“’Blue Wall’ Democrat aligns with Trump in new pitch to voters before election,” Fox News reported Friday. “Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey wants voters to know how he ‘bucked Biden’ and ‘sided with Trump’.”

To prove he’s his own man, the Casey campaign has released a video featuring a “bipartisan” couple identified as Marygrace, “a Republican,” and Joe, “a Democrat. “On politics, we just don’t agree,” Marygrace, declares, “except on Bob Casey. He’s independent.”

Sure, lady. Got a bridge you want to sell?

As for the so-called alignment, three points are singled out to appeal to local economic interests:

“Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking and he sided with Trump to end NAFTA and put tariffs on China to stop them from cheating.”

Casey isn’t the only one “bucking” Biden on fracking. Backing away from her previous New Green Deal rhetoric because it doesn’t play outside of Deep Blue territory, Kamala Harris now says she “will not seek to ban fracking if she becomes … president.”  It’s the oldest political trick in the book: Tone down the radical goals and run to the middle while campaigning. Once in power continue with the agenda.

The second point isn’t much of a stretch, either. In 2019, no less a party luminary than Nancy Pelosi “praise[d] new trade deal to replace NAFTA” while simultaneously advancing two articles of impeachment against Trump.

As for China, “Under Joe Biden, the United States continued most of the Trump-era tariffs on China, and introduced others,” and “a Harris administration would likely continue to use tariffs,” Australia’s the Lowy Institute writes, so again, this is no big deal for Casey to claim. (Their claim that her policies would still be “better” than Trump’s is biased in favor of their interests, not America’s.)

Looking at the ad’s “bipartisan” marriage of “pure bliss,” what “Republican” Marygrace leaves unsaid is that in 2020, she and husband Joe held up signs for Biden and called him “a man of integrity.”  They’re hardly the neutral voices for unbiased policy they represent themselves to be in Casey’s slick, professionally produced propaganda piece. By lending their faces and voices, the couple is promoting the Democrat platform and all that it controls and demands. They own their share of culpability for what Casey and Kamala will do with the power they’re trying to surrender to them.

With “Republicans” like Marygrace enabling the Casey/Harris agenda, who needs Democrats?

What we’re seeing is a cynical Democrat admission that their radical platform doesn’t play well in the heartland, so they need to hide who they are and put on a mask of moderation. Not that it will deter them should they gain the political power to force their collective will on everybody else. And pretend distancing himself notwithstanding, Casey isn’t changing anything.

Take his stance on the Second Amendment, which, seeing as how this article is for AmmoLand, is properly its focus.

“Senator Casey believes that we have an obligation to do everything that we can to combat this uniquely American problem, including passing commonsense measures to keep dangerous firearms out of the hands of dangerous people,” he declares on his website.  “Those efforts should include universal background checks, limits on magazine size, and banning military-style assault weapons.”

“Throughout his time in public service, Senator Casey has been a strong champion for commonsense gun safety legislation,” Giffords echoes in its endorsement. “In 2022, Senator Casey worked with members of both parties to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the first major federal gun safety legislation signed into law in nearly 30 years.”

That’s what Democrats mean by “bipartisan” — getting a handful of Stupid Party Vichycons to “compromise” on infringements that then leave prohibitionist resources free for moving on to the next goal.  You’ll notice it never goes in the other direction.

Republican challenger Dave McCormick, on the other hand, is campaigning as “a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and believes law-abiding citizens have an individual right to own firearms for self-defense, hunting, collecting, and sport-shooting, for any lawful reason, and neither Congress nor the states can take that away.”

I could add “to defend freedom,” but (and there’s that b-word again) the truth of the matter is most gun owners could take a more active role in making a public — that is mostly influenced by hit and PR pieces masked as “news” — receptive to such a message instead of spooked by it. If things were different, the race wouldn’t be a tossup with Republican campaigns scrambling to motivate “sportsmen” to recognize they live in a critical swing state, to stop being Fudds (yes, their guns will be next), to get off their damn hindquarters and vote against treasonous gun grabbers.

This race is for a position that has Constitutional advise and consent powers, meaning if you like the Bruen decision and don’t want to see judicial appointments/Supreme Court replacements end up reversing it, the surest way is to elect Donald Trump as flawed on 2A as he is (but doesn’t need to be if “Gun Owners for Trump” insists on being more than a prop), and deny a Democrat Senate and House majority.

That’s not just on Pennsylvanians—that’s on all of us.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.