Is Impeaching Trump Worth It If It Means a Pence Presidency?

There’s been some buzz recently over the talk of President-Elect Donald Trump getting impeached. Shortly after election day, Google searches for the word "impeachment" skyrocketed, and while there is a possibility that Trump could indeed get impeached, everyone's thoughts seem to differ on the likelihood of that happening.

The day after the election, Mic posted an article saying that it's possible, but not to get your hopes up. Earlier in September, Christopher L. Peterson, a legal researcher at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, said that there was already sufficient grounds to impeach Trump once he takes office. At the time Peterson wrote his thoughts on a potential impeachment for Trump, he had numerous major lawsuits pending against him, including the rape of a minor and the fraudulent charges against Trump University, the latter of which he just recently settled for $25 million.

But if impeachment is in the cards for the America's future leader, that would mean Mike Pence would become president, and that prospect begs one question: would we really be any better off?

While Donald Trump is undeniably sexist, racist, homophobic, and xenophobic, his political ideology has vacillated over the years. Mike Pence, on the other hand, has been consistent about his stances on social issues for decades, particularly LGBT rights. He’s also been in politics long enough, and that leads people to believe that he could actually implement some dangerous changes, especially with Republicans ruling both the House and the Senate.

Jayson Flores recently wrote about how Mike Pence is the worst Vice Presidential candidate in history for LGBT equality, and that notion is 100% correct. In the piece, Jayson goes in depth about how Pence’s longstanding, anti-LGBT convictions would set us back decades, and those beliefs include, but are not limited to:

1). His support of conversion therapy

2.) The belief that queer people can't experience hate crimes.

3.) And his refusal to believe in marriage equality.

What’s unequivocally clear is that while Pence not only wants to deny queer people our rights, he also wants to dehumanize us, torture us, and literally kill us. Conversion therapy is just that—torture—and it's proven that many LGBT people are more likely to commit suicide after being subjected to the widely discredited practice. Pence has also wanted to divert HIV/AIDS funding to support conversion therapy, and said same-sex couples signaled a “societal collapse.”

But the LGBT community aren't the only marginalized people Pence poses a real threat to.

He's a real threat to all women, especially when you consider how he doesn't respect their right to choose, and how he wants to cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood. He's a real threat to Muslim-Americans, since he tries to be an apologist for and renounce Trump's hateful, on-the-record rhetoric against them, while really doing nothing to stop him from spreading it. And he's a real threat to immigrants, when you consider how he supports Trump's ridiculous proposal to build a $8 billion wall along the nation's entire southern border in an effort to keep out undocumented Mexican immigrants who try to come to the country. 

To put it simply, Mike Pence is a monster, and while the prospect of a Trump impeachment may be exciting to many, we need to really think about who is next in command.

Frankly, I don’t know who’s worse. But what I do know is that no matter who is President of the United States, we're going to have to fight like our lives depend on it, because for many of us, they do. 

Zachary Zane is a writer, YouTube influencer, and activist whose work focuses on (bi)sexuality, gender, dating, relationships, and identity politics. Check out his YouTube channel here.