Posted on 09/29/2020 4:09:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
BETHEL PARK, Pennsylvania -- Just a few short months ago, if you had driven down Baptist Road in this middle-class southern suburb of Pittsburgh, it would have been hard to miss the Bernie Sanders shrine filling the yard of a tidy, yellow-brick ranch home. There was the life-size cutout of the former presidential candidate, a large, homemade "FEEL THE BERN" sign along the berm of the road, a few "Bernie 2020" and "Get Berned" signs, as well as a lively decorated mailbox plastered with Bernie bumper stickers.
Sometime between the Pennsylvania primary in June (when Democratic voters gave Joe Biden their support) and last week, the shrine came down, replaced by one lone yard sign reading, "GIANT METEOR 2020."
Sometimes, disappointing primary election results frustrate voters so much they walk away from their party's nominee. They traditionally decide to do one of three things: sit it out, vote third party or join the opposing party.
Few hope for a meteor to strike the Earth as an option -- but, hey, it's 2020, and we all get it.
Last week, a flurry of elected officials in southwestern Pennsylvania, most of them county sheriffs, chose the last of the traditional options, deciding that after life-long affiliations with the Democratic Party, they had seen enough change to make them walk away.
In 2008, there were nearly double the number of registered Democrats over Republicans in Westmoreland County, and James Albert was one of them. He had already been elected district judge as a Democrat for over a dozen years, and he would vote for Barack Obama that cycle and again in 2012.
Albert first served his community as a local police officer and then as a county detective and a deputy sheriff before running for district judge. He came out of a short-lived retirement last year and won the race for sheriff as a Democrat.
Today, there are more registered Republicans in Westmoreland County, and Sheriff Albert is one of them. It is a decision he says he took seriously as he watched his party of birth leave less and less room for his pro-life and pro-Second Amendment values with each passing year.
When the party started walking away from supporting law enforcement, Albert had had enough. "What really convinced me," he says, "was the past few months as the country has witnessed these riots where we saw the looting of businesses or arson attacks or the destruction of property, as well as assaults on innocent citizens and attacks on law enforcement. That bothered me. I've for 40 years (been) connected to law enforcement in my life, and it really bothered me."
"Then, David Dorn was killed." Dorn, a retired police officer, was fatally shot during looting in St. Louis in June.
Albert said that for years, when he campaigned as a Democrat at gun bashes, church festivals, ice cream socials and farmers markets, people would say to him, "Oh, you're pro-life," or, "You're an NRA life member," and think he was a Republican. When he tried to explain he was a conservative Democrat, people would say that party was long gone. "They were right, and I just realized it was time for me to go where my values were," he said.
Albert said Gina Cerilli, one of the county's commissioners and a Democrat, told a local paper he had turned his back on the unions who supported him through a number of elections. "I thought, well, that's not true. ... As far as the unions are concerned, I have always been as a Republican," he said.
Jim Custer, like just about everyone in Fayette County in 1983, said that when you turned 18, you registered as a Democrat. "This was the county of coal miners and steelworkers and farmers and blue-collar workers, and that was the party who said they had their back," he said.
After he graduated from Laurel Highlands High School, Custer joined the military. He served four years active Air Force and then three years in the reserve while attending college part-time. The intent was to finish college until an opportunity came along to fulfill a lifelong dream. "When I was nearing the end of my active-duty enlistment, there was an announcement that there was going to be testing for state police," he said. Custer spent 22 years as a member of the "first and the finest." When he retired, he decided to run for county sheriff as a Democrat, a position he has held for the past five years.
The 54-year-old married father of two says the drift away from the party on the national level began long ago. His last vote for a Democratic presidential candidate was for Bill Clinton, followed by votes for George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and President Donald Trump.
When he was asked by Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe if he had any problem endorsing Trump alongside 14 other sheriffs, Custer didn't even pause to answer. "Hey, it's great. I don't care who it is. It's still the president of the United States. I spent seven years in the Air Force. Being that close to Air Force One -- that was a big thing for me," he said.
His wife snapped a photo of him holding his "Cops For Trump" sign and put it on Facebook -- and then things got really interesting.
By last Sunday, he'd gone online and quietly changed his voter registration. By Tuesday, he was once again standing with other members of the law enforcement community at a Trump rally in Pittsburgh when the president called him out by name and noted his party change.
"He kind of did my announcement for me," Custer said.
Party affiliation and the emotional connection that goes along with it is complex. It is more than just a name. It is a decision that you likely discussed with your parents over the dinner table when you were 18 or that was passed down through your family's life experiences. It is often rooted in place, profession or a grandparent.
The direction any party takes is always at the risk of shedding people who are unwilling to go along for the ride. For many establishment Republicans, Trump was a bridge too far, and they went toward the Democrats. For Democrats like Custer, the longtime-leftward veer of the party lost them awhile ago.
While these switches in Western Pennsylvania are more about both parties' realignments, it is worth noting Trump did win the state in 2016 on the backs of voters in counties such as Fayette, Westmoreland and the 10 others that surround Pittsburgh.
The calculation Biden seems to be making is the same one Hillary Clinton made in 2016: Run up the numbers in Philadelphia and suburban collar counties, plus Allegheny County, and hope the rural vote remains unenthused. Certainly, those areas are more populated, but you never really know how many Alberts and Custers out there are going to show up -- or how many pro-meteor people are going to stay home.
Depends on Mail-In voter fraud.
The dimocrat cheating will disenfranchise legal voters
Democrat cheating is a given and I fear the people don’t mind that at all.
I hope and pray the polling is getting it all wrong again.
“GIANT METEOR 2020”
LOL! I’ve been seeing a few “DOGS 2020-Because Humans Suck” signs lately.
“I hope and pray the polling is getting it all wrong again.”
They are. And it’s deliberate.
L
Yes and the wave will crush Democrat cheating mail ballots. If you enjoy being scared or think unreasoned negativity makes you cool or something stop reading this comment. You won’t like it very much.
There is a very good reason why the Democrats have made a U turn on mail in ballots and now are saying their voters should vote in person.
They know that Trump is more than ready for them because they tipped their hand about mail in voting.
Trump has three powerful ways to examine every one of the supposed 80 million mail in ballots. He can use Social Security records, Postal address data and Census data to knock out the fakes. That will drag out the process towards a deadline - the counting will not go on forever.
The Safe Harbor bill from 1887 and reworked in 1920, says any state not finished counting by 41 days after the election (Dec 12) loses its Electoral College Votes. So, let California and Pennsylvania screw around - we’ll take the trade off - Biden loses California’s 55 and Trump loses Pennsylvania’s 20. To win, a candidate does not NEED 270 votes. He just needs a majority of the Electoral College Votes votes actually cast. We’ll take that any day.
“Oh but if there is a tie the House votes and makes Pelosi the president.” Not in this country. The House votes in the case of a tie, but each state only gets two votes based on which party has the most seats in a particular state. This means California’s two votes are negated by Oklahoma’s two votes. Republicans hold a majority of House seats in more states than Democrats do so bye bye Madame President - try again.
I am telling you, short of Massive mail in voter Fraud Biden is going to get absolutely crushed in PA.
The minute you get outside the urban core and take the very unscientific yard sign poll, Biden runs a far distant third....behind Trump and Corn For Sale.
I’ve lived here since 1986, and I have never ever seen anything like this.. even in 16 where it was clear to anyone looking that Trump was going to win here... what’s going on here in 2020 blows the doors off 16.
The rural areas of PA always are more republican, but I’ve never seen anything close to this... it’s not a 2-1 or 3-1 sign advantage.. it’s on the magnitude of 20-1.
If you live in the cities, you aren’t seeing what’s going on, just like they didn’t in 16.
You have several factors in play in PA. First the hesitant 2016 voters who either stayed home or voted Hillary out of fear of Trump, have seen him perform and are going to show up for him.. big time. Secondly you have the Democrats in this state and their inept governor completely anger huge swaths of the population with his idiotic covid behaviors. This is the first election since his draconian and unconstitutional acts.. I expect the PA Democrat’s to pay a very high price up and down the ballot.
I suspect highly that the same dynamic is going to play out in MI and Wi and to a lesser extent MN... Ohio actually May wind up tighter than 16 due to DeWines handling of Covid being a drag on The GOP there. Still expect Trump to win comfortably.
We will see, but without abjectly massive fraud, the likes of which no one has ever seen... Trump will win comfortably. How we the mail in voter nonsense will be used to sow confusion on election night to be sure.
“I hope and pray the polling is getting it all wrong again.”
Last time the polling deliberately abused the demographic make up to skew the polls Democrat. There was also the reality of the “silent” Trump voter which the media could not know about and so never considered. The results were very inaccurate polling.
This time the media is doing the same thing as far as demographic bias and they again will not acknowledge the “silent” Trump voter even though they are now fully aware they exist but cannot be quantified.
The results of all the above is once again we have inaccurate polling but this time it may be even more inaccurate because my guess is there are even more “silent” Trump voters than before due to the well and deliberately reported incidents of violence toward the Trump supporters.
It is of course not possible to know the numbers of Trump supporters who keep it to themselves but perhaps looking at the almost spontaneous boat armadas and truck parades we can get some idea since people are more likely to express themselves freely when in large groups of people with similar ideas.
In a few short weeks we will have the answer.
Are you kidding?
At 52 I’ve seen enough presidential elections to know that there is something VERY DIFFERENT about Trump voters.
He’s like the Beatles and they are like teenaged girls :)
And that’s a good thing.
It means things won’t go down so smoothly if, God forbid, he loses because of cheating.
If you think 10s of millions of rabid Trump fans are just gonna say “oh well, they cheated and he lost”, I THINK you are wrong. Won’t say I KNOW.
But I would support him if he refused to leave office.
And though I love him, I’m not a rabid fan :)
They would follow him into the depths of hell.
I might stop at Purgatory :)
From your keyboard to the minds and hearts of those in PA
I’ve spotted a few that read. “Any Functioning Adult 2020”.
Hoping to God you guys are right. Fingers crossed.
I live half a mile from this house. It was anything but tidy. An unkept shack in a very decent neighborhood.
One in my town says “For the love of God....anyone but Trump 2020”.
If you drive around most of Western PA you’ll see 100 Trump signs for every 10 Biden signs and 20 “corn for sale” signs.
Corn will beat Biden.
Every day that goes by without Barrett sworn in is a wasted day. Take the damn vote, McConnell!
But wait . . . I thought there’s more black and brown this time round?
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