
Mike Pence is under the forensic microscope and scalpel in a forthcoming book “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence” out late August. Having reviewed an early copy the NY Times calls him ‘self-infatuated, a bigot, a liar and cruel.’ Daily Kos adds their take with ‘zealot, dominionist, theocrat – front man for a long line of evangelical wingnuts who want to take over America.’
Seen as an ineffectual congressman, he cozyed up to the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos and other rich Republican donors; “ordered up a collection of custom-embroidered clothes —decorated with his name and the words Governor of Indiana”; looked likely to lose a re-election but was saved from ignominy by Trump’s VP offer. Disregards science in his onetime insistence that smoking doesn’t cause cancer and a belief that climate change warnings were “a secret effort to increase government control over people’s lives.”
As governor, he refused to pardon a black man who had spent almost a decade in prison for a crime that he clearly hadn’t committed. He also ignored a crisis in which people in a poor, largely black Indiana city were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead. And called the unhinged former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio a “tireless champion” of the “rule of law, ” after Arpaio’s contempt-of-court conviction for ignoring a federal judge’s order to stop using illegal tactics to torment immigrants. He’s fiercely opposed to abortion (could warrant the death penalty), pro gay conversion therapy, anti same-sex marriage.
The author Michael D’Anionio said “He is absolutely certain that his moral view should govern public policy.”
Pence is taking the line of least resistance in swampy conditions till late 2019 with tr Neptune square his Gemini Sun; with a disaster or two this year mid July to late August; and November to mid December as tr Pluto squares his Mars/Saturn midpoint so the book will do damage.
He does have Solar Arc Sun conjunct his Uranus, exact sometime in 2019 which suggests a major turnaround with unexpected events – and Uranus being tricky it can go either way, either a breakthrough changing his life out of all recognition or a shock that knocks him off track.
What is worrisome (partisan thought) is that tr Pluto will sextile his Jupiter in 2020/2021, exact at the next Inauguration, which is usually an indicator of confidence and success. Though tr Pluto squares his Saturn/Uranus at the same time which is a considerable struggle against enormous odds, often limits freedom and can be high-risk; and he has tr Saturn also square his Mars for a setback on January 20 2021 as well. Plus he has a disappointing Pluto square to a Neptune midpoint over the election.
Pence’s wife, Karen, will be going into overdrive through 2019/2020 with some minor success and a good deal of aggravation with tr Pluto sextile her Sun/Jupiter and trine her Mars in Taurus; with two discouraging Solar Arcs of Saturn square her Sun this year and her Venus in 2020; plus a devastating, disorienting Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Neptune in a few months’ time. She’s the heavyweight in the family with a Yod of Saturn in self-righteous Sagittarius sextile a Libra North Node inconjunct Mars in Taurus with her Sun, Venus, Jupiter and Neptune in Scorpio. Their relationship chart has a controlling composite Sun Pluto – and an emotionally ratchety and a-not-altogether-kind composite Mars opposition Saturn square Venus. It’s a very one-sided partnership.
Pence’s relationship chart with the USA is a good deal more volatile and disruptive than Trump’s with a composite Uranus, Mars, Venus square Pluto – and is under a Saturninian cloud in 2019. Trump’s has a locked-together with gritted-teeth Sun, Pluto, Saturn.
Be careful what you wish for. It could get worse. Or as the NYT has it – from kleptocracy to theocracy.