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WB residents offer input on mayor’s salary, firefighters at budget hearing

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Veterans Day parade set for Sunday, will mark WWI armistice

<p>Some media outlets are barely concealing their joy as they describe Tuesday&#8217;s election results as a &#8220;blue wave,&#8221; including here in Pennsylvania.</p><p>In this rush to repudiate Republican dominance, such headlines are doing a great disservice to readers and the country by ignoring a fundamental reality: This remains a nation deeply divided.</p><p>Before you read any farther, please don&#8217;t be confused: We are not taking sides here. What we are doing is calling for a more balanced reaction to the outcome.</p><p>For example, another print outlet in our region suggested that a blue wave &#8220;engulfed&#8221; the state, carrying Democrat incumbents Gov. Tom Wolf, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright to new terms and sending a message to President Donald Trump.</p><p>The Associated Press, meanwhile, ran an analysis piece entitled &#8220;Pennsylvania voters say nation headed wrong way,&#8221; which stated that &#8220;44 percent of Pennsylvania voters said the country is on the right track, compared with 55 percent who said the country is headed in the wrong direction.&#8221;</p><p>Despite a questionable headline, the AP got it right in the lead: &#8220;Voters casting midterm election ballots in Pennsylvania are divided over the state of the nation,&#8221; they wrote.</p><p>We have no doubt that the voters who cast ballots for Wolf, Casey and Cartwright were sending a message to the White House. We believe it is disingenuous to suggest Pennsylvania, as a whole, was doing the same.</p><p>In terms of the popular vote, those Democratic candidates clearly triumphed by dominating in traditionally Democratic urban and suburban areas. The amount of red on the map belies that outcome, however.</p><p>Rep. Lou Barletta, the Hazleton Republican who was challenging Casey for a Senate seat, won 52 of 67 counties, including Luzerne County, but lost overall.</p><p>In the gubernatorial contest, Wagner took 50 of the 67 counties in his bid to unseat Wolf, yet Wolf handily won the popular vote.</p><p>The fact that Wagner led Wolf by substantial margins in many rural, sparsely populated counties counted for nought when the governor took 87 percent of the vote in Philadelphia County, 67 percent in Allegheny, 59 percent in Dauphin, 60 percent in Erie, 64 percent in Lackawanna, and so on.</p><p>As an aside, Wolf carried Luzerne by a close 52-47 percent contest, yet lost his home county of York by 54-45 percent.</p><p>It&#8217;s nothing new to see Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Erie et. al. pulling the state in one direction while the countryside feels cheated. Nor is it unique to us. Democrat Andrew Cuomo was reelected governor of New York with just 15 of that state&#8217;s 62 counties, including only seven north of New York City.</p><p>Congratulations to the victors, but we must not forget or trivialize &#8220;The Forgotten.&#8221;</p><p>As Ben Bradlee Jr.&#8217;s recent book about Luzerne County and the 2016 election reminds us, there are many people in this county, state and country whose sense of alienation propelled Donald Trump to the presidency two years ago.</p><p>Whether you agree with their views or not, Red America represents a significant portion of our electorate and voted in large numbers again Tuesday. Nationwide, Democrats made solid gains to take control of the U.S. House, yet Republicans held the Senate.</p><p>Republican voters should rightly resent the implication that Pennsylvania &#8212; or America &#8212; rejected the president&#8217;s agenda just because a few big cities voted differently than far more less populous communities did.</p><p>The landscape changed, the balance of power shifted, but deep divisions still roil the country.</p><p>Regardless of how your party or candidate did on Tuesday, remember that we are all still Americans. No one likes a sore loser, but sore winners can be just as bad.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">DES MOINES, IA - OCTOBER 08:  Stickers are made available to voters who cast a ballot in the midterm elections at the Polk County Election Office on October 8, 2018 in Des Moines, Iowa. Today was the first day of early voting in the state.  (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_1047626268-594x594-28.jpg</photo0><caption0>DES MOINES, IA - OCTOBER 08:  Stickers are made available to voters who cast a ballot in the midterm elections at the Polk County Election Office on October 8, 2018 in Des Moines, Iowa. Today was the first day of early voting in the state.  (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Our View: Overstating the ‘blue wave’ a grave mistake