Most people couldn’t pick him out of a lineup but they’ve heard his name over and over.

That person has to be able to put together a national political organization. Pence can do that; he has done that.

That person has to have the backing of the anti-Trump Republicans. Pence is a classic establishment Republican, with all the backbone of fruit jello. A dream candidate, in other words.

Moreover, that person has to know that their future in politics quite likely ends with this gesture. Pence does in public spout words that indicate that he is in denial about his future. Someone should easily be able to slap his face and wake him up to reality.

Finally, Pence running against him would engender a volcanic fury in Trump. His head might literally explode. Truth Social would melt down. Mar-a-Lago could use him as a heat pump. It would make the horrors of the rest of the race bearable.

The only other person who might possibly fit these criteria is Mitt Romney. He’s as old as Trump and his term ends in 2025; he may not want to run again. Bearing against this, an active candidate tends to miss a lot of Senate votes. With the Senate as close as it is, McConnell wouldn’t want him to run. Maybe they could form a Pence/Romney team with Romney lending his name more than his body.

Or they could skip a full campaign and just concentrate on the swing states, ensuring that Trump lose every one of those.

Whatever. All upside and no down. I support Mike Pence as an Independent candidate for President in 2024. Heck, I’d give the nominating speech.

2

Pence won’t even criticize Trump, but you think he’d run against him?

3

Google “Pence gazing at Trump”

4

Perhaps he is thinking about possible accidents in those pictures.

5

No way. He doesn’t even look at God that way.

6
7

Trump would crush him like an ant, and he’d never be heard from again. Your Romney suggestion is better.

8

How do you crush an independent candidate? Every thing Trump says against him would be a plus for his supporters.

9

Pence has supporters?

10

Pence wouldn’t want to end his career being despised by a large segment of Republicans, missing out on potential speaking engagements and other lucrative opportunities. Besides, any Republican running a serious third party campaign faces retaliation from vehement Trump supporters, which could go beyond nasty remarks on social media.

11

An independent candidate has pretty much zero chance in the US when it comes to running for president.

That said, I wholeheartedly support Pence (or any conservative) running as an independent because it will serve to split the conservative vote and give liberals a better chance. As close as elections have been in recent years it won’t take much to tip the scales.

12

I’m very much in favor of him mounting a campaign as independent. Which is not to say I support him.

Similarly, I’m very much in favor of the GOP focusing on anti-flag-burning.

In fact, I’l take it a step further, and send them my thoughts and prayers.

Votes and money, though, go to dems.

13

I would be very worried about this. I’ve never felt the urge to burn a flag, but if they get this passed, I’ll be first in line.

14

A better career choice for him, with more chance for success, would be to get a decorative fly for his head, and hit the comedy club circuit as a ventriloquist.

15

We’d really be obliged to set up an Olympic-style eternal flame, with a new flag ignited from the embers of the last so that a flag is continuously burning.

16

No, he wouldn’t want to end his career being remembered as a bowl of melting vanilla soft serve. This is his one and only chance to go down in history.

Exactly. Just shave five points off Trump in the right places. Trump never gets more than 70% support from Republicans. Picking off even 10% of the rest would shift swing states. A plausible independent just needs to nudge the outcome. Pat Buchanan got a total of 450,000 votes in 2000. He received 0.3% of the vote in Florida, 17,484 votes. Yet the world utterly changed because of him. Or maybe because of Harry Browne’s 16,415 votes on the Libertarian ticket, or Ralph Nader’s 97,488 on the Green ticket. Virtually nothing out of 6 million total.

Think of it as that rocket NASA flew into an asteroid and shifted its path. Just a nudge to save America. That’s our slogan. JustaNudge.com is available. We can be the shadowy figures who changed history!

17

I’d rather listen to the fly.

18

I like the OP’s logic as a fun thought experiment. As a practical plan I think it falls flat. Unfortunately.

If there’s any prominent R who really has a reason to want to sabotage trump, it’s Pence. After all, Trump dispatched a mob to hang Pence from a lamppost.

The real problem with this plan is it’s already 90% too late. Unless Pence was to somehow to pull an Alien and invade an existing 3rd party and take it over, there simply isn’t time to put all the together to get on the ballot in 50 states. And for him to attract any following in the swing states where he’d matter to Trump’s outcome, he needs to be in all the other states too.

Pence makes a rather implausible Green or Libertarian. Which makes invading those existing registered parties implausible as well.

19

Anything that draws a few votes away from a very possible trump candidacy is fine with me.

Nader it up, Pence!

20

‘History will hold Donald Trump accountable," is how Mike Pence says, "I ain’t doin’ shit."

It’s bizarre that you think that article supports your argument.