from The Easttown Democratic Voice July 23, 2022 Newsletter:
This has been a pretty rough summer, with the U.S. Supreme Court – now controlled by a 6-3 Republican majority – blowing up Roe v. Wade, allowing even more guns on our streets, and limiting the ability of the EPA to protect us from pollution and climate change. The Court’s rampage looks like it will continue over the next few years with decisions about Election Laws, Affirmative Action, Free Speech, Anti-Discrimination Laws (allow people to refuse services to customers based on religion), Same Sex Marriage, Interracial Marriage, LGBTQ rights, and others. The only way to counter this extremely conservative and Republican dominated Supreme Court is by electing Democrats at all levels who will enact laws that protect our rights and can withstand the bias of the court.
At the state and federal legislative levels, the Republican embrace of rightwing issues such as banning abortion, de-funding public education with school vouchers, opposing sensible gun reforms, refusing to take effective action on climate change, making it harder to vote, and continuing to push 2020 election conspiracy theories, helps draw a very clear contrast between Democrats and Republicans in this election.
Already, in Harrisburg, the Republicans are keeping busy by plotting to ram through a (PA) Constitutional Amendment that would ban abortion, or at least prohibit the courts from interpreting the PA Constitution to prohibit abortion. To stop the amendment in its tracks in the next legislative session, we NEED to win a majority in one or both chambers in the 2022 General Election. Be sure to vote for PA State Representative Melissa Shusterman to represent Easttown and also consider helping these five other local Democratic candidates in red PA State districts where Democrats stand a decent chance of flipping the seats. And, be sure to vote for Josh Shapiro for Governor who can veto extremist Republican sponsored legislation in Pennsylvania. Josh is running against Doug Mastriano, a far right election denier and extreme Trump cult follower. Mastriano says he will ban abortion with absolutely no exceptions, undermine vote by mail, has promised to appoint a Secretary of State who will decertify voting machines and de-register voters at his whim.
Meanwhile, to represent our best interests down in Washington, we need to elect John Fetterman as our US Senator and re-elect our very own Easttown resident, Chrissy Houlahan as our US Congressperson.
The PA Senate race will have a huge impact on the country’s future as it may decide whether Democrats retain control of the Senate. John Fetterman, is running against Mehmet Oz, a 62 year old TV personality who has only lived in Pennsylvania for a short time and is strongly supported by Donald Trump. Oz supported overturning Roe v Wade, and despite being a doctor has received much criticism for his promotion of pseudoscience and quack medicine. Just what our country needs – another TV reality star who knows little about Pennsylvanians and will say anything to be elected.
Chrissy Houlahan is running against Guy Ciarrocchi, who has spent his career lobbying against women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, contraception, and public schools, to name a few. On the issue of reproductive freedom, Ciarrocchi claimed, “It is time for Roe to be replaced.” He was against assistance for small businesses during the height of the pandemic; opposed increasing the minimum wage; voted to raise local taxes by over 500%; and even opposed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is creating thousands of jobs for Pennsylvanians and fixing our supply chains. It’s clear he doesn’t care about the well-being of Pennsylvanians.
We need to do everything humanly possible to increase Democratic margins in the US House and Senate, win the PA Governor election, and flip one or both of the houses of the PA legislature. Spread the word all summer and encourage all your Pennsylvania relatives, friends and neighbors to be sure to vote for these Democratic candidates.
