State races make all the difference

[ImminentDanger]

With the federalization of so much of today's issues, I don't agree that the local races make 'ALL THE DIFFERENCE', but still, it is a 60/40 split between local and national policy that drives the day-to-day encounters we have. For that reason, it is important that critical evaluation is given to the people who will impact the character of our local Pennsylvania life.

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The presidential race gets all the attention, but state races make all the difference
by Salena Zito, National Political Reporter - August 16, 2020 12:00 AM

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...the-difference


"Come Nov. 3, all 203 seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will be up for election. Republicans hold the majority now, one that was watered down significantly after the 2018 midterm elections when Democrats here and across the country had a wave in their favor.

In the state Senate, where the Republicans have controlled the majority since 1994, 25 of the 50 districts are up for election. Democrats made gains here, too, in 2018, but still have not breached the majority in either chamber. The question is, will that change? And if so, how will it affect Pennsylvanians' daily lives?"

<SNIP>

"The race for the majority in the state House and state Senate here also has long-lasting implications because (in theory) the legislature will redraw the state's congressional and state-level districts for the next decade - if the Democrat majority on the state Supreme Court doesn't interfere again and change it to favor Democrats, an unprecedented move made in 2018."

<SNIP>

"Outside groups, such as Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun political action committee, have pledged to spend $1 million to give Democrats a majority in both chambers. He's not the only one: A handful of grassroots organizing groups pushing liberal issues such as a higher minimum wage and climate change legislation are also joining in the push to make the state legislature's majorities blue.

These groups are banking on a Biden win, and they are bullish based on recent polling that gave the former vice president a significant lead in a state that went for Donald Trump in 2016. But before they measure the curtains in the state Capitol, they must remember that Pennsylvanian voters tend to split their tickets.

In 2016, Pennsylvanian voters gave statewide victories not only to both Republicans Trump and Sen. Pat Toomey, but also Democrats Eugene DePasquale and Josh Shapiro, who were on the same ballot running for state auditor general and state attorney general.

Who wins the majorities in the state legislature won't just shape state policy or draw the congressional map. It shapes the political bench for the future of both parties. These races are more about the future than we often consider."
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[ImminentDanger]

With all the RINOs showing up at the DNC, it might seem like a good idea to kick all such 'non-true-believers' out of the Republican Party. While these milk-toast characters have confirmed their lack of ethics (either now at the DNC or when in the Republican party operations), remember that the chamber and committee leaders are determined by the total count of party members and not by the quality of every member (to reflect the party goals).

These days (maybe it always has been), politics is a dirty business - and holding your nose to vote is a very common necessity. It's highly unlikely that the most ethical or good person you know will ever become your representative at any level of government.

The following comments need to reach deep into the decision-making process - The LEFT will continue to push for more and more LEFTIST agendas no matter how 'compromising' and 'accomodating' the RIGHT may be in some myopic and distorted desire to meet their fraudulent call 'to be fair'.

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Republicans need to stop compromising and playing by the rules
Eisenhower pursuit of centrism affects federal judiciary even today

By Cal Thomas - - Wednesday, August 19, 2020
ANALYSIS/OPINION:

In a new book about her grandfather, Dwight D, Eisenhower, titled "How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions," Susan Eisenhower writes admiringly about Ike's pursuit of what she calls "the middle way."

In a decision that still infects elements of the Republican Party today, Susan Eisenhower says Ike's pursuit of compromise and centrism led to his decision to nominate Democrats as well as Republicans to the U.S. Supreme Court. She quotes Ike's attorney general, Herbert Brownell: "The President believed and acted upon the belief that the Supreme Court's membership should represent divergent ideological points of view." She says he believed this approach would "foster public confidence in the court." "

Ike could not have foreseen future battles over all federal courts and how his successors would mostly nominate judges who fit their ideological views of the U.S. Constitution, Roe v. Wade being the most egregious of many such examples.

Our 34th president gave the Supreme Court two of its most liberal members, Justices William Brennan and Earl Warren. Ike would later come to lament those appointments, saying, "I made two mistakes and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court."

Ike had success with the middle way as supreme allied commander during World War II when his advisers and heads of Allied nations agreed on a common goal, the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan. Unfortunately, his noble sentiment works less well in politics because Democrats do not reciprocate.

The purpose of politics is to win and to demonstrate one party's ideas and policies are superior to those of the other party. If politics is only about being liked and praised, especially by one's ideological adversaries, the party that adopts such a philosophy is doomed to perpetual defeat and to not have its positions - if it has them - taken seriously.

Democrats have been known since the Great Depression as the party of government, luring more and more voters by dispensing free stuff and promising to take care of them. Government has replaced individual responsibility and accountability. We now subsidize bad individual decisions and failure, and penalize those who have succeeded by playing by what used to be called "the rules."

For many, government has become an addiction with Democrats serving as "dealers." Republicans have had only marginal success in countering this because they don't seem to be able to come up with a set of unified policies and goals. Instead, the GOP has become like a protein shake dieters drink because it contains fewer calories. In too many cases, Republican positions resemble "Democrat-lite." The growing debt is only one example. Republicans seek only to manage it, not reduce it.

Susan Eisenhower quotes from a letter Ike wrote to a California friend in 1954: "I developed a practice which, so far as I know, I have never violated. The practice is to avoid public mention of any name unless it can be done with favorable intent and connotation; reserve all criticism for the private conference; speak only good in public."

In this, Ike demonstrated his good character, but that didn't stop Democrats from criticizing him about everything from the rounds of golf he played to allegations by Harry Truman and others that he was in the pocket of "reactionaries," which translated into today's parlance means "extreme right-wingers."

There's a cliche about sports: "It's not whether you win or lose; it's how you play the game."

In politics it's about winning, and if you don't win how you played the game won't matter.

Texas politician Jim Hightower wrote a book titled "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos."

Modern Republicans might learn from that Texas liberal.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-and-playing-/
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[mikelets456]

I fear voter fraud---there were 3 special elections about a month after all the crazy shut downs started. Republicans won all 3 races and one of them was in a 50/50 area....all won by a lot. However, voter fraud is more of a concern than anything and if we lose the house or Senate it's due to that.