Joe Biden often likes to tout his blue-collar roots in speeches to persuade voters he understands the plight of the hard working everyday American.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Joe Biden, the Fraud
I grew up in a small suburb outside of Scranton, PA, and spent the greater part of a decade in the sweaty dance studios of The Ballet Theater of Scranton above a local bakery on Lackawanna Avenue.
The enticing smell of cakes and croissants baking would waft up through the open windows of the main studio during the hot humid days of summer sans air conditioning — a challenge for girls in leotards doing pliés, trying to stay as slim as possible.
To this day, my father still keeps an office in downtown Scranton on what is now known as Biden Expressway.
Why my hometown feels the current president is worthy of a highway in his honor is beyond me.
Maybe they’re a little starstruck by the ability of a smalltown boy to connive his way into the halls of Congress and ultimately the White House.
More likely, it’s because the politicians, not the people of Scranton, were responsible for changing the name of the Scranton Expressway that dumps onto Spruce Street running through downtown.
Joe Biden left Scranton for Delaware when he was ten years old and never looked back.
He has no allegiance to a city that has failed to bounce back with any significant economic development since the coal mines shut down in the 1950s.
My grandfather worked in those mines. I can assure you, my childhood and Joe Biden’s were very different.
Joe Biden wouldn’t know blue collar if it came up and smacked him in the face.
Like almost everything else in his life, Joe Biden sees Scranton as any good opportunist would – a chance to declare it as his own for votes.
Trump Town
In a 2019 campaign rally in Montoursville, PA, about an hour and a half west of Scranton, Trump chastened Biden telling the crowd, “Biden deserted you. He’s not from Pennsylvania. I guess he was born here but he left you, folks.”
He attempted to discredit Biden by claiming Scranton and then asserted, “Well I know the places better. He left you for another state and he didn’t take care of you because he didn’t take care of your jobs. He let other countries come in and rip off America.”
This is exactly the thing a small-town crowd of those who have spent their lives working in coal mines or manufacturing jobs wanted to hear from Trump – that he would be the president that would bring those jobs back to America — and specifically to Northeast PA, or as locals like to call it, NEPA.
While Trump convinced many voters in 2016 that he was the man for the job, it wasn’t enough to clinch him another victory in 2020.
Biden carried Lackawanna County by nearly 10,000 votes, although Trump won Luzerne County, which includes Wilkes-Barre, by more than 22,000 votes.
Scranton Sours on Joe Biden
Despite their initial enthusiasm for Biden’s presidency, locals, like the rest of the country, have soured amidst continued economic hardships and the President’s poor performance.
Biden’s favorability in Lackawanna County, which includes Scranton, slid from 60% in July 2020 to 47% to late June 2022 amid the worst inflation since 1981.
The share of respondents saying that they view Biden “very” unfavorably increased from 28% to 46% in the county.
Things haven’t gotten better in the year since that poll.
Swing State
Pennsylvania is an important battleground state in presidential elections that tends to lean Democrat. But in 2016, for the first time since 1948, constituents voted right of the national environment voting for Trump by just over a 0.7 point margin.
In 2020, Biden turned the vote back to the Democratic party by 1.2%.
2024 is shaping up to be a Trump induced three-peater with another tense showdown between moderate-left and right-of-center voters that make up much of the base in the Keystone state. While there are many diehard Trump minions in the state (trust me, I saw their flags posted on the houses during a short drive between my hometown and a nearby family home), there are just as many who reject the extreme rhetoric and positions on both sides of the aisle.
Like many in the country, voters in PA are looking for alternatives to a tumultuous four years under Trump or a disastrous Biden tenure. However, it is something they may not get and those in PA will be once again forced to decide whether or not loyalty to a fraud is worth sacrificing their small-town values.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor for 19fortyfive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
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