What’s at stake in 2022?
Three closely watched races will be on our ballots in early November, two of them among the top five national stories of election night: Josh Shapiro v. Doug Mastriano for governor; John Fetterman v. Mehmet Oz for US Senator. The third, with equally important implications locally, pits Marty Qually against Dan Moul for state House of Representatives.
Before I discuss the races, let me urge every eligible voter to register and vote. Back a couple years ago, when I ran the Census Complete Count Committee, I frequently said “Your country is asking you to do two things this year: vote if you’re a citizen and fill out your census.” The census is done for another decade, but voting is still important.
And that comment underlines one of the fundamental differences between the two parties. Right now, both are claiming they fear the other wants to destroy democracy, but let us look at that. Democrats want people to vote; Republicans are stressing ideas that make it harder to vote. Democrats want votes counted quickly, efficiently, and correctly; Republicans have spent the last few years dreaming up schemes to ensure that their partisan officials can override the results. Democrats want to win, but concede promptly when they lose; Republicans increasingly claim it is only an honest election if they win.
And please, do not anyone try their feeble what-abouts like “Hillary said Trump didn’t win” or “Al Gore didn’t concede.”
Hillary Clinton conceded unambiguously and graciously within less than 12 hours after polls closed on the west coast and has since offered her personal opinion a couple times that Trump’s win was not on the up-and-up. And Al Gore conceded almost immediately after the Supreme Court met as an electoral college of nine and elected George Bush president. Even though he considered this an incredibly corrupt process, Gore showed a sense of patriotism no Republican politician alive today would match – that a prolonged fight over election results is not good for the country.
Can we all agree on one premise? If you believe, and openly articulate, that you will never accept defeat (which is what Donald Trump and the endless other Republicans did by claiming any election they lose is rigged), then you have stated for the world to hear that you do not support democracy. And here is another: if you support totalitarians like Hungary’s Victor Orban and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, then you do not support democracy. Or another: if you believe that only one party should be entitled to appoint federal judges, you do not support democracy.
It is not surprising that the Republicans are going in for electoral manipulations. After all, they cannot win the support of the majority of voters in a fair election. Of 8 presidential elections since George HW Bush’s 1988 win, the Republicans have won the popular vote only once (2004). The demographics of the country continue to change, with whites becoming a lesser percentage of the voting population, which explains the popularity within Republican circles of the bluntly racist “replacement theory” and their obsession with suppressing votes in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and other cities and counties with large Black or Latino populations.
With that, let us talk about the ballot contests. The governor’s race should be easy. Doug Mastriano has in essence promised to destroy the public schools and the free elections process. His continued undermining of 2020 election results nearly two years later is very dangerous. Doug Mastriano may represent a more serious threat to democracy than any other politician in office today.
Mehmet Oz has changed his position on essentially everything, from what we used to call “moderate Republican” to all-MAGA, all the time. He is also presenting a cartoon version of John Fetterman in his relentlessly negative campaign ads. And his snide insinuations about Fetterman’s health deserve nothing but scorn.
Despite his look and his delight in Internet trolling, Fetterman is actually a serious politician with executive experience and well thought out views on public issues. And contrary to Oz’s increasingly desperate smears, he is not a socialist and he does not want to release all the violent criminals.
Oz, in contrast, is totally unprincipled, and was willing to trade his hard-earned reputation in medicine for a chance to host a lowbrow talk show and peddle quack cures. He was more recently willing to trade in all his political views for Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Finally, both state House candidates have proven track records. In a position of permanent (so far) minority status, Qually has shown a remarkable ability to work in a bipartisan way to get things done. Moul is the prototype of a “do nothing” politician. He used to claim his slender legislative record was due to his lack of seniority. but now that he is a committee chair, nothing really has changed. In addition, Moul has now become a dependable MAGA vote.
Beyond the specifics of each race, there is also the “democracy on the ballot” issue. Dan Moul will vote to criminalize abortion and the rest of the Mastriano agenda without a second thought. Oz will be just fine with a national abortion ban, repeated impeachments of whoever for whatever, and will have no problem whatever with a two year freeze on judicial appointments. Turn Medicare into a voucher system? Another huge regressive tax cut? National voter ID? Repeal the Biden infrastructure and inflation reduction acts? Deport DACA? Fine and dandy.
Back in the Civil War era and the years following, another name for the Democratic party was “the Democracy.” This year, it is quite literally the case that your either voting for an authoritarian government or for “the democracy.”
Leon Reed is a retired US Senate aide and US history teacher. He is author of seven books on military history and is co-chair of Gettysburg DFA.
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