Editorial voices from across Pennsylvania
Editorial voices from newspapers across Pennsylvania as compiled by the Associated Press:
Two infamous comments, born in long past political seasons, still define central Pennsylvania for too many.
One turned up recently on the popular MSNBC break-of-day talk show “Morning Joe.” Discussing GOP prospects in the Keystone State, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean referenced James Carville’s 1986 comment that it was Paoli and Penn Hills – or, in subsequent iterations, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh – with Alabama in the middle.
The other was coined during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
“You go into small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone for 25 years and nothing has replaced them,” Obama said during an ostensibly off-the-record San Francisco fundraiser. “… And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
“Alabama in the middle” and “clinging to guns or religion” have been short-hand, back-of-the-hand swipes at Pennsylvania ever since.
This month’s election may go a long way in reframing the state’s reputation while we have the nation’s attention. The state has potentially outsized influence. Republican voters could put out a welcome mat or throw up a speed bump for frontrunner Donald Trump.
Likewise, depending on how ballots fall elsewhere, Pennsylvania voters could propel Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton to the brink of clinching her party’s nomination, or keep alive the no-longer-quite-so-long shot candidacy of Bernie Sanders.
Politics provided the framework that continues to color national perceptions of Pennsylvania, there’s no reason today’s politics cannot likewise set the stage for an image-changing turn of events.
Tuesday marked Equal Pay Day, a symbolic event dramatizing how much longer it takes a woman to earn as much as a man – and an annual opportunity for Democrats to lambast Republicans for inaction on the issue.
This time, it came amid a presidential campaign where the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, has alienated women voters in droves. Once again this year, Republicans have little to offer in return as President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers trumpet their equal pay proposals at news conferences and briefings.
Democrats support legislation requiring employers to show pay disparity is not based on gender, among other steps. But Republicans who control the House and Senate have announced no plans to act, even though a few GOP lawmakers are pushing bills of their own.
The reality is it shouldn’t take government action to make sure employers are compensating genders equally. Employers should be paying workers based on the merit of their efforts and the person’s ability to adapt to the changing needs of their industry. If people do the same work, they should receive similar wages.
Politics rules everything in Washington, even at the top levels of the Justice Department. That can place the many people at the agency who dedicate their lives to enforcing the law impartially in very difficult situations.
They are in one now. It seems clear that while secretary of state, Hillary Clinton broke the law through her handling of emails and government secrets.
By all accounts, FBI agents and officials have been strictly neutral in their investigation, shoving politics aside in their search for the truth. What happens once they have established it is another story.
At the very first hint of meddling from the White House or anyone else attempting to derail the process, Congress ought to intervene in a very public way. Any FBI whistleblowers should be protected against retaliation and encouraged to make the results of their probe public. Clinton broke the law. Who and what she is must have no bearing on the pursuit of justice in her case.