NEPA News Week #1

This week's set of socialist-relevant news in NEPA has certainly been active. There's a few things to talk about, but I'll start with the biggest one.

The Chrin Rally

On Wednesday, a Republican rally was held at the Wyoming Valley Airport for John Chrin, the Republican nominee for the PA 8th Congressional District, with Pence there to boot. This rally featured the typical rhetoric of Republicans proclaiming to represent the working class, essentially just trying to gain Republican votes. What was particularly troubling though was his representation for Trump, something that spells major worries for women and minorities everywhere.

Of course, there's some hope to be had. Action Together NEPA, a left leaning activist group, organized a small protest against the Republicans there. While the protest was small, it spells good news for NEPA's future - right now the region leans strongly to the right wing, but with there being leftist groups on the rise, we can hope that enough work can be done to shift the region's tides.

Facebook Politician Ads

Journalist Borys Krawczeniuk has recently taken to analyzing the amount local politicians spend on Facebook ads. While I have much to say about Facebook as a platform (expect a lot on this from me in the future), I'll stick to focusing on the ad spending for now.

Unsurprisingly, quite a lot was spent - Chrin, for instance, spent over twenty-two thousand. Others spent similar amounts, or even more, such as is the case for Wolf or Casey spending hundreds of thousands - with Trump's "Make America Great Again" Committee spending well over a million!

It's a blatant shame to see, as this money could've been spent to try to help those impoverished. Instead, it was spent on furthering the image of upper class politicians to try to further their own power. A shame it may be, but a surprise it isn't.

State Congressional Elections

There's been a decent amount to talk about in regards to local state Congressional candidates - so let's start off with the 112th state House District.

The two main faces are Republican Ernest Lemoncelli, from Archbald, and Blakely native Democrat Kyle Mullins. Their primary debate as of late was Senate Bill 76, which essentially aims to expand the personal income tax and state sales tax in favor of lowered property taxes, which is claimed to be because of raised property tax rates causing this to break even. Of course, as Mullins pointed out, this will result in little more than increased taxation on the lower class - so much for Republicans being for 'small government.'

Granted, there's some actual good policy decisions from both, such as Mullins aiming to end gerrymandering, or both of them aiming to instate term limits, both having some good environmental policies regarding local landfills, and even both helping ex-convicts be able to get jobs again in society. Mullins himself supports various policies such as raising the minimum wage.

Nonetheless, it ought not to be forgotten that neither are truly interested in helping out the everyman. Instead, they represent a run of the mill politician aiming to service their own interests and the interests of the status quo. This is also true of the next election to talk about, the 22nd state Senate election.

This election has Old Forge native Republican Frank Scavo facing off against Democrat John Blake. The two had a debate similar to the House candidates over Senate Bill 76, with positions from each that I'm sure you could expect. There's also debate over the size of the state Congress and on handling the taxation of natural gas. Of course, there's additionally a lot of troubling positions of both - such as both aiming to reduce corporate income tax, or Scavo aiming to expand a highway at the expense of the natural area around it. Blake has some better positions too though, like raising the minimum wage for instance. Nonetheless, much like the House candidates, both represent the status quo and will ultimately offer little change if either is elected.

Conclusion

This week has had plenty of good news and bad news. There's nothing that can easily be concluded going forward, beyond that the future of NEPA is one we have to and can shape. For better or for worse, its something that should be given our all.