Letters to the editor
Readers response
Jews should vote for John Fetterman
I read your article on Jewish Republicans splitting their tickets and voting for Shapiro (“For many Pennsylvania Republicans, yes to Oz and no to Mastriano,” Oct. 14). Kudos to them! But candidly, the first time through I missed that the article referred to Jewish Republicans. In reading the article it sounded like an endorsement of Oz. Perish the thought! I will be voting for John Fetterman. I think it’s important that all Jews vote for him. Sadly, we are now in a time when we cannot afford to have Republicans in control of the Senate. Too many are xenophobic; some apparently are antisemitic. I’m old enough to remember a time when people complained that the parties were too alike. I miss not being able to split my ticket, but since 2000 I’m too fearful of what too many Republicans want for our country and the unwillingness of other Republicans to call them out. Please vote for Fetterman; our country’s values are at stake.
Barry Nathan
Point Breeze
Mastriano is not fit to be governor
I have to wonder whether Doug Mastriano truly wants to be the governor of Pennsylvania as he alienates and inflames our Jewish community and many other prominent constituencies. It would be hard to imagine a more inept, pathetic, losing campaign than the one he has been conducting.
Mastriano refuses to answer questions from media outlets other than those identified with the far right. He declines to participate in candidate forums, not even accepting an invitation from the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry to attend a dinner at which he would be given the opportunity to present himself to the attendees, many of whom are conservatives inclined to vote for a Republican.
Mastriano is by any measure an extremist. He would unite with a Republican-controlled General Assembly to outlaw all abortion, placing the survival of the fetus over that of the mother. He would throw out all voter registrations and require Pennsylvanians to re-register. He would eliminate the mail-in voting option that he voted for before it was found to be unfavorable to Donald Trump. He would decimate the public school system by cutting in half state appropriations to it, an action which would hit poorer districts the hardest. Mastriano believes that climate change is “pop science.” He opposes the right of gay men and women to marry the person that they love. He says that a separation of church and state is a myth.
Mastriano is one of the most prominent election deniers (liars) in the country, and he engaged in a campaign to throw out 2020 votes for Joe Biden here in the commonwealth and in Arizona, a state which conducted a widely laughed-at ham-handed effort to re-audit the vote with the goal of finding fraud that does not exist.
Mastriano has a close association with QAnon, the purveyor of crackpot conspiracy theories, including the notion that there is a widespread Democrat syndicate which is engaging in child sexual exploitation and drinking the blood of children. He chartered buses to take individuals to the pre-insurrection Trump speech and was present on the Capitol grounds at the time that the riot erupted. Mastriano has had a close association with Gab, a social media website that attracts right-wing extremists including white supremacists and antisemites.
Mastriano is likely to be trounced in next month’s election, as well he should be. It is not surprising that there is a large contingent of Republicans, including prominent members of the party, who have aligned with our honorable and accomplished state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. If we wish to keep Pennsylvania from becoming Alabama or Mississippi, voters of honor and integrity will cast their ballots in massive numbers for one of the foremost and nationally-renowned fighters to retain our democracy, a man who will bring Pennsylvania into modernity rather than one who would push it back to the Stone Age.
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township
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