BCT Editorial – 4/3/08

This page was last updated on April 3, 2008.

Too male, too pale; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 3, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “To its detriment, Pennsylvania government and politics are dominated by testosterone.”

What if I wrote, “To their detriment, teaching and nursing are dominated by estrogen?” The air would be filled with screams of sexism.

Regarding the predominance of white politicians, could the fact that 85.7% (as of 2006) of PA’s population is white (black = 10.7%) have any bearing on this?

The editorial noted, “In addition to that, Pennsylvania has never had a woman or a black serve as governor. Heck, only one black and one woman have even sought the governorship on a major party ticket.” You probably noted the editorial didn’t mention the “major party ticket.” That’s because both the black (Lynn Swann - 2006) and the woman (Barbara Hafer - 1990) were Republican nominees. Ms. Hafer switched to the Democrat party in 2003.

The editorial refers to “our well documented fear of change.” If you follow Times editorials, you know the Times pulls out this old chestnut whenever the populace doesn’t buy into the Times position on an issue.

The editorial concludes with, “If you want to know why politics and government in Pennsylvania all too often resemble school-yard bullying, there’s your answer. The testosterone levels are way too high.” I guess we’re to ignore the “bullying” tactics of women like U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).