Featured Commentary category, Page 31
Jason Van Tatenhove: From extremism to advocacy — why we must protect our democracy
I am no stranger to the tactics employed by the Trump campaign: weaponizing fear, amplifying uncertainty and exploiting disillusionment. Their strategy relies on knee-jerk emotional reactions designed to manipulate and divide. These tactics are easily identifiable — if you know what to look for. Unfortunately, many Americans struggling under difficult...
Jonathan Katz and Joel Rubin: Trump is Putin’s Trojan horse hiding in plain sight
The recent disclosure that Donald Trump has allegedly been speaking to one of America’s most dangerous adversaries, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the lead-up to our presidential election raises serious questions again about his judgment and fitness to be commander in chief and the danger he would pose to America’s...
Deb Haaland and Joan Mooney: Plugging wells creates jobs and a healthier planet
Across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the country, millions of Americans live within just one mile of an orphaned oil and gas well. These legacy pollution sites are environmental hazards that jeopardize public health and safety by contaminating groundwater, emitting noxious gases like methane, littering the landscape with rusted and...
David Thornburgh: What would Dick Thornburgh do?
Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, I have been frequently asked this question: What would your father (Pittsburgh native, former Republican governor and U.S. attorney general Dick Thornburgh) think about the state of the country, about the state of the Republican Party and about Donald Trump? These questions...
David Wassel: Swinging for the fence in Pa.’s swing counties
With Pennsylvania defined as “the Keystone” and 19 electoral votes in the balance, the presidential contest here could determine what happens in the rest of the republic. Critical to the fortunes of Vice President Kamala Harris are her performance in municipalities situated in “persuadable” counties. How might she incorporate such...
David Urban: Obama’s damage control for Harris won’t work
In the same week Kamala Harris claimed on “The View” she wouldn’t change a single action taken by the Biden-Harris administration in the past four years, Democrats scrambled and sent Barack Obama — a man who once called Pennsylvanians “bitter” and “xenophobic” — to do damage control. Unfortunately for the...
Michael S. Johnson: Political centrism has been getting a second look. Why?
Political centrism has a bad name. In fact, it has a lot of bad names. Centrists have been denigrated as squishy, weak in the knees, guilty of being sellouts — and worse, unpatriotic. However, the idea of centrism has been getting a second look recently. Americans are feeling like they...
Mitch Kates: Anniversary of Hamas slaughter reminds Jews of stakes in election
This week, Pennsylvania 434,00 Jewish residents are mourning the one-year anniversary of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — by Hamas. Hamas murdered more than 1,200 Israelis during the attack, slaughtering babies, committing sexual violence, burning whole families alive and taking 240 civilians hostage. One year later, Hamas...
Dr. David Macpherson: Who will govern better during the next national crisis?
Over my lifetime, I’ve thought about the people I want around during an existential crisis — a world war, pandemic or whatever other disaster we might imagine. I can’t predict the nature of the crisis, but I can think of family, friends, colleagues and others who I imagine will perform...
Adam Forgie: We must build on, not kill, clean energy momentum
We are in the midst of an energy boom. Since 2019, America’s energy production has exceeded our consumption. Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, America is producing more energy than any time in history, and Pennsylvania is at the heart of it. While we are producing more...
Dyan Mazurana and Sima Samar: Taliban’s ‘vice and virtue’ law erases women by justifying violence against them
Since returning to power three years ago, the Taliban have been enforcing oppressive laws that violate people’s freedoms and human rights, especially those of women and girls. But a newly passed “vice and virtue” law goes further. It is among the most repressive and discriminatory measures ever enacted by the...
Taylor Watterson: Once I related to Vance; now I feel betrayed
When Georgia Rep. Mike Collins posted a Photoshopped image of JD Vance the morning after the vice presidential debate, it felt like the latest attempt to project onto Vance what we want to see, rather than looking at who he really is. I can relate. The first time I heard...
Jim Lee: Is closing the sale with ‘inflation’ voters enough for Trump?
In Pennsylvania, our most recent poll (conducted between Sept. 22 and 28, with a sample size of 700 likely voters) shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump tied at 46% to 46% — a statistical tie. The remaining 6% are undecided; 1% would choose another candidate. This poll shows a slight...
Jennifer Watling Neal and Zachary P. Neal: Voters without kids are in the political spotlight — but they’re not all the same
In the 2024 election cycle, voters without children are under the microscope. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has said that “childless cat ladies” and older adults without kids are “sociopaths” who “don’t have a direct stake in this country.” So it was notable that when pop star Taylor Swift...
John Hinshaw: Why Harris sometimes sounds like Reagan
The Republican Party has been transformed under Donald Trump, and not all Republicans are happy about it. In 2020, about 6% of Republican voters pulled the lever for Joe Biden; about 5% of Democrats did the same for Donald Trump. To put this in context, according to data at Cornell...
Kathryn Spitz Cohan: Modern cinema can continue to thrive
Is modern cinema in trouble? According to Isabelle Huppert, the president of this year’s Venice International Film Festival jury, it is. On the opening day of the festival, Huppert said, “I’m worried about the things everyone is worried about. Making sure that cinema continues to live because it is very...
William M. Cotter: Why local journalism matters
I kick off every morning by checking the local and regional sports scores in a newsletter emailed to my smartphone by my hometown newspaper. I then scroll through a feed of breaking news. This information matters to my family and me. It is a compilation of Pittsburgh- area news I cannot...
Sloane Davidson: Using immigrants for political points hurts us all
At the apex of an election year, some politicians would have you believe our country is deeply polarized on the issue of immigration, using refugees and immigrants as pawns for political gain. Haitian asylum seekers and the Haitian diaspora have been especially thrust into the spotlight, becoming the focus of...
Zach Chow: Building the manufacturing workforce of tomorrow
In honor of Manufacturing Day, Oct. 4, thousands of manufacturers across the country are hosting events in early October to teach students and educators about the realities of working in modern manufacturing, from how plants operate to high-tech career paths. Organized by the Manufacturing Institute, the initiative aims to attract...
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager: Russia’s new ideological battlefield — the militarization of young minds
Over the summer of 2024, some 250 Russian children traveled to North Korea for a 10-day-long kids camp. Framed as cultural diplomacy, the event was the result of a new youth exchange launched in 2022 that sees Russian youth compete for the free trip abroad. To win a place, children...
Deyanira Nevárez Martínez : A better way forward on homelessness
Homelessness is a rare issue in American politics that does not cut neatly along party or ideological lines. It can be hard to predict who will support or oppose measures to expand affordable housing and services for people without homes. San Francisco, for example — one of the most progressive...
Corinne Mammarella: Victims of campus assault deserve better
Each school year, universities reintroduce themselves to their students, flooding them with exciting opportunities, programs and events. The fall semester, however, yields a community of students who have been forced into disillusion. The Red Zone marks the period of time between the first day of classes and Thanksgiving break, when...
Brian Clancy: Taylor Swift encouraged us to do election research. But how?
I’m an independent who has voted for Democrats and Republicans over the years, and what I appreciated most about Taylor Swift’s presidential endorsement was that she didn’t tell people what to think or who to vote for. What she did do was outline a thoughtful process and share where she...
Dan DeBone: Time for legislative action on Pa.’s transportation and infrastructure crisis
As the State House and Senate return for their remaining voting days this year, one major piece of overdue legislation demands immediate attention — Act 89. Passed a decade ago, Act 89 was one of the most comprehensive transportation packages in Pennsylvania’s history. It provided funding for public transportation, highways,...
Point: When violent crime was at its worst, congressional action helped get the country back on track
By the early 1990s, the United States had experienced dramatic and unprecedented surges in crime, with the violent crime rate up 470% from 1961 and the murder rate up 92% from that year. Life in American cities was more dangerous than ever, and punishment was not fitting the crimes. While...
