A day after neo-Nazis and white supremacists echoed the chants of Nazi Germany and rammed a car into 32-year-old Heather Heyer, America, a country on its knees, questioning its collective conscience, desperately looked to its traditional moral authority—the President of the United States. 

When America looked to FDR after Pearl Harbor, he delivered a patriotic speech to a Joint Session of Congress, promising victory and delivering moral clarity to a broken nation. 

When America looked to Obama after the Charleston shooting of a black church, he sang “Amazing Grace” to heal the shattered country. 

When America looked to Trump after Charlottesville, he refused to stand with the courageous counterprotesters and condemned “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides.”

Would Vice President Mike Pence have done that? Would Pence have drawn a moral equivalency between the alt-right neo-Nazis and white supremacists and the brave counter-protestors on the opposite side? Probably not. With the possible impeachment and potential removal of President Trump, we have to stop saying that Pence is worse or “just as bad” as Trump. It’s lazy and wrong.

Mike Pence is a typical, classic conservative who exploits his religion to justify positions contrary to our founding principles. We’ve had those presidents before, and our institutions have remained intact. Now, with Trump in office, our institutions are crumbling. 

Yes, Pence would certainly confirm similar conservative judges, seek to deny health care to millions of Americans, and deregulate investment banks, but would he interfere with Congress’s constitutional duty of executive oversight by withholding documents from Congress? Would he withhold foreign aid to a foreign government to pressure it to investigate his political adversary? Would he invite Russian officials to the White House and claim that their country’s interference in the 2016 election didn’t bother him? Would he damage the social fabric of America by refusing to condemn neo-Nazis after a Unite the Right rally? Probably not. 

And who would you prefer having access to the nuclear codes? Trump, a bumbling narcissist who rarely fails to elevate his own interests over those of the US, or Pence, a temperamentally stable career politician?

The popular liberal assumption that Trump and Pence are equally repugnant typifies Americans’ inability to evaluate nuances. We seem to have forgotten as a country how to see issues in degrees. Pence and Trump are both horrible people, but Pence is better. Jaywalking and arson are both crimes, but jaywalking is better. Degrees matter.

A common talking point is that Trump and Pence hold similar beliefs, but Pence “knows what he’s doing.” That point suggests that the president is the sole operator of the Executive Branch and that he isn’t surrounded by experienced military leaders and career public servants in the intelligence, diplomatic, and legal fields. Trump may know virtually nothing about public policy, but he has advisors who do. Also, why would liberals assume that Pence is sitting idly by as VP and has no current control over policy?

Another frequent talking point is that at least Trump isn’t prejudiced against members of the LGBT community. But Trump keeps appointing conservative anti-LGBT judges, vowed not to sign the Equality Act, and even banned transgender people from serving in the military. Could Pence be much worse?

I will concede that Pence’s connection to the Koch brothers and other conservative billionaires is problematic, but I prioritize the longevity of our institutions over the short-term damage of Pence’s commitment to his billionaire puppet masters. 

Also, if Pence ascends to the presidency, he’ll lose badly in 2020. According to Gallup, nearly 90 percent of Republicans support Trump. And, unlike Trump, Pence doesn’t energize the Republican base for the same reason that John McCain and Mitt Romney didn’t energize the base: he’s boring and part of the establishment. According to a CNN poll, 12% of Americans haven’t even heard of him.

What if Pence is complicit in Russian-related malfeasance? What if he also puts his interests, and therefore Russia’s interests, above those of the United States? That would be dangerous indeed but wouldn’t differentiate him from Trump, who was both politically and financially dependent on Russia. Pence is just politically dependent on Russia. Both are bad, but Trump is worse.

Yes, I understand liberals’ collective frustration at the prospect of a Pence Administration. I too cringe at the possibility of having millions of children look up to an anti-gay, Koch-supported, trickle-down economics advocating Russian asset. I too wince at the likelihood of having an anti-union, anti-abortion conservative in the mold of George W. Bush. But more importantly, I can’t wait to see the look on Mitch McConnell’s face when Pence loses the 2020 election. I can’t wait to see a saner foreign policy approach in Syria. I can’t wait to see the end of Trump’s deadly blows to America’s international reputation, and, most importantly, I look forward to the restoration of our sacred institutions we’ve spent centuries trying to build and protect.