as Trump. Worse, he's a religious fanatic who has a very bad attitude toward LGBT people, not to mention women who want to control their own reproduction. He might not be quite as inclined to blow up Iran and North Korea but his domestic policies would be predictably horrible. However, he is very probably tainted with some of Trump's crap (he was in charge of the transition, for one thing), which would make him a weak president who would be unlikely to win re-election.

But he is more focused than Trump, with a clear agenda of imposing his own flavor of theocracy on the US. Trump is a narcissist; Pence is an ideologue.

and I'm guessing he's not quite as good a con artist

But I don't think he's smart enough to realize that open advocacy for theocracy might not be in his best interests.

Pence should not be allowed to benefit.

His reasoning is something like “if Dems are for it we must be against it.” Am I making sense here?

...control Pence is to VOTE - even if our favorite didn't win the primary! We need a Congress to stop him... and block every appointment to the courts.