I grew up in a Democratic household, where Jack Kennedy was a hero.
But I became a Republican as a young man, when I saw the difference between the failing 1970s America of Jimmy Carter and the vibrant 1980s America of Ronald Reagan. Sometimes, elections matter a lot.
Today, I’m one of many people who feel politically homeless when the Republican Party nominates candidates like Doug Mastriano, who’s not a conservative, but some kind of radical.
Mastriano wants to throw out every registered voter in Pennsylvania and make us all sign up again, based on literally crazy ideas about the 2020 election having been stolen.
That’s not Republican, it’s radical.
He wants to ban abortion without exception after the detection of a heartbeat, even in a case in which a father rapes his 13-year-old daughter and the resulting pregnancy threatens her life.
That’s not Republican, it’s radical.
He speaks of America as a “Christian nation”, ignoring the explicit constitutional prohibition against the establishment of a government-sponsored religion. And he seems to think that God himself tells him what Pennsylvania’s highway budget should be.
That’s not Republican, it’s radical.
Republicans of good conscience and genuine conservative values cannot support Doug Mastriano for Governor.
Doug Mastriano is an extremist, far outside the mainstream of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, a party that has given the Commonwealth and the nation outstanding leaders like Governors Dick Thornburgh and Tom Ridge.
As Pennsylvania and the country approach the 2024 Presidential election, we cannot afford to have Mastriano as governor, and whoever he would appoint as Secretary of State, to oversee the counting and certification of Pennsylvania’s votes for the next President.
READ MORE: Christine Flowers: No thanks, Never-Dougers
Pennsylvania Republicans and Conservative-leaning Independents can decide this election. They need to withhold their votes from “Ultra MAGA” Doug Mastriano.
Joining with other decades-long supporters of the GOP, I have founded Republicans4Shapiro, an independent political committee created to oppose the gubernatorial candidacy of Doug Mastriano. It is not authorized by nor will it act in coordination with the campaign committee of any candidate for office.
Already, we include among our advisors Republicans who have served as a lieutenant governor and state Senate president pro tem, an attorney general of the state and a district attorney of one of our largest counties, members of Congress, of the state House and Senate, and senior appointed officials from the last three GOP tenures as governor.
Republicans4Shapiro will identify the significant percentage of Pennsylvania’s registered Republican and Republican-leaning Independents who do not see Doug Mastriano as a representative of their views and values and will communicate with them across multiple media platforms to encourage these voters to withhold their votes from Mastriano, regardless of whatever objections they may have to the policy orientation of the Democratic Party, either in the state or nationally.
It will give a safe harbor to the many Republicans who find Mastriano and his radicalism simply unacceptable.
Craig Snyder is a former GOP nominee for Congress (PA-1), former Chief of Staff to US Senator Arlen Specter and presently directing the Republicans4Shapiro.com Political Committee in PA.
Shapiro as AG sued the Little Sisters of the Poor to force nuns to pay for abortion under Obamacare. Any R that would ever endorse or fund or vote for a guy who would do that is silly or a fake in my opinion. No matter how the election turns out, Mastriano’s nomination is a victory for taking the power out of the hands of the RINO who have held it back for years. I hope the R base has a long memory.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/misleading-claim-that-democratic-candidate-sued-group-nuns-over-contraception-coverage/
No, he didn’t.
HEY JSA????
BLACKJACK… Your wrong x 3…
https://www.becketlaw.org/media/ag-shapiro-little-sisters-unwelcome-city-brotherly-love/
AND AGAIN:
https://littlesistersofthepoor.org/events/little-sisters-return-to-the-supreme-court/
AND AGAIN:
https://www.courthousenews.com/nuns-want-to-fight-as-contraceptive-mandate-battle-wages-on/
YOUR WRONG…
Other sources on the net say otherwise…
The post is fake news.. everyone knows that.. well… NOT EVERYONE
JSAMace, you are so wrong it’s embarrassing.
It is a sad day when these Rhinos would support and left wing of the communist party of America which the Democrat Party has become . I know I defeated Congress Man Dent in a Debate who wanted to send more jobs overseas. We have no more jobs to send over seas. Shapiro supports this action he also supports open borders, he supports abortion on demand even to birth of a nine month old baby. What more do we need to know about this man. He would have us on lock down again shut our business down again. He would shut down are natural gas business . He is racial . I also used to be a Democrat that party left us working men and women of America years ago
EVIL BEGETS EVIL…
Mastriano is wearing the Amour of God.
It takes a righteous man to stand firm, tall, and not back down against these evil attackers… evil minions.
He doesn’t need a large campaign money war chest to connect with the PA voters.
The righteous/newly awakened will come out in DROVES and vote for him without it.
We know what to do.. we can feel it.
Those supporting the PAC should be removed from the Republican party. Committee members cannot support anyone but the endorsed candidate or they are removed. I ran against Doug and disagreed with him but now I am doing everything I can to help him.
In the Republican primary Shapiro supported Mastriano according to the New York Times engaging in the “long-held strategy among campaign tacticians: elevate your most extreme rival, and peel away disaffected moderates from that rival’s party come November.”
Now Craig falls for and wants to reward his dirty trick. Bill Kristol would be proud.
The author claims to have grown up in a democrat home that viewed Jack Kennedy as a hero. That’s all you need to know about his “conservative” bona fides. He has simply reverted to form after years of grifting off the gullible republicans who thought he was one of them. Of course, given what has become clear about the republican party he problem was one of them, i.e. a member of the All American Uniparty whose only goal is self -advancement and financial gain. He clais to be a “conservative” but wants to put a left-wing, progressive democrat in office instead of a republican, just like all those so-called “conservatives” in the media, like Jen Rubin, Bill Kristol, David French as well as those contemptible politicians Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. No sane conservative falls for their schtick any longer; it is old and totally busted.
So, your GOP bonafides are Tom Ridge and Arlen Specter? Tom Ridge, the guy who didn’t carry out Abortion clinic inspections which lead directly to the horrors of Gosnell? Arlen Specter who didn’t have one conservative bone in his body? Shapiro is as Leftist as they come. We have lived in through the massive mismanagement of a Democratic Governor for 8 years, and Shapiro is nothing but a Wolf in Shapiro clothing. You, sir, are no Republican.
I notice how much of the “conservative” (really Trumpeter Swan) movement is based not on what is best for Amerioca but instead on how much they hate “liberals” — just as 1930s Germans learned to hate Jews. You folks drink a LOT of Kool-Aid.
This article and the comments raise an interesting issue. How many Republicans and Democrats still feel comfortable in the party they belong to? I suspect there are many of both wondering.
Thanks for the article. As a Republican for 42 years, I, too, am feeling politically homeless, and I find myself without choices. Can’t bring myself to vote for the “Soros-backed” liberal Democrat. But definitely can’t vote for the white Christian nationalist wearing the clever GOP disguise. What to do? I remember forty-two years ago, when I turned 18 and I looked forward to voting for the candidate whom I thought would do the best job for America. Now I’m saddened that my choice is between who will do the least damage to America’s democracy.