The Reverend and the Unionist, Pennsylvania’s Miraculous Pro-Biden Alliance



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HARRISBURG (PENNSYLVANIA) – Clashes in New York, Portland, Denver. Militias with rifles, burning trash cans, smashed shop windows. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it’s Peaceful Trumpian Day. They meet at noon on the same sun-drenched staircase on Capitol Hill, the seat of state government, where pro-Biden activists had demonstrated the night before. About fifty supporters of Donald Trump, wrapped in flags but without masks, raise signs that read “Do not steal the elections” while the notes of “America” ​​sound. Pizza slices are available on a wooden table. A family, father, mother and two daughters pose for the photo with the sign “No commitment to the truth.” You look at their thick wool Victorian suits and think of a vintage image.

Republican senator arrives Jim jordan, one of the big names in the party, to give support and hope: “Trump is winning in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, he is catching up in Arizona,” he says. Republic. “Colleagues called me on the phone to tell me that we will get there too. Of course, when you hear that 25,000 ballots have appeared, you worry. If the Pennsylvania vote is uncertain, it is not only because of the vote by mail, which yesterday remained to be counted. half a million, after more than two million on Wednesday. It is also for the voters who are behind those ballots and represent one of the electoral miracles of Joe biden, capable of mobilizing Presbyterians and workers.

Two were here Wednesday night leading the activists: the reverend and the unionist. The priest Sandra strauss is director of the Council of Churches. Petite, blond bob, big glasses, on the cassock the brooch “Black Lives Matter”. On the face the mask with a rainbow of acid colors and the words “Anniversary of the hundred years of the female vote” and the black silhouette of a woman with her right fist raised. When she approached the microphone, the Presbyterian pastor recalled the founding of America, “born out of respect for differences,” invoked “freedom and justice,” invited to move forward. Then with a firm voice he spoke the words: “We must remain united until the last vote is also counted.” A long applause began from the stairs.

“One of the greats of journalism -explains after the meeting- Give more good, said that “suppressing the vote is making fun of democracy.” And for the political analyst Larry saturday ‘Every election is decided by the people we want to show who we are.’ “Presbyterians have become an electoral phenomenon since Trump, who previously called himself one of them, disowned them. Reverend Strauss in 2018 publicly asked him to to the president to put an end to the separation of children from immigrant families, on the border with Mexico. Separating them, he explains, is not only cruel and inhuman, it affects the development of the child and the mental health of the parents. ”Two weeks before the vote, Trump closed the relationship: “I am not a Presbyterian.”

In the 1980s there were more than three million Protestants, including Ronald Reagan. Since Trump became president, Presbyterians have fallen at a rate of 4 percent annually. But in Pennsylvania they are still going strong: In 2020 they raised $ 30 million in donations. In Harrisburg, they turned churches into voting centers, called on social media for people to vote. More than 1,600 clergy supported Biden, creating the “Vote for the Common Good” movement.

They were joined by one of Pennsylvania’s largest labor unions, which, in large part, it was said, turned its back on Hillary clinton. The historical leader is Richard Wallace Bloomingdale: You have been in the union since 1977, for ten years you have been president of the AFL-CIO, which represents 800,000 workers. “Biden has a development plan – he says – he knows this land, he has dealt with the unions, he is a man of dialogue.” But these will be the days of legal battles. “Every vote will be counted, a right to democracy is at stake. If that fails, everything collapses.” He stops, looks at the people following the speakers for a moment, then sighs: “This battle will be over when it is over, but we will win it.”

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