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Tone-Deaf Democrats Risk Handing Western Pennsylvania to Trump
Townhall.com ^ | January 7, 2020 | Salena Zito

Posted on 01/07/2020 4:25:48 AM PST by Kaslin

PITTSBURGH -- Darrin Kelly, president of the powerful Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council, says that not one of the Democratic candidates running for president has reached out to him to ask about or listen to what union families in western Pennsylvania are looking for in a nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in November. "Not one," he says abruptly.

That omission is obvious in just about every proclamation about the energy sector coming from the mouths of most Democratic candidates, whether it is Sens. Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's pledging to ban fracking, or former Vice President Joe Biden's recent proclamation that workers in the fossil fuel industry need to learn how to program: "Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for god's sake!"

Youngstown State University political science professor Paul Sracic said there is one thing that is strikingly clear about all of the Democratic candidates running for their party's nomination. "They are spending way too much time listening to elites that sit on their staff or advise them, or worse yet, taking the voters pulse from Twitter, and zero time listening to Midwest swing voters," he said. "It doesn't matter who politicians talk to, but it sure does matter who they listen to." He cautions that these repeated mistakes, in particular Biden's statement on fossil fuel workers, are no different than Hillary Clinton's tone-deafness in 2016.

Biden also pledged in that same speech to eliminate fossil fuel use and put energy executives "in jail" if they do not comply.

Nick Deluliis, president and CEO of CNX Resources Corporation, a natural gas company headquartered in Pittsburgh, is, in theory, one of those executives. He responds with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek saying he could "maybe" see why the former vice president would want to indict the natural gas industry.

Whether it is the call for fracking bans or making demeaning quips about coding, it is those kinds of remarks directed at the families and the communities in western Pennsylvania that Allegheny County chief executive Rich Fitzgerald specifically urged the candidates running for the nomination not to do in a letter he sent to all of the campaign headquarters this past this year: "To win voters back in this region outside of Allegheny County, in Beaver, Washington, Butler and Westmoreland counties we need two things from the candidates; talk about the things that unite us and show up outside of the urban areas like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and just listen to their concerns." Fitzgerald is a popular Democratic county chief who was about to be sworn in for his third term.

A Democrat has to win Pennsylvania to win the presidency, and he or she has to win western Pennsylvania to win the state, something the party did consistently between 1992 and 2012. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since former President George H.W. Bush's first run in 1988, squeaking past Hillary Clinton by just over 44,000 votes.

Trump deserves credit for having won by going to economically disrupted places such as Erie, Scranton, Mechanicsburg, Altoona, Ambridge and Johnstown and asking for residents' votes, whereas Clinton centered her presence in the urban centers of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

The assumption was that those disrupted places were just going to follow the lead of their big-city Democrats because they always showed up for a Democrat. What outsiders missed was the harm Clinton did to herself when she did things like calling Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables" or saying, "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."

They also missed that Pennsylvania had become 0.4% more Republican every presidential cycle. Former President Bill Clinton won 28 of the state's 67 counties in 1996, but that power had eroded in 2012 to just 13 of the 67 counties won by then-President Barack Obama.

"Biden's recent declaration that coal miners could become computer programmers while advancing clean energy stances is, at best, out of touch with the plights of these states and its workers," Jeff Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College in Factoryville, said. "At some level, it's difficult to believe that Biden, the scrappy kid from Scranton who has made his political career connecting with working-class voters, would suddenly be so detached from these same voters' everyday realities. He seems to be making the same fatal mistakes of the 2016 Hillary Clinton run with her pronouncements that she will be putting coal miners out of business."

"At the moment, Pennsylvania is his to lose, and he will lose it if he continues to appear to be out of touch with blue-collar workers," Brauer said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Delaware; US: Indiana; US: Massachusetts; US: Pennsylvania; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: alleghenycounty; altoona; ambridge; beaver; berniesanders; butlercounty; clowncar; cnxresources; darrinkelly; delaware; donaldtrump; elizabethwarren; erie; factoryville; fauxahontas; fracking; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; indiana; jeffbrauer; joebiden; joeclowncarbiden; johnstown; keystonecollege; massachusetts; mechanicsburg; mikepence; nickdeluliis; paulsracic; pennsylvania; petebuttigieg; philadelphia; pittsburgh; richfitzgerald; scranton; slingingbull; southbend; twitter; vermont; washington; westmorelandcounty; youngstownstate
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1 posted on 01/07/2020 4:25:48 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The western side is more conservative.


2 posted on 01/07/2020 4:27:29 AM PST by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith,e one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: Kaslin

Note to union workers and retirees: The only thing between your pension funds and insolvency is Trump.

Choose wisely.


3 posted on 01/07/2020 4:39:06 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Kaslin
Obama won Pa twice. He did it by going after heavy Dem districts....got out the vote...and the rest is history.

Repubs....we have to do better with getting out the vote.

4 posted on 01/07/2020 4:39:55 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Biggirl

Democrats don’t need to call and ask your opinion because they know what is best for everyone already.


5 posted on 01/07/2020 4:41:40 AM PST by cnsmom
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To: mewzilla

“ Note to union workers and retirees: The only thing between your pension funds and insolvency is Trump. Choose wisely.”
*

How’s the saying go? “when your opponent is digging a hole, stay out of his way.”


6 posted on 01/07/2020 4:43:27 AM PST by snoringbear (,W,E.oGovernment is the Pimp,)
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To: cnsmom

Western PA is red outside Pittsburgh.


7 posted on 01/07/2020 4:44:52 AM PST by Col Frank Slade
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To: Kaslin

Handing it to Trump? Haha he already has it and there is nothing that the Dems can do.

Other than Pitt and Erie there isn’t anyplace in W PA where any Dem will ever be competitive...

And with their anti fracking and anti coal stands never will be.


8 posted on 01/07/2020 4:51:55 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: cnsmom

Yet the Dems got a little post it note post-Golden Globes a few days ago from the host himself.


9 posted on 01/07/2020 4:55:47 AM PST by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith,e one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: Kaslin

“Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for god’s sake!” “We’re going to put a lot of coal workers and coal companies out of business”

Sounds like a great Republican campaign ad.


10 posted on 01/07/2020 4:56:55 AM PST by wetgundog
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To: Sacajaweau

> Obama won Pa twice. He did it by going after heavy Dem districts....got out the vote...and the rest is history. <

There were many Philadelphia districts that went 100% for Obama. Not a single GOP vote. Not a single third-party vote. No one bothered to look into this. So it’s going to happen again.

Side note: Hillary was sure of victory. So she didn’t try to stuff the ballot boxes in 2016. That mistake won’t be repeated in 2020.


11 posted on 01/07/2020 4:57:05 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: snoringbear

I’m danged if I can understand how, when so many union pension funds both public and private are fixing to go broke, any union member or union retiree can vote for a dang Dem.


12 posted on 01/07/2020 4:57:33 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Sacajaweau

That is why both the burbs and then the cities have to be worked.


13 posted on 01/07/2020 4:57:34 AM PST by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith,e one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: wetgundog

And the rest will be history.


14 posted on 01/07/2020 4:59:10 AM PST by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith,e one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: HamiltonJay

And if Trump visit Erie and is strong on the so-called social issues —— pro-life, pro-trad marriage, pro-relig. liberty -— that, and re-industrialization——</b> there ——Catholic and non-Catholic -— who will go for pro-life and a job.


15 posted on 01/07/2020 4:59:58 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Cue tumultuous applause.)
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To: Col Frank Slade

It wasn’t always that way. In 1984, my county (Westmoreland), narrowly went for Mondale when Reagan was winning a 49 state landslide. In 2016, we gave Trump 128% of the vote margin by which he carried Pennsylvania.


16 posted on 01/07/2020 5:00:19 AM PST by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: Biggirl

The Elites don’t even want to hear from the like minded. They know better than everyone else. Some people only learn the hard way.


17 posted on 01/07/2020 5:01:11 AM PST by cnsmom
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To: Kaslin
Curtis Yarvin has described us as a 3-tier society:

Gentry -- The Hollywood rich, the academics, the media, the SJW -- all the people who seem to have safe, secure, comfortable lives in America and use their situation as a base from which to attack America and exert power over anyone lower on the totem pole.

Commoners -- The Silent Majority, the Normals, the Middle Class, the Deplorables -- the people who just work for a living and get stuff done.

Clients -- Welfare queens, illegal aliens, so-called "disabled" young people on Social Security, the Gibsmedats -- the people who take from the system and have never contributed to the system.

The Commoners are really the only people who matter. But the Democrats have absolutely no interest in Commoners.

18 posted on 01/07/2020 5:01:11 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Can you tell me what the GOPe has in common with the commoners? Because I see very little overlap.


19 posted on 01/07/2020 5:06:05 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: mewzilla

Unions are tiny part of the electorate. They have little influence except in the minds of the ignorant who like to create straw man arguments.


20 posted on 01/07/2020 5:09:40 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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