To be clear, I grew up across the river in a steel town, Monessen; Charleroi was the glass factory town. And this part of Pennsylvania has long been ripe for the MAGA movement.
Once upon a time, southwestern Pennsylvania, the industrial heart of the nation, was reliably blue. Allegheny County with Pittsburgh would anchor surrounding blue counties like Westmoreland (Monessen) and Washington (Charleroi), and Beaver and Butler counties most occasions. As for Fayette and Greene counties? Those largely rural counties were ever the lost cause, Klan strongholds, really, even when the Democrats were at their strongest.
Now many of you know that southwestern Pennsylvania took a shot to the gut when the steel mills and mines began to shut down through the 1980s. And yet, the area was still reliably blue. Well, until talk radio happened. And the Democratic Party ignored all the warning signs that people were gradually being turned against it. Truth be told, this area was also taken for granted by the party. If you don't like me saying that, well, you probably don't live here to know any better. And if you do live here and disagree, explain the vast support Trump has on the mid Monongahela Valley. Part of his popularity is because the Democrats are perceived as having not done enough for the locals, and perhaps too much for others. Trump came waltzing in during 2016 and promised he'd reopen the mills and the mines, and, buddy, that's the siren song to anyone living here who's old enough to remember prosperity.
Of course, Trump lied; he always lies. But people in these parts are susceptible to really big whoppers — especially if the liar promises to restore the social order, their heritage, and their perceived greatness. Exploiting the generational racism of white people living in Charleroi and Monessen is key. Monessen, which has a large black population, has a lot of families that can trace their local roots back to ancestors brought up from the south to break strikes in the late 1800s. Union members would call them scabs, but you can imagine what they were called in "polite conversation." I grew up with that polite conversation, whether neighbors were talking over the fence or hedge and using disparaging terms, or if families gathered in homes and discussed which black athlete on the Steelers or Pirates was one of "the good ones." Such was the talk I often heard in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, I reckon polite conversation has grown worse; otherwise, why else would we be hearing about Haitians in Charleroi being smeared in the news?
Long story short, the mid Mon Valley MAGAbillies can't be saved. They have zero redeeming values. If a federal agency brought in some jobs program that would employ 10,000 of them, they'd all storm the main facility while it's being built because nearly 40 years of brainwashing has convinced them it would bring the Deep State or socialism to the land. Truly, this part of Pennsylvania is the confluence of midwestern malignant ignorance and southern-fried cruelty.
Now expand those hometown values I described to southwestern Pennsylvania in general. Don't believe the rosy stories you hear on DU about so-and-so drove through this ghost town or that rural backwater and didn't see as many Trump signs as in 2020. Nuts to that. This area is MAGA Country. In the November election, you can count on the Philadelphia to staunchly support Harris, the vast nothingness across the middle of the Commonwealth to side with Trump, and perhaps the smaller cities like Erie and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre and State College to lean Harris. And when you add up all the votes from those parts of the Commonwealth, you'll be about as close to 50/50 split as possible. The battle for Pennsylvania comes down to my region, and I hope that all Pittsburgh-area and southwestern Pennsylvania Democrats come out on Election Day with fire in their bellies, because the other side surely will — especially if they've been conditioned to believe that poor black immigrants are going to eat their household pets.
TL/DR: Pull back, nuke from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
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