It’s very frustrating because he’s so very wrong on so many issues, but he’s also among the very few that are right on others.
He was basically the only voice in the Senate (of either party) who pushed for an appropriately serious response to Bob Menendez’ criminal indictments. Nobody other than him tried to get Menendez expelled prior to the conviction or push to prevent him from receiving classified briefings as his trial was underway. (My own senators didn’t even suggest that Menendez voluntarily resign, and I’ll never forget that.)
Fetterman also supports the very reasonable idea of banning members of congress from owning individual stocks (unfortunately not an idea supported by his fellow lawmakers) and is on the right side of some criminal justice reforms such as eliminating the death penalty.
What’s a little being a huge genocide supporter between friends?
I have a hard time thinking of what he’s accomplished for Pennsylvania. Lots of pols run towards the center running up to an election; fewer repudiate the base that got him there immediately after winning with no election in sight.
Fuck that genocidal git. I don’t give a shit what he “did right”… he supports killing children. He can fuck right the fuck off.
I am SICK of treating the entire fucking planet and everyone on it like a game of chess. If someone were bombing the HELL out of your community, and some official somewhere were cheering it on, you wouldn’t be saying this like this. You’d be calling him out for supporting genocide.
this isn’t difficult. Supporting genocide is bad. Always bad. It’s NEVER good. We should vote out anyone who has such a full throated support of genocide.
Yeah, bit of selection bias there. Right-wingers have had 20+ years of building up alternative news networks pulling in the folks who respond most to that shit and insulating them from fact-based media (or, at least, media that has to adhere to the equal time rule).
I guess the idea I find distateful is that we should emulate the strategies that work for Republicans. I don’t think that’s where progressives are at their strongest.
I agree that it’s distasteful, but I’m coming around on the idea that in the end elections are decided by stupid people. And if you aren’t speaking to stupid people and getting them on your side, you are going to lose elections. Republicans are way ahead on this.
I agree. Maybe we (or at least the author and I) just have different ideas of what “smear campaign” means.
For example, I don’t think calling Trump an adjucated rapist or a convicted felon and fraudster who has been labeled a facist by members of his own inner circle is a “smear campaign,” just a statement of fact.
I certainly don’t disagree with that. When I said it was frustrating it was along the lines of “unfortunately, the worst person you know has just made a great point.” (On another subject, obviously.)
And I wish that Fetterman were the only Democrat in congress who was giving support to Netanyahu’s genocidal war. At this point there are only a total of three Senators backing a resolution disapproving the sale of certain types of heavy offensive weaponry to Israel. Most politicians who have publicly voiced any concerns have still not taken any concrete actions to stop our support for this war.
46 out of 48 Democratic Senators voted to send Israel $15B in military aid earlier this year. That’s actively supporting Netanyahu’s military activities in a very literal sense, and physically providing the weapons to Netanyahu at this point in time is at least as harmful as “cheering him on.”
I’m not talking about voting in favor of the war or arms to Israel (which is not good and should not be happening), I’m talking about literally laughing at people who have dead relatives. He took that shit to another level of disgusting. Not every democrat is posting memes about how happy they are about dead children.
What struck me, sitting on my perch north of the border, was how often the word “fear” came up with T—p supporters. The authoritarians promise to reduce the risk that many people feel in ways that they, individually, feel powerless against; some of those risks are imaginary, but
8 times out of 10 it’s simple economic vulnerability.
I think there is a need for democratic forces to generate messages that, in turn, generate that visceral reaction that gets to people who have fewer resources and more social and economic vulnerability. They don’t have time to sit down and discuss policy, they are swamped and need simple answers; answers that are repeated loudly, in places where they are consuming messaging or entertainment in the first place, and accompanied by non-stop, punchy, one-line revelations about how evil the authoritarian side really is (the easy part).
(Many on this board have those 2 in 10 risks that are just as, or often more serious than simple economic vulnerability. The challenge remains in flipping that majority, without whom those other issues blow up at the same time.)
In some ways, it’s co-opting the messaging modes of religion, really. I don’t love that idea; I don’t have an alternative, at least one that I think will work.
I fought with everything I had to get that man elected. I am appalled at how he walked away from those of us who carried him to where he is. I am now looking forward to voting against him at the earliest opportunity. What a heel turn.
You’d be calling him out for supporting genocide.