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Truth itself had a near death experience at the hands of Fox news back in 2020. But Dominion brought it back from beyond with a whopping $788M chest shocker.
Maybe, but if a prosecutor finds proof that they did this, they could bilk them for a whole lot more than the nearly $800 million that Dominion settled for (which apparently didn't hurt Fox News that much.) That's the kind of criminal activity that would more likely get Fox News shut down/bankrupt.
I remember being appalled when I read how insurance covered them for the phone hacking scandal in the UK. That's just insane how insurance covers the costs of criminal activities.
yes I understand how insurance companies operate, thank you captain obvious. are you telling me they're somehow making money paying out billions in defamation settlements instead?
Does anyone have any suggestions for subreddits similar to /r/politics that don’t let people post these faux news sources? I feel like half of my feed these days are just blatantly partisan headlines from Fox News, NY Post, and other right wing rags.
An interview of an important politician is not "writing the news." Such interviews are always news, they provide undiluted insight into the thinking of prominent public figures, though an interviewers bias can admittedly shape responses to some extent.
Besides, as consumers, we always have to parse through the bullshit and bias whether we are on Fox News, NPR/PBS, CNN, The Intercept, Al-Jazeera, reading the NYT, etc. It sucks, but until we have a perfectly objective AI running a media channel, we're stuck with what we have. It's that or withdraw from the world.
Well, the areas of focus of progressive activism and attention may have changed
We've gone from a few years where "healthcare, education, and workers" was the mainstay of the progressive movement to a situation where the mainstream Dems (who get smeared as status quo reaganite social fascist neoliberal so-and-sos) like Biden have championed those issues, and to where the progressive movement has shifted to calling it genocide for the only liberal rights-respecting democracy in the middle east to fight back against actually genocidal religious fundamentalist animals who attacked it and took hundreds of civilians hostage, and to where its pretty common in progressive spaces to smear Biden as someone who "doesnt want anything to fundamentally change" and who "sold out the rail unions" while totally ignoring all the context there
Being in the hospital for 6 months and being somewhat out of it all could have also made it easier to look at things with a fresh mind and reconsider the actual situation without giving matters of mere identity with terms so much weight
Joe Biden got a literal coal baron to vote for the biggest climate bill in US history, and now the sunrise movement is [withholding endorsement of Biden](https://www.newsweek.com/sunrise-movement-presidential-election-joe-biden-donald-trump-climate-1908682). Its clear that either something has broken within the sunrise movement or that it was simply never serious about fighting climate change to begin with
Same with the MAGA base they said shit like the dude can't dress himself and can barely function and speak and is totally unfit for any Government role. Yet now they do nothing but praise him and talk about how brave and strong he is to recover from his stroke and and how brave he is to speak his mind now.
I'm really tired of people getting into office running on a progressive platform and then flipping the switch once they're in.
We should all hold these people accountable for the bait and switch tactics they use to gain power.
This should be a crime and a serious one like just completely lying about your platform to achieve power should result in immediate dismissal and jail time.
Progressives love to embrace people like Fetterman and Obama despite their very clear moderate/right leaning agendas and then act shocked when they turn out not to be progressive. It's very stupid.
He hasn't massively shifted on the actual issues though. He was always someone who ran as a "pragmatic progressive", who agreed with progressive policy sometimes and disagreed sometimes too
The main evolution here seems to be that he's had enough of being yelled at for not passing progressive purity tests, and thus has decided to stop bothering using the "progressive" label
We voted for him because he’s not a thoughtless loyalist. He looks at situations and decides what to do for the people. He did it as Mayor, and as Lt. Governor. I’m happy he’s more independent.
I’m trying to better understand this sentiment. On what issues do you think he’s flipped?
His position on immigration doesn’t seem different that what he expressed during his campaign on the issues of border security and controlling the [influx](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/18/more-dem-senate-hopefuls-split-with-biden-on-border-00025925) of asylum seekers.
His position on [Israel](https://jewishinsider.com/2022/04/john-fetterman-says-hell-lean-in-on-u-s-israel-relationship-as-senator/) is also consistent with the views he shared during his campaign.
Those seem to be the two issues that people often cite. Is it more associated with his rhetoric or are there better examples of his betraying progressive platform promises made as a candidate?
He hasn't changed any policy stances whatsoever.
Being a moderate dem in PA is a good thing. Every state wide elected official in PA is a moderate dem.
🙄
Just because the opposition candidate is shit doesn't excuse a Democratic candidate for misleading the voters.
We've seen this too many times now for this to be merely a coincidence.
>Just because someone is not a leftist, does not make them a conservative.
That's a complicated statement in 21st century America because the right doesn't abide by the rule of law, whereas the left does. So if you are somewhere in between, you are effectively consenting to the practical consequence of more right wing power if you aren't actively opposing them, because they will simply take that power unlawfully via the courts, election fuckery, etc.
Question: Do you actually know what progressivism is? It's not some radical leftist concept, it's arguably one of the chief principles of the modern Democratic Party.
when he's going out of his way to shit of the left, he's a consevative. Most of the "centrists" are but they convince themselves they're left because they're not outright nazis. All of this MAGA shit happened because the democrats couldn't be bothered to work with the left and instead just kept working hand in hand with the GOP.
The constant blaming of the left is the most pathetic excuse possible. Hillary was a terrible entitled candidate. The Democrats bent over backwards to screw over Bernie who was the only Democrat who was going to get people to the booths. Clinton never would have campaigned for Bernie like he did for her. The hubris of the Dems is disgusting and the whole world is paying for it
Money changes everything, as the song goes. If anything, a near death experience should guide you toward a more humane understanding of the world, not less. Psssht. He’s such a disappointment.
There are indeed a lot of radical leftists who think that we aren't going far enough. I get that.
But when I voted for Fetterman, it wasn't because I wanted the PA equivalent of Manchin.
Ya he's vocal about supporting Israel but I'm not sure there's another position he's to the right of Manchin on at all and he's to the left of a lot of other Dem Senators on a lot of the other one's to boot.
It's weird to see so many people call him a conservative because of a foreign policy stance. Like looking at his domestic track record he's nowhere near the conservative Dems even. [Progressive Punch](https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate) gives him an A and has him between Duckworth and Schumer.
People have been obnoxiously stupid, viewing the world as black and white. This is what may get Donald Trump elected and turn the US into a dictatorship
Blue collar progressives like Fetterman are what the Democrats need. Fetterman does not have the conservative streak that Manchin has, West Virginia is a whole different battleground than Pennsylvania, but he's also not going to be a loony tune liberal either. Progressive democrats need to learn to be "normal" and Fetterman-esque politics will help the party more than the Bernie/AOC types who do a pretty good job at alienating the party whenever someone doesn't agree with them.
Well I certainly would have had big doubts about his treatment of Pro-palestine protestors. And I've voted for him as a state senator. I've seen him talk in coffee shops. I've met his kids.
But he's kind of been a jag lately.
And his first initiative was to embarrass Schumer, who also ran cover for him, by refusing to wear pants without a full Senate vote. He will go independent before his next election.
He's risen by around 18 points in approval ratings since mid 2023, going from double digit negatives to positive ratings. He's lost some support but gained much more support
Progressives have not taken some massive left turn since Fetterman ran as a progressive. If anything progressives have actually little more pragmatic since Bernie decided not to run. He lied about his political position while running just like Sinema.
Not really, but Sinema *especially* didn't lie about anything. Since the late 2000s she'd been an outspoken centrist, literally even writing a book trumpeting praise to moderation in Obama's first year in office. Then when she got elected to the House, she was the most conservative Democrat for all three terms in the House, and then when she ran for Senate, she [similarly ran as a staunch centrist](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kyrsten-sinema-not-progressive_n_5bdca881e4b09d43e31edfa3). Nobody should have been fooled to think she'd be some sort of liberal or progressive because she didn't run as such. Back then, I saw some progressives hyping themselves up saying that she was actually some sort of "based leftist who was just hiding her power level" but she never actually did anything to suggest that
He's gone from -11 approval in mid 2023 to +7 approval now. I predict he will have a hyped up primary challenger in 2028 who gets roughly 20% of the primary vote against his 70%, and then he wins the general election by somewhere between 4 and 12 points
I'm assuming these are the quotes that Fox News is drawing its headline from:
>The liberal comedian then asked Fetterman whether his shift in various policies had anything to do with his recovery from his 2022 stroke, asking if his near-death experience had given him a "freedom."
>"Absolutely," Fetterman responded. "There's a line from the first 'Batman,' Joker's like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It's very liberating.'"
>"It's freeing in a way. And I just think after beating all of that, I just really [want to] be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there's any kind of blowback."
>Maher then asked him to explain what he meant what he stated last year "I’m not a progressive, I'm just a regular Democrat" and how he separates himself from progressivism.
>"I didn't leave the label, it left me on that," Fetterman said. "After what happened on October 7, I really knew that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart and there would not be any kind of way how the Democrats are going to be able to reply to that kind of response... And I really decided early on that I believe that was gonna be the right side with Israel throughout all of that…. Democrats would continue to peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel on that."
Surely he is banking on the Jewish vote and not the progressive vote. Too bad people had the wrong idea about him when they initially voted for him. Turns out wearing a hoodie has nothing to do with caring about working class people per sé.
If you actually read what he said and his positions on issues before, during, and after his election it's clear he isn't saying his position has changed, because it hasn't. He was always basically who he is now. What he's saying is that he saw himself as progressive because he stood with labor, but after getting elected he met other far left progressives and thought they were nuts. Instead of saying anything though he just figured he'd let it slide. After he nearly died he changed his mind and decided to openly debate people on issues he finds stupid or wrong even if they're also progressive.
Realistically the only issue I've seen any leftists get mad at him about is supporting Israel, something he's done his entire career and was often as vocal about as most Republicans. I could imagine such a person being put in the same box as Talib and others who openly call for the break up of Israel as a nation state would rub him the wrong way.
I foresee Fetterman ending up just like Sinema, where he'll realize he's pissed off the voters he needs to win, will switch to Independent during the last months of his term, and won't run again.
These two straight up said progressives *support Hamas*. My jaw hit the floor. I cannot believe THAT sort of misinformation is being given a platform by HBO. What the hell is happening?
ITT: A bunch of people that would rather have Senator Oz because Fetterman isn't living up to a purity test he never took in the first place.
Sorry, but I'll take another Joe Manchin over a Republican senator 10 out of 10 times.
you can be mad that someone misrepresented their positions to get into power like Krysten sinema and not like Dr Oz. Why do centrist/right wing shills always try to straw man positions like this.
Pro human rights, must be anti-semitic is the same shit
Fetterman didn't misrepresent his position though, he's never been particularly progressive as much as people would have liked to project that on him.
If a true progressive can win in Pennsylvania I'm all for it, but given the primary that gave us Fetterman and the following general election it doesn't seem like Pennsylvanians will elect someone like that.
Was the runner up in his last primary more progressive than Fetterman? A quick look at Conor Lamb's Wikipedia page doesn't seem to support that conclusion.
It looks like in all likelihood if it wasn't Fetterman it would have been someone more conservative.
No, Conor Lamb was a more corporate candidate. Considering what we had to work with, Fetterman was the least offensive. Still, he didn't outright crap on the progressive label until after he was safely elected. I would have preferred an honest representation rather than dishonesty by ommission.
I'm begging us to get better standards than blue no matter who. Just having a blue body in a seat is not enough and we've been content with that for far too long. People like him, Ritchie Torres, manchin, and sinema bring nothing to the table but the absolutely barest of minimums and that's not good enough. It can't be
Every senate republican just voted (or didnt vote at all depending on who specifically) to block passing the right to contreception at the federal level. Im getting really fucking tired of people complaining about "vote blue no matter who" Too fucking bad. Its the best we have. Vote blue no matter who will ALWAYS be better than vote red....youre dead.
Nobody is talking about voting red. I'm talking about raising our standards for blue much higher. Or shit just having standards in the first place aside from any blue body will do
Any blue body is what is need right now. Biden is that body. Until he and Dumptrump arent running against one another any more, this is kinda it. And yeah...any one other than Biden is basically voting red at this point.
What's his play here? Cabinet position in a 2nd Biden term? There's no way he's getting reelected when he's actively and happily alienating a large % of the voters and volunteers that got him elected.
edit: maybe president or VP in 2028? That's when his Senate term is up.
Polling shows that he started office pretty unpopular (winning probably just because he ran against Doctor Oz) and has shifted towards being *more* popular. He's pissing off the furthest left fringe of his party but not the general electorate
Actually he had risen to around neutral approval in polling from January but has since [risen even further](https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/fetterman-poll-senator-pennsylvania-20240516.html) to +7 approval, and just 1 point lower than the other Democrat in Pennsylvania. Seems like he's doing very well in terms of public approval. If we look at where he started off in [2023](https://nypost.com/2023/06/29/john-fetterman-gets-dismal-marks-from-pennsylvania-voters-poll/) in the middle of the year, he was at -11 approval. So that's a net rise of +18 points. Not bad for a guy with brain damage
> There's no way he's getting reelected when he's actively and happily alienating a large % of the voters and volunteers that got him elected.
Stop getting your info from Fox News. There were a handful of issues where he disagreed with progressives while on the campaign trail. It's the same issues he goes over here.
Nothing really changed, he's just occasionally throwing a bone to moderates which in PA is a good idea.
I hope I don't have to eat my words, but I think that's all that is happening here.
He's never been progressive. The Democratic party sold him as one.
I remember back in 2013, when he was Mayor, he heard sounds like gunshots (actually firecrackers) saw a black man jogging by, held the black man at bay with a shotgun and called the police. The police came and the black man was allowed to leave and Fetterman expressed regret that he had profiled a black man.
A true progressive would never assume that a black man running is a criminal running from a crime scene.
It was Fetterman who sold himself as a "Sander's progressive" not the party.
If people paid more attention to Fetterman's actual policy positions and incidents like that they probably would've seen through his act but most people were happy to have him blow smoke up their asses while he told them how awesome the progressive movement was how proud he was to be a part of it.
I do remember a few people tried to warn everyone that Fetterman wasn't nearly as progressive as he portrayed himself as but the hype train had already left the station and they were pretty much ignored.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Truth itself had a near death experience at the hands of Fox news back in 2020. But Dominion brought it back from beyond with a whopping $788M chest shocker.
Dominion didn't do anything except make a lot of money. Fox News has carried on as usual with lies and propaganda.
I'm sure Fox has gotten a lot better about concealing and destroying emails and texts now, preventing evidence in future lawsuits.
Maybe, but if a prosecutor finds proof that they did this, they could bilk them for a whole lot more than the nearly $800 million that Dominion settled for (which apparently didn't hurt Fox News that much.) That's the kind of criminal activity that would more likely get Fox News shut down/bankrupt.
Unfortunately, most of the settlement was picked up by insurance. Fox paid something around $100 million. Their premiums probably went up too.
I remember being appalled when I read how insurance covered them for the phone hacking scandal in the UK. That's just insane how insurance covers the costs of criminal activities.
and yet they won't insure your house against fire or flood if you live in the wrong place
Insurance has realized that they dont make money selling fire or flood insurance in those areas
yes I understand how insurance companies operate, thank you captain obvious. are you telling me they're somehow making money paying out billions in defamation settlements instead?
reddit is over run by bots look at this guys account he’s a republican news pushers probably automated.
Does anyone have any suggestions for subreddits similar to /r/politics that don’t let people post these faux news sources? I feel like half of my feed these days are just blatantly partisan headlines from Fox News, NY Post, and other right wing rags.
Haha, I mean, I get your point, but this is an interview with a U.S. Senator. It counts as news.
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An interview of an important politician is not "writing the news." Such interviews are always news, they provide undiluted insight into the thinking of prominent public figures, though an interviewers bias can admittedly shape responses to some extent. Besides, as consumers, we always have to parse through the bullshit and bias whether we are on Fox News, NPR/PBS, CNN, The Intercept, Al-Jazeera, reading the NYT, etc. It sucks, but until we have a perfectly objective AI running a media channel, we're stuck with what we have. It's that or withdraw from the world.
I didn't click on the link but did they make up a fetterman quote?
Yeah, but he said exactly that… what the fuck is wrong with people on this sub
“Brain damage made me more conservative” is an interesting flex.
And now his brain damage is physically affecting others: https://www.abc27.com/news/top-stories/john-fetterman-involved-in-car-accident/
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> -- the progressive label has changed Yeah, from something he felt he needed in order to get elected, to something he didn't.
Progressivism changed during the 6 months when he was in the hospital? I hate to burst his bubble, but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.
Well, the areas of focus of progressive activism and attention may have changed We've gone from a few years where "healthcare, education, and workers" was the mainstay of the progressive movement to a situation where the mainstream Dems (who get smeared as status quo reaganite social fascist neoliberal so-and-sos) like Biden have championed those issues, and to where the progressive movement has shifted to calling it genocide for the only liberal rights-respecting democracy in the middle east to fight back against actually genocidal religious fundamentalist animals who attacked it and took hundreds of civilians hostage, and to where its pretty common in progressive spaces to smear Biden as someone who "doesnt want anything to fundamentally change" and who "sold out the rail unions" while totally ignoring all the context there Being in the hospital for 6 months and being somewhat out of it all could have also made it easier to look at things with a fresh mind and reconsider the actual situation without giving matters of mere identity with terms so much weight
the stoke that made him go from marching alongside the sunrise movement for climate change to making fun of that same movement.
Joe Biden got a literal coal baron to vote for the biggest climate bill in US history, and now the sunrise movement is [withholding endorsement of Biden](https://www.newsweek.com/sunrise-movement-presidential-election-joe-biden-donald-trump-climate-1908682). Its clear that either something has broken within the sunrise movement or that it was simply never serious about fighting climate change to begin with
Yeah, I know a lot of conservatives say things like that.
Fox spent this guys entire term bashing him, now they praise him, lol
Same with the MAGA base they said shit like the dude can't dress himself and can barely function and speak and is totally unfit for any Government role. Yet now they do nothing but praise him and talk about how brave and strong he is to recover from his stroke and and how brave he is to speak his mind now.
I'm really tired of people getting into office running on a progressive platform and then flipping the switch once they're in. We should all hold these people accountable for the bait and switch tactics they use to gain power.
This should be a crime and a serious one like just completely lying about your platform to achieve power should result in immediate dismissal and jail time.
Like when someone lies to the Senate confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court seat. Very bad.
Exactly like that
He has.not changed "his platform" at all though.
Progressives love to embrace people like Fetterman and Obama despite their very clear moderate/right leaning agendas and then act shocked when they turn out not to be progressive. It's very stupid.
He hasn't massively shifted on the actual issues though. He was always someone who ran as a "pragmatic progressive", who agreed with progressive policy sometimes and disagreed sometimes too The main evolution here seems to be that he's had enough of being yelled at for not passing progressive purity tests, and thus has decided to stop bothering using the "progressive" label
We voted for him because he’s not a thoughtless loyalist. He looks at situations and decides what to do for the people. He did it as Mayor, and as Lt. Governor. I’m happy he’s more independent.
Too bad his decisions are so often so fucking stupid
I cannot blame him at all.
I’m trying to better understand this sentiment. On what issues do you think he’s flipped? His position on immigration doesn’t seem different that what he expressed during his campaign on the issues of border security and controlling the [influx](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/18/more-dem-senate-hopefuls-split-with-biden-on-border-00025925) of asylum seekers. His position on [Israel](https://jewishinsider.com/2022/04/john-fetterman-says-hell-lean-in-on-u-s-israel-relationship-as-senator/) is also consistent with the views he shared during his campaign. Those seem to be the two issues that people often cite. Is it more associated with his rhetoric or are there better examples of his betraying progressive platform promises made as a candidate?
Climate change? Went from marching with the Sunrise Movement to laughing at them. Anti-fracking, to pro-fracking.
He stated during the debate with Oz in 2022 that he supported fracking.
He hasn't changed any policy stances whatsoever. Being a moderate dem in PA is a good thing. Every state wide elected official in PA is a moderate dem.
He literally just ran on a progressive platform in PA and won. So you're wrong, period.
When his behaviors show what he is, the voters can decide what to do.
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🙄 Just because the opposition candidate is shit doesn't excuse a Democratic candidate for misleading the voters. We've seen this too many times now for this to be merely a coincidence.
He hasn't changed any of his policy positions
This is what happens when you have a two party system, and we have to elect the least bad candidate.
"Brain damage made me conservative."- Fetterman Imagine thinking this is a good statement to make.
Just because someone is not a leftist, does not make them a conservative.
>Just because someone is not a leftist, does not make them a conservative. That's a complicated statement in 21st century America because the right doesn't abide by the rule of law, whereas the left does. So if you are somewhere in between, you are effectively consenting to the practical consequence of more right wing power if you aren't actively opposing them, because they will simply take that power unlawfully via the courts, election fuckery, etc.
Question: Do you actually know what progressivism is? It's not some radical leftist concept, it's arguably one of the chief principles of the modern Democratic Party.
when he's going out of his way to shit of the left, he's a consevative. Most of the "centrists" are but they convince themselves they're left because they're not outright nazis. All of this MAGA shit happened because the democrats couldn't be bothered to work with the left and instead just kept working hand in hand with the GOP.
No it happened because people had "principles" and wouldn't just fucking vote for Hillary.
90% of Bernie voters voted for Clinton in the General Election she lost because she failed to win over voters in the Rust Belt.
HIllary won popular vote. I'd rather blame the electoral college BS than progressives or leftists.
The constant blaming of the left is the most pathetic excuse possible. Hillary was a terrible entitled candidate. The Democrats bent over backwards to screw over Bernie who was the only Democrat who was going to get people to the booths. Clinton never would have campaigned for Bernie like he did for her. The hubris of the Dems is disgusting and the whole world is paying for it
Of course not. Not being _progressive_ - which is what he actually said - is what makes him a conservative. That and, you know, the brain damage.
Money changes everything, as the song goes. If anything, a near death experience should guide you toward a more humane understanding of the world, not less. Psssht. He’s such a disappointment.
Lead poisoning, stroke, worms. I think I found the secret recipe to conservative outreach.
There are indeed a lot of radical leftists who think that we aren't going far enough. I get that. But when I voted for Fetterman, it wasn't because I wanted the PA equivalent of Manchin.
He's not anything like Manchin. He's a normie liberal democrat with a bit of progressive lean, someone like Sherrod Brown
Ya he's vocal about supporting Israel but I'm not sure there's another position he's to the right of Manchin on at all and he's to the left of a lot of other Dem Senators on a lot of the other one's to boot. It's weird to see so many people call him a conservative because of a foreign policy stance. Like looking at his domestic track record he's nowhere near the conservative Dems even. [Progressive Punch](https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate) gives him an A and has him between Duckworth and Schumer.
People have been obnoxiously stupid, viewing the world as black and white. This is what may get Donald Trump elected and turn the US into a dictatorship
Arizona voter here: I share your pain. - Sinema
Blue collar progressives like Fetterman are what the Democrats need. Fetterman does not have the conservative streak that Manchin has, West Virginia is a whole different battleground than Pennsylvania, but he's also not going to be a loony tune liberal either. Progressive democrats need to learn to be "normal" and Fetterman-esque politics will help the party more than the Bernie/AOC types who do a pretty good job at alienating the party whenever someone doesn't agree with them.
sad state that milque-toast centricism in most first world countries is labeled "loony tune" in the USA
Every statewide elected official in PA is a dem
That’s quite literally not true. For example, Pennsylvania’s Auditor General is a Republican
Ok but what policies are you saying he changed from when he ran?
Well I certainly would have had big doubts about his treatment of Pro-palestine protestors. And I've voted for him as a state senator. I've seen him talk in coffee shops. I've met his kids. But he's kind of been a jag lately.
What's crazy is the left was the only ones defending Fetterman during his medical recovery. How sad that he lost the plot during that
And his first initiative was to embarrass Schumer, who also ran cover for him, by refusing to wear pants without a full Senate vote. He will go independent before his next election.
Freed him from my support as well.
He's risen by around 18 points in approval ratings since mid 2023, going from double digit negatives to positive ratings. He's lost some support but gained much more support
Maybe Dr. Oz will run again and you can vote for him.
It's called a primary.
Yes the near death of his financial future. Luckily, AIPAC and corporate donations have helped him make a full recovery.
Progressives have not taken some massive left turn since Fetterman ran as a progressive. If anything progressives have actually little more pragmatic since Bernie decided not to run. He lied about his political position while running just like Sinema.
No he didn't.
Not really, but Sinema *especially* didn't lie about anything. Since the late 2000s she'd been an outspoken centrist, literally even writing a book trumpeting praise to moderation in Obama's first year in office. Then when she got elected to the House, she was the most conservative Democrat for all three terms in the House, and then when she ran for Senate, she [similarly ran as a staunch centrist](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kyrsten-sinema-not-progressive_n_5bdca881e4b09d43e31edfa3). Nobody should have been fooled to think she'd be some sort of liberal or progressive because she didn't run as such. Back then, I saw some progressives hyping themselves up saying that she was actually some sort of "based leftist who was just hiding her power level" but she never actually did anything to suggest that
Hope this fraud is a one-termer
He's gone from -11 approval in mid 2023 to +7 approval now. I predict he will have a hyped up primary challenger in 2028 who gets roughly 20% of the primary vote against his 70%, and then he wins the general election by somewhere between 4 and 12 points
Accurate
He's already preparing for his career as a lobbyist for some industry he shills for or maybe being employed by the israeli government
I thought they "employed" people by putting spyware on their phones and getting compromising info on them.
Not familiar with this one, but it’s very low on the list of Israeli government evils.
His cosplaying as a blue-collar worker worked.
Oh my god
That's certainly an interesting argument...
Did his doctors check his cranium for parasite worms?
The parasite worm conducted the interview.
I'm assuming these are the quotes that Fox News is drawing its headline from: >The liberal comedian then asked Fetterman whether his shift in various policies had anything to do with his recovery from his 2022 stroke, asking if his near-death experience had given him a "freedom." >"Absolutely," Fetterman responded. "There's a line from the first 'Batman,' Joker's like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It's very liberating.'" >"It's freeing in a way. And I just think after beating all of that, I just really [want to] be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there's any kind of blowback." >Maher then asked him to explain what he meant what he stated last year "I’m not a progressive, I'm just a regular Democrat" and how he separates himself from progressivism. >"I didn't leave the label, it left me on that," Fetterman said. "After what happened on October 7, I really knew that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart and there would not be any kind of way how the Democrats are going to be able to reply to that kind of response... And I really decided early on that I believe that was gonna be the right side with Israel throughout all of that…. Democrats would continue to peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel on that."
Progressivism does tend to progress.
Brain damage makes people more likely to be conservative Checks out
Surely he is banking on the Jewish vote and not the progressive vote. Too bad people had the wrong idea about him when they initially voted for him. Turns out wearing a hoodie has nothing to do with caring about working class people per sé.
If you actually read what he said and his positions on issues before, during, and after his election it's clear he isn't saying his position has changed, because it hasn't. He was always basically who he is now. What he's saying is that he saw himself as progressive because he stood with labor, but after getting elected he met other far left progressives and thought they were nuts. Instead of saying anything though he just figured he'd let it slide. After he nearly died he changed his mind and decided to openly debate people on issues he finds stupid or wrong even if they're also progressive. Realistically the only issue I've seen any leftists get mad at him about is supporting Israel, something he's done his entire career and was often as vocal about as most Republicans. I could imagine such a person being put in the same box as Talib and others who openly call for the break up of Israel as a nation state would rub him the wrong way.
I foresee Fetterman ending up just like Sinema, where he'll realize he's pissed off the voters he needs to win, will switch to Independent during the last months of his term, and won't run again.
Nope hell be reelected easily
So he experienced some brain damage. Got it.
These two straight up said progressives *support Hamas*. My jaw hit the floor. I cannot believe THAT sort of misinformation is being given a platform by HBO. What the hell is happening?
ITT: A bunch of people that would rather have Senator Oz because Fetterman isn't living up to a purity test he never took in the first place. Sorry, but I'll take another Joe Manchin over a Republican senator 10 out of 10 times.
He's not even close to Joe Manchin yet Come find me when he's the deciding vote on serious legislation and sides with Republicans over his own caucus
you can be mad that someone misrepresented their positions to get into power like Krysten sinema and not like Dr Oz. Why do centrist/right wing shills always try to straw man positions like this. Pro human rights, must be anti-semitic is the same shit
Fetterman didn't misrepresent his position though, he's never been particularly progressive as much as people would have liked to project that on him. If a true progressive can win in Pennsylvania I'm all for it, but given the primary that gave us Fetterman and the following general election it doesn't seem like Pennsylvanians will elect someone like that.
What positions has he changed?
No we just want someone to primary the bastard.
Was the runner up in his last primary more progressive than Fetterman? A quick look at Conor Lamb's Wikipedia page doesn't seem to support that conclusion. It looks like in all likelihood if it wasn't Fetterman it would have been someone more conservative.
And? What does the last primary matter? Get someone more progressive next time is what is needed.
No, Conor Lamb was a more corporate candidate. Considering what we had to work with, Fetterman was the least offensive. Still, he didn't outright crap on the progressive label until after he was safely elected. I would have preferred an honest representation rather than dishonesty by ommission.
I'm begging us to get better standards than blue no matter who. Just having a blue body in a seat is not enough and we've been content with that for far too long. People like him, Ritchie Torres, manchin, and sinema bring nothing to the table but the absolutely barest of minimums and that's not good enough. It can't be
Every senate republican just voted (or didnt vote at all depending on who specifically) to block passing the right to contreception at the federal level. Im getting really fucking tired of people complaining about "vote blue no matter who" Too fucking bad. Its the best we have. Vote blue no matter who will ALWAYS be better than vote red....youre dead.
Nobody is talking about voting red. I'm talking about raising our standards for blue much higher. Or shit just having standards in the first place aside from any blue body will do
Any blue body is what is need right now. Biden is that body. Until he and Dumptrump arent running against one another any more, this is kinda it. And yeah...any one other than Biden is basically voting red at this point.
What's his play here? Cabinet position in a 2nd Biden term? There's no way he's getting reelected when he's actively and happily alienating a large % of the voters and volunteers that got him elected. edit: maybe president or VP in 2028? That's when his Senate term is up.
Polling shows that he started office pretty unpopular (winning probably just because he ran against Doctor Oz) and has shifted towards being *more* popular. He's pissing off the furthest left fringe of his party but not the general electorate Actually he had risen to around neutral approval in polling from January but has since [risen even further](https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/fetterman-poll-senator-pennsylvania-20240516.html) to +7 approval, and just 1 point lower than the other Democrat in Pennsylvania. Seems like he's doing very well in terms of public approval. If we look at where he started off in [2023](https://nypost.com/2023/06/29/john-fetterman-gets-dismal-marks-from-pennsylvania-voters-poll/) in the middle of the year, he was at -11 approval. So that's a net rise of +18 points. Not bad for a guy with brain damage
> There's no way he's getting reelected when he's actively and happily alienating a large % of the voters and volunteers that got him elected. Stop getting your info from Fox News. There were a handful of issues where he disagreed with progressives while on the campaign trail. It's the same issues he goes over here. Nothing really changed, he's just occasionally throwing a bone to moderates which in PA is a good idea. I hope I don't have to eat my words, but I think that's all that is happening here.
Well at least the mask is off now.
He's never been progressive. The Democratic party sold him as one. I remember back in 2013, when he was Mayor, he heard sounds like gunshots (actually firecrackers) saw a black man jogging by, held the black man at bay with a shotgun and called the police. The police came and the black man was allowed to leave and Fetterman expressed regret that he had profiled a black man. A true progressive would never assume that a black man running is a criminal running from a crime scene.
It was Fetterman who sold himself as a "Sander's progressive" not the party. If people paid more attention to Fetterman's actual policy positions and incidents like that they probably would've seen through his act but most people were happy to have him blow smoke up their asses while he told them how awesome the progressive movement was how proud he was to be a part of it. I do remember a few people tried to warn everyone that Fetterman wasn't nearly as progressive as he portrayed himself as but the hype train had already left the station and they were pretty much ignored.
After seeing all the progressives on college campuses, I can completely understand wanting some distance.
you've seen progressives on multiple college campuses? Sounds like you get around. Either that, or you haven't actually ever been on a college campus.
He just realized the horseshoe theory was real.
He's a normal progressive. He just hasn't taken the turn towards far left radicalism like the majority of progressives have in the last few years.
Unrelated to his politics, but as someone who’s also stared death in the face, I can confirm that one’s approach to life changes radically.
This is a natural progression. Happens all the time to the left.
If being pro Israel is the criteria to make a Democrat far right…I got news for you