Letters: Partnership keeps citizens informed; GOP obstruction poses grave threat
Partnership keeps citizens informed
The League of Women Voters of Centre County (LWVCC) was founded in early 1953. That fall the LWVCC issued the first nonpartisan Voter’s Guide and held the first nonpartisan Candidates’ Night. Both were widely praised and welcomed by the community, including both major political parties. It was decided to continue these valuable but rather arduous projects. The LWVCC exists to help voters to better understand candidate positions on local issues and policies and to increase voter turnout in all elections. The League strives to increase citizens’ civil and respectful engagement with their government representatives of all parties who make the rules and laws that govern us all.
The LWVCC has continued these projects yearly prior to the spring primary and the fall general election. A partnership was formed between the LWVCC and the CDT that continues to this day, born of mutual respect for the work each organization does to keep citizens informed. Through our partnership, hundreds of thousands of Centre County voters have had access to nonpartisan candidate information twice a year for the past 68 years! This nonpartisan information helps everyone in our community to be more informed regarding the candidates who wish to represent them in the people’s government. The LWVCC is extremely appreciative of the CDT and very proud of our longstanding partnership. We look forward to many more years of working with the CDT in making this important nonpartisan information available to benefit all of the voters of Centre County.
GOP obstruction poses grave threat
Under Democratic leadership, senate filibuster rules were changed to work around Republican opposition to raise the national debt ceiling. In addition to causing a government shutdown, failure to raise the debt ceiling would have triggered a domestic and global financial catastrophe as the world would have seen the United States of America default on its loans and financial obligations. The national debt was a non-issue to Republicans when they were enacting massive giveaways to large corporations and wealthy benefactors.
Republican obstructionism currently poses as grave a threat to our democracy as to our economy. Our nation, which Ronald Reagan once referred to as “a city shining on a hill” whose democracy was a beacon of light to the rest of the world, has been labeled a “backsliding democracy” by the research group International IDEA. Trump’s baseless questioning of the 2020 election, the violent capitol insurrection of January 6, Republican voter suppression, gerrymandering and efforts to take partisan control of future elections all lead to this downgrading.
Our democracy currently finds itself in serious peril. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, both awaiting passage in the senate, continue to be blocked by Republican obstruction. Americans concerned about the future of our democracy need to contact Sen. Pat Toomey, Sen. Bob Casey, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House to demand that they do whatever it takes to get these critical bills passed even if that means changing or eliminating the filibuster.
Time for Corman to drop the charade
Pennsylvania Senator and now gubernatorial candidate Jake Corman recently made an appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast, where Bannon praised Corman for his advocacy for what has been widely and appropriately described as “The Big Lie.” Bannon said of Corman, “A key figure back in the three November movement. Remember he was one of the leaders that sent a letter to the Senate that day to say hey, we’ve had some discrepancies.”
On the podcast, Corman curiously promoted the idea of a fraudulent election by saying, “Look, Pennsylvania had a governor that voted illegally earlier this year. He voted illegally. He gave his ballot to his wife to put in a ballot box, which she’s not allowed to do that.”
Can that petty complaint be part of Corman’s motivation for wasting taxpayer dollars on a statewide audit that has zero chance of changing election results, zero chance of encouraging future eligible voters to vote, and zero chance of advancing democracy?
Corman and his Republican colleagues would do better to drop this charade, drop their efforts to subvert fair elections though gerrymandering, and drop their pursuit of support from extremists who are beholden to Donald Trump.