Opinion by Matt Roan
Throughout the 2022 campaign, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman included as a keynote in his stump speech that he would always be the 51st vote for causes important to Democrats (his election afforded Democrats a narrow majority with the two Independents in the Senate caucusing with the Democrats).
Fast forward to 2024 and things have changed. Fetterman is now a leader among Democratic senators when it comes to capitulating to Donald Trump and the Republican Party that he controls.
It started with Trump’s cabinet appointments. Sen. Fetterman has voted for more of Trump’s objectively unqualified nominees than nearly any other Democratic member of the body.
Among the most egregious yes votes from Sen. Fetterman has been for Attorney General Pam Bondi, who, in a norms-busting piece of political theater, pledged fealty to President Trump during a blatantly political speech recently at the Department of Justice Headquarters where the resident went on a tirade calling out his enemies and declaring journalism by outlets including CNN and MSNBC to be “illegal”.
As President Trump was incoherently rambling anti-constitutional and fascist rhetoric to the nation’s top law enforcement officials, Sen. Fetterman was on the floor of the U.S. Senate delivering a vote in favor of a Republican government funding bill that will enable the continued decimation of federal agencies at the hands of South African Billionaire Elon Musk. Sen. Fetterman has refused to hold town hall meetings in Pennsylvania to hear from his constituents. In fact, the only public event where Fetterman will face the people of the Commonwealth is a joint appearance with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick and his wife Dina Powell, a former Trump administration official, to promote a children’s book written by the Republican power couple.
Enough is enough. Fetterman no longer represents the interests of those who elected him, he seems disinterested in serving in his important position, and his actions in the Senate are actively harming Pennsylvanians. As a Democratic County Party leader, who worked tirelessly to elect Fetterman in 2022, who stood by him through the hardship of his recovery from stroke and depression, his complete abandonment of the core values of our Party has become untenable.
I call for his immediate resignation from the U.S. Senate.
Matt Roan is chair of the Cumberland County Democratic Party.
He will not resign. Do the state laws allow for a recall?
Iirc you cannot recall federal representatives. Some states have provisions for recalling state and local leadership, but that’s it.
Stroke 2 electric boogaloo
In fact, the only public event where Fetterman will face the people of the Commonwealth is a joint appearance with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick and his wife Dina Powell, a former Trump administration official, to promote a children’s book written by the Republican power couple.
Where is Giselle then?
Why does this always happen to so called “progressive” candidates? First Sinema and now this guy.
I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about Kyrsten Sinema other than she campaigned in her primary on ID politics. Literally the only reason I heard people voting for her was “bisexual woman!!!” because the actual progressive choice was a a guy. I reluctantly voted for her in the general but I had a bad feeling about her and her Karen haircut.
The DNC has been hiding their corporate and centrist candidates behind “progressive” ID politics for a long time.
This guy wasn’t progressive. He’s a well funded liar from a wealthy family. He’s never had PA interest in mind.
He was also running against Dr. Oz, an also terrible option.
always found his choice of attire a bit strange considering he’s a lawyer, he’s definitely used to show up to work under business dress code
people who have to show up to work under business dress code often dread it and ditch it whenever possible
Cook to business casual felt like a treat. Always want what’s different lol
that would be me, i switched from a job that requires to wear a tie, to one that doesn’t, my neck is finally free, but show up with a hoodie and bermuda shorts? cmon
I’ve seen developers show up in way less than that. To the point where they had to tell them they had to wash their clothes. Amazing devs, though.
I don’t trust people who wear suits anyway, and someone in khakis and a polo probably doesn’t know what they’re doing.
He’s trying to be cool and relatable. But it shows how little he cares.
It appeals to the average Joe worker.
They’re liars. They always felt this way. Like how Elon pretended to be left wing for awhile because he knew it would help sell cars.
Donald Trump was once a democrat supporter, I shit you not we live in that same timeline.
It doesn’t. Fetterman was never progressive to begin with, and there are plenty of progressive candidates who have stuck to their principles in office.
In fact he has never maintained he was a progressive. He did say his interests often align with those of the progressives. I got taken in by him. And donated some money to him. Mos Def will not do so in the future.
Always? You cited one.
Money is enough to turn any progressive to a liberal.
He should but he won’t
LOL.
Sure, Jan. That’s definitley going to happen.
Defeatism is stupid. As is obeying fascists in advance. The only way to ensure he doesn’t resign? Say and do nothing…
There is zero chance he resigns, nor should he. This is just a distraction.
What the progressive left should be doing --> Focusing on the most egregious and harmful Republican policies and explaining to everyday Americans how these policies will make their lives harder and objectively worse.
What the progressive left is doing --> Whining about a moderate Senator in their own party who is from a state in which a majority voted for Trump.
This is the same conversation that followed around Manchin and we finally drove him out. Was a Republican taking that very seat with 69% of the vote a win? We’ll probably never see another Democrat elected in West Virginia in our lifetimes…
Time and time again, Democrats sabotage themselves.
Part of explaining why these policies are bad, means explaining alternative policies, which for Democrats means “means tested”, some “undefined consensus policy”, or something else equally as idiotic.
So while I mostly agree with your sentiment, the DNC is structurally incapable of doing what you’re suggesting.
People didn’t vote in Trump because the status quo was working, and the DNC won’t change, because it’s working well enough for their short term interests.
i’m still convinced that that is not Fetterman
I get it, but you’ve just got to realize how money and power changes people and it starts to make sense. Maybe the stroke had something to do with it, but I doubt it tbh.
He has a point that the democrats stepping up and shutting down the government is going to hurt more people than keeping it running.
Elon is pissing off a lot of people with DOGE why should the democrats stepping in and take all the blame?
I still think Fetterman was the better choice than Dr. Oz even knowing what we know now.
That argument is a total BS.
People who pay attention to politics, know what’s going on, and those who don’t know trump is the president. When Democrats put resistance in 2019 government was shut down for 30 days and eventually trump gave up.
It’s not total bullshit.
The republicans are trying to shut down the government why would the democrats play right into their hands and take 100% of the blame for it?
If you watch red states town halls it looks like even Republicans are not happy, but at this point they are ignoring even them.
If you look at appointments, everyone trump presented (except Matt Gaetz who withdrew himself sure to scandals) were confirmed, which is quite unusual, even when we had competent people presented.
Large part congress is on it, so are the media and big companies.
We had class war which working class ignored and this looks like it is a culmination.
Why would the democrats try to stop the republicans if their base aren’t happy?
Elon is pissing off a lot of people with DOGE why should the democrats stepping in and take all the blame?
"…when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.” - Napoleon Bonaparte
Or more colloquially “Do not interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
I have this theory that the world of politics is super dark. Like as dark as many people called “conspiracy theorists” by politicians as a means to silence and discredit them have claimed it to be. Like house of cards but exponentially or even logarithmically worse.
For instance i think the reason Bernie sanders acquiesced to the democrat party and the clinton and biden campaigns both times he ran for office is that he was probably threatened. And i think fetterman was probably threatened as well and back when he had a spine he probably resisted these threats and then he was poisoned in a way that induced a stroke and now the only thing he can do is to do as he is told or they will kill him. I mean this isnt a get out of jail free card for fetterman, fuck him if this extreme speculation on my end happens to be close to the mark at all. Anyone who is on the receiving end of any strong arming like that should definitely do everything they can to expose such behavior.
But remember madison cawthorne? Yeah the guy is a right wing dipshit but i 100% believe him when he said the senate is full of drug fueled orgies. And i think thats the least of it. These people are so drunk on power and consider themselves above the law and not just them but the wall street military and prison industry profiteers that are calling the shots they very likely legitimately believe they can get away with anything including murder, black mail etc. i mean epstien was definitely running a kompromat farm (and it wasnt the furst there was that daycare scandal in the 80’s thst was also part of the satanic panic hysteria but there was a guybinvolved who was tied to powerful banks and all the judges involved ended up getting promoted to throw the case) likely for the highest bidder but mossad was definitely one of the top clients. and even after the public made a stink about it the first time they thought a quick slap on the wrist and quick first class minimum security prison stint with 72 hours weekly work release that involved more teenage massages would be sufficient to show the public he was punished and we were over reacting. Then when it got serious the second time trump literally had him murdered and made it look like a sewer slide. Our representatives are pretty much living in a world thst operates like organized crime and very few have the spine to stand up against it but even those that do end up bending the knee afterwards and the only thing that explains why is there are some very dark things happening behind the curtain.
The reason Bernie, at least, joined with the Democrats is because he’s smart and knows that first past the post is shit and, for now, a massive problem.
This moment might be a good time to gun for just toppling the limp-dick Democratic leadership, though. Just might work. There’s a shit-ton of untapped energy.
