Tag: Philadelphia

Biden Takes Midterm Campaign to Swing States

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) joined President Biden in the Democratic Party’s official kickoff to the midterm campaign season at Milwaukee’s Laborfest on the lakefront, Monday. “Notably absent,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is challenging uber-MAGA Republican incumbent Ron Johnson for his U.S. Senate seat this November 8. 

“He couldn’t be here, but he’s going to be your next United States senator,” Biden said. Barnes participated in a Laborfest parade before the president’s arrival, according to the Journal Sentinel. 

Later, Biden attended a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, accompanied by Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and others, according to the Pittsburgh Press-Gazette. There, officials touted the nation's highest support of labor unions in 57 years during the Biden administration, reaching 68% approval according to a recent Gallup Poll.

Biden used the appearances to repeat his warning from Independence Hall in Philadelphia last Thursday about the dangers of Trump supporters to our democracy: “Not every Republican is a MAGA Republican. Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology," he told the Milwaukee crowd. "But the extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division.”

Enter your comments in the box below, or email editors@thehustings.news and please identify yourself as left or right in the subject line.

--TL

_____

Biden in Like a Unity Lamb, Now an Anti-Fascism Lion

By Ken Zino

Ah, the changing of the seasons. President Biden’s second trip to Pennsylvania this week resulted in not only the great photographic backdrop of Independence Hall, but it allowed a framing of the crisis that has come from seasons of Republican-created catastrophic political climate change. This is now approaching the second brutal winter troubling the soul of American democracy since Biden won the 2020 election. Indeed, Biden won the last election by using the same theme, but until Thursday night Biden had been remarkably restrained from using it. Biden announced his bid for the presidency in 2019 close to Independence Hall. This was a compelling sequel. 

President Biden -- after clearing his throat into a live microphone -- got straight to the point. Trump (Biden until now referred to him as the “former guy”) and additional so-called MAGA Republicans espouse destructive ideas casting doubt on election results, spreading conspiracy theories and attacking law enforcement and American institutions.

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic,” Biden said. …they “are determined to take this country backward” … “advocating authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence.”

Key points for patriots: 

•“As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault,” Biden said. “We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.”

•“Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” Biden said. “But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”

•“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards.” 

•“Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”

•“For a long time, we’ve reassured ourselves that American Democracy is guaranteed. But it is not. We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.”

Yes, I know that MAGA Republicans are clutching more than all the Mikimoto pearls extant would allow. Republicans brought Biden’s real moral outrage on themselves. They are unfit to hold office as we move on to an improving and optimistic American democratic experiment. 

Remember 1776, when 13 colonies embarked on a distinguished experiment in self-governance as an independent, autonomous nation because the course of human events made it necessary to separate ourselves from our unjust rulers. That was the foundation of something immense, and thus far, enduring. The colonies had but 2.5 million people at that time reporting English and other ancestry. Small numbers in today’s world, but they were people with far bigger aspirations, following far bigger ideas.

We the People were refugees or immigrants, lettered or illiterate who were fleeing or escaping religious and political persecution. Biggest of all was the idea that led to the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. These ideals embodied in our laws say we will work together to be free of despots and kings.

That’s why it’s called Independence Hall. Not Despot-Lago.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Ode to Pennsylvania

By Charles Dervarics

Pennsylvania has had its detractors over the years.  To famed political advisor James Carville, it’s just Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with “Alabama in between.” In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama got into hot water by citing his trips to struggling small towns in the state where people “cling to guns or religion.”

As a Pennsylvania native with a blue-collar background, I usually don’t take kindly to these references – though the state has had its challenges. As the coal and steel industries declined, those without a college education suffered. And it has a record of social conservatism, perhaps best reflected by the late Bob Casey, Sr., father of the current U.S. senator, who was a pro-union governor and leader of the anti-abortion wing of the national Democratic party.

Fast forward to 2020, and it’s not surprising the state emerged as a political hotspot. Natural gas and fracking have revitalized parts of the old industrial base in the north and west, while the state’s vast middle is still largely Republican and conservative. But the cities, particularly Philadelphia, remain a huge source of Democratic support where concerns about racial injustice and poverty take precedence.

But after Donald Trump surprised Hillary Clinton there in fall 2016, Joe Biden has turned the state blue again for a few reasons:

His home state roots: As he never hesitates to mention, Biden was born in Scranton in the state’s northeast area. The official 2020 tally has him with 54 percent of the vote in Lackawanna County, where Scranton is the county seat. Clinton’s share was about 50 percent. Biden also prevailed in Monroe County, the next county to the south.

Philadelphia and its suburbs: Biden again ran a few percentage points ahead of Clinton in the all-important suburbs and benefitted from higher turnout overall. In Bucks County, Biden claimed nearly 200,000 votes and 51.5 percent of the total, compared with Clinton’s 165,000 and 48 percent. More city residents also cast ballots in 2020, with Biden earning about 81 percent of the vote. 

Limiting losses: While Trump ran up the score in rural locations, Biden captured some areas the president won in 2016. One is Northampton County in the central-eastern Lehigh Valley, which Trump carried by four points in 2016. But current results show Biden with a slight lead there. It’s a similar story in Erie County in the state’s northwest corner.

It wasn’t easy for Biden, who took heat for comments on the oil industry and fracking that likely cost him some votes. But the small gains he made in many vote-rich areas – compared with 2016 – have given him a statewide edge of 40,000 votes.

The president’s legal team has raised challenges in Pennsylvania and other swing states, filing lawsuits to halt counts and challenge votes. So far, those efforts have not resulted in any changes to the Pennsylvania tally.

Charles Dervarics is a writer and policy analyst based in Alexandria, Va. He formerly was a reporter with newspapers in Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

_____