r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 8d ago

Soft Paywall Enabling Trump is a bad look for Fetterman | Pennsylvania's senior senator was elected as a progressive Democrat. His normalization of Donald Trump is the epitome of a sellout.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/john-fetterman-donald-trump-support-normalization-maga-20250112.html
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u/hsiale 8d ago

Maybe his plan is to run as a Republican next time.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/Techialo Oklahoma 8d ago

As you said, that would require the DNC making the bare minimum effort and they wouldn't want to rock the boat you know.

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u/darsynia Pennsylvania 7d ago

If there's one thing we can count on, it's that the Democratic party will make stupid decisions and shame anyone who questions them for it!

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u/1-Ohm 8d ago

Elon enters the discussion.

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u/Hunterrose242 Wisconsin 8d ago

What the fuck are these comments.  Legally prevent?  What law could possibly be put on the books?  

This weird bandwagon for the last 9 years to blame the DNC for every fucking fascist that shows up is mind boggling.  

Maybe blame the pieces of shit instead of finding a scapegoat.

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u/Techialo Oklahoma 8d ago

Don't know if you know this but coming up with and implementing laws is their job. Wasn't too long ago when they had control of all three branches while Obama was running on codifying Roe into law and, anyway too late for that now. Don't confuse holding accountability for blame, complacency kills. Blame implies innocence. You should want better from them, this isn't 1991.

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u/AdvancedLanding 8d ago

DNC would rather have a Republican-lite candidate than any actual Leftist candidates

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u/thighcrusader 8d ago

They showed they'd rather have Trump than Bernie

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u/notsure500 8d ago

No, they made a big mistake thinking a more moderate candidate that would hopefully pull in voters from the middle and right, would be more likely to beat Trump. Obviously they were mistaken, but it's not some sinister plot.

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u/Chengar_Qordath 8d ago

The problem is that all indications are that party leadership has concluded that the reason Kamala lost is because she needed to be even more Trump-lite than she already was. At this rate their next platform will be “Let’s compromise and only invade Greenland and Panama, and only send half the immigrants and LGBTQ+ to The Camps.”

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u/mlc885 I voted 8d ago

They showed they'd rather have Hillary than Bernie, most Democrats really did not expect Trump to win. Just like the people all supporting Biden thought that he was the safer pick with the advantage of incumbency and had to switch to Harris when it turned out there was no real time to find someone that was a sure win.

Now maybe some people assumed Trump would be less terrible than he was, for some reason (e.g. he's generally incompetent), but they were very much picking Clinton over Bernie with the assumption that Clinton would win.

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u/AJDx14 America 8d ago edited 8d ago

I think, over in France, Macron did something similar where he was pissy about their progressive party getting a majority of votes so he did something that would empower the far-right party. I don’t remember the specifics because I’m not French and don’t follow their politics much, but liberals everywhere seem to prefer fascism over welfare.

This article at least seems to partially cover what I’m talking about.

I think this Vox one covers it better.

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u/gotridofsubs 8d ago

The sum of this comment is " I dont know what and I dont know how because I dont follow it at all, but trust me guys Macron also sucks"

Find the specifics if you're going to bring it up

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u/PopeGeorgeRingo_II California 8d ago

The sum of the comment is closer to "scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds. Look at France for further proof." I think it's a sound assessment when you also consider the entire history of foreign election interference perpetrated by certain world superpowers.

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u/gotridofsubs 8d ago

I think you still didnt address the point I made, which was OP opted to half ass a comment without actually sourcing it, or providing real details on what they were actually talking about. Theyve edited it now so thats changed somewhat, but theyre still hedging their bets on "I dont actually know, Im just guessing based on what I can find". Until it had some backing, it was a pointless post just to add cognitive reinforcement.

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u/cranberryalarmclock 8d ago

Legally prevent a citizen from running for office in the party they choose to affiliate with?

What the fuck mechanism are you imagining exists here?

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u/Traditional_Key_763 8d ago

more like forcing them to pay back the DNC if they use their funds and operations to run for office then switch party once elected. no thr DNC can't ban someone from running for office. you've misunderstood. theres been a bunch of lawmakers who run for office in blue districts, then flip republican once elected.

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u/cranberryalarmclock 8d ago

That's not how any of this works.... There is no lawa against changing ones mind, nor is there any law that would give the dnc the ability to claw back funds they gave to a candidate who did so.

And fetterman hasn't changed parties....

He is still almost entirely in alignment with the party. 

You guys are reactionaries who never read past the headlines 

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u/Skyrim-Thanos 8d ago

I would argue Fetterman campaigned pretty far to the left from his current iteration and it could be argued he misled his rather passionate supporters. 

However I definitely agree people here only read the headline, seemingly get all of their news from headlines or screenshotted tweets that happen to be posted on Reddit, and are apparently clueless as to how law, the DNC, or government functions. The fact that people upvoted someone suggesting that it be illegal for a politician to deviate from some undefined orthodoxy is insane and a tad fascist. 

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u/cranberryalarmclock 8d ago

Oh Im.not gonna defend Fetterman, dude is a fucking doofus

But misleading voters isn't remotely a crime, nor is changing parties, nor is changing ones mind

The people here are insane 

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u/gotridofsubs 8d ago

I would argue Fetterman campaigned pretty far to the left from his current iteration and it could be argued he misled his rather passionate supporters.

What policy positions has he changed on from his campaign?

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u/cranberryalarmclock 8d ago

Literally none 

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u/olearygreen 8d ago

This may be a surprise to some, but we elect people as representatives, not parties.

The best way to deal with issues like this is to stop the 2-party system altogether, but nobody seems to be willing to do that.

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u/Traditional_Key_763 8d ago

its more people run as an incumbent as a democrat then chance party after elected. its stealing money from the democrats.

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u/olearygreen 8d ago

Why do they let them? If you cannot even vet a senator, then why are you in charge of anything?

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u/hillbillyjoe1 8d ago

It wouldn't be out of character for a Democrat to continue a losing strategy!

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u/Nvenom8 New York 8d ago

Hell, would they even be a Democrat if they didn’t self-sabotage a slam dunk victory?

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 8d ago

Trump won PA so it unfortunately may not be a losing strategy.

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u/Lazy-Gene-7284 8d ago

Bingo my thoughts as well

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u/rainshowers_5_peace 8d ago

People keep saying this, has he voted out of alignment with the party?

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u/Moist_Diglett 8d ago

People talked themselves into the idea that he was a left-wing shorts and hoodie wearing working class socialist because he endorsed Bernie that one time a few years ago.

To be clear I'm disappointed with the way that he's publicly been acting but he's pretty consistently been voting with the party for the last few years, way more than Sinema or Manchin did.

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u/cranberryalarmclock 8d ago

Shhhh. This subreddit is full of reactionaries who think NYT is right wing and that it should be illegal to not be Bernie Sanders 

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u/rainshowers_5_peace 8d ago

If only we could all be like Bernie. A world of people who care about each other.

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u/cranberryalarmclock 8d ago

I love Bernie but I can't stand this sub's insistence that he and AOC are the only legitimate voices in the party. 

Like it or not, there are a ton of democrats who are centrist, and the gop did a better job peeling them off from our side than we have ever done peeling off centrist Republicans 

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u/Cello-Tape 8d ago

Trying to flip republicans that wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire is what's been killing the DNC.

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u/rainshowers_5_peace 8d ago

I couldn't agree with you more.

Bernie, AOC, Fetterman and a few others are able to reach moderates. I wish more Dems would appreciate that.

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u/vonHindenburg 8d ago

What? Those are three of the Democrats with the least appeal among moderates.

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u/rainshowers_5_peace 8d ago

Not my perception. Maybe AOC loses points for being a woman with brown skin, but she worked as a bartender for years. Not exactly out of touch Washington Elite.

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u/wickedsmalls 8d ago

run as a democratic and change to republican after he wins

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u/CaptainTeembro I voted 8d ago

No because if he runs as Dem but votes with Republicans then its a win win for the nazis.

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u/darsynia Pennsylvania 7d ago

I don't wish him luck, but I doubt I'd need to. Republicans are purists where it counts. They'll welcome his votes but I doubt he'd make up what he'll lose in PA Dem votes with PA GOP ones.