I have to agree with your assessment.
Most of my former in-laws live in Reading or the out-lying areas, Altoona, Huntingdon or the Amish type communities (where they don't vote.)
They are all card-carrying Unionists (firemen, truck drivers, telephone company). The idea that the middle of the state, where NO ONE lives will carry the state is such crap.
Pittsburgh is just as bad. Bitter Iron workers who are pissed that they aren't valued anymore. East, it's dumb-ass textile workers who Unioned themselves out of jobs and wonder why the knitting mills went to Georgia.
There ain't no one to vote Repub in Philly proper anymore.
Calling people names does not do anything to help your case. It was the votes of the blue collar workers that gave Reagan the victory in 80, it was also their votes that allowed the GOP to take congress in 94. The biggest reason why Bush is now stuck in the mid 40s is most polls is because of a large loss of support among working class white males. Like it or not, the reality the likes of Limbaugh wants to paint does not exist.
More and more Amish are voting.
They are all card-carrying Unionists (firemen, truck drivers, telephone company). The idea that the middle of the state, where NO ONE lives will carry the state is such crap.
If the Republicans win, it is because York, Lancaster, Lycoming, Blair, Chester, Franklin, Cumberland and Butler put up big numbers for them (those eight can produce a 250,000+ vote Republican margin easily, as they did for Santorum), and they carry the inner Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburban areas. The bulk of the "T" provides a Republican margin, but it is nothing spectacular, since as you note, so few people are there. Most of the so-called "T" votes are the counties SE and SW of Harrisburg plus Altoona, Williamsport, and Butler.
There ain't no one to vote Repub in Philly proper anymore.
Actually, there are about 120,000 of us still in the City. We even have the Speaker of the State Assembly from amongst our number. Port Richmond, Northeast Philadelphia and Roxborough are still Red-America.