Guest column: Pennsylvania's Lone Wolf

By Lowman S. Henry,
Columnist

Governor Tom Wolf has followed a go it alone approach in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic since it burst upon the scene back in early March. He has been unyielding in insisting, with the possible exception of state Health Secretary Dr. Rachael Levin, that he and he alone knows what is best for all Pennsylvanians.

He has attacked and criticized those who do not submit to his every decree, even when he himself violated his own orders. The degree to which he is willing to profess his omnipotence came in late July when he got into a spat with the General Assembly over the new Right to Know law.

Having come into office pledging to run the most transparent administration in history, the governor has instead emerged as a lone voice against ensuring transparency during an epidemic.  Among the first state offices closed in March was the Office of Open Records, thus denying the news media, lawmakers and taxpayers the ability to access the very information on which decisions were being made that have affected the daily lives of every Pennsylvanian.

The governor's go-to attack on anybody defying his will has been to accuse them of partisan politics while urging the voters of Lebanon County to vote out elected officials who defied his shut-down orders.  That tactic, however, could not be used in justifying is opposition to the Right to Know law.

That is because something almost unheard of happened under the Capitol dome in Harrisburg: the law passed both chambers of the General Assembly unanimously.  Every single Republican, every single Democrat, and the one independent in the Senate were united in support of the Right to Know law.

Wolf disagreed and threatened to veto the legislation.  But, with a veto override a certainty he allowed the bill to become law without his signature.  In the process, however, he penned a political screed saying he was doing so despite his supposedly better judgment.

The unnecessary kerfuffle over the Right to Know law was the apex of Governor Wolf's go it alone approach.  Throughout the pandemic he has exercised dictatorial powers confining people to their homes, closing businesses, implementing restrictions all with little to no consultation with stakeholders and generally with little advance notice.

This pattern of unilateral decision-making was set early in the pandemic when Wolf abruptly closed the state's public schools.  Administrators in the state's 500 school districts were caught off guard and given just hours to close and no time to put alternate plans into place to educate students.

Then, again acting without consulting affected state-holders his know-it-all administration ordered so-called non-life sustaining businesses to close.  The order resulted in mass confusion as critical supply chains, some which produced the very medical supplies needed to combat the pandemic, were disrupted. To this day, defying even a subpoena issued by the state Senate, information on the business closure process and resultant contradictory and inconsistent wavier procedures have yet to be fully revealed.

Wolf even managed an amazing feat: triggering lay-offs in the health care sector during a public health crisis.  His blanket ban on elective surgeries, which remained in place until a revolt by providers, decimated hospital budgets and sent workers to the unemployment line.  He even ordered a halt to construction of medical facilities -- preventing the development of capacity that would have been critical had the worst-case predictions of the pandemic been realized.

Wolf has vetoed bi-partisan legislative efforts to re-open segments of the state's economy and has turned a deaf ear to county and local leaders who have argued his statistics and metrics, which frequently changed, did not accurately reflect actual circumstances.

This brings us to the current situation. After saying he would allow county officials to deal with localized spikes in COVID-19 cases as the economy reopened, he has instead placed statewide restrictions on the bar and restaurant industry.  Dr. Levine claims there is data indicating they have been the source of the spread, but she has adamantly refused to release the data that lead to that conclusion to the news media.

And so Tom Wolf continues to rule Pennsylvania by executive fiat, unrestrained by a compliant state Supreme Court that allowed his emergency powers to remain in effect.  At least until next May when voters will have the opportunity to amend the state constitution giving the legislature the clear authority to end those powers Pennsylvania will be governed by a Lone Wolf.

(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly American Radio Journal & Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)

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Guest column: Return of baseball will signal defeat of coronavirus

By Lowman S. Henry

It is perhaps the most memorable first pitch in baseball history. On Oct. 30, 2001, the New York Yankees were set to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the third game of the World Series. Not far away, the ruins of the World Trade Center still smoldered in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on our nation.

Yankee Stadium was filled to capacity as President George W. Bush, wearing a bulletproof vest emerged from the dugout, flashed a thumbs-up sign, then delivered a perfect pitch to Yankee catcher Todd Greene. The crowd roared — America was back.

It was not the first time a chief executive turned to baseball to give the nation a psychological lift during times of crisis. As World War II ramped up, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt penned his famous "Green Light Letter" in which he endorsed the continued playing of baseball during the war effort.

Roosevelt wrote: "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before."

The war years were difficult for professional baseball. Future Hall of Famers like Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Joe DiMaggio served in the military along with over 500 other major league and more than 2,000 minor league players.

The World Series was held every year during the war effort. In fact, there have been only two years in the history of major league baseball the World Series has not been played. Neither interruption had to do with an over-arching national crisis. In 1904, business rivalry between the National and American leagues resulted in the National League New York Giants refusing to play the American League Boston Americans. In 1994 a players' strike forced cancellation of the Fall Classic.

This year America faces another determined enemy, and the challenges are far different from those faced during either World War II or the War on Terrorism. But one thing has not changed: We still need baseball. Just as President Bush's pitch at Yankee Stadium signaled hope for the future, so too will the first pitch thrown in 2020 symbolize the beginning of triumph over the coronavirus.

That first pitch, however, will come under far different conditions. It is not likely we are going to see stadiums full of cheering fans until much later this year, if at all. But, Major League Baseball must develop a plan to get the season underway and President Trump needs to follow in FDR's footsteps and give the green light to do so.

Several plans have been floated; including the possibility of dividing the teams into leagues based on their spring training camp locations. Thus there would be a "Grapefruit League" for those who train in Florida and a "Cactus League" for teams with training facilities in Arizona. There are stadiums to do this and it would significantly limit travel. The World Series would be played later in the year between the champions of the two newly-configured leagues.

All of this will, at least initially, take place without fans in the seats. But, the televised games would symbolize the start of what will likely be a series of small steps as the economy re-opens and the nation returns to normal activity. Whether that plan, or a strategy yet to be developed emerges, the 2020 baseball season must be played.

Some will say we should not squander still limited medical resources to make the re-start of the game possible. But so far the nation has been playing checkers when we need to be playing three-dimensional chess. Yes, the medical component is by far the most critical, but it is not the only challenge before us.

As we see the "curve" flattening, and we prevent our health care system from becoming overwhelmed, the time has come to put aside that checkerboard approach, and start the chess match of simultaneously addressing medical, economic, and psychological challenges as well.

And nothing will give America a psychological boost more than hearing the words: Play ball!

Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His email address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org

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