For those of you that are new to reading my column or maybe those that have forgotten my political roots, I thought it would be a good time to discuss this.

My Father was an ultra-Conservative Republican but never had a problem letting the Republican Party know when there was a problem. He was a self-made man that loved our great Nation. A definite believer in the Constitution of the United States of America. When it came to anything involving money and commerce, he believed the least amount of government involvement, the better. In other words, the government would only screw things up and make them more costly. The private sector would run all as a business for profitability, which is made possible through accountability.

My Grandfather, Phillip Maietta, was a staunch Democrat. He was well-connected to the Democratic party. He went through many perils in his lifetime, including being in an orphanage when he was young. He was a proud Italian-American that made his own American Dream. He began his hardworking life before he was a teenager and worked his way from rags-to-riches. Although you would have never known it, he was an extremely modest man and lived most of his life in Newberry on 4th Street.

Pappy Maietta was invited to President Carter’s Inauguration and celebratory ball. He received a gold peanut tie or lapel pin with the invitation, which he gave to me. Like my baseball card collection, it is one of the things I wish I still had. He did not attend the Inauguration; it just wasn’t something my Grandfather would go to. I had the privilege at a young age to meet Governor Milton Shapp and Representative Dan Flood right in Newberry.

I also, through my Father, got to meet the Republican leaders of his time. Governor Dick Thornburgh, Senator Rodger Madigan right on through to representative Tom Marino. My Father and Carol attended President George H.W. Bush’s Inauguration and gala.

So why am I telling you all of this? Some for the first time? Because I want you to know the two most influential men who shaped the person I am today were on the opposite sides of the political aisle. I got a great education from both about the Democratic and Republican parties.

When I say in my articles that everyday hardworking Democrats need to take their party back, it is because of what my Grandfather taught me. And nobody was a bigger believer in the Democratic Party and their connection to the hardworking, everyday man than my Pappy Maietta.

He would be beyond disbelief in what the Democratic party has become. One of my greatest frustrations is Italian-Americans that are still stuck on the Democratic Party of the past; their party affiliation passed down from generation to generation. The Democratic party has been hijacked, my friends, by self-serving, beyond liberal to socialistic non-carers of the American people. I don’t want you to leave the Democratic Party. I want you to understand and change the party for the good and vote for the best candidate for America, no matter political affiliation.

Stating my Pappy Maietta would be upset and vocal about what the Democratic party is today might be the greatest understatement I have ever written.
My Dad would be totally disgusted with what the Republican party has become today. He would be a fan of President Trump and his policy. But would want him to be more Presidential. His cell phone and social media antics would irritate him, although he would find it humorous. My Dad was a big believer in operating from a position of power, keeping your mouth shut, and just doing your job.

He would be totally disgusted with the lack of support the Republican party has given Donald Trump from the time he won the Republican nomination right up to this impeachment poppycock. I am sure he would call me often and say, can you believe this bulls***, these Republicans in Washington might as well be Democrats. My Father taught me how the Democrats always stick together no matter what. And how the Republicans just don’t understand the importance of this.

My Mom, like my Grandfather, is a Democrat. My Stepmom Carol is a Conservative Republican. My Stepfather, who is no longer with us, was a Democrat for many of the same reasons my Pappy Maietta was.

When I pen a column, it is my intent to share with you what I see through my eyes and what is best for our Nation. Not for the Republican or Democratic Party, not for anybody with a personal agenda paid for by the American taxpayer. It is my attempt to use my knowledge and common sense gathered over my lifetime, much learned from two of the most intelligent, stubborn, hard-nosed men that have ever walked Lycoming County to provide accurate, thought-provoking editorials.

I want our One Nation under God to continue to remain the greatest example of freedom and democracy since the organization of civilization.

I want the freedoms intended by our forefathers, fought for and preserved by blood and clearly penned within the Constitution of the United States of America to be extended to my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and every American of the future.

We fought the Revolutionary War to become a sovereign Nation under God. To get away from the very tyrannical things the Nancy Pelosis and beyond liberal Democrats want to turn our Country into. If we don’t soon unite under this understanding and in the name of God to defend these freedoms as intended, we’re all in big trouble.

God Bless America.