Op-Ed: For real attacks on democracy, look to Pennsylvania

Originally published in The Hill.

For weeks, Democrats and progressives have leveled charges of “voter suppression” against Republicans for advancing bills designed to enhance election integrity. Georgia’s new election law — which has been wildly distorted by President Biden — is the most infamous of several examples. But amid the sound and fury over election reforms, a genuine attempt to deceive and manipulate voters is flying under the radar — and it’s being perpetrated by Democrats themselves.

As in many states, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency at the beginning of the pandemic that granted him unprecedented power over schools, businesses and families. Since then, like many governors, he has fought tooth-and-nail to hold on to that power — often overruling the people’s representatives in the legislative branch in the process. In the past year, he extended his emergency declaration four times, with no benchmark for ending it. And through it all, he has issued livelihood-destroying orders under a cloak of secrecy.

The economic devastation wrought by Wolf’s shutdown orders spurred state lawmakers to push back with 12 bills to reopen the economy, only to be met with gubernatorial vetoes at every turn. While lawmakers eventually succeeded in forcing Wolf to follow basic transparency tenets during the emergency, the governor blocked their attempt to end the emergency declaration through legislation.

Wolf’s message to Pennsylvanians is clear: On the pandemic, it’s my way or the highway.

Unwilling to allow…

Read more at The Hill.