If you want to get a sense of how prolonged exposure to MAGA has shifted the Republican Party’s policy positions these last eight years, use Mike Pence as your control group.
In Pence’s America, it seems, Trump never came down that escalator in 2015. We should be so lucky. Pence’s positions are happily frozen in amber, not unlike a mosquito in Jurassic Park. Maybe archaeologists can excavate them someday.
I’m joking, but only a little. This past week, we learned that, unlike Ron DeSantis, Pence doesn’t think we should use the coercive power of the government to punish private businesses like Disney. We also learned that, contrary to Donald Trump, Pence thinks reining in our long-term debt crisis will require us to put entitlement reform on the table. And lastly, we learned that, unlike Fox News’ primetime anchors, Pence thinks it’s vital that America support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
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As a Reagan conservative, I’d say Pence is now batting 3-for-3. That means he’s probably going 0-for-3 in today’s GOP (though opinions about Ukraine remain mixed). Regardless, right and wrong aren’t determined by the opinion polls.
It’s wrong when progressive elected officials try to use the powers of government to punish conservative businesses for voicing political opinions. And it’s equally wrong when Republicans like DeSantis, as Pence said, employ “retribution politically against” companies that take progressive stands.
Pence’s position on entitlements is likewise correct and courageous—even if it is politically unpopular on both sides of the aisle these days. “We’re looking at a debt crisis in this country over the next 25 years that is driven by entitlements, and nobody in Washington, D.C., wants to talk about it,” he said on Wednesday.
He’s right.
Everyone knows that social security and Medicare are unsustainable, based in part on changing life spans. And because a large plurality of our budget goes toward entitlements, the idea of getting the budget under control without reforming these programs is absurd. Eventually, political leaders will have to grapple with these truths. In this sense, Pence is both ahead of his time and behind the times.
And the hits kept coming.
“I think it’s important that we hold the line here, support the Ukrainians as they make the fight just like [the] Reagan doctrine said,” Pence told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Pence’s positions strike me as correct, courageous, and (in today’s GOP) politically foolish. Then again, he is showing a clear contrast with the frontrunners (Trump and DeSantis) by staking out a clear niche.
That’s more than you can say for other Republicans, who seem to be all over the place on some of the most important issues of the day.
Pence’s talking points this week would have been considered trite and orthodox a few short years ago—not courageous or noteworthy. Prior to Trump, entitlement reform was akin to conventional wisdom on the right. But during Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union address this month, Republicans promised not to touch them.
Because Pence is clearly out of touch with the zeitgeist, I have argued that he has no shot at winning the GOP nomination. Having said that, Pence is currently providing a service by reminding us just how far the GOP has diverged from its traditional path.
Keep in mind, in 2012, movement conservatives were BEGGING Pence to run for president, precisely because he stood for these same principles. “Whatever Mike Pence decides to do, he will do [movement] conservatives proud,” tweeted Michelle Malkin. “He’s far more than a ‘rock star.’ He’s a ROCK.” Indeed, he is.
It’s easy to highlight how unstable the GOP has become in the last decade. But the most obvious changes involve tone, attitude, temperament, and sanity. Policy preferences have largely taken a back seat to nihilism, showmanship, and culture war battles that don’t easily track with our recent past experience. Pence is reminding us that the shift isn’t just in style.
The Republican Party used to believe it was wrong for elected officials to use their governmental power to retaliate against private business—or individuals. We used to believe it was wrong to pretend that entitlements were sustainable, or that solving our debt crisis was even possible without reform. And we used to believe in peace through strength and helping resistance movements stand up to imperialist bullies.
And did I mention that Reagan’s GOP, like Pence, used to believe “the orderly transfer of power” was a uniquely American blessing and a “miracle.”
These aren’t just fringe issues. These were defining tenets of what might be considered conservative (if not American) mainstream thought from 1980 to 2015.
Pence is one of the few remaining Republicans who still believes in the Reaganite policies that were once almost universally endorsed and praised on the right.
And for that reason, Mike Pence is a dead man walking in 2024.
