Monolithic white Christian nationalism no more? A tension between religious and libertarian conservatism reappears in Pennsylvania

benfell

Pennsylvania

2022 election


Fig. 1. John Fetterman as mayor of Braddock, photograph uncredited and undated, via Next Pittsburgh,[1] fair use.

Pennsylvania will send two Democrats to the U.S. Senate for the first time since the mid-1940s. The Congressional delegation will be majority-Democrat for the first time since 2010. Republicans are on the cusp of losing their state House majority for the first time in more than a decade. And the GOP lost an open-seat governor’s race by the largest margin in 70 years.[2]

While the GOP made gains in states such as New York and Florida and still has a shot at winning the U.S. House, that’s no thanks to Pennsylvania. Here, they lost a marquee Senate race, a critical governor’s contest, and all three of the competitive congressional campaigns. The GOP may have also lost control of the state House for the first time in more than a decade.[3]

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is notorious for its conservative leanings, so it’s no surprise that following a 2022 Republican electoral meltdown,[4] we’re supposed to sympathize[5] with the “fuck your feelings” crowd, you know, just like we were following the 2020 election.[6]

Mostly, as I said earlier, it seems there’s an upper limit to the crazy in Pennsylvania, but also:

Abortion turned out to be the top issue driving voters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, with more than one in three ranking it above every other factor, according to exit polling reported by ABC News.

Dig into those numbers, and the picture gets even worse for Republicans.

Mr. [Doug] Mastriano’s belief that abortion should be illegal, with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother, put him well outside the mainstream. A mere 8% of voters shared his position, exit polls showed.

Nearly 60% of Pennsylvania voters disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, with 40% going so far as to say they were angry about it, according to exit polls. On the other side, just 7% said the decision excited them.[7]

The Pennsylvania white Christian nationalist legislature is in the middle of a two-year project to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot denying that there is a right to abortion in the state constitution.[8] The amendment would be similar to[9] one rejected by Kansas voters following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.[10]

For all the signs I’ve seen in Westmoreland County praying for an an end to legal abortion, for all the white crosses local Roman Catholic parishes put on their lawns mourning aborted zygotes, it turns out that, in the taxonomy of conservative tendencies from my dissertation,[11] Pennsylvania is more capitalist libertarian, as with opposition to COVID-19 mitigation and gun control, than it is social or traditionalist conservative. And with this, a fault line in white Christian nationalism appears that I had not recognized since perceiving an increasingly monolithic conservatism.[12]

“What is the most significant force in American political history? It’s liberty. No question. And you, as candidate, must never forget that. Any infringement on liberty, whether it’s taking someone’s gun or taking someone’s right to end perhaps a very problematic pregnancy” will cause a backlash, Mr. [Joseph] DiSarro said.[13]

This is something to watch.

Jonathan Tamari, William Bender, and Chris Brennan, “The Pa. GOP’s no good, very bad, terrible election is forcing a reckoning in the state party,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 13, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-gop-losses-mastriano-2022-20221113.html

Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116

Gilead

Abortion


Fig. 1. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116

  1. [1]Kim Lyons, “Braddock Mayor John Fetterman keeps on truckin’ in his quest for the Senate,” Next Pittsburgh, March 11, 2016, https://nextpittsburgh.com/features/the-challengers-braddock-mayor-john-fetterman-keeps-on-truckin/↩
  2. [2]Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116↩
  3. [3]Jonathan Tamari, William Bender, and Chris Brennan, “The Pa. GOP’s no good, very bad, terrible election is forcing a reckoning in the state party,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 13, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-gop-losses-mastriano-2022-20221113.html↩
  4. [4]Kris Maher, “Democrat Josh Shapiro Wins Pennsylvania Governor Race Over Doug Mastriano,” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/election-midterms-2022/card/democrat-josh-shapiro-wins-pennsylvania-governor-race-over-doug-mastriano-rdDSLqwHlckU7Q5yZYF2; Samantha Melamed, “Voters cited abortion as a key issue in Pennsylvania’s first election since ‘Roe’ was overturned,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 8, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/election-day-pennsylvania-abortion-reproductive-rights-voters-20221108.html; Anna Orso, “Pennsylvania Democrats believe they have flipped the state House,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-state-house-democrats-republicans-election-results-20221109.html; Anna Orso and Ximena Conde, “The race for control of the Pa. state House comes down to these two districts,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-state-house-control-three-districts-20221110.html; Brian C. Rittmeyer, “Summer Lee wins 12th District race, poised to become Pa.’s first Black woman in Congress,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 8, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/regional/lee-races-out-to-early-lead-over-doyle-in-12th-congressional-district/; Jonathan Tamari and William Bender, “‘It’s time for him to retire’: Some Pa. Republicans want to push Trump aside after their election losses,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-republicans-blame-trump-2022-losses-20221110.html; Aaron Zitner, “John Fetterman Wins Key Senate Race in Pennsylvania, Defeating Mehmet Oz,” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/election-midterms-2022/card/oW3cFfkuo97s4Fa2Q9Sl↩
  5. [5]Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “Dear Trumpsters: Fuck Your Feelings!” Not Housebroken, March 14, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/11/07/dear-trumpsters-fuck-your-feelings/↩
  7. [7]Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116↩
  8. [8]Gillian McGoldrick, “Pa. Legislature approves constitutional amendments to declare residents don’t have the right to an abortion, to require voter ID,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 8, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/07/08/pennsylvania-senate-advances-constitutional-amendments-residents-rights-relating-abortion-require-voter-id/stories/202207080102; Gillian McGoldrick, “Pa. Senate GOP committee advances late-night amendment to restrict abortion, require voter ID,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 8, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/07/08/pennsylvania-senate-republicans-advance-constitutional-amendment-to-restrict-abortion-and-call-for-voter-ids-roe-v-wade/stories/202207080073↩
  9. [9]Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116↩
  10. [10]Annie Gowen and Colby Itkowitz, “Kansans resoundingly reject amendment aimed at restricting abortion rights,” Washington Post, August 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/02/kansas-abortion-referendum/↩
  11. [11]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
  12. [12]David Benfell, “My 2024 forecast,” Not Housebroken, October 14, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/10/my-2024-forecast/↩
  13. [13]Mike Wereschagen, “What went wrong? How the GOP’s hope for a red wave in Pennsylvania crumbled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/11/13/pennsylvania-republicans-election-control-congress-legislature/stories/202211110116↩

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