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Notes -
With Shapiro: Yes, it's totally intentional and yes, he knows what he's doing. Let's look at his options:
He can enthusiastically participate in, as you say, a gesture reaching across the aisle. There's no political reason for him to do this. His entire political career thus far has been defined by his refusal to get involved in counterproductive culture war arguments that only serve to alienate some segment of the electorate. The result of this is that the only people who actively dislike the guy are rabid MAGA who aren't going to vote for a Democrat if it's the second coming of Christ. Given that the chances that this expo or whatever it is not being about the glorification of Trump were always somewhere around 0%, enthusiastic participation would only serve to alienate member s of his own party. Trump is currently in the process of committing political suicide nationally while enforcing strict loyalty among those left in his tent, so there's nothing to be gained by jumping on a sinking ship. Any reaching across the aisle that Shapiro does is going to be towards Republicans in Harrisburg, and is going to involve things that are actually important, such that he appears to be the reasonable one and any criticism of him is further evidence of MAGA incompetence.
He can inform VisitPA, or the Chamber of Commerce, or whoever else fairly early that the state will not be participating but they are free to put an exhibit together at their own expense. This is the neutral option, the one that Illinois and New York chose, and the one that PA ostensibly chose. If he had done this months ago then this wouldn't be a story at all.
He can refuse to participate entirely on the basis that this is an inappropriate politicization of the 4th. This wins him some resistance points among Democrats but has the downside of making him look like a typical culture warrior.
Let's be clear that the Democratic Party, and Shapiro by extension, benefits from this whole thing flopping as hard as possible. I don't want to get into the whole history of the thing, but it's obvious to everyone that the whole Freedom 250 thing is a poorly-planned politicization meant to glorify the current administration, and there's no greater evidence of that than the fact that even Republicans seem reluctant to actually attend, and that even the states that enthusiastically participated only managed to send underwhelming exhibits. Shapiro's little stunt allows him to contribute to the flop while being able to deny responsibility.
If anyone remembers anything about this a year from now, it's not going to be that Shapiro waited until the last minute so that the Chamber of Commerce wouldn't be able to get any exhibitors together in time, but that the exhibition flopped period. In the meantime, people like Stacy Garrity will reflexively make statements about how the state's lack of participation in an event that's an obvious overpoliticized dud is somehow an affront to core American values, making them look like asses, and Shapiro doesn't even have to respond because he already offered a bullshit explanation and pressing him on it further only makes it look like your taking it too seriously, if it doesn't already look that way. Also, never mind the fact that Garrity and her ilk aren't idle bystanders but active participants in state government and had plenty of time (well, four months at least) to at least inquire about what PA planned on doing, though I'd excuse them if, like the rest of us, the first time they heard about this state fair was when the musical guests announced they were dropping out.
As for the reflecting pool, it certainly is being vandalized, though I highly doubt that its woes are due to vandalism, if you can even call it that. I am by no means an expert on this, but I painted in high school, and we would spend more time prepping the surface than actually painting it. A proper refurbish of the pool would have required it to be cleaned and patched thoroughly, and allowed to properly dry (including tarping the "dry" surface to see if any water in the soil is penetrating the bottom and condensing on the tarp, which would need to be addressed separately). It would also require the entire filtration system to be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly before the new bubbler was installed.
Doing it this way would take several months to complete. Trump instead wanted it done in one to two weeks and got results commensurate with that timeline. I have no doubt that there are so-called vandals who are grabbing loose pieces of the coating and pulling it off. There may also be people cutting it. But the only reason they are able to do this is because the coating didn't bond to the surface properly. Suggesting that people are cutting it with a utility knife and peeling off sheets doesn't make sense to anyone who has ever painted anything before, or dealt with a spray-on truck bed liner, or a garage floor polymer coating. If these things are able to be peeled like that, it's usually from something like rust or water penetrating from the rear. It can also because the surface wasn't prepared properly and the coating was applied over top of dirt or grease that isn't bonded to the underlying surface and will prevent the coating from properly adhering. It looks like that is what happened here, and the media coverage caused curious onlookers to start picking at it, who then became a convenient scapegoat for the administration's incompetence.
The Greenberg family may also have a few opinions.
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I am rabid MAGA and would consider voting for Shapiro at the Governor level. I would never vote for him as a Senator though. A governor job is much different than a national politician. It seems like he’s doing a good as a governor.
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