Philadelphia, PA – Tuesday, November 8, 2022 is my 25th wedding anniversary, a memorable and auspicious day indeed. But that date has other national significance, it’s Election Day nationwide and so much is at stake with this election. Some say, democracy itself is on the ballot.
Philadelphia, the sixth largest city in America, may become the pivotal swing in delivering the determining votes for one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate and Governor races nationwide. The good-guy candidates running are Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman (Democrat for U.S. Senate) and Attorney General Josh Shapiro (Democrat for Pennsylvania Governor), their respective dastardly foes are far-Right Trump MAGA Republicans Dr. Mehmet Oz (a recent New Jersey transplant to Pennsylvania/retired cardiac surgeon), candidate for U.S. Senate, and Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano, candidate for Pennsylvania Governor. Oz and Mastriano are two Trump extremists that are too risky, radical, and dangerous for Pennsylvania – – and America.
I recently caught up with Pennsylvania Senator Sharif Street (D) during a voter rally in West Philadelphia, he had some stern criticism about the extremism of Mastriano. “Josh Shapiro is working to get guns off the street and Doug Mastriano wants to let everybody have a gun. He literally introduced legislation for ‘permitless carry’ and no background checks, while Josh took 40,000-50,000 ghost guns off the streets!”
“Josh wants to fund our schools. Doug Mastriano wants to cut money out of our schools. Josh protected our rights to vote. Doug Mastriano said he is going to decertify (voting) machines for our votes for the 2024 election that hasn’t even taken place! Josh has fought and will fight for our community, and Doug Mastriano marched with the Proud Boys -white supremacists- that want to take away our rights!”
New York Magazine’s The Intelligencer reported that “Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano may be 2022’s worst candidate!” Do you know how vile and extremely negative you have to be for a national media platform to tag you the worst political candidate ever?
The Intelligencer also noted some of Mastriano’s most toxic foibles, including his connection to a social-media site run by an infamous anti-semite, his 2020 election denialism, him dressing up in a Confederate uniform for a faculty photo in 2017 (who does this?), and other problematic concerns.
When I chatted with Governor Tom Wolf about his thoughts on this upcoming election, he said “Democracy is on the ballot. The life that we want to live is on the ballot right now. And if we don’t make the right choice, and we don’t elect Josh Shapiro, John Fetterman, Austin Davis, we’re not going to have the life we deserve.”
For the apathetic registered voters that sit out most elections, Wolf offered this appeal, “We need you to vote! This is the most important consequential election in your/my lifetime. We need to vote!”
According to a recent Marist Poll, Fetterman leads Oz by 51% to 45%, respectively, among voters that say they intend to vote on November 8th – “Among registered voters, Fetterman (50%) is ahead of Oz (44%) by 6 points.”
The Trump MAGA Republicans have seemingly hijacked the traditional GOP Republican party as we knew it. Members of the traditional/centrist Republican party need to regain control by ousting the ultra-radicalized Trump MAGA Republicans. This political coup of the Republican party isn’t new. Back in 2009, the Republican party experienced a take-over by radicalized and extreme Republicans called the Tea Party. According to Elizabeth Foley, law professor and conservative constitutional law expert, she cites three core factors that drove the Tea Party movement into power, “limited government, unapologetic U.S. sovereignty, and constitutional originalism.”
In comparison, Trump MAGA Republicans seem to be driven by more wealth for the wealthy and less tax breaks for the middle class, elimination of Social Security, elimination of healthcare for the elderly and vulnerable Americans, instituting more barriers to voting, and storming the U.S. Capitol and killing and injuring folks under treasonist motives.
The voter breakfast rally at the Enterprise Center, Saturday, November 5, was a capacity filled room filled of several hundred community leaders and a Who’s Who roster of local and state political leaders: Congressman Dwight Evans, Senator Sharif Street, former Councilpersons Janie Blackwell and Allan Domb, Councilman Curtis Jones, Register of Wills Ms. Tracey Gordon, Governor Tom Wolf, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, State Representative Austin Davis, just to name a few.
During the breakfast, I had the opportunity to chat with Josh Shapiro, he confided with great urgency that this election is extremely important, “It’s all on the line right now. The opportunity to build a school system that helps all kids, safe communities, an economy that lifts everybody up, and to protect our democracy and our fundamental freedoms!” – it’s all on the line in this election!
Shapiro made a clarion call for voters to vote him in office as the next Pennsylvania Governor, he claimed his opponent Mastriano is too radical and dangerous, “I’m up against, by far, the most dangerous and extreme candidate to ever run for Governor in Pennsylvania. And arguably, the most dangerous and extreme (political candidate) in the nation. He (Mastriano) wants to take away our freedoms. He wants to undermine the good people of Pennsylvania; cause if you don’t think like him, or look like him, or vote like him, or worship like him, then you don’t count in his Pennsylvania!”
Mastriano represents the bold and unapologetic regime of indecent and deplorable Trump MAGA inspired Republicans that are destroying America’s democracy and moral decency. State Representative Morgan Cephas said, “We work with Republicans everyday up in Harrisburg, and they are laser focused, not on adding rights to our constitution, but taking away rights.” Cephas commented that Republicans are afoot trying to take away a woman’s right to have abortions, “they are also trying to take away our rights to a fair, and free, and an accessible election.”
Cephas’ statement about the Trump MAGA Republican agenda should terrify every decent American that believes in preserving democracy. Newsweek reported that “Some on the far-right, including within the Republican Party, are seeking to “replace democracy” with a new system that “they alone benefit from,””
In the Newsweek article, Hard-Right Republicans Want to Replace Democracy, former Vice President Dick Cheyney (R) accused “Trump of trying to “steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power. “In our nation’s 246-year history there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said.”
Consider the enormity of Cheyney’s statement, he’s a staunch Republican and he’s concerned and vehemently critical of the threat to America’s democracy posed by Trump MAGA Republican extremists. And if traditional-centrist Republicans refuse to go along with this radical regime of Trump MAGA Republican extremists, they’re publicly bullied, excoriated, denounced, and/or stripped of power – – just consider the political fall of Republicans Liz Cheney and Michael Steele.
“Democracy is on the ballot,” declared Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes (D). Hughes was very critical of Mastriano wearing a Confederate uniform for a photo shoot, and critical of Mastriano’s goal to cut education funding by $13 billion, “We saw what happened 11 years ago when the former Governor cut (education funding) by a billion; 27,000 teachers lost their jobs, 23 schools closed down, and this cat (Mastriano) wants to cut it by $13 billion!” Hughes endorses Fetterman for U.S. Senate for many reasons, one notable reason, “Fetterman, he said he’ll vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act,” and Hughes says Oz would not. “It’s all on the line right now, and we need to step up, more than we ever have before.” Every registered voter needs to come out in great numbers to vote on November 8th!
Some Democrats, Liberals, Independents, and even some Republicans, are so disgusted with Trump MAGA Republicans they are voting straight Blue on Tuesday, a straight Democratic ticket. They see this as the best way to thwart the threat of a coup of our American democracy. Pennsylvania and Philadelphia are under the microscope this election cycle, how we vote could make a seismic shift in the balance of political power in this country and Pennsylvania! WE ALL MUST GET OUT AND VOTE, WE CANNOT SIT THIS ONE OUT.
In the words of Larry Sabato, an American political analyst, “Every election is determined by the people who show up.” SHOW UP AND VOTE THIS ELECTION, NO EXCUSES!
