by Fred Logan
Two million, two hundred and twenty-four thousand, four hundred and six people, according to one late count, voted for GOP candidate Doug Mastriano in the recent election for Pennsylvania governor. He lost but that is still a whole lot of people in Pennsylvania voting for an open, bragging, January 6, reactionary, right-wing zealot. For our information, the 2020 US Census recorded just 13,011,844 Pennsylvania residents.
Josh Shapiro beat Mastriano by the margin of 779,027 votes. Let’s go further. How many Black people, Asians, Latinos and other non-European Americans in the state voted for Shapiro? Did the majority of European Americans vote for Mastriano? That is a very, very important question to ask.
Nationwide the pollsters were wrong again. Why, because White folks are in flux swinging from left to right and from right to left, over and over. In that context, and very important, as a friend recently impressed on me, a whole bunch of White folks know their politics are vile and reactionary and they lie to poll-takers
This time around college-educated Philadelphia suburban White women are praised for voting against Trumpism. After apparently weeks of agonizing, praying, and fasting they went to the polls and voted against open right-wing reactionary. What about Black women with similar education and residential characteristics?
And compare the vote, for example, of non-college educated Black and White men. It does not take a college education to reject Trump and Mastriano. If you want empirical evidence go to the intersection of Frankstown and Homewood Avenues in Pittsburgh’s majority-Black Homewood neighborhood and poll the non-college Black men you find there on Trump. Also, What parentage supported Mastriano?
A lot of strong valid criticism and condemnations can be and should be hurled at Trump and his fellow travelers. But they are not hypocrites in one important area. They are open, self-confessed rabid, right-wing reactionaries. And the White people who voted for Mastriano knew exactly who and what they are voting for. They are not being misled as many White “liberals” and “progressive” apologists for White racism still, at this late date, argue.
The Black community is by no means exempt from criticism. But here is a mandatory question to ask USA European Americans who asked veiled or outright questions about Black politics. Ask them to compare and contrast the politics of their own particular USA European American ethnic group with the Black community.
You of course have noticed—it’s obvious—the USA establishment media and pundits never look at how specific White ethnic groups vote on Trump. This is hidden behind a blanket “White” vote.
What was the European American, say German American or Polish American, break down in the November 8 midterm? Many White liberals, moderates, and self-proclaimed progressives will get raging mad if you ask this question. But White rightwing reactionaries will gladly reply, although there is a very good chance that whatever they do reply will be a lie.
The national Black vote is in the vanguard against right wing reaction, and The GOP’s open racism guarantees this will continue and grow. The current internal grumbling in the national GOP is a power struggle over leadership. Most All GOP factions apparently support the party’s current racist, right wing, reactionary policies, and practices.
But where is the national Black community, this includes Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, and Pittsburgh, in the growing local and national power struggles between “moderate and progressive” factions within the Democratic Party? This is another very important question moving on from mid-term 2022.
About Post Author
