May 18, 2022

"Faced with a potentially campaign-ending crisis this weekend, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman of Pennsylvania released a Sunday statement thanking the 'kick ass staff and doctors' who treated his stroke."

"The vernacular was not the stuff of parliamentary propriety — 'I need to take a minute,' he wrote about stepping back from the trail — but that was the point, as is often the case with Fetterman. At 6-foot-8, with a shiny pate, a salt-and-pepper goatee, tattooed arms and a sports-bar fashion sense, Fetterman was announcing from a hospital bed that even in illness he remained a different kind of Democrat. It’s a pitch that paid off Tuesday in a state primary that could set up the one-term lieutenant governor to lead his party into the marquee open-seat contest of the 2022 election — a chance for Democrats to find out whether they can arrest the building red wave and their declining White, working-class support with a candidate who does not fit easily into any partisan box. Fetterman, 52, easily beat his principal Democratic rival, Rep. Conor Lamb, a clean-cut Marine Corps veteran and prosecutor whom President Biden had compared to his late son Beau and whom other party leaders as recently as 2018 had held up as an exemplar of the party’s future."

From "Democrats pick John Fetterman for Senate in Pennsylvania/He could represent a chance for a party facing declining White working-class support to put forth a candidate who doesn’t fit easily into any partisan box" (WaPo).

So... one guy may "represent a chance" for the Democratic Party as it faces decline and the other guy was "held up as an exemplar of the party’s future." Looks like the party went into the primary assured that the winner would represent the future. Whatever happens will of course be what was once that crazy thing called The Future. The version of the future that actually arrived is the one without the clean-cut Marine preferred by Biden and other party leaders. The Fetterman future is here:

John Brabender, a Republican consultant who has run races in Pennsylvania for decades, said Fetterman’s candidacy will test whether Democrats can tap into the same sort of populist, anti-establishment energy that worked so well for Trump, but with an entirely different set of policy solutions.

“I have seen people describe Fetterman as the left’s version of Donald Trump,” Brabender said. “What we are going to learn is whether policies or persona are what attracted people to Trump.”

24 comments:

Michael K said...

He is a far lefty. Tattoos kind of go with his politics.

Joe Smith said...

The same Fetterman who pointed a shotgun at an unarmed black jogger in 2013?

Seems like a nice guy. Maybe nobody will remember.

Rabel said...

“I have seen people describe Fetterman as the left’s version of Donald Trump,” Brabender said. “What we are going to learn is whether policies or persona are what attracted people to Trump.”

What an incredibly stupid and uninformed thing to say.

Republican political consultants. There are lowlier people in the world but you have to go looking.

Gilbert Pinfold said...

Well, in an echo of Trump's "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue...", Fetterman did pull a gun on a black jogger. Difference of words vs. deeds, I guess.

Rollo said...

“I have seen people describe Fetterman as the left’s version of Donald Trump,” Brabender said. “What we are going to learn is whether policies or persona are what attracted people to Trump.”

That seems very simplistic. Trump wouldn't have gone as far as he did if he didn't have the issues. Some people like his style. Others hate it, but persona alone wouldn't get him any further than it did in 2000, when Oprah, Warren Beatty, and Cybil Shepherd were also talking about running for president.


Fetterman sounds more like Schwartzenegger or Jesse Ventura or Jesse Kelly than Trump. Goofy giant. Donald and Boris notwithstanding, gimmick hair usually isn't enough.

Rollo said...

Fetterman, 52, easily beat his principal Democratic rival, Rep. Conor Lamb, a clean-cut Marine Corps veteran and prosecutor whom President Biden had compared to his late son Beau and whom other party leaders as recently as 2018 had held up as an exemplar of the party’s future."

Those recommendations aren't really a plus.

Look at Pete Buttigieg, another exemplar.

Right now Lamb is cleaning house, trying to figure out who led him to the slaughter.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

So we're capitalizing White now?

On the one hand, it is properly balancing Black.
On the other hand, it is further dividing us by the color of our skin.

How does the stylebook feel about Brown, Yellow or Red?

Sebastian said...

"the left’s version of Donald Trump"

So, Fetterman, on what issues do you disagree with Chuck Schumer? What's that you say--none at all?

Bart Hall said...

Wow. You stake your party's future on virulent identity politics, and then you're surprised when huge swaths of the nation's largest "identity" group, whites, abandon you in droves. I have potted plants with more brains and common sense.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Karen loves terms like "kick ass" and "Resistance". It's what Establishment stooges think sticking it to The Man looks like.

Quaestor said...

So the Democrats think they can defeat the Republican with a wolf in sheep's clothing... Fetterman can be easily unhorsed; just ask him to define woman.

Ralph L said...

His wife looks like Morticia Addams.

cubanbob said...

Trump's appeal is that he is a populist, an American nationalist and too rich to be bribed along with being a competent boss.

Fetterman is a rich communist masquerading as Joe Blue Collar.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Never mind that the guy is a devout socialist.

YoungHegelian said...

You think the Bernie Bro wing of the Democratic Party isn't looking at the hot, raging mess that is the Biden Administration and thinking "Jeezo-peep, we couldn't screw things up that badly if we tried! Hold my beer & let give it a whack".

Expect more challengers from the left-wing of the Democratic Party in the future. I'll bet dollars to donuts that someone primaries Biden for the presidency, just like Teddy Kennedy did to Jimmy Carter in 1980. Think about it -- what's the easiest way of moving past both Biden AND Harris in one swell foop?

Mikey NTH said...

The Fetterman future is here, bur what kind of future will Fetterman have?

Curious George said...

Looks like he wears shorts a lot. And Carhartt.

n.n said...

Diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry) breeds adversity. Lose your nominally "secular", ethical religion. That said, demos-cracy is aborted at The Twilight Fringe. Democracy dies in darkness.

mikee said...

Policies attracted people to Trump. Those policies were the ones opposed by the Democrats.
Personality attracted people to Trump. He fought against policies supported by the Democrats.

So good luck with that test of policies and personality, Democrats.

MadTownGuy said...

He's a Progressive who will toe the Progressive party line. The challenger's ads will practically write themselves. Whether that will affect the mail-in and absentee votes is open to question.

Stephen St. Onge said...

“What we are going to learn is whether policies or persona are what attracted people to Trump.”

        Both, actually.  Surprised that needs to be pointed out.

Temujin said...

Just what Pennsylvania and the nation needs at this moment. A fiery Socialist. That'll right things.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

He's a kick ass Socialist.

Aggie said...

He's a little like Trump, in that he appears to be authentic in the expression of his Über-thug Socialism. And there seems to be little doubt that he does like to bully and intimidate, like pulling the shotgun on the innocent black jogger - except that Trump seems to do these things strategically, not for gratification. But where is the 'rich and successful' part?