Said John Fetterman, asked to explain why he doesn't consider himself a politician, in "The Interview/John Fetterman Fears Trump Is Stronger Than Ever" (NYT).
Here, you can watch the interview:
ADDED: The headline may make you think there's something valuable about Trump. I'll cherry-pick it for you:
And anybody spends time driving around [Pennsylvania], and you can see the intensity [of the support for Trump].... Where does this all come from? It’s the kind of thing that has taken on its own life. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it. It’s just — it’s real. And now [Elon] Musk is joining him. I mean, to a lot of people, that’s Tony Stark. That’s the world’s richest guy. And he’s obviously, and undeniably, a brilliant guy, and he’s saying, Hey, that’s my guy for president. That’s going to really matter....
[W]hen they were having the A.I. conference in Washington... and senators were like, [Fetterman’s voice gets very high] Ooh, ooh. They were like, I got to have two minutes, you know, please. So if senators are all like ooh! Then can you imagine what voters in Scranton or all across Pennsylvania — you know, in some sense, he’s a bigger star than Trump. Endorsements, they’re really not meaningful often, but this one is, I think. That has me concerned....
[S]ome unions like [S.E.I.U.] and the government kinds of unions are still very, very Democratic. But those others, I think a lot of their membership, for a lot of people, Trump has that kind of a connection. That’s real. I witnessed that. And that’s why I’m concerned, and that’s why polls were inaccurate [in 2016 and 2020]...
And the only thing that’s changed is he’s more popular. And you have Elon Musk standing right next to him. So I’m not sure what else has changed, except if anything, Trump has become more capable to withstand whatever, you know, whether it was the trials or the assassination or all of those things, but here he is.
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Now I'm wondering how long before the Democrats eject him from the party.
This brings to mind my lifetime involvement in the music biz, in which I kept imagining if I only managed to push my way one more step up the ladder, the popular music biz would cease being abusive and shitty.
I'm glad he's recovering / recovered from his stroke, that's a positive, but..... he's still a dyed-in-the-wool Progressive Democrat, and still a lifelong moocher off his wealthy parents, so - he' got that goin' for him.
The comments on Trump were fairly insightful and less hysterical then I would've predicted. As for the glamorous Senate. You'll notice that very few of these Senate clowns (especially the D's) ever retire voluntarily. Most get dragged out kicking and sceaming or retire when they get too old. That's especially true of the Ds.
As for the R's: Look at McConnell, he's still hanging on, even though he's no longer going to be leader. Or Grassley. Do think Miss Lindsey will ever leave?
Romney left because he wanted to jump rather than be pushed over the ledge. He gave Republican voters in Utah the middle finger for 5 years, and he knew he wouldn't get renominated.
Senator Lee had a bunch of tweets showing how the Senate really works. On the D side, Schumer and his leadership team decide what to do, and the rest of the D Senator line up vote like Robots. On the R side McConnell and his team, decide what to do and all the R Senators except maybe 6-10, line up and vote like Robots.
Occassionly, some R - like the RINO twins or Romney/McCain will (with McConnnells permsission) break ranks and go against the "Party line".
We haven't had a sane budgetary process for years. McConnell, Schumer, and the lobbyists get together and write the reconcilation bill, and everyone votes for the 1000 page monstrosity that they haven't even read.
Can’t believe I voted for Mittens. Not the worst but definitely the strangest candidate of all time. Something mentally up with him
To combine the points you and ST make, you either put up with the abuse because you're already set financially but want to have that "Senator" title, or you're a nobody who is hanging in there hoping you'll eventually get a piece of the graft.
If Trump, Vivek and Elon could really slash the federal workforce, that would be a great thing.
I like Fetterman. I saw him on Fox a few weeks ago doing a segment with Sen. Katie Britt of SOTU-response fame. Apparently, they're good friends, and it sounded like the basis for their friendship had a lot to do with the kind of observations he's making here about the fish-out-of-water lives of a freshman senator.
Senators are all supposed to be of equal standing. I wonder which of them will join Lee in re-structuring the Senate rules so that the States are truly represented. Fetterman sounds like he’d be on board with that.
The hedonic treadmill's a bitch. Some people figure that out sooner than others, but just about everyone figures it out before they're the junior Senator from Pennsylvania.
Meh. Still too much of a Zippy the Pinhead vibe with him, but his recovery is a good thing.
I’ve been disappointed on the reality of that part of it
A) If this your perception you’re not doing it right and 2) It’s heartwarming to imagine their existence is sometimes miserable but ya know many of us would like to see universal belief that it’s a temporary gig, not a career choice…
I cannot imagine that I could ever bring myself to like someone who chased down a black jogger with a loaded shotgun, apparently on the grounds that that any black man nning rown the street must have been “up to something”
"Kamala has run a magnificent campaign....... Things couldn't have gone any better..."
Well..... No - and, Yes.
Post stroke Fetterman seems so much more real and perceptive than pre-stroke Fetterman. And sometimes...in a very small way...he reminds me of Trump. He is his own sort of character. A one-off persona. He's not flashy like Trump. He hasn't produced a thing in his life, like Trump has. Hasn't employed people in the private sector by the thousands, built massive buildings and hotels or beautiful country clubs all around the world. But in his own way, he's turning into the Democrats Trump.
That said. Don't get any ideas. Fetterman would not have national appeal.
The SEIU keeps members in LINE for Democrats. Publicly that is.
Privately, the SEIU rank-and-file is going to vote Trump this time around.
You tell people you're going to make their income non-taxable that gets people's vote.
Trump's pledge to STOP the IRS from taxing tips is going to bring an entire new voting caste to the Republican Party.
Democrats aren't the only people who can buy votes.
Of course, this is not going to happen. All these union people who think Trump is on their side are going to be sorely disappointed. But, then of course, they should look at Trump's first term and see how hostile his policies were to working people.
Regardless, not taxing tips will have very little impact on taxes for most tipped workers. Most of them don't make enough to pay federal income tax any way. There may be a few tipped workers out there making enough to actually benefit from this policy (e.g., waiters at fine dining restaurants, doormen at expensive resedential buildings in NYC).
“ Now I'm wondering how long before the Democrats eject him from the party.”
Or jumps parties. Fetterman is quintessentially blue collar. The Republican Party has essentially become the blue collar party, while the Dem party, esp in the Senate, is the party of the elites. Who do you think that he communicates better with - JD Vance, or someone who inherited a fortune, like so many on the Dem side?
More interesting to me, than when those Southern Dem Senators switched, was when CO Senator Ben Nighthouse Campbell switched parties. He didn’t do it through the racism imputed to the Southern Senators who switched, because he was a duly registered Native American - the only one in the Senate. I expect that what it would take is Republicans taking control of the Senate, Trump doing well in PA, being courted by Trump and Vance personally (by the way they talked to him), and a welcome by the Republican Senate leadership, like Campbell got.
I think Fetterman, after nearly dying, has realized that he really doesn't have any f*cks to give for things that aren't important and is now free to say what he thinks.
Bruce : Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Don't rule out that it's a source of validation for a lot of people. They think that if they're elected Senator or appointed Secretary of Something they'll stop having that nagging feeling that they're a nobody. That seldom works like they want it to and so they have to strive for higher and higher office. Hillary Clinton's runs for office have always seemed to me to be driven by this.
Gator: "Can’t believe I voted for Mittens." And, in my case made a donation to his campaign. As long as we're in confessional mode. But that was before Trump's lightening bolts made the scales drop from our eyes.
Freder - I expect that you will be disappointed. I gave 3 MAGA 45-47 hats to my stepson, who now is the head steward for a big IBEW (electricians Union) local in Las Vegas, a very Union town. Union leadership may still lean Dem, but don’t really represent their members. Union members, outside government unions, are solidly middle class (government union members too are middle class, but are less Republican leaning because they know which party provides them with their jobs). They have the exact same concerns that the rest of the middle class does. They don’t like mass illegal immigrant migration, nor DEI. and esp hate the transgender movement, and the attacks on religion.
Thanks. And I voted for the guy.
Why am I, Labour all my life, stood as councillor, rooting for the Democrats to lose really heavily? It's not because I love Trump - I certainly don't dislike him. It's because a party of the really wealthy - Harris outraising Trump by orders of magnitude, with tech billionaires galore (he's got Musk, they've got Gates, Jobs, Buffet, Hoffman). They're the party of college graduates, of government workers. The policies they've promoted have enriched Democrats at the top - non profits helping immigrants, paying high 6 figure salaries to family members of the nomenklatura, green firms, paid huge subsidies but not delivering anything except rewards for their acolytes, the interagencies (thanks to Vindman for telling us whose opinion mattered on foreign policy) whose members profit from the endless wars they encourage, often not deliberately but because many experts are quite stupid when it comes to looking at consequences. Under the Ds, we've seen turmoil in Libya, in Syria, an emboldened Iran, war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East and more US troops there. And what have they done for the private sector middle and working classes? The Ds despise them, make their lives worse. That's why I hope the Ds get a good Trumping and take a proper look at themselves.
Tips are subject to FICA and Medicare taxes to which most hospitality workers are subject.
What if we paid no attention to the electoral polls at all? What would we lose? What might we pay attention to instead?
It is an old cliché that the only poll that matters will be conducted on Election Day. But it’s true, and it will, and then the real game begins.
Poll for commentariat- what would Bich be writing about the polling data if it looked good for Harris?
The times they are achanging. It may be that people inclined to vote for the Democratic party are realizing that it no longer exists. And Kamala is making this fact evident. I will never say she is actually stupid, I don't think that's true. I think she isn't interested in doing the job she's trying for; she's never had to do the job she's paid for; and she doesn't intend to start working now at her age. But she watched Joe Biden decline, and still get nominated, and still keep the support of half the country (which never saw the decline till the debate.) So why shouldn't she - a person not in decline - become President and let that same crowd that ran things for Joe manage things for her? But the voters looking for the Democratic party to vote for are sharply aware of having been deceived about Joe Biden's actual state and of then having had their votes cast aside. For them there's been an election (the primaries) and a coup against the results. And who is the wonderful person for whom their votes were thrown aside? Kamala the Sham who laughs off the way she can't explain her policies or her thinking on any issues. Obviously, she's laughing at them; she's very clear that she thinks that she's the Second Coming of Joe Biden and she thinks that those who support the Democratic party will be easily fooled again. So then, those Americans desperately seeking the Democratic Party are doing that American thing where everyone runs around, tearing their hair and shrieking out their disatisfaction and thus forming a new consensus. Confronted with The Dems v. Trump, what should those who support the Democratic party do? For their party, the Democratic party of old, is Gone With The Wind. The LAT and WAPO owners, who are billionaires, are saying: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." The others, the normies with minds, have been saying "I'll think about it tomorrow." and there's eleven sunrises left.
Well Kamala is and will be the second coming of Joe Biden--who was in fact the third coming of the Obama Policy Posse. Joe was mostly a figurehead doing what he was told (or spending his time on the beach while the Posse governed). Kamala will also be a pliant puppet. She eats grapes and serves word salad while others do the real work. You want more Joe--vote Kamala. And if you wanted more Barack--well keep Joe in the basement until after the election, and then install Joe.
His last statement said it all. It’s all just performance art. I’d shorten that to “it’s all just performance.” Nobody says what ththey really think. They get in front of a camera and fake outrage or whatever today’s script calls for.
Fetterman could do a role in WWE
Well said!
"And anybody spends time driving around [Pennsylvania], and you can see the intensity [of the support for Trump].... Where does this all come from? "
Maybe you, as such a man of the people, should ask them.
Lyndsay Graham gettin' to the bottom! Soon!
There’s a part of me that says we probably should be moving election coverage to the sports page.
"and take a proper look at themselves."
Won't happen. The lesson they'd take from a thumping at the ballot box is that they didn't do whatever it is they're doing hard enough.
"It's just a mystery, man."
Or it could be that the Dem 'Elite' think the blue-collar folks are mindless peasants who simply don't understand how much better the Democrats are for them as owners. It's not like they understand what's good for them, right? High taxes, high inflation, high food costs - well, the peasants are too darned fat so the cost of food needs to go up... and there's too many of them so we'll pass laws that supposedly make medical care more available but instead makes it a lot more expensive... And they travel too much, so we need to make it more expensive to travel so let's cut back on fossil fuel production, urge them to buy short-range electric transport, and have a lot of propaganda telling them the world is about to boil because of their selfish choices...
And the peasants have just about had all of it they care for. They're hurting, and the proximate cause is Democratic control.
When the 'help' the Dems want to give feels like a kick in the sensitives, and they're REALLY enjoying kicking ups, people start questioning whether their 'help' is actually that, or just disdain and sadistic cruelty.
The Democratic Party morphed into an Aristocratic Oligarchy. As such, the peasants were supposed to serve (and vote) without questioning.
The idea that the peasants could think for themselves, and decide for themselves whether what the Aristos have done is worth continuing just never registered.
Now the Aristos have shown their incompetence and the peasants are revolting. The Aristos need to understand that they're eminently disposable - and that their ideas have caused their downfall.
The ability to engage in unlimited and immunized insider trading seems to outweigh the downside for all of those hardworking and lonely Senators.
I am pleased to have been wrong about Fetterman- he seems to have mostly recovered from the stroke. I still don't like his politics but here is the thing- his brain might heal even more in the future and we will agree politically.
As my TBI wife said recently, having to re-learn how to do the fundamental things, (speak, read, walk, eat etc), changes the entire perspective.
+100
I also like Fetterman. If more Democrats shared his thoughtful approach to the big issues, we would all get along much better. Maybe I don't agree with him on many things, but I could certainly have a constructive and interesting conversation with him.
- Krumhorn
Fetterman’s new persona makes me want to read and re-read everything Oliver Sacks ever wrote. Just very much more closely.
If you want to read a fascinating account of his childhood, I strongly recommend Uncle Tungsten. It is also a sort of history of the periodic table along the way. A bit different from his other books, and very enjoyable.
Early voting is being "conducted" in many states already. Obviously the final count will be started on election day.
The books and movies make the Senate seem like something that it isn't. Most politicians are ambitious people focused only on getting ahead or at least of keeping their seats, so they don't notice that it's not all tributes and laurels and high ideals and noble sentiments. They are thinking of their own journey, not of any destination. I guess Fetterman's stroke has made him aware of that.
Fetterman has been one of life's pleasant surprises since he was elected. If only more elected officials had his common sense and exercised it instead of parroting party dogma.
Thank you for the recommendation.
Arizona was a lock for Rmoney, so my wife and I went up to Las Vegas and knocked on hundreds of doors for him. I have the taste of ashes and sulfur in my mouth just from thinking about it.
Fetterman is not blue collar, that is an affectation. He comes from a wealthy family - his father owns an insurance company and is well-off. He states in the interview that he cannot afford to buy suits to fit his frame, which is patent BS. It's not that expensive to buy and tailor a big & tall suit. He's just lazy, and has adopted his slob look as if he's a working class advocate.
The truth is, he's been sponging of his wealthy family to support his lifestyle for a long time. His family has underwritten many of his expenses and even bought him a loft home. He's a Progressive Democrat through and through - although he deserves reasonable credit for his newfound honesty (where it applies) and his support of Israel, and most of all, his bucking of the Democrat machine, I still don't see him as much more than a typical Progressive.
Most of them don't make enough to pay federal income tax any way.
Why aren't they paying their fair share?
I am against the "no tax on tips" policies being pushed. What Ralph L. said
".. he's still a dyed-in-the-wool Progressive Democrat"
Yes, but despite his early incoherence due to stroke, he can make a reasonable point. I find him quite interesting and he has my respect. I really had a low opinion of him based on his previous career and his political positions, but I have modified that now. He knew where he stood in the Hamas/Israel debate and took his stand on Day 1, Minute 1. Compare to Harris, who can move 180 degrees on any issue. She is "progressive Democrat" out of convenience. My perception of her is that she has no core values.
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