Thinking Citizen Blog — A Closer Look At The Biggest Swing State — Pennsylvania
Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process Reform, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day
Today’s Topic: A Closer Look at the Biggest Swing State — Pennsylvania
Last time, the potential impact of third party candidates on the November election. Today: excerpts from article telling the story of how Pittsburgh is “at the center of a class inversion between the two parties that is redefining American politics.”
As a reminder, Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes versus Georgia (16), North Carolina (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), Nevada (6). Total of the seven swing states: 93. Votes to win: 270. Context: manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania declined from 379,000 in 1952 to 85,000 in 2024.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“DEMOCRATS HAVE TRADED THEIR FORMER BLUE-COLLAR BASE FOR PROFESSIONAL-CLASS, METROPOLITAN WORKERS, WHILE REPUBLICANS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY DEPENDENT ON WORKING-CLASS VOTERS CONCENTRATED IN FAR-FLUNG SUBURBS, SMALL TOWNS, AND RURAL AREAS”
1. “Biden is seen as hostile to fracking “which taps natural gas trapped in sedimentary rock deep underground. The sector has drawn billions of dollars in new investment in Pennsylvania, much of it in the state’s southwest corner.”
2. “Biden has been particularly hurt by his decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which local companies say cut demand for their services; and his order this year to pause new permits to export liquefied natural gas, which could deprive drillers of new markets.”
3. “Many of these voters also believe the president’s push for Americans to adopt electric vehicles will undercut jobs tied to fossil fuels.”
NB: “Everyone here is aware that it’s better for oil and gas if Republicans get elected.”
UNIVERSITIES, HOSPITALS, HIGH TECH START-UPS (below Carnegie Mellon University)
1. “The city of Pittsburgh rebounded from steel-industry losses with growth at universities and hospitals, or “eds and meds,” as well as from a burgeoning high-tech cluster that drew high-salaried employees to work on robotics, self-driving vehicles and machine learning at companies such as Google and Uber.”
2. “Language-app-maker Duolingo, the first city’s first “unicorn,” or start-up worth more than $1 billion, was one of several companies spun out of Carnegie Mellon, the city’s engineering powerhouse.”
THE DIVERGENT PATHS OF JOHN SABO AND JOSH THIELER, BOTH ONCE VICTIMS OF PENNSYLVANIA’S LOSS OF ITS MANUFACTURING BASE
1. John Sabo, once a loyal Democrat, is now a manager at natural gas fracking company and a staunch Republican. “I will never vote for Democrat again. It’s not gonna happen.”
2. Josh Thieler, once a conservative Republican, is now part of Pittsburgh tech industry. He realized in 2016 that “I’ve been wrong about everything.”
3. So what does your crystal ball say? Will Pennsylvania go for Trump or Biden?
NB: “Even a small additional shift toward the GOP this year would have big implications in a state that Trump won in 2016 by a mere .72 percentage points before Biden flipped it in 2020 a narrow, 1.2 point win. Giving Democrats hope are the big gains they made in the populous and upper-income suburbs outside of Philadelphia, as well as their victories in competitive races in 2022 for Senate and governor. Still, a Wall Street Journal poll of Pennsylvania voters last month found the president trailing Trump by 3 percentage points.”
‘Now They’re Voting Red’: A Pennsylvania Fracking Boom Weighs on Biden’s Re-Election Chances
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
Updating PDFs: 2023 — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day or change their thinking.VOr to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
