Pennsylvania, the state that I have been proud to call home for more than two decades, is poised to decide the 2020 presidential election… and there is no legitimate way Trump can win this state. Even if he garners the most votes, a Trump victory in Pennsylvania will betray the precious heritage we inherited from William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, David Wilmot, Thaddeus Stevens, Gifford Pinchot and the other great Pennsylvania leaders who came before us.
Of course, while it is still technically possible for Trump to fairly win Pennsylvania, the polls have consistently found him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in this state since the start of 2020. As such, the likelihood is that the only way Trump can secure Pennsylvania — and, with it, another presidential term — is by stealing the state.
That is why State Republican Chairman Lawrence Tabas has suggested having the Republican-controlled state legislature appoint pro-Trump electors even if Biden wins our popular vote. It is why Trump encouraged his white supremacist base during the debate to “stand by” to steal states like Pennsylvania from Biden if that proves necessary. It is why both the Trump and Biden campaigns have lawyers prepped and ready to fight on and after Election Day, regardless of what the results are… especially in Pennsylvania.
Now let us say that you, like me, are proud of being a Pennsylvanian. You consider your home state to be not just an incidental geographical detail, but part of your identity. Aside from residing within our borders, what does it mean to be a Pennsylvanian?
Fun fact: The Mason-Dixon line include Pennsylvania’s southern border, something many geographically impaired Trump supporters seem to not know when they fly their Confederate flags out here.
- You have to believe in democracy. When William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, he created a governing structure that would eventually be used as a model for the American Constitution… which, along with the Declaration of Independence, was drafted and signed in Philadelphia roughly a century later. Not only did Pennsylvania help invent modern democratic government, but its reputation as a paragon of effective and ethical democracy made it indispensable to the United States when it was a young country. As the famous historian Henry Adams wrote about Pennsylvania, “Had New England, New York and Virginia been swept out of existence in 1800, democracy could have better spared them all than have lost Pennsylvania.”
- You have to believe in religious freedom. In addition to making Pennsylvania into one of the modern world’s first functioning democracies, William Penn also guaranteed freedom of worship. This was a revolutionary act in the 17th century and it still influences Pennsylvania today. We have a diverse range of religions — from various sects of Protestantism and Catholicism to large communities of Jews, Muslims and Hindus — because of Penn’s legacy. As Penn once wrote, “A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God’s sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.” In other words: Our state’s founding father did not simply support religious freedom because he believed it was a human right, but because he recognized that acts of bigotry motivated by religion are an affront to God.
- You have to be anti-racist. Penn treated the Native Americans he encountered in his colony with respect and as equals. While subsequent Pennsylvania leaders would betray his recognition of Native American rights, he set a precedent of anti-racism (despite owning slaves himself) that would eventually convince Pennsylvanians in the 18th century to ban slavery from their borders. Eventually the state became a hotbed of abolitionism and underground railroad activity, as most Pennsylvanians abhorred slavery. Two of the most important anti-slavery politicians from the Civil War era hailed from Pennsylvania: Rep. David Wilmot, who proposed banning slavery from the western lands America conquered from Mexico, crystalizing an issue that ultimately brought about the Civil War; and Sen. Thaddeus Stevens, who advocated actively using the government to guarantee the political and economic rights of the African American slaves freed by the Civil War. Ultimately 27,000 Pennsylvanians died fighting for the Union.
- You have to recognize the importance of protecting the planet. Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the United States Forest Service and a two-term governor of Pennsylvania, was one of the most powerful conservationists of the early 20th century. A staunch friend and ally to President Theodore Roosevelt, he predicted that humanity’s failure to responsibly use its resources would bring about our extinction. While he could not have anticipated global warming, he certainly would not have been surprised by society’s inadequate response to the threat — deeply disappointed, to be sure, but not surprised. As he famously put it, “Unless we practice conservation, those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day.”
- You have to be brave. If the four aforementioned values are ever at risk, the founding Pennsylvanians would have expected their successors to fight for them. Some would have abhorred violence (such as Penn, who was a Quaker), but all would have endorsed doing whatever it takes to make sure that Pennsylvania’s values are upheld through the generations. In the words of perhaps the most famous Pennsylvanian, Benjamin Franklin, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Now let’s look at the scenario facing Pennsylvania in 2020. Trump is threatening to outright steal Pennsylvania if it doesn’t vote for him, which violates our state’s belief in democracy. He has repeatedly said that he will refuse to accept the results of the election unless he wins, implicitly threatening to become a dictator in the process. (No president before Trump has ever suggested doing this.) He has lied about the legitimacy of mail-in votes and made other false claims about supposed voter fraud to cast doubt on the result if he loses.
In other words: Trump is presenting a direct threat to democracy. No true Pennsylvanian will ever support a president who has openly admitted that he will destroy democracy, even if they agree with his policies on other issues. And any true Pennsylvanian is horrified at the idea of that theft occurring in our tiny green corner of the free world.
The same principle applies to the other values listed above:
– A true Pennsylvanian supports religious freedom and is therefore horrified by the president’s prejudices against Jews and Muslims, including his pandering to white supremacists and his ban on immigration from some majority Muslim countries, as well as his anti-LGBT views.
– A true Pennsylvanian is horrified by Trump’s racism, his brutal treatment of immigrants and the belief he expressed privately to reporter Bob Woodward — but which has been reflected in most of his rhetoric about race — that individuals who recognize the reality of systemic racism in America “really drank the Kool-Aid.”
– A true Pennsylvanian wants to leave our future generations with an inhabitable planet, and therefore despises Trump for his refusal to act on man-made climate change and gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency.
These facts bring us to three unavoidable conclusions:
1. If Trump wins Pennsylvania, we will need to immediately investigate whether he stole it. This is not because we’re “sore losers,” but because the data from our state up to this point and Trump’s own underhanded behavior necessitate suspicion. Should it turn out that he won fair and square, we will need to accept that… albeit with a broken heart, given the values that our state supposedly represents and the failed chance at redeeming our decision in 2016. Otherwise…
2. We will need to do everything in our power to make sure that Trump cannot steal our state, an act which would both debase our legacy and threaten democracy itself. It is true that Trump adviser Roger Stone has threatened to use martial law to stop activists who try to stop Trump from stealing the state (I have interviewed Stone about his connections to Russia and his association with white nationalists). We can’t allow that to dissuade us. To quote Franklin: “Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.”
3. We must hope that #1 and #2 never happen. We must hope that Trump decisively loses Pennsylvania so that the world will know that his victory in 2016 was an aberration from our state’s otherwise noble history rather than a turning point toward an inexorable decline. And besides, who better to use as a vehicle for our renunciation of all anti-Pennsylvanian ideas than Biden, who will be the first president born in our state in 160 years?
That is because no true Pennsylvanian will vote for Trump, so if he “wins” our electoral votes, it will either be because he stole the state or because too many of us sold our souls.