It’s been happening for awhile, but is only now getting notice.
Western Pennsylvania, once a bastion for Democrats, is becoming Republican.
MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff visited Aliquippa to get a sense of how the former steel and iron towns in the Pittsburgh area have changed.
Before that, though, Soboroff showed a county-by-county map of PA that includes results for the six presidential elections from 1992 to 2012.
Did my best @stevekornacki at L.A.'s version of the big board. Is PA turning red? Looks that way, so I went there. https://t.co/4xSIKp8nhN
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) May 23, 2016
As Steve Kornacki notes, Pennsylvania has been enticing Republicans for years while remaining just out of reach.
“This has been such an elusive prize for Republicans, they have been targeting Pennsylvania every election since they last won in ‘88,” Kornacki states. “But it really could be different this time.”
Soboroff then proceeded to the wall containing the various electoral maps.
“This is a map of Pennsylvania presidential election results from 1992 to 2012,” he states. “As you watch, as it cycles through, it gets progressively redder and redder and redder. Specifically in Western Pennsylvania, this is where the steel industry was centered around near the Pittsburgh area.”
Jacob Soboroff went on to interview the leaders of Aliquippa, video of which is above, and some former Steelworkers. That video is below:
12 Responses
Sorry budget deficit was $200,000,000
Tim… FYI.. The pension crisis started on 2000. Ridge was Governor State Houses where Democrat. They voted themselves a 50% pension increase. They gave state workers a 25% increase they didn’t ask for. It slipped under public radar because it didn’t go off into effect for 10 years. Ridge, Rendell,and Corbett did not find the raise. Dems. and Rep. Lawmakers didn’t fund the raise. In 2010 time to pay the Piper and they still kicked the can down the road. The raise was retroactive. All those lawmakers that retired in 2010 received the unfunded pension raise. The Republicans have controlled the State House for the last 8 years they have continually passed smoke and mirror deficit budgets. All School, Municipalities,and Counties are raising taxes. The Lawmakers passed a budget that the had a defecit of $200,000 that caused these raises. Don’t blame the Governor for these raises blame your local special interest Republican Lawmakers Gabler, Metcalfe,Sankey, and Turzai for giving you all these new taxes.
The Democratic Party has to get over its addiction to identity politics and genuflecting at the altar of high tech. Most decent people don’t support discriminating against the LGBT community, but making bathrooms the new front in the culture war is chasing culturally conservative Democrats into the arms of the Republicans. And since the Clinton era, free trade and the meritocratic values of Silicon Valley have been shoved down our throats. Free and unfair trade kills jobs and the tech industry discriminates against Americans in favor of foreign nationals when hiring. I hope Bernie Sanders makes the DNC Convention “messy” and highlights how establishment Democrats have pushed policies that have left millions of working-class and middle-class Americans behind. Make the establishment uncomfortable in front of millions of viewers and engage in class politics.
The state of Pennsylvania’s pension system is epically underfunded, and is bankrupt. Yet the politicians refuse to make the hard choices to fund it so it is on solid ground and is funded into perpetuity. They refuse to make the hard choices.
Philadelphia is a Democrat hell hole as is Pitttsburg, with onerous income taxes at both the City and County level in addition to the State income Tax. This is of course brought to you by Democrats. B oth of these cities are deepe in debt. Thanks to Democrats fiscal malfeasance a living in fiscal fantasy land thanks to Democrats. Democrats have run massive deficits and have no plans to repay this money. They only think up new programs and ideas where they can borrow more money and raise your taxes again. This is the way these Democrats operate and is it any wonder, the state is glowing red? Think about libs. It’s your own fault and you have the track record to prove what I’m saying. I don’t make this stuff up out of thin air.
Only the welfare parasites, the cororate types, and the government pension addicts who get full boat health care when they retire vote Democrat any more. The rest of us are sick of the Democrats screwing us with high taxes so their people can live like kings with 6 figure salaries, fat pensions, gold plated health care and a new car every 4 years as well as a 5% cost of living increase every year! Screw them, we’re sick of them ripping off the system as we watch them screw over the pension system, raise our income, property and school taxes so they can live like kings and queens off our backs. I’m done with these parasites. They talk a good game, but it’s all about them. They could care less about the taxpayers or financial responsibility as long as someone else is paying.
Observant = Zappala hack. Give it up, sister!!
I guess the powers that be in the PA Democratic Party think they can win all their races based on the turnout in Philly, because the western counties are totally disrespected by Marcel Groen, Ed Rendell, and their SE PA cronies who strongarm the PA Democratic Party these days. Instead of doing anything at all to help us shore up our committees and candidates over here, they ousted Jim Burn (who was from Western Pennsylvania), then kicked both Joe Sestak (who had strong Western PA support) and John Fetterman (FROM Western PA) in the teeth using hard-earned Democratic party money in a primary. Marcel and Ed, you say you want a united party but tell me again, why should I even bother working for “your” party over here in Western PA?
It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which people will denigrate and insult their fellow citizens. Especially those who are politically involved. It is possible for someone to disagree with you and not be a racist or an idiot.
All the more reason why the Democratic Party and its myopic Montgomery County based leadership (State Chair and Vice Chair) missed the boat by not placing a Western Pennsylvanian on the ballot this fall, and allowing Montgomery County to be the focal point of the Party this year. PA had better hope that its all Southeast PA and Montgomery County Ticket really turns out the vote in SEPA, or all may be in peril.
Don’t forget the morons, bigots and clowns. They all LOVE the Rs.
It’s interesting that, as the family-sustaining union jobs disappear, the workers move to the anti-labor party of Scott Walker.
With former steelworkers dying off, the good union men are fewer. The Pennsyltucky/North Alabama Fox News folks remain and have become a dominant force.