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Ten take-aways from my Election Day experience

With the Kerwin men, quality people

Primary elections are more important than the general election every November, because voters choose who is going to be representing them at the November election. And in the case of Republican Party voters, if you don’t vote for constitutional America-First candidates, you are guaranteed to have a Republican In Name Only (RINO) liberal running against the Democrat Party liberal in the November election. There’s not a whole lot of philosophical difference between the Republican liberal and the Democrat liberal, and after that November election between a RINO and a Democrat it’s just a question of how rapidly America is destroyed under your feet, slowly or quickly.

On Tuesday I volunteered at four different election polls, handing out brochures for Kathy Barnette, and I spoke with a lot of voters. Here are some take-aways from my experience during and after Tuesday’s Primary Election here in PA:

  • Unsurprisingly, voters make both simple and complicated choices in voting for candidates. Simple choices can be lazy or principled, and complicated choices can be bizarre or carefully thought out. Candidate selection is as complex as any other choice in life, and I think that is a good thing.
  • Party establishment endorsement is a negative among Republican/ conservative voters, who appear to increasingly view the GOP as a force for bad and not for good. For example, Lou Barletta’s campaign unleashed a tidal wave of Republican establishment career politician endorsements in the days before Tuesday’s election, and if anything these endorsements seemed to hurt Barletta at the polls, not help him; Doug Mastriano crushed Barletta.
  • On the other hand, Democrat voters seem highly attuned to and in synch with their establishment, as witnessed by political newcomer Justin Fleming’s trouncing of long time Democrat Party activist Eric Epstein in the newly created 105th Legislative District (PA House). For at least ten years, and probably closer to twenty years, independent-minded liberal Epstein has run for everything from dog catcher to school board to state senate, almost always unsuccessfully but always with close-call results. Not this time. Apparently ten unions and the House Democrat Campaign Committee aggressively weighed in to stop Epstein from finally capitalizing on his well-known household name in southcentral PA. Fleming the unprincipled “electoral pragmatist” won with 61% of the vote.
  • Money is not all that it used to be, but it can still matter in elections, no surprise. Case in point is a very small amount of money (like $157,000 total), old fashioned shoe leather, and reasonable social media networking got conservative grass roots favorite Kathy Barnette up to 25% of the vote in an eight-candidate race. This is a huge statement about the lack of importance of money. However, when the wildly false negative attacks against Barnette started pouring in during the last week from McCormick and Oz and their supporters, like Sean Hannity, Barnette lacked sufficient funds to get out her last-minute rebuttals on TV and radio that could have gotten her over the finish line to win. Enough confusion and obfuscation was created by the attacks to blunt Barnette’s position at the top, and allowed both Oz and McCormick to grow their own voter returns at her expense. Had Barnette possessed a million dollars to do last-minute TV and radio ads, she probably would have won the election.
  • Negative advertising does work, and it also greatly suppresses voter turnout. At all of the five polls I was at yesterday, voting was down between 10% and 20%, and I believe many voters were just fed up and confused by all of the negative advertising. SO they stayed home and said “I will just vote in November for whoever wins this primary race.”
  • Conservative voters are much more oriented toward ideology and principles than political party.
  • Almost every primary election has one winner and some losers, and almost always the losers say they will take their ball and go home if they don’t win, and they won’t back the winner of their race. For weeks before and even after the election was over, I heard unceasing complaints from Republicans about how Mastriano is “too conservative” for Pennsylvania, and that his win will automatically hand the governorship to Komrade Josh Shapiro. I also heard unceasing complaints from Republican voters that Lou Barletta was too milquetoast to appeal to anyone in November, except for blue haired suburban GOPe Republicans. Folks, get used to these competitive races. They are good for us. This competition is just the nature of real and healthy primary races, something that Republicans really need, and something that the GOPe HATES. The Republican Country Club Party hates hates hates sharing decision making with the unwashed dirty masses, who keep gumming up GOPe dreams of easy ill gotten wealth and posh fundraisers. Sorry not sorry, GOPe, get used to ceding more and more decision making to the actual people you claim to represent. It is a good thing, and it is why Mastriano won by an enormous margin.
  • For the most part, the GOPe got its ass kicked in PA and elsewhere in America. RINOs like Jake Corman (the sitting President Pro Tem of the PA Senate!!), Jeff Bartos, et al either dropped out or finished below 5%, while underdog candidates like Kathy Barnette and Dr. Oz scored big time vote returns against the establishment’s wishes. We are witnessing a power shift away from GOP party bosses, which is a good thing, because party bosses are corrupt and self-serving people.
  • Charlie Gerow is still a good guy, and still not a catchy candidate. Once again, voters enjoy Charlie as an articulate proponent of conservative values, but not as a representative in government for their needs. Charlie is a salon intellectual in the mold of William F. Buckley, one of the 20th century’s great conservative crusaders. Not winning elections doesn’t mean Gerow isn’t relevant, it just means his strength is in policy debates and in the conservative salon of ideas. Nothing wrong with that.
  • Finally, yard signs and road signs do not mean anything close to what they used to represent even ten years ago. At one time yard signs and roadside signs were a big part of electoral public outreach, but in this digital age, they are becoming less important. I would not say they are unimportant, because in some ways they can be used to get a sense of voter engagement. Like, lots of signs for Candidate X in a county or in a region probably means that Candidate X is well known there. But it does not mean that Candidate X is necessarily going to convert that name recognition into an Election Day win. Information is now moving so fast and so far across the political landscape, that just one gaffe or one slip-up by an otherwise reasonable candidate can mean the end of their lead or presumptive win. No amount of yard signs can counter a fifteen second video of a candidate doing or saying something ridiculous.

Thank you to all the voters who spent time talking with me on Tuesday. I promote candidates at polls on Election Day every year because these are people I believe in, and I believe in sharing the why and how I have arrived at my decision on whom to vote for. One thing that has not changed among voters at polls since I was a teenager is this: Liberal voters at polls are always surly, grumpy, dismissive, or disrespectful. Do not ask me why this is, but it does hint at how some people think.

 

 

Senator Bob Casey: As useless as tits on a boar hog

US senator Bob Casey is nothing like his dad, Casey Senior, but he rides his father’s well-earned reputation and milks it for all he can get from it.

Senior Casey was a man of principle. A Blue Dog Democrat who was union because he was from hard working coal country, and who also recognized the corrosive effect abortion on demand had on the small, close-knit communities that make up northeastern Pennsylvania.

When he ran for governor, Casey Senior spoke with authority and sincerity. He persuaded Pennsylvanians of all walks of life to vote for him. For good reason. He was an impressive leader.

Contrast him to his son, Casey Junior.

Has Bob Casey, Jr., presently a US senator, done a single good thing or actually accomplished anything while occupying public office his entire career?

The long and short answer is No, this Casey has done absolutely ZERO his whole career. He has achieved absolutely nothing.

And the thing is, his whole career has been spent in elected jobs. Sucking at the taxpayer tit. He has gotten those elected jobs because of his father’s reputation. Casey Junior has no real reputation, except that he is here, or there, occupying space in some political job or another.

Whenever there is a government job, there has been Casey Junior.

Casey has not earned a single day in elected office. He has not achieved anything, he has nothing to show for his time in office. Only his family name has gotten him where he is.

Bob Casey, Jr. is as useless as tits on a boar hog. It is time to vote Casey out of office this November.

I would vote for just about anyone to replace Bob Casey and move him into the private sector, where he can finally learn what it takes to earn a living by one’s wits and hard work. And no, Bob, putting on a suit and tying your shoes does not qualify as hard work, or any work.

Bob Casey has gotten away with political murder for only one reason, and that is family connections, the Casey family dynasty. And in case you think I am being partisan and tough on Casey because he is a Democrat, look at www.jakethesnake.us, the website I maintain to call attention to the Republican version of Bob Casey, Jr., Jake Corman. Corman is another utterly useless, spoiled beneficiary of nepotism. He just happens to be a Republican. I would gladly welcome a change in that state senate seat, as well.

If Casey were of the other political party, I would probably be even tougher on him. I am a bi-partisan opponent of any and all nepotism and political dynasties in America.

Lou Barletta is Casey’s opponent for this one US senate seat. Barletta is a good guy, even if his teeth are so artificially white they blind everyone in the audience. For years, he has been his own person in office and in the private sector, independent minded, self-made, a risk-taker, and that is what I look for: Someone who is very much their own person.

Barletta is the complete opposite of Bob Casey, Jr. It is time for a change in that senate seat, and a change in the Casey family’s dreams of do-nothing political dynasty at the expense of Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Vote for Barletta. Vote for America. Vote for something. Voting for Bob Casey, Jr., is voting for nothing and doing even less.