Blue PA

[RockIsland]

This. Why can*t we field solid conservative candidates who care about the Constitution and our state? I may disagree with Pat Toomey on some issues, but he was likable to the general population of PA(or at least not so abhorrent to moderates and libs, which allowed him to win twice$, and in the end at least that was a guaranteed vote in the senate against abolishing the filibuster, packing the courts, and adding new states. Although I didn*t like Oz much at all, I held my nose and voted for him. I always vote R, aside from Mastriano who I feel, if he*d won, would*ve pushed more people away from the GOP, especially people in my age range. I felt had McSwain and McCormick been nominated, we may not have gotten EVERYTHING we wanted, but at least we*d have gotten something, and that is ALWAYS worth more than nothing or LOSING. Now we have Fetterman ready to abolish the filibuster, pack the courts, add states, and ban assault weapons(all of which Toomey, despite other issues, was against), and sleazy Shapiro who God knows what he*s going to do, but I think most of us can agree, it won*t be anything good regarding our 2A rights.

You didn't vote for Mastriano yet you're worried what Shapiro will do for our 2A rights?

He was the most conservative gubernatorial candidate for Governor that I can remember.

You also preferred McCormick over Cathy Barnette?

I think I know why PA is blue. Perhaps you should have stayed in the PDRNJ.

[TonyF]

It doesn’t matter what candidates the R’s put forward because IMO the American electorate at large has crossed the Rubicon. We all saw several polls indicating that over 70% of people believe the country is on the wrong track, but they did not see fit to elect an alternative. The D’s message was abortion rights and the “threat to democracy”. If the majority of the American electorate fell for that, and rampant crime, an open border, and the highest inflation in 40 years wasn't enough to effect a significant change in the political composition of the Congress, I don't know what will.

I don't mean this as a personal attack because I genuinely feel sorry for him, but the fact that a brain-damaged candidate won our U.S. Senate seat speaks volumes about the PA electorate. Even with teleprompters and other technology he still stumbled badly during his debate with Oz. I sincerely hope that neural plasticity affords him the opportunity to fully recover because I don't know how he otherwise fulfills the duties and obligations of the office of U.S. Senator.

Walker will likely lose the run-off in Georgia because the libertarian candidate won a little over 2% of the vote and I suspect that margin (~80, 000 votes) will go to Warnock.

To add some context to the 2022 (and 2020) election, there are three significant points.

1. The Carter-Baker commission was created in response to the "hanging chad" issues in FL. Their report recommended the following:

https://www.bakerinstitute.org/resea...16-years-later

• A national system to connect state and local voter registration lists

• Voter identification based on a universally available REAL ID card

• Policies to improve voter access for all communities, as well as innovations like vote centers and voter information lookup sites

• Stronger efforts to combat fraud, especially in absentee voting

• Auditable paper backups for all voting technology

2. I saw Dr. Fauci on the news (live broadcast) on or about Oct 15, 2020 and he stated that so long as everyone wore a mask and practiced social distancing, "there is no reason you can't vote in person". Yet nevertheless, the 2020 election cycle was flooded with no-excuse mail in ballots.

3. As a result of the 2022 election cycle, races in four of the critical battleground states (PA, AZ, MI and NV) turned those states “Blue-er”. The exception being that NV elected an “R” governor which does nothing because the state legislature is still solid Blue.

I don't hold much optimism that election integrity will improve in 2024.

The only potential relief in PA is that Justice Alito agreed to present to SCOTUS a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the infamous ACT 77 that ushered in "no excuse" mail in ballots.

[TonyF]

Alexander Fraser Tytler

*A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to selfishness;

From selfishness to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back into bondage.*

I give you the World Economic Forum's "the Great Reset".

[ShadeRabbit]

This. Why can*t we field solid conservative candidates who care about the Constitution and our state? I may disagree with Pat Toomey on some issues, but he was likable to the general population of PA(or at least not so abhorrent to moderates and libs, which allowed him to win twice$, and in the end at least that was a guaranteed vote in the senate against abolishing the filibuster, packing the courts, and adding new states. Although I didn*t like Oz much at all, I held my nose and voted for him. I always vote R, aside from Mastriano who I feel, if he*d won, would*ve pushed more people away from the GOP, especially people in my age range. I felt had McSwain and McCormick been nominated, we may not have gotten EVERYTHING we wanted, but at least we*d have gotten something, and that is ALWAYS worth more than nothing or LOSING. Now we have Fetterman ready to abolish the filibuster, pack the courts, add states, and ban assault weapons(all of which Toomey, despite other issues, was against), and sleazy Shapiro who God knows what he*s going to do, but I think most of us can agree, it won*t be anything good regarding our 2A rights.

I'm very confused as to who you voted for in the general election

[EFK]

Tony above makes some very good points. I still feel as though the bottom line - ultimately - is that probably a half century go or more, we of a conservative or right-leaning bent surrendered the schools and universities to those of a leftist bent, and they captured multiple generations of young people. Add to this the fact that larger proportions of people who are right-leaning (because they made something of themselves) feel obligated to spoil their young, who then in turn expect to be coddled or "taken care of," and what we have here is a majority voting population who vote with expectations of freebies and handouts. The Republicans continue to run on little else than 'abortion is murder' and 'we are a christian nation' and both are archaic, losing messages to most people under 30-40 years of age.

Socialist societies don't happen overnight - it takes time, and by allowing the educational system the time to do it's job as intended, we are now reaping the fruits of that long-term insidious brainwashing with almost no pushback. It's only been the last year or two, when the left went all aboard the tranny train and just completely batshit nuts in the schools, that we now begin to see a response. Too little too late. The left has this down to a science knowing that young people prior to mid-20s to mid-30s want to simply spite their elders for the sake of spite and creation of a self identity.

The real question here should be what do we do now? We are not going to win them over with philosophy and lectures on freedom or economics. Most young voters imho are not thinking tat logically but rather based more upon emotion. Add to this the Dem machine that had the foresight to fully exploit mail voting nonsense and R's just loafing around on the sidelines STILL bitching about abortion (it's so last century), Christianity and bitching about 'ooh, mail voting is wrong...' and we look like complete idiots to most under 30. And there are a lot of them.

[Fallen Knight]

Kathy Barnette had the intellect of a barnacle and had NO chance of winning the general election. Even that idiot Tucker Carlson surprisingly understood that. Mastriano, while I agreed with many of his stances, was also insane, and like trump, a bad look for the party, and not at all a way to grow the party for future elections. We need to moderate our positions so we can appeal to a broader electorate, win elections, and gradually make the country the way we want it. We should learn from the progressives on this front. Slow and incremental change in our direction is better than the opposite. An R, ANY kind of R, even a so-called RINO will always be better than the most moderate D. Until we learn that, and fight our own party over who’s “pure”, we are not going to win any elections, especially in states like PA with narrowly divided electorates. If we keep thinking like that, all we will be is a party of old men, who are gonna die off and leave a ruined country run by leftists for my generation. So yes, I think purity tests are ridiculous, leave that crap with the Taliban and religious extremists. If a moderate or RINO is what it takes to win in PA, I’m voting for that damn moderate(McCormick and Swain)
To answer the posters before me, I voted GOP for every race, except governor where I voted libertarian. I would throw my vote away than vote for a moron like Mastriano who didn’t even fundraise or campaign because he’s either a) stupid b) lazy, or c) both. Instead he declared 30 or 40 days of FASTING AND PRAYER. What the hell is that? I can see a Taliban or ISIS commander saying crap like that, and they do. And they get destroyed on the battlefield. Praying to God is worthless. We make our luck by being tactful and smart. I left my country of origin to get away from that kind of crazy religious extremism. Mastriano, even if he won, would be such a turn off to the younger generations, that in a decade, we as Rs will be lucky to win dog catcher. I don’t know any of your ages, nor do I much care, but as a young conservative, the cause is more dear to me than some “purity” test or railing against RINOs. When all these older voters die off and drive the party into the ground because of their rigidity and short-sightedness, all that will be left is a sea of blue. Conservatives have great policies. We can win. Look at Charlie Baker or Larry Hogan. They aren’t conservative enough for me, but you know what? They’re still better than any Dem. Same goes for Toomey. Same goes for Romney. Incremental change. Play the long game. Just the like the left did to us just now, and just like they’ll continue to do if we keep nominating far right, unelectable candidates who are not even articulate or able to get their points across. I wish this was not the world we live in where we must compromise some to get some. But it is, and in my humble opinion, this is the way to win the future. I respect your view points, and encourage you all to stay involved. We need to be a big tent party with diverse views if we’re to be viable in the next decade. If y’all really want that far-right candidate, I think a better state to live in would be Alabama or Tennessee(fine states), but candidates like that, sadly are not going to be winning in swing state PA for the forseeable future.


EFK you make a great point. Religion so great, abortion sucks. Those are personal opinions, we need to keep them personal. That stuff is literally last century. We need to move past that with policies(which do win!) even in blue states like MA and MD with wildly popular GOP governors. Even Lee Zeldin came so close! If we ditch the abortion and Christianity stuff and welcome conservatives of all faiths, we can totally build a lasting majority.

[Fallen Knight]

I’ll also add, Mastriano and Oz weren’t terribly popular, even among Republicans. They couldn’t even crack 50% support. If you don’t have majority support in your own party, you are already f***ed. No rigging necessary, just a basic understanding of math. And it’s that same crap that got us triple loser Trump. Lost the house and the senate in 4 years. And endorsed the most third rate candidates based on PERSONAL loyalty rather than for what’s good for the party and country(winning an election), so that our majority in the house is even smaller than the Democrats had. That is embarrassing. I proudly voted for the man in the general election too(the only reason I don’t regret it is because of the Bruen decision). But sorry, a whiny three time “victim” ain’t got my vote. Trump(who was actually a Democrat until quite recently and donated multiple times to BOTH Clinton’s campaigns) is gonna hand the Dems the Whitehouse, senate, and House in 24’ if he wins.
Oh yeah, he also expanded the power of the executive by passing a ban on bumpstocks which the next D president can use to ban everything else. Trump is actually the most anti-2A GOP candidate we’ve had in the 21st century. I know Bush Jr said he supported and AWB but he never pushed for it or took executive action.

[TSimonetti]

Kathy Barnette had the intellect of a barnacle and had NO chance of winning the general election. Even that idiot Tucker Carlson surprisingly understood that. Mastriano, while I agreed with many of his stances, was also insane, and like trump, a bad look for the party, and not at all a way to grow the party for future elections. We need to moderate our positions so we can appeal to a broader electorate, win elections, and gradually make the country the way we want it. We should learn from the progressives on this front. Slow and incremental change in our direction is better than the opposite. An R, ANY kind of R, even a so-called RINO will always be better than the most moderate D. Until we learn that, and fight our own party over who*s *pure*, we are not going to win any elections, especially in states like PA with narrowly divided electorates. If we keep thinking like that, all we will be is a party of old men, who are gonna die off and leave a ruined country run by leftists for my generation. So yes, I think purity tests are ridiculous, leave that crap with the Taliban and religious extremists. If a moderate or RINO is what it takes to win in PA, I*m voting for that damn moderate(McCormick and Swain)
To answer the posters before me, I voted GOP for every race, except governor where I voted libertarian. I would throw my vote away than vote for a moron like Mastriano who didn*t even fundraise or campaign because he*s either a) stupid b) lazy, or c) both. Instead he declared 30 or 40 days of FASTING AND PRAYER. What the hell is that? I can see a Taliban or ISIS commander saying crap like that, and they do. And they get destroyed on the battlefield. Praying to God is worthless. We make our luck by being tactful and smart. I left my country of origin to get away from that kind of crazy religious extremism. Mastriano, even if he won, would be such a turn off to the younger generations, that in a decade, we as Rs will be lucky to win dog catcher. I don*t know any of your ages, nor do I much care, but as a young conservative, the cause is more dear to me than some *purity* test or railing against RINOs. When all these older voters die off and drive the party into the ground because of their rigidity and short-sightedness, all that will be left is a sea of blue. Conservatives have great policies. We can win. Look at Charlie Baker or Larry Hogan. They aren*t conservative enough for me, but you know what? They*re still better than any Dem. Same goes for Toomey. Same goes for Romney. Incremental change. Play the long game. Just the like the left did to us just now, and just like they*ll continue to do if we keep nominating far right, unelectable candidates who are not even articulate or able to get their points across. I wish this was not the world we live in where we must compromise some to get some. But it is, and in my humble opinion, this is the way to win the future. I respect your view points, and encourage you all to stay involved. We need to be a big tent party with diverse views if we*re to be viable in the next decade. If y*all really want that far-right candidate, I think a better state to live in would be Alabama or Tennessee(fine states), but candidates like that, sadly are not going to be winning in swing state PA for the forseeable future.


EFK you make a great point. Religion so great, abortion sucks. Those are personal opinions, we need to keep them personal. That stuff is literally last century. We need to move past that with policies(which do win!) even in blue states like MA and MD with wildly popular GOP governors. Even Lee Zeldin came so close! If we ditch the abortion and Christianity stuff and welcome conservatives of all faiths, we can totally build a lasting majority.

I find it hilarious that democrats in PA and across the country can run truly insane marxist, anti-capitalist, anti-fracking candidates who hate America and refuse to debate their opponents, and they win, but it's Republicans who have to "moderate" our positions. Mastriano isn't insane or a moron. He's just the polar opposite of someone like AOC or Fetterman, who wear their radical agenda on their sleeve at all times and still manage to get elected. If Mastriano had a stroke and suffered brain damage, and had pulled a shotgun out of his truck as a small town mayor years ago and chased an innocent black man down the street with it, he would have been hounded by the media 24/7 and compelled by his own party to resign. But Fetterman gets away with it. Nobody should care that Mastriano called for fasting and prayer. It's a non issue. This is war. Democrats don't think like you. They vote D every single time and sometimes more than once. They don't care if their candidate is a brain damaged Marxist who can't talk or think straight. They will pull the lever for him. It's a ridiculous notion that some think that Republicans have to run the perfect campaign and candidate or else risk losing, but Democrats can put up a half empty glass of spoiled orange juice as a candidate and win. Republicans and Independents who are conservative or moderates need to get off our high horses and realize that 0z and Mastriano would have helped Pennsylvania. Shapiro and Fetterman are only going to help destroy Pa. As for the abortion debate, it was Democrats who pushed the envelope and declared war by demanding no limits or restrictions whatsoever up until and including live birth and demanded that taxpayers pay for them, so what are Republicans supposed to do? The pendulum swings both ways, but we didn't start it swinging. Roe allowed restrictions and limits, but you won't hear anyone in the media or the Democrat party saying that.

As a side note, we also need to ask ourselves and find out why and how our candidates in all these competitive races were outspent by a very large margin? I think that may have also had a large effect on the outcomes in several close races. This is something our new majority in the House should look into.

[Lexington]

As a side note, we also need to ask ourselves and find out why and how our candidates in all these competitive races were outspent by a very large margin? I think that may have also had a large effect on the outcomes in several close races. This is something our new majority in the House should look into.

We could have a lot of fun digging into where a lot of Democrat money comes from, and we should, especially in the wake of the FTX scandal. On the other side, the lack of funds for certain (read: MAGA) Republicans is simple: the RNC closed the spigot.

People need to donate directly to candidates in order for their money to actually reach there. The RNC cannot and should not be trusted.

[Walleye Hunter]

We could have a lot of fun digging into where a lot of Democrat money comes from, and we should, especially in the wake of the FTX scandal. On the other side, the lack of funds for certain (read: MAGA) Republicans is simple: the RNC closed the spigot.

People need to donate directly to candidates in order for their money to actually reach there. The RNC cannot and should not be trusted.

In regards to that, I was thinking about this rag paper that many of us had been receiving. EM pointed out that it was a 501(C)(4) non-profit organization. My research revealed that there are Clinton ties to that thing (go figure!). In other words, they were using tax-free dollars to litter the country with that political propaganda. IMO, this should constitute campaign violations and heads should roll as a deterrent for others who might think it's neat. I haven't received that thing since I told them to remove me from their mailing list so I don't know if it's still going out or not. Conspicuously, I don't recall seeing it around before this election cycle either.

The Rag.jpg