By Dwight D. Weidman
I’ve never been a Doug Mastriano fan. Anyone who knows me or who has ever read one of my columns knows that. I don’t disagree with Mastriano on matters of policy, but I gave up being a cheerleader for politicians who pledge to “fight for me” a long time ago. I believe in honest and fair discussion based on the facts, and that’s why I am alternately amused and disgusted by the “mainstream” media coverage of conservative Republicans in general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in particular.
Media coverage of Mastriano has become almost comical, with liberal reporters frantically throwing anything they can against the wall to see if it sticks. The only thing that they don’t talk about are the issues that the voters care about, because those issues don’t augur well for the prospects of Democrat candidates. Let’s be honest here, most news sources here are unabashedly leftwing, detached from working Pennsylvanians and have been reduced to nothing more that a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party
Other than their built-in bias, there are two factors that help to account for the state media meltdown over the Doug Mastriano candidacy: 1. Liberal reporters and editors are genuinely afraid of Doug Mastriano, and this is not just speculation on my part. I know it to be a fact. They see him, and by extension, his supporters, as the enemy and an existential threat to their ”woke” philosophy, which has become the closest thing they have to religion, and 2. They are incensed that Doug has stopped talking to them altogether. This hurts them the most, because they have become accustomed to their self-appointed role of being the sole arbiters of truth, and this delusion is reinforced by their existence in the liberal echo chamber where true debate is not allowed. It truly kills them to be ignored and their collective reaction is like a spoiled brat who holds his breath to get mommy or daddy’s attention.
The media and the left (OK, I know, same thing!) don’t care to debate ideas, because they know that they will lose every time if they try. They would rather try to create canards about their opponents to diminish them and tear them down.
The first popular canard that has been thrown out is the term “Christian Nationalism”, a fairly new term created to describe many conservatives, especially supporters of Doug Mastriano. The term is used as a pejorative to attack a person or group who is identified as a Christian Nationalist. The publication Christianity Today, which once actually promoted Christianity, devoted a verbose article to the term in 2021. In a very tortured analysis, the article’s author, Georgetown Professor Paul Miller, said that while it was OK to be patriotic, it wasn’t OK to be a nationalist, and it was really bad to be a Christian Nationalist. Echoing something that leftist former President Barack Obama once remarked, it said that America was not and shouldn’t be identified as a Christian Nation and that while it’s fine for Christians to be politically engaged, they shouldn’t be involved in promoting Christian culture, Western heritage, or Anglo-Protestant values. Say what?
Another favorite canard thrown out by the left against Mastriano is his “connection” with Gab, a free speech social media platform. His “connection” seems to be that he has an account and paid the platform a small amount for consulting. Liberal publications like the Huffington Post tried to portray Gab and its owner, Andrew Torba, as racist and anti-Semitic, primarily because 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers used the site, all the while ignoring the fact that liberal sites such as Facebook and Twitter are loaded with accounts of all manner of extremist content while actively censoring conservative content.
Another real winner from the left, as reported by the Philly Inquirer and the Daily KOS, is the breathless revelation that Mastriano had deleted some videos from his campaign Facebook page. Examples of deletions cited by the Inquirer were videos in which Mastriano claimed that the Democrats would engage in voter fraud in the 2020 election, denounced climate change as “ridiculous” “pop science” and called the fight to end abortion “the most important issue of our lifetime.” Imagine the disgust when the libs caught the Mastriano campaign red-handed updating their Facebook page! Oh, the humanity!
I could list many more examples of hilarious attempts by the Dems to take down the GOP gubernatorial candidate, but I will mention just one more, and I’ve saved the best for last. This one is priceless! In an MSN article based on a CBS Pittsburgh item, a headline screams, “Democrats say Doug Mastriano breached police lines during Jan. 6 insurrection and should release video to prove otherwise.” I had to re-read this headline several times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. So, let me get this straight, in the world of Democrat justice, they throw out an accusation without proof, and it’s up to the ”defendant” to disprove it? Mastriano’s opponent, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said that Mastriano ignored police orders and breached the barriers erected around the capitol, stating, “You know what the would-be governor did? He didn’t listen to law enforcement. He sided with the mob and he marched to the Capitol, right to the steps”. I know that the media has been looking for video of this non-event for 18 months now, without success, and now they expect Mastriano to incriminate himself by producing some video that doesn’t exist? Did you even go to law school, Mr. Attorney General?
This method of “when did you stop beating your wife” approach is nothing new and has been used by Democrats in everything from the fake Russian collusion investigation to the January 6th Kangaroo Court proceedings. The whole thing conjures up visions of an old medieval practice where you throw an accused witch in the water, and if she floats, she is a witch, and if she sinks (and drowns), she is innocent.
If this is the best that the Democrats and Josh Shapiro can produce, they are in big trouble. I opined earlier this year that the PA governor’s race would be fun to watch, but I never dreamed I would be seeing such Monty Python-like farce from the Democrats. If Doug Mastriano wins in November, perhaps he should give Josh Shapiro a job as official Court Jester.
About the author
Dwight Weidman is a resident of Greene Township and is a graduate of Shepherd University. He is retired from the United States Department of Defense, where his career included assignments In Europe, Asia and Central America. He has been in leadership roles for the Republican Party in two states, most recently serving two terms as Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. Involved in web publishing since 1996, he is the publisher of The Franklin County Journal. He has been an Amateur Radio Operator since 1988, getting his first license in Germany, and is a past volunteer with both Navy and Army MARS, Military Auxiliary Radio Service, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
