Democrats Need Luksik

There are four main party candidates for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania. One is the sitting Senator, Arlen Specter, hilariously trying to re-invent himself as a Democrat at his age. Against him in the primary is Congressman Joe Sestak, a social ultraliberal and a war agenda enthusiast who duly endorsed Clinton against Obama. However, it must be said that he is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. Sestak is polling well.

Across the aisle are Pat Toomey and Peg Luksik. Both are pro-life Catholics, so that the election of either would, to that extent, make Pennsylvania Republicans the equals of the Pennsylvania Democrats of Senator Bob Casey, sponsor of the Pregnant Women Support Act, and son and namesake of the state's ferociously pro-life old Democratic Governor. But Toomey is also President of the Club for Greed and fully signed up to its motto of "invade the world, invite the world, in hock to the world".

Luksik, by contrast, not only takes the standard pro-life positions and supports the traditional definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman, but also supports the Second Amendment, supports closing the borders and enforcing immigration laws, supports the right of parents to direct the education of their children, opposes using American troops as the world’s police force, believes that "our military should only be put in harm’s way when American territory or lives are in jeopardy", supports every effort to make America energy independent, opposes "any treaty or organization that seeks to undermine America’s sovereignty or weaken our Constitution", supports making English the official language of the United States, opposes judicial activism (although she doesn’t specify which examples), opposes the bailouts, supports a requirement that all federal government officials comply with all rules and regulations they pass, supports "fair trade in the international marketplace", supports auditing the Federal Reserve, supports "a total revamping of the federal tax codes to make them simpler and fairer" (although, again, without specification), and supports ending all secret earmarks.

Alas, she also professes to "oppose government programs that seek to redistribute wealth from those who earn it to those who want it" and to oppose the "death tax", although on healthcare she says only that she opposes "rationed care for seniors, the disabled, or any other group of citizens", which of course is not on the agenda. Frankly, she is the best of the four. The Democrats, and especially Sestak, could do with being beaten by Luksik, and then they might finally get the message: "If you’d only run a pro-life, pro-family, anti-war, economically and culturally patriotic supporter of public healthcare and the Employee Free Choice Act, then you wouldn’t now be one vote down on public healthcare and the Employee Free Choice Act". And the Republicans might finally get the message, too: "You can only win what is now a naturally Democratic state in the Northeast, not with an Arlen Specter, but with a pro-life, pro-family and anti-war economic and cultural patriot".