On Wednesday, December 18, President Donald Trump was impeached.

Across the board, there are varying reactions, as to be expected with a decision like this. For instance, the president himself tweeted:

“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”

To contrast Trump’s charged statement, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tweeted:

“No one is above the law, Mr. President.”

The vote to impeach Trump has pretty clearly created chaos on both sides. Democrats are seemingly mixed between sheer excitement or utter annoyance, and I’m here to explain why I feel the latter. 

Let me start this off by saying that I don’t like Donald Trump. He’s been downright disrespectful on multiple occasions towards multiple people. He’s sided with Vladimir Putin over our country a myriad of times. He appears to think of women as sexual objects that he can “grab”. 

All this being said, I don’t think he should have been impeached.

First off, anything that goes through Congress typically takes an excruciatingly long amount of time to sort out. Trump’s impeachment is no exception. We’re so close to the 2020 election that it seems almost pointless to go through these proceedings and trials. Chances are, if anything severe were to happen, it would occur when the country was starting to vote on the next candidate. To me, this seems like a waste of time. 

Although I deem my first point important, the main reason why Trump shouldn’t be kicked out of office can be summed up in two words: Mike Pence. 

If you’re unfamiliar with some of Pence’s views, let me educate you. 

He doesn’t want women serving in the military. 

According to an op-ed he wrote in 1999, the animated film “Mulan” was supposed proof that having women in the military doesn’t work. To read excerpts from that piece, check out Buzzfeed’s article including excerpts from it. Yes, I know it’s Buzzfeed, but they’re the ones that resurfaced the opinion piece and they have the entire transcript on their site.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/mister-ill-make-a-man-out-of-you#.wh2XkYKVNy

Just to give you a basic gist of the piece, here’s a quote from Pence himself. 

“You see, now stay with me on this, many young men find many young women to be attractive sexually. Many young women find many young men to be attractive sexually. Put them together, in close quarters, for long periods of time, and things will get interesting. Just like they eventually did for young Mulan. Moral of story: women in military, bad idea.”

Essentially, he’s implying that the children’s movie made by Disney is pushing forth a liberal agenda of allowing women to be in the military. Even worse, Pence is implying that the main reason that females shouldn’t serve is because men find them attractive and can’t control themselves. 

He claims that smoking doesn’t kill people.

It’s seemingly a basic fact that smoking can cause an array of medical issues, such as lung cancer. Although it doesn’t always lead to eventual death, there’s an abundance of evidence that smoking can, and will, end people’s lives. 

Mike Pence disagrees. 

In another op-ed he wrote, Pence said the following:

“Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill. In fact, 2 out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer.”

If we’re looking at the cold facts here, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that each year, there are over 480,000 deaths related to smoking. This contradicts Pence’s blind claim. 

Pence tried to change the meaning of rape. 

Rape is any unconsentual sexual activity forced onto an individual. According to Mike Pence, abortions should only be performed in cases of “forcible rape”. By its very definition, all rape is forcible. 

Pence did this in an attempt to prevent even more abortions from happening. My issue with this isn’t that he’s pro-life, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My issue lies in the fact that Pence is trying to take away basic human rights to people that have been sexually assaulted. That’s simply not okay. 

He called Carbon Dioxide from fossil fuels a “natural phenomenon”. 

Last time I checked, CO2 from burning fossil fuels is not something natural. Fossil fuels aren’t even natural. This is a scientific fact that Pence is trying to disprove. If he were to ever become president, the issue of global warming would never be addressed, as he believes that it isn’t even real. 

There are so many more op-ed’s Pence has written that contain all kinds of ridiculousness, and if you want to read more, go to:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/smoking-doesnt-kill-and-other-great-old-op-eds-from-mike-pen#.peNE85VgkG

Trump may hold some of these beliefs as well, but he very clearly states them on his Twitter feed. With Pence, it’s so much harder to figure out where he stands and how he’ll execute his points. Trump makes it so the country has an easier time staying one step ahead of him, but Pence is more polished and smart in his delivery. If Pence secured the presidency, our political climate would get so many times worse. 

Sources:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-beliefs-about-abortion-gay-marriage-women-reporters-2017-6

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/mister-ill-make-a-man-out-of-you#.wh2XkYKVNy

https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-smoking-doesnt-kill-2016-11

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013105755.html