Reply #47: Excellent post - May I take your points one step further?

[Penndems]

Having both lived in and worked on political campaigns in Pennsylvania, there are more mitigating factors at work here than just those on an emotional plane.

I agree wholeheartedly with your assertion that good people can become angry and frustrated when they're left behind, but they weren't left behind simply because of a single trade policy, or a particular public official. Millions of people have exited that state since the collapse of the steel industry, and not many stayed to lead a hand in erecting a phoenix from the ashes. If I heard that once, I heard it a hundred times when I resided in PA: "Why did they leave? Why didn't they stay, and help rebuild this state?"

There there was a succession of politicians, both in the state legislature and in the Governor's Mansion, who were nothing more than crooks lining their own pockets at the expense of the decent people of that state. When Tom Ridge was Governor, he took care of both his personal and lobbyist friends, and enabled them to enrich themselves through the largesse of Pennsylvania state government contracts. Mark Schweiker wasn't any better. He saw his tenure as Governor mostly as that of an intermediary between the Ridge Administration and the next state Chief Executive. Pennsylvanians have been caught up in a vicious cycle stemming from state and Federal officials who have benefited from keeping things status quo, and its citizens who believed that changing that culture of corruption was an exercise in futility.

It might be patronizing to imply that Pennsylvanians are optimistic and positive (and there's nothing wrong with being either one), but so is saying they need to be bitter. These are hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people who've been dealt a bad hand at the state and Federal levels, but they aren't sitting around dwelling on the past and wallowing in self-pity, either. They remember the years when steel was king, and are indeed angry that the Federal Government did nothing to prevent trade tariffs from killing off most of the industry and allowing cheap imports to flood the market. However, these folks also realized that they needed to diversify their economy and look at other areas of commerce to "grow" PA economically.

People have to have hope, but they also need the will to survive, honest leaders, a healthy dose of realism, and economical opportunities that afford them not only a decent standard of living, but a chance to contribute towards the the betterment of their state as a whole.