Representative Mike Kelly just sent his constituents an email titled “Critical Race Theory is Poison” in which he either lied or revealed his ignorance. Critical Race Theory (CRT) holds that citizens should think critically about the effect race relations have had on our country. Kelly misrepresented CRT as “a dogma that preaches American society is defined only by racism, and that we as individuals are either oppressors or oppressed based solely on the color of our skin.” Kelly either has NO critical reasoning ability or he is so venal he is willing to perpetuate lies about how our country was formed and how it hurt a lot of people.
“Critical thinking” has nothing to do with “criticizing” something. It is about looking at the facts clearly and in depth. What happened, how, why, and what effect did it have.
I will use critical thinking to parse Kelly’s remarks. He wrote, “We know that the United States is a fundamentally good nation that was the first in human history to articulate that all human beings are equal, and then to strive to live up to that ideal.” The founders wrote that “all human beings are equal,” but the laws they wrote excluded natives, women, and slaves. Abolitionists and women’s suffragists did strive for equality, but it took hundreds of years of fighting the status quo to get to where we are, which is by no means ideal. Kelly wrote that “we ended slavery, we ended Jim Crow…” Thinking critically, we understand that Jim Crow laws were written to replace slavery and continue to exploit blacks and deny them the vote. So, yes, after “we” instituted Jim Crow, some Americans fought to end it while others fought to keep it.
Kelly co-opted “Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that people would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Mr. Kelly, no one thinks that all white people are bent on whitewashing history and denying American’s racist and sexist past, but we can all see that you are; that reveals the content of your character.
The email ends by stating that “[CRT] is a false and destructive narrative that is being used to divide us and undermine our institutions.” Kelly’s email is a false and destructive narrative that is being used to divide us and keep Kelly and his ilk in power.
Chris Renz

On November 24th, The Sharon Herald offered the following editorial chastising Congressman Mike Kelly for signing on to a lawsuit attempting to throw out all "no-excuse" mail-in ballots in the November 3rd election. Read it on The Herald's site or below: 

OPINION: Voters should remember Kelly's shameful attempt to subvert democracy

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from Butler, cruised to his sixth consecutive term on Nov. 3 by a nearly 2-1 margin. Obviously, Kelly has done a lot that voters in his conservative 16th Congressional District like.
But here's one thing they shouldn't like, regardless of their politics: A lawsuit Kelly filed Saturday in the Commonwealth Court that would throw out more than 2 million votes cast by the people of Pennsylvania.
With that post-game Hail Mary pass, Kelly joined the rest of President Donald Trump's A-team, desperately seeking to undo Democrat Joe Biden's victory with baseless lawsuits in key battleground states.
Many Republicans, gradually and grudgingly, have accepted Trump's defeat, while others, including Kelly, have continued to drink the Kool-Aid, no matter what the cost to democracy.
Even among a flurry of frivolous post-election lawsuits, most of which were quickly tossed, Kelly's suit stands out for its reckless disregard for his constituents' constitutional rights. Scrapping Act 77, a year after Pennsylvania's GOP-controlled General Assembly overwhelmingly approved it, would disenfranchise more than 2 million mail voters in the Nov. 3 election.
Without legal precedent or moral principle, Kelly argues Act. 77, signed into law in October of 2019, is invalid because it authorized expanding mail voting without a constitutional amendment.
The suit ignores that Pennsylvania prohibits constitutional challenges after six months.
Moreover, nothing in the state, or U.S., Constitution restricts the Pennsylvania General Assembly from expanding mail-in voting without a ballot referendum. On the contrary, the constitution, historically, has expanded suffrage and eliminated barriers to voting.
Kelly's lawsuit also calls for sweeping and draconian remedies no judge of sound mind would approve – without compelling evidence of significant and decisive fraud or error that no state or county election official in Pennsylvania has reported or alleged. The suit asks the court to prohibit election results that include mail ballots; or, alternatively, to throw out all the votes and authorize state legislators to choose delegates to award the state's 20 electoral votes.
Either of those so-called remedies would snatch the election out of the people's hands. They suggest Kelly's allegiance to the president outweighs his commitment to his constituents, and the sanctity of the vote. With no chance to prevail, the suit can serve only to further erode trust in government by de-legitimizing the 2020 presidential election.
In a post-election interview, Kelly stated the law, not media projections, would determine the election. In truth, the voters determined it more than two weeks ago.
The people have spoken; like it or not, Kelly should have listened. His record has already been tarnished by an overbearing, if inconsequential, act of partisanship that voters should not forget.