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Joseph Sabino Mistick Columns category, Page 2

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Joseph Sabino Mistick: How elections really work
David Voye doesn’t sleep much these days. The manager of Allegheny County’s Elections Division says, “You fall asleep very quickly, but then you wake up every half hour thinking about things you need to do.” It has been that way since right after Labor Day. Elections departments work year-round, and,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Preparing for the post-election crisis
Just as in 2020, there will be two distinct elections this presidential election year. The first one will start when the polls open for voters on Election Day and end when the polls close later that evening. It will be all about the voters. It may not be perfect, because...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Women’s rights may decide this election
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case — reversing Roe v. Wade and throwing the issue of abortion back to the individual states — women voters have shown their political strength in every state where the issue has been on the ballot. With that collective clout, women...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pay attention to the VP candidates
When it comes to electing the president of the United States, vice presidential candidates rarely make a difference. The job has often been maligned, even by those who have been vice president. But history has taught us to pay attention to the people who could be a heartbeat away from...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Decency on the ballot
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” That was the question that attorney Joseph Welch asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1954 U.S. Army hearings after McCarthy took his reckless cruelty a step too far. Decency counted for something then, and we will see if it...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: What is Vance’s goal with attacks on families?
I am a father and a stepfather, and I have been a son and a stepson and an adopted son. From a purely political point of view, JD Vance’s attacks on families like mine are baffling. Any candidate looking for votes would realize that it makes no political sense. And...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Haitian immigrants here legally for better lives
Just about all that can be said has been said about Donald Trump’s debate performance last week. But people can’t stop talking about his bogus claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ dogs. The next day, The Washington Post ran a story with the headline, “Anatomy...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump works against many of his supporters
Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing, but those Never Trumpers who still let Donald Trump work them into a lather are not the only people suffering from a malady. Here’s another phenomenon that has puzzled many observers: Why do so many of Trump’s most militant supporters still fervently support...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: A president for all Americans
As a sure sign that many Republicans have had enough of Donald Trump, over 200 staffers of former Republican presidential nominees announced their support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris last week. These are people who worked for President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush and Sens. John McCain...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Playing politics with the border
“That’s just politics” is a common response whenever Donald Trump says or does something outrageous, and it’s true that many of his carnival sideshow antics are worthy of nothing more than a chuckle. But his decision to get Republican senators to kill the bipartisan border bill in February deserves more...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Harris vs. Trump, love vs. fear
As the 16th-century political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli said about the nature of political leadership in his treatise “The Prince,” “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” Being both is a tough act for any political leader, so most leaders choose one — love or...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Harris and Walz may have the last laugh
It has been a very long time since we have heard the word “joy” associated with politics. But, when Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke in Philadelphia last week, he reintroduced America to the notion that we should happily embrace and celebrate the political struggle for the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump’s sideshow is back, and it’s grown old
I was determined not to lose any friends during and after the 2020 presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and my plan was moderately successful. You want to be challenged if you write a weekly newspaper column about politics and government, but my email during the Trump years...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Now it’s the Democrats who are energized
When Frank Sinatra sang, “You’re riding high in April, shot down in May” — a lyric from his 1966 hit song “That’s Life” — he was describing the sudden ups and downs of life. In politics, as we have seen in the past few weeks, fortunes can change even faster...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Assassins can’t steal our elections
We are all sickened by the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. Public policy is to be decided by the voters in this Republic, not by assassins. Those of us who were around during the 1960s remember too clearly the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. His...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: In search of a silent majority
When President Richard M. Nixon appealed to the nation for support of his Vietnam War policy in a televised address, he called on the “silent majority” of Americans to side with him. The term “silent majority” has come and gone and been used in various ways, but it suited Nixon’s...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Cicero offers guidance on growing old without giving up
Since I first encountered Cicero in school, my admiration for him has grown and grown. I was drawn even closer to him when I found out the Roman lawyer and philosopher summered in Treglia — ancient Trebula Balliensis — my family’s village in southern Italy. When I suggest to my...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Dry spell may be Gainey’s defining moment
There are moments in every big-city mayor’s administration that define the mayor’s performance and values better than anything else. For the administration of Pittsburgh’s Mayor Ed Gainey, the failure to turn on the city’s over 200 drinking fountains in this hot summer may be such a moment. As first reported...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We have all the information we need for November
In January, along with former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, I joined a few dozen state advisory board members of Keep Our Republic at a two-day conference near Washington, D.C. Keep Our Republic is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that is working to identify problems that could come up in our presidential...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: A safer Pittsburgh needs more eyes on the street
When the Alle­gheny Conference shared its ideas for a reimagined Downtown Pittsburgh this month, there were no actual proposals, just what were called “aspirational” and “visionary plans.” Downtown tax revenue is tanking, and the city administration continues to discourage and block new development. If the Allegheny Conference is going to...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Remembering when Americans fought for freedom
As the nation remembered D-Day last week — with what was likely the last big gathering of American heroes in Normandy, France — the world was reminded of the value that America once placed on freedom. The numbers are staggering. On June 6, 1944, nearly 7,000 Allied ships and landing...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Faith in our justice system after Trump verdict
The trial of Donald Trump was both extraordinary and ordinary at the same time. Never before has a former president of the United States been charged, tried and convicted of crimes. But, once charged, Trump was treated like everybody else. With apologies for this lawyer’s view — without the passion...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Justice denied
When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned 55 years ago this month, he was facing congressional calls for his impeachment. He had been on the court for less than four years and had controversially remained a confidant of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The cause of his resignation was a...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Cyril Wecht’s unforgettable life
For as long as any of us around here can remember, Dr. Cyril Wecht made headlines everywhere. The renowned forensic pathologist, physician and lawyer died at 93 last week. But he lived a life that we will never forget. Dr. Wecht invented the role of the celebrity forensic pathologist. He...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: A not so beautiful day in the neighborhood
WQED television was established in 1954 — right here in Pittsburgh — as the first community-­sponsored educational television station in the nation. The station was truly Pittsburgh, originally funded in part by 200,000 $2 donations from local families. WQED is in our community’s genes, and our genes are in WQED....


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