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The Underreported Issue That Could Shatter Democrats’ 2020 Hopes
Townhall.com ^ | January 29, 2020 | Matt Vespa

Posted on 01/29/2020 3:49:52 PM PST by Kaslin

We’ve all heard this before about the 2020 field. They’re too liberal, too milquetoast, and their agenda really isn’t appealing to blue-collar workers. They say they want to be the party for everyone. The reality is they’re just doubling down on the urban areas and hoping some more black voters and the Trump deranged and utterly insufferable professional elites to put them over the top. In other words, screw white working-class workers. It’s a ruse. Again, you all know this, but Democrats continue to ignore the Electoral College game. It’s very possible, in fact—it’s likely, that the 2020 Democratic nominee gets more popular votes, but once again loses the election due to not being able to clinch 270. Democrats, it’s no secret that you’re going to win the densely populated, hobo-riddled, and the crap-infested state of California. What about the Rust Belt? Yeah, that’s what I thought. There’s a reason we have an Electoral College.

But back to the point here. We know the Democratic health agenda is literally taking away people’s health care, with the cannibalization of 150+ million private health care plans thanks to Medicare for All. That includes union workers, and it isn’t popular. It’s not popular to bash federal immigration officers. It’s not popular to decriminalize border crossings. And it’s certainly not popular to give illegal aliens health care. Yet, this issue might kill their hopes before a nominee is even selected. In Pennsylvania, even Democrats know that a ban on fracking would kill hundreds of thousands of jobs related to the industry of natural gas. Without the Keystone State, the Democrats are cooked. Even Democrats in Pennsylvania who have a more environmental streak know this is a losing message and could push the state out of reach (via NYT):

Though they are both Democrats, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, and Bill Peduto, this city’s [Pittsburgh] mayor, have their differences on the environment.

Mr. Fetterman, who toppled an incumbent Democrat in 2018 from the left, nevertheless calls Pennsylvania “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and sees extracting and taxing gas as critical to the state’s economy and the “union way of life.” Mr. Peduto lobbied unsuccessfully against a local petrochemical plant and is steering his once-struggling steel town to be independent of fossil fuels within 15 years.

But they agree on one thing: a pledge to ban all hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, could jeopardize any presidential candidate’s chances of winning this most critical of battleground states — and thus the presidency itself. So as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren woo young environmental voters with a national fracking ban, these two Democrats are uneasy.

“In Pennsylvania, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of related jobs that would be — they would be unemployed overnight,” said Mr. Fetterman, who endorsed Mr. Sanders in 2016 before Donald J. Trump won his state, pop. 12.8 million, by just over 44,000 votes. “Pennsylvania is a margin play,” he added. “And an outright ban on fracking isn’t a margin play.”

Mr. Peduto said “the Warren-Sanders, ban-all-fracking-right-now” position would “absolutely devastate communities throughout the Rust Belt” and pit environmentalists against workers at a time when Democrats need both.

“If a candidate comes into this state and tries to sell that policy, they’re going to have a hard time winning,” he said.

[…]

“The cracker” is shorthand for a $6 billion Royal Dutch Shell petrochemical complex under construction in Beaver County, just northwest of Pittsburgh, that will convert ethane, a natural gas liquid fracked in Southwestern Pennsylvania, into pellets for plastic manufacturing. It gets its nickname from the chemical reaction known as cracking.

[…]

Mr. Peduto said that was, in part, why he has opposed the cracker plant. “The people in the Rust Belt are being sold false hope of, ‘Just sacrifice your land and your air and your water one more time and we will provide you with all of these jobs,’” he said.

Yet he had a warning for national Democrats. “This presidential race comes down to about ten states,” he said. “And if you are trying to pass universal bans, it will never happen.”

Oh, and you bet the ban all fracking stance from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders is going to impact the union vote in the state. If these two are nominated, union leaders are going to do two things: vote for Trump or sit out. Yeah, Democrats are really the working man’s party, right:

Union leaders meeting for lunch one recent afternoon at an Italian restaurant on the outskirts of Pittsburgh said they could not afford to be dismissive of jobs like the ones constructing the cracker plant, where wages, pensions and benefits can run into the six figures.

“At the end of the day, if I don’t have a job, if I don’t have health care, if I can’t take care of my family, it doesn’t matter if we have global peace and gun control and everything else,” said Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania.

“This is one of the most robust economies in the country,” Mr. Nobers added, “and it’s mostly fueled by, yeah, the gas industry, the burgeoning petrochemical industry, manufacturing. And you have politicians that say, no, we don’t need this because there’s 200 people working for Google in East Liberty,” referring to a shining commercial area of Pittsburgh.

Four of the labor leaders, all Democrats who said they supported Mrs. Clinton in 2016, said they would most likely sit out the 2020 election if Mr. Sanders or Ms. Warren were the nominee.

“If we end up with a Democratic candidate that supports a fracking ban, I’m going to tell my members that they either don’t vote or vote for the other guy,” said James T. Kunz Jr., business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

A fifth labor leader, a registered Democrat, said he had voted for Mr. Trump and that he intended to do so again.

At the end of the day, the core of the Democratic message in 2020 is we’re not Donald Trump. No kidding. Beyond that—they have nothing. Nothing that doesn’t raise taxes, increase regulations and kills jobs. A national race where the opposition is content with just being the “anti” factor on the stage isn’t enough. Romney was the anti-Obama. Kerry was the anti-Bush. They both lost.

This isn’t hard. If Democrats weren’t insane, had an agenda that focused on jobs, and better trade deals, they could—in theory—make trouble for Trump. The problem is that Trump has kept promises on those fronts. This warning about the dangers of pushing for fracking bans has been underreported. That’s fine by me. Stay ignorant, Democrats. Please. Do. Also, it looks like Ohio is off the map too if either Warren or Sanders is nominated. And sorry, I don’t think Joe has the juice to flip the state with his knucklehead performance thus far.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: 2020demonrats; 2020election; fracking; healthcare; presidenttrump
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1 posted on 01/29/2020 3:49:52 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
anti fracking.....would kill hundreds of thousands of jobs related to the industry of natural gas.

I've heard Bernie Sanders can empty a room with his big supply of gas. He won't run out. But people will.

2 posted on 01/29/2020 3:55:54 PM PST by frank ballenger (End vote harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: Kaslin

Huh. Who’d a thunk it? I didn’t think the Democrats had any hope for 2020.


3 posted on 01/29/2020 3:56:08 PM PST by Forgiven_Sinner (Seek you first the kingdom of God, and all things will be given to you.)
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To: Kaslin

Here is what I see happening. The RAT party is busy carpet bombing their current crop of losers. By the Nominating Convention it will be obvious that none of these clowns is Presidential material or has a chance in hell of winning. At that time they beg Hillary to save them and be their nominee. She “reluctantly” agrees having avoided all the RAT debates and campaigning. The RATS (facing 4 more years of the hated Orange man, destroyer of the Universe) enthusiastically embrace Hitlery. In their minds she beat Trump in 2016, and most if not all those who voted for her in 2016 will vote for her again. It’s their best shot by far.


4 posted on 01/29/2020 4:26:31 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (It's no coincidence that the Democrat/media complex always sides with America's enemies.)
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To: Forgiven_Sinner; frank ballenger
[I didn’t think the Democrats had any hope for 2020.]


5 posted on 01/29/2020 4:45:14 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
Hillary will "magically appear" at the Demo convention.

There will be tears and cheers from the liberals.

They will have to roll out (perhaps literally) this ill, lying witch one more time.




6 posted on 01/29/2020 4:48:15 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Kaslin
In a nutshell:

At the end of the day, the core of the Democratic message in 2020 is we’re not Donald Trump. No kidding. Beyond that—they have nothing.

7 posted on 01/29/2020 4:50:25 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
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To: Kaslin

All good and fine, but it doesn’t matter what the Democrat candidates intend, as none of them will make it to November.

Nope, all that matters is where Skunk Cabbage is on this issue...she WILL be the candidate, bet on it.


8 posted on 01/29/2020 4:53:01 PM PST by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
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To: SaveFerris

To save people time here is Isaiah 5:20——

Isaiah 5:20 King James Version (KJV)

20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!


9 posted on 01/29/2020 4:56:59 PM PST by frank ballenger (End vote harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: frank ballenger

Thank you for posting that


10 posted on 01/29/2020 4:58:57 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

“There will be tears and cheers from the liberals. They will have to roll out (perhaps literally) this ill, lying witch one more time.”

Exactly. Hillary was robbed. She won but Trump stole the election from her. It’s only fair she gets a second chance to make things right. That’s how they see it.


11 posted on 01/29/2020 5:06:42 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (It's no coincidence that the Democrat/media complex always sides with America's enemies.)
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To: All
Go Big Red, et al !

             

12 posted on 01/29/2020 5:07:48 PM PST by tomkat
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To: Kaslin

There is a reason that it is under-reported.

Pretty much anything detrimental to the Democrats is under-reported. And extremely unlikely to be anything else anywhere along the way.


13 posted on 01/29/2020 5:16:36 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: Kaslin
“If a candidate comes into this state and tries to sell that policy, they’re going to have a hard time winning,” he said.

A note to Pennsylvanians:

No matter WHO the democrats nominate, banning fracking WILL be their policy. They might lie to get your vote and say they're not for this, but this is democrat policy.

Don't be like Virginians, and believe the democrats are harmless to your way of life.

14 posted on 01/29/2020 5:19:40 PM PST by Alas Babylon! (The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
At that time they beg Hillary to save them and be their nominee. She “reluctantly” agrees having avoided all the RAT debates and campaigning.

Then the Bernie Bros start campaigning for President Trump out of revenge.

15 posted on 01/29/2020 5:23:33 PM PST by Repeal 16-17 (Let me know when the Shooting starts.)
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To: Kaslin

Democrats are laser focused on impeachment and appeasing queer folk. That is all. Period.


16 posted on 01/29/2020 5:25:32 PM PST by subterfuge (RIP T.P.)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
You REALLY believe that?

Fat chance! (pun intended)

First, the Bernie-bots say they will not vote for her (or anyone) if Bernie gets screwed at the convention.

Second, there are already 100s of thousands of 2016 Hillary voters who now say they're pro-Trump and will vote for him.

Most if not all will vote for her again?

Nope! Not going to happen!

She lost Pennsylvania in 2016. The loss will be much, much larger in 2020 if she runs.

17 posted on 01/29/2020 5:26:00 PM PST by Alas Babylon! (The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Current money is
Berine
Or Michelle Obama.

Honestly, Bernie is the most dangerous candidate


18 posted on 01/29/2020 5:42:24 PM PST by redgolum (If this culture today is civilization, I will be the barbarian.)
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To: Alas Babylon!

First, the Bernie-bots say they will not vote for her (or anyone) if Bernie gets screwed at the convention.”

Do you really believe that? That’s what they say in the primary. They’ve waited for 4 years to vote against Trump. The hatred is so great they would walk thru fire to vote against him.

“Second, there are already 100s of thousands of 2016 Hillary voters who now say they’re pro-Trump and will vote for him.”

Where did you get that number? Besides Hillary had 2 million votes more than Trump. A few hundred thousand is nothing.

“Most if not all will vote for her again? Nope! Not going to happen!”

Why not? What’s changed? Who is their strongest candidate? You are whistling past the graveyard.

“She lost Pennsylvania in 2016. The loss will be much, much larger in 2020 if she runs.”

You are forgetting the cheating factor. The RATS going to cheat their azzes off generally and double that in any state that was close. As usual the Repubs seem oblivious to that.


19 posted on 01/29/2020 5:43:30 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (It's no coincidence that the Democrat/media complex always sides with America's enemies.)
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To: Kaslin

I agree with this article.


20 posted on 01/29/2020 5:47:45 PM PST by samtheman (Trump Campaign Ad (hopefully): Look at Virginia. Look at NY. What Democrats do.)
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