Joe Biden will win the election — but Mike Pence will win overall

He's been biding his time and it's going to pay off

Carli Pierson
New York
Thursday 03 September 2020 17:46 EDT
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He hasn't always been Trump's errand boy
He hasn't always been Trump's errand boy (REUTERS)

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Before I begin, let me first answer my critics who will not have read my article, but will inevitably troll me in the comments section: I am a flesh and blood person with two degrees (technically three); I am not a Russian bot. True: my views are outside of those of the centrist Democratic party; however, my views are shared by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of other Americans. This is not fake news; this is not a Russian propaganda piece; and what is a democracy if not a system of government where all the people can make their voices heard?

So, let us begin anew.

As poorly (and predictably) as Biden responded to the cowardly violence perpetrated against Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot in the back in front of his three children, he will still win the election. But once he wins, little will change. We know this because of his long track record in government: his work with segregationists, his refusal to address the criminalization of Black and Brown people. We know this because of his stand against Anita Hill, the brave, Black female lawyer and academic who stood up against now Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and denounced his allegedly predatory behavior. We know this because of all the women who have come forward to denounce Biden himself for what has been downplayed as an “overly touchy” nature.

We know that not much will change because of the centrist Democrat he chose to run alongside him as vice president – a former prosecutor who has rebranded as a progressive but has a problematic history of attempting to prosecute parents whose children missed school. Biden will do as he has said: he will “work with both sides of the aisle” to appease Republicans and powerful lobbyists. That means he won't do much for police reform, gun reform, environmental reform, or healthcare reform, despite a growing collective of left-wing Democrats who want better representation for their money and vote.

Progressives will inevitably move even further away from the Democratic Party during Biden’s four, unremarkable years in office. The People’s Party will grow and gather traction, although status-quo Democrats will do everything in their power to mock and dismiss it. In doing so, they will further alienate a key part of their base.

In 2024, the Republican party will be rid of the maniacal pariah of Trump and his outspoken neo-Nazi supporters. But, having been pushed even further to the right by powerful white evangelical groups who Trump spent all his time courting, the GOP will put forward none other than Mike Pence himself as the Republican candidate for president. It wouldn’t be unprecedented – nine VPs have eventually gone on to the presidency themselves. And it’s worth remembering that the “sycophant-in-chief” hasn’t always been Trump’s errand boy – the former governor of Indiana is a dangerous ideologue with close ties to the billionaire, corporate right-wing establishment.

Under Pence’s America, there would be more Kavanaughs on the Supreme Court, refugees would be banned, the rights of religious minorities would be steamrollered, women’s rights and LGBTQ rights would be pushed back to the Dark Ages, Roe v Wade would be overturned, national parks would make way for mega-churches with drilling rights — and who knows? He might even get possessed by the spirit of the Crusades again and attempt military action to “win back” the Hagia Sofia in Turkey and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Mike Pence, the man who “won’t dine alone with a woman”, would be an even more dangerous force than the narcissistic sociopath we currently have in the White House. Because under Pence’s cold and connected administration, we would witness a calculated chaos under theocracy – a snow-white, ardently evangelical vision of an America I hope to never see, but presume that I will.

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