While the Democratic delegates and VIP’s are solidifying around Kamala Harris at the top of their ticket, Republicans have not only been critical of the Vice President, as evidenced by the remarks of Trump and his running mate, J.D. “Mini-Me” Vance; but they have also been advancing an argument that Biden’s exit and Harris’s emergence is somehow anti-democratic and even unconstitutional, since the Democratic electorate voted for Biden, not Harris, in their primaries. Pennsylvania’s U.S. Congressman, Dan Meuser, has been making such assertions recently. It does not matter to Congressman Meuser that Biden has endorsed Harris, that no official party nomination has taken place yet, and that the Democrats are simply following the established election rules of the party and the laws of the states. And by the boisterous reception that Harris has recently been receiving, it would be difficult to conceive of Democratic primary voters having any problems with the substitution. But for Meuser, who refused to confirm Pennsylvania’s electoral vote counts on January 6, 2021, thereby disenfranchising the will of nearly 3.5 million voters in the state, it is impossible to entertain that his assertion was delivered in any manner other than one of tongue-in-cheek.
But Meuser’s remarks do underscore the fact that a significant part of Republicans’ communication is designed, not to deceive their audience as much as convince them that their senses, along with their power of deduction, are faulty – a classic case of what has become known as “gaslighting”. Despite the fact that numerous audits - including those performed by Republican operatives – had unveiled no systemic electoral abuses in the 2020 election, Republican leaders continue to spread misinformation about the outcome.
Yet, Pennsylvania’s Republican representatives at both the state and national levels have consistently denied the 2020 election results. All but one Republican representative (as well as Senator Pat Toomey) voted not to certify Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, while the majority of Republican state house and senate members tried to either prevent or delay a confirmation vote.
Unfortunately, Republicans have employed the art of gaslighting in just about every issue of any political consequence. They ask us to suspend judgement about those values that we either hold dear – some of which they have promoted themselves - in order to accept some other far-fetched positions that they are promoting. Blind allegiance to a bizarre interpretation of the Second Amendment is more important to Republicans than saving lives. While climate change has already had significant negative impact on our food and water supplies, Gene Yaw, the chair of the State Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, summed up his committee’s priorities by stating, “Frankly, if you’re worried about where your next meal is coming from, you probably don’t care too much about the environment.” They claim that the state cannot afford to provide the constitutional mandate of a thorough and efficient education for all of the children in Pennsylvania, yet they approve tax credits that “would allow all families that homeschool or send their child to private school — regardless of their income — to receive an $8,000 tax credit back to their bank accounts to cover some school-related expenses.”
We can do better. Stay tuned to future blog posts to find out how.
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