Author Archive

A Black woman for the GOP

Posted: May 17, 2022 by chrisharper in politics
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

Today’s GOP primary here in Pennsylvania, particularly in the U.S. Senate race, underlines the unpredictability of the state’s Republican Party.

Seven candidates are vying for the ability to replace Pat Toomey, a significant disappointment for many Republicans.

David McCormick, a former hedge-fund executive, has millions of dollars to spend, but his close ties to China make him unpalatable even though he has been at or near the top of the polls. Moreover, his connections are mainly to New Jersey rather than Pennsylvania.

Mehmet Oz, a surgeon and a television talk show host, has the support of President Trump. But Oz’s past statements in support of abortion and other liberal issues have offended many conservatives in the state.

As a result, Kathy Barnette, a former soldier and Fox News analyst, has gained traction in recent weeks.

This trio stands atop the polls in what has become one of the most expensive and dirtiest campaigns in Pennsylvania’s history.

Barnette has been the recent target of such attacks, including her tweets about Islam and gays.

“My phone is blowing up with people who never call who are asking who they should vote for,” said Doug McLinko, a Bradford County commissioner and local Republican Party official in northern Pennsylvania.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, McLinko said he has rarely seen as much confusion and indecision among conservatives. “Spending all this money to attack each other isn’t helpful because it has confused the voters,” he said. “I’ve never seen such a mess.”

If successful, Barnette would be the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican. During the campaign, she has questioned the commitment of her better-funded rivals on abortion and other conservative causes.

 “I am the byproduct of a rape,” she said in one debate, as she criticized Oz for past support of abortion. “My mother was 11 years old when I was conceived. My father was 21. I was not just a lump of cells.”

Barnette said she was raised on a pig farm in Alabama that lacked running water.

In her book, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: Being Black and Conservative in America, Barnette argues that liberal policies have failed the Black community. 

I think Republicans need someone different to set the party apart from the Democrats. A Black woman from a hardscrabble background might make a powerful candidate against the Democrats, who depend heavily on the Black communities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC, has endorsed Barnette and placed an order for $2 million in advertising in support of her. Barnette, who lost a bid to join U.S. House of Representatives in 2020, also won the backing of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group.

Conventional wisdom argues that a Black female Republican will have difficulty beating the likely Democrat John Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor. But Fetterman suffered a stroke over the weekend and may not be as formidable as many experts think. 

I don’t think conventional wisdom and experts work much anymore. As a result, I plan to vote for Barnette. I think she might be just the right candidate to keep the seat in Republican hands. 

The media attack a Christian Republican in Pennsylvania

Posted: May 10, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

You know when a Republican politician is doing something right: a big-daily newspaper starts to attack.

That’s what happened when the Philadelphia Inquirer took aim at State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who’s running for governor of Pennsylvania.

In an attempted takedown of Mastriano, who’s leading the polls, the Inky headlined an attack piece: “Doug Mastriano embodies a Christian nationalist movement as he runs for governor.” See https://www.inquirer.com/politics/doug-mastriano-governor-christian-nationalism-qanon-20220504.html

A Christian! A nationalist! How dreadful!

“We have the power of God with us,” he told a recent rally. “We have Jesus Christ that we’re serving here. He’s guiding and directing our steps.”

The Inky commented in an alleged news article: “It was classic Mastriano — how God told him to run for governor and how he was the candidate who could save the state from its descent into evil.”

Mastriano, 58, is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor in the nation’s fifth-largest state. He has been at or near the top of almost every poll in the nine-person race with just a week left before Tuesday’s primary. 

While the Inky and other leftist news organizations emphasize Mastriano’s religious fervor, they tend to gloss over his rather substantial attributes. 

Mastriano was commissioned in the U.S. Army in 1986 and served on the Iron Curtain with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in West Germany. While serving along the East German and Czechoslovakian borders, he witnessed the end of the Cold War and later deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm in 1991 to liberate Kuwait. He served four years with NATO and deployed three times to Afghanistan. Mastriano was the director of NATO’s Joint Intelligence Center in Afghanistan, leading 80 people from 18 nations. He completed his career as a professor at the U.S. Army War College. He retired from the military as a colonel. See https://senatormastriano.com/biography/

He enjoyed a quick ascent into politics, earning a seat in 2019 to the Pennsylvania State Senate from a district just adjacent to my home in the central part of the state. 

Mastriano supports gun rights, charter schools, and lower taxes. He opposes vaccine mandates and abortion.

The candidate also supported moves to overturn the Pennsylvania vote after Donald Trump lost the state in 2020 by a mere 81,000 votes. In his first 100 days as governor, Mastriano said he would “immediately end all contracts with compromised voting machine companies” and push to enact various voting restrictions.

After eight years of an atrocious Democrat regime, many of us are relieved that we can cast our vote for a man who reflects what makes America great despite the harrumphing from the leftist media.

Social justice warriors and the academy

Posted: May 3, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

During my 17 years at Temple University, I have seen a leftward-leaving body of faculty become a home for social justice warriors.

One of the SJW stars is Sara Goldrick-Rab, one of the most outspoken and obnoxious leaders at Temple, where she heads the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. The center has attracted at least $6 million since she arrived in 2016, and she’s been named one of Education Week’s most influential scholars. 

Nevertheless, her autocratic and abhorrent methods for running the center have resulted in the massive departure of employees and has caused the university to hire investigators to find out what’s going on. 

Moreover, Godrick-Rab has been placed on paid administrative leave from the university while the investigation continues.

Not surprisingly, you won’t find a single word about the controversy on Temple’s website or in the student newspaper—only laudatory articles about her extraordinary work.

The problems first surfaced in Inside Higher Ed, a news organization devoted to reporting about university affairs. See https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/04/14/temple-hires-outside-counsel-investigate-hope-center

“More than a dozen center employees, past and present, have in interviews with Inside Higher Ed over the past several months described toxic management under Goldrick-Rab,” the news organization reported. That’s quite a few since only 50 people work there!

Here’s a sample of some statements in the interviews:

“The center fails to live out the public values of the work being done when it comes to the treatment of staff,” said one former employee, who (like most of his former colleagues who reached out to share their experiences) wished to remain anonymous, for fear of professional or personal retribution. “The Hope Center tagline is that ‘students are humans first,’ [but] in every possible way [Goldrick-Rab] fails to apply that same lesson to the treatment of staff, viewing them as disposable to her and the work of the center.”

Another current center employee said, “There’s drama everywhere, you know. You go to places of work, and there’s bad bosses. There’s people who do shitty things. I get it. But this is just untenable.” More than two dozen colleagues have left the center in the last few years, the employee said.

Goldrick-Rab told Inside Higher Ed that she had asked for the investigation and has faced retaliation for speaking out about Temple education dean Gregory M. Anderson. Earlier this year, Anderson resigned his post as dean. 

Temple acknowledged in a statement that it had initiated a “review” and that Anne Lundquist, managing director of learning and innovation at Hope, will act as interim director during that process.

“Temple takes seriously its responsibility to ensure a supportive workplace climate and professional environment,” the school said in a statement.

Whatever the case, social justice apparently only applies to those who join its highest rank of warriors. 

I like Ike!

Posted: April 26, 2022 by chrisharper in politics
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

By many accounts, Dwight Eisenhower was a lazy caretaker of the U.S. presidency.

Again, these analysts missed the boat by a wide margin.

In my continuing deep drive in the presidency, I found that Eisenhower was one of the best presidents ever.

In his 2013 analysis of Eisenhower’s efforts as a general and president, the late Jean Edward Smith dismisses many of the criticisms of Ike’s time in the White House. See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11958983-eisenhower-in-war-and-peace

Moreover, other historians are taking a more positive stance toward the 34th president, who served from 1953 to 1961. C-SPAN’s 2021 ratings of American presidents show that Eisenhower has moved up the ranks from 2000 to No. 5 in the 2021 survey.

In Eisenhower in War and Peace, Smith writes, “With the exception of Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower was the most successful president of the 20th century,” citing his avoidance of several military actions, creation of the interstate highway system, and the restoration of “the nation’s sanity” after McCarthyism.

In my opinion, FDR and cousin Teddy, who rank No. 3 and 4, should be put way down the list; Eisenhower should stand just behind Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, the top two on the C-SPAN list.

In 1952, Eisenhower entered the presidential race as a Republican to block the isolationist foreign policies of Senator Robert A. Taft, who opposed NATO and wanted no foreign entanglements. Eisenhower won that election and the 1956 election in landslides, both times defeating Adlai Stevenson II. 

Domestically, Eisenhower balanced the budget, lowered taxes, and reduced the country’s debt. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent the 101st Airborne to enforce federal court orders to integrate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

His lasting legacies include the Interstate Highway System and his warning about the “military-industrial complex,” which had become a dominant force in increasing defense spending for power and profit.

Internationally, Eisenhower, the soldier, knew the human price of war and kept the United States at peace for eight years. 

Ike got the United States out of the Korean War. He vetoed his adviser’s suggestions of using nuclear weapons to help the French in Vietnam and Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan. He forced the Israelis, French, and British out of the Suez Canal in 1956 when the three countries seized control of the critical transit route from Egypt. 

Unfortunately, he chose Earl Warren as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also allowed the CIA to expand its reach by overthrowing the leadership of Iran and Guatemala and agreed to the U-2 overflights of Russia, which soured the relationship with the Soviet Union.

Since I was only nine when Eisenhower left office, I didn’t realize what an exceptional president he was. I now understand why so many liked Ike.  

Older Entries
Newer Entries