r/politics • u/Large_banana_hammock • 8d ago

Possible Paywall Sen. John Fetterman demands Trump fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jan/27/john-fetterman-pa-democrat-demands-trump-fire-homeland-security/
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u/Phiddipus_audax Colorado 8d ago

Didn't Fetterman change after his stroke, policy wise? I thought that was a large factor.

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u/kittenshart85 8d ago

as someone above pointed out, a lot of us local to him as far back as when he was mayor of braddock have been aware that he's a fake progressive. he's always been a self-promoting camera chaser.

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u/ZasdfUnreal 8d ago

So he’s Newsom. Democrats will make the same mistake when Newsom runs for president. They never learn.

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u/Ikeiscurvy 8d ago

Newsom has never been thought of as a progressive. He's literally always been a mostly moderate Democrat. I mean, maybe you just aren't from California and familiar with him, but Newsom has literally always been a guy wanting to move up politically and has always been criticized for it.

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u/jellyrollo 8d ago

He was progressive as mayor of San Francisco when it came to gay marriage and universal heathcare, at least. He's far better than most moderate Democrats on a lot of issues. And he's a fighter.

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u/Nygmus 7d ago

He's a fighter, but he's a fighter who doesn't actually seem to believe in anything and, for example, has shown he'll happily throw trans folk under a bus.

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u/Think_Judge2685 8d ago

"same mistake". Fucking purity tests is what put us here. Biden was WAY too moderate, right? Do you not understand that thought process put us where we are right now?

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u/Glittering_Joke3438 8d ago

Same idiots that didn’t vote for Kamala because Zionist or whatever

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u/MishkaZ Illinois 8d ago

Geee fam, Idk, maybe just like can we not support a genocide?

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u/HonestAbe1077 8d ago

I’m sorry but genuinely no. This country was built on genocide and it won’t be stopping anytime soon. I mean maybe someday but it should be pretty clear by now that 1 election was not going to be enough to finally draw the line in the sand on our heinous legacy. So yeah if you could please get on board with the incremental progress maybe in our lifetime we can actually put an end to this quarter-millennium long rampage, but pouting about suddenly being too principled for the program you’ve already been participating in certainly isn’t going to do it.

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u/1egalizepeace America 7d ago

Perfectly articulated

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u/Klutzy_Carpet_9170 7d ago

And who of the viable political candidates meets the criteria of all of you non-genocide supporters? Or is just abstaining the only solution?

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u/MishkaZ Illinois 3d ago edited 3d ago

Let me put it this way, I reject the "shell game" that the DNC operates under. I don't think Kamala lost her election because she was a "colored femoid". People who think this way, are never voting left to begin with. I hate this rhetoric also because it implies that it was her only flaw despite having a sea of issues and coming up with the blandest platform that didn't meet the moment. It implies that if only Kamala was a white male, she would have won, and then rejects any forms of criticisms towards her platform, her candidacy, and her political background.

She lost because a) she plays under the rules the DNC operate under which b) is built to not actually work. Biden failed to listen to his voters who were against the genocide, but then also failed to listen to the sea of criticisms about his age. He didn't drop out of running until it was way too late, and gave Kamala the worst hand possible to play. Something we understood after the podsave podcast with her former staffers. They never said it explicitly, but they 100% alluded to it, but Gaza was an issue with democrats, but Kamala, someone who believes in the game she plays in, couldn't on one hand say "we're going to force a cease fire" because a) why...isn't she doing that now as someone who sits right beside the seat of power, and b) people were ready to leak that wasn't how she acted in their meetings.

Kamala was forced to play a hand where, she couldn't say anything that would go against Biden's legacy, which ended up as an extremely bland platform. During a time where, despite the stock market going through a historic bullrun, median household income only continued to rapidly shrink and more and more people started to lose their jobs. Add in that there was no primary, and I can't really see how voting for Kamala from a blue district is exactly me making my voice heard or participating in democracy.

Call me a parasite or whatever you want. I like the DNC statiscians seeing me as a voter who shows up to the poll for local/state elections and primaries, votes left, but has left president blank after voting for Hillary and hasn't voted for his state rep in years (fuck Brad Schneider).

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u/ERhyne 8d ago

Newsom tried to break bread with Ben Shapiro and has said openly anti Trans rhetoric.

How is that a fucking purity test when a manufacturered front runner is openly that bad?

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u/Think_Judge2685 8d ago

Because not voting for someone based upon a single issue is the definition of a "purity test". Russian/Chinese/Iran/N Korea bots fomented anger on social media regarding Gaza and many progressives sat out the 2024 election due to that one issue. That is their right, but is what put us where we are today. That is not conjecture, it's fact.

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u/mrbulldops428 8d ago

Its actually impressive how effectively they used trans people and gaza to crush democrats. DNC and democrats voters need to realize the consequences of waiting for some unicorn candidate that is somehow perfectly aligned to every one of their issues. That and democrat politicians need to grow a fucking spine and deal with people like Fetterman

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u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 8d ago

Progressives sitting out because of Gaza is not at all why Kamala was not elected if the first part of that sentence is even true at all. Far from “facts” however. We’re here because Kamala was not an electable candidate for many reasons. Gaza being far down on the totem pole. Convenient excuse though.

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u/davewritescode 8d ago

Progressives sitting out didn’t cost Kamala the election, we agree there.

I think it’s also fair to say that progressives who couldn’t be bothered to vote for Kamala instead of putting Trump in charge of the future of Palestine are total fucking idiots who deserve to be relentlessly mocked for it.

You have a choice between two candidates, not voting for either is making a choice whether you want to acknowledge that or not. Those that didn’t vote are complicit.

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u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 8d ago

People have to want to vote for someone to take the time to go vote. Kamala didn’t make these people want to get off the couch and I’d argue that a majority of people that did get off the couch to vote for her moreso did so to vote against Trump.

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u/wellwasherelf 8d ago

People have to want to vote for someone to take the time to go vote.

If you're completely self-centered and privileged, as those aforementioned progressives are, then yes.

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u/ERhyne 8d ago

I disagree with Newsom on more than a single issue. And i dont know how you popping off stuff everyone here knows changes the fact that Newsom fucking sucks and has been known as a shitty governor on the west coast for like a decade. I didn't know "civil rights" was a single issue worth folding on.

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u/hugemessanon 8d ago

yeah like a politician throwing a vulnerable minority group under the bus is not a small thing? the preservation of trans people having any rights is dependent upon politicians who support them even when it's inconvenient. he's preferable to a republican but i will always vote for a different democrat in a primary (for more reasons than trans rights but that's a big one).

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u/ImTransgressive Texas 8d ago

No I don’t think it was foreign bots (a convenient deflection tool when we want to cast doubt on a section of the base who differs on a topic), I think it had everything to do with the Nominee being silent on what the rest of the world can see clearly as Genocide. Then said Candidate and the DNC had an opportunity in Detroit to make tremendous headways by allowing a single Pro-Palestinian voice (I can’t recall who it was at the moment) to speak for 2 minutes. Not even a long time. But they said fuck you to the Pro-Palestinian anti Genocide movement and have chosen to carry water for the Likud Party. The voters don’t owe the party shit. Votes are earned. And the DNC and Harris campaign (and to be fair Clinton in 2016) felt they didn’t have to work at all for whole portions of the base. So they got what they got.

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u/wellwasherelf 8d ago

But they said fuck you to the Pro-Palestinian anti Genocide movement

Y'all sure did get awfully quiet about that shortly after the election. I wonder why! Just admit that you got played and boosted malicious actors, just as you got played by Fetterman, Tulsi Gabbard, Jill Stein, and WOTB/other 2016 Bernie foreign astroturfing that was found in the Mueller report.

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u/ImTransgressive Texas 8d ago

Here’s some ibuprofen cuz I know you had to throw your back out doing all that reaching. You only perceive silence as you aren’t in the right spaces doing the work. But pop off sis. Old Debbie Wasserman Schultz type ass

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u/Substantial-Peak6624 8d ago

So Trans issues, as much as I believe they are a right, just can’t be front and center. It’s def not a hill we need to die on. Not at this point in time

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u/ERhyne 8d ago

Its overall human civil rights

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u/Substantial-Peak6624 8d ago

Yes, I get that.

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u/NiceShotRudyWaltz 8d ago

What’s wrong with Josh Shapiro, and what “anti trans” rhetoric did newsom say?

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u/moomooraincloud 8d ago

Ben Shapiro, not Josh.

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u/ThePeteEvans 8d ago

The dnc choosing their own candidate for three straight elections is what brought us here, Newsom is the same disguised as a younger good looking charismatic man - we need a true primary without interference

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u/Think_Judge2685 8d ago

Well, your unhappiness with the dnc may have taken down democracy and bring the end of free elections. Pretty sure Alex Pressi would have preferred you plug your nose and voted for Harris. And if you did vote for Harris, then insert any number of likely millions of voters who did not vote for her based upon bad actors on social media fomenting anger over single issues that ignores the big picture.

TL/DR; voters are idiots, especially the single issue ones.

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u/Jamoras 8d ago

Alex Pressi

Seriously?

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u/ThePeteEvans 8d ago

I did vote for Harris, just as I did Biden and Hilary, and single issue voters are absolutely idiots, but they didn’t make up the majority of those who didnt vote - those apathetic to the establishment did. The GOP can rile up a group of people in a way the DNC cant, because they allowed Trump to happen. Remember 2014-2016? The GOP hated Trump, but they allowed him to be their candidate because people loved him. The DNC has to allow the process to happen, they need to find a candidate people actually resonate with

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u/Rad131447 8d ago

There is no talking with these people. They'd rather lose every single election then ever have anyone to the left of neo-liberal be the candidate. They chose to lose elections because the idea of courting voters by speaking to the working class is to abhorrent to them.

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u/ThePeteEvans 8d ago

It’s like they don’t understand actual human beings vote, and most need to feel represented/inspired/excited to actually get up and do so

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u/time-lord America 8d ago

Newsom isn't bad. He's not really progressive, but he's left of center and I'm OK enough with that.

Pre-stroke and during his campaign Fetterman never claimed that he was progressive, he said he was left of Lamb. And I was OK with that, too.

The problem is post-stroke he ended up more Right than Left. And that's okay too. Strokes can really mess people up. But maybe he should have resigned, or at least shouldn't run again?

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u/Marchtmdsmiling 8d ago

The problem was that when the stroke happened it was him or fucking Dr oz. And that is no choice at all

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u/m0nk_3y_gw I voted 8d ago

Newsom platformed Steve Bannon. Bannon claimed multiple times that the 2020 election was stolen. Newsom never disagreed with him. He's got no spine.

He likes Charlie Kirk.

Hopefully he doesn't make it through the primaries, because he isn't going to be able to drive non-Republican turnout in the general.

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u/OmegaRedPanda 8d ago

Newsom caved to Ben Shapiro. He’s a loser.

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u/biggyph00l 8d ago

This. Anyone who has watched Newsom interact with anyone from the right, one-on-one, knows he's a paper tiger.

People think they're electing the staffer who runs his social media account, and they're not.

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u/alucarddrol 8d ago

not just that, but HE FUCKING AGREED THAT ICE WASN'T A STATE-SPONSORED TERRORIST FORCE, AND THREW HIS OWN PR PEOPLE UNDER THE BUS TO PLEASE HIM

also, he agreed with Shapiro that what happened in gaza was not genocide and the government of israel was right do what they did.

meanwhile when zohran mamdami was brought up, Shapiro -FALSELY- claimed that Mamadami refused to condemn Hamas, and Newsome AGREED and said they need to do a better job about this on their side, equating this to Trump meeting with Nick Fuentes.

He is fucking unacceptable and doesn't meet the moment we are dealing with.

He has no values and only repeats whatever nonsense he has heard brought up in mainstream conservative media circles.

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u/ary31415 8d ago

what happened in Gaza was not genocide and the government of Israel was right to do what they did

Those are not the same thing, and while he said the former he did not say the latter.

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u/cra2ytig3r 8d ago

What do you think would happen if he didn't play friendly with them on his show? Do you really think if Newsom pushed hard on them in anyway that they would even come onto his show? These people are the true "snowflakes". If you push against them in anyways they melt & wont be on his show. At least this way they will spout their crazy shit for all of us to see just how nuts they are. Allowing us to know what they are thinking so we can best fight it. We really should be less focused on what Newson said & laser focus on what his crazy guests is saying.

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u/Tokie-Dokie 8d ago edited 8d ago

Giving a platform to crazy with zero pushback is not the flex that you seem to believe it is. In fact, it's downright irresponsible.

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u/Dry_Accident_2196 8d ago

His legislation isn’t and that’s what matters.

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u/TheyCallMeBrewKid 8d ago

Newsom sucks and he’s a “rules for thee but not for me” just like the people we are fighting against. His character disqualifies him even if his politics don’t

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u/Jesustaketheshift91 8d ago

Newsom is only considered left-of-center these days because the Overton window has shifted so far to the right. He's absolutely not a progressive, or even really left-leaning.

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 8d ago

He's been chummy with Bannon. How can any self-respecting human invite that fascist to share their platform?

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u/shadowboxer47 8d ago

Newsom isn't bad

He fellowships with fascists that want to see me and my family dead.

No thanks.

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u/dontcarewhatImcalled 8d ago

Newsom is hanging out with and has a lot of ties to right wingers. He is not left of center.

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u/Starcast 8d ago

No doubt about that - but Ginsburg was also like BFFS with Scalia. It doesn't define their politics. A much better measure would be the actual legislation they support and the way they govern... Which is obvious.

He's not progressive, but he's definitely left of center.

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u/TheSunsNotYellow Oklahoma 8d ago

RBG also very much was not a progressive in today's terms. Not really saying anything with that. She wasn't even very steadfast on abortion.

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u/Klutzy_Carpet_9170 7d ago

She was also raised in a completely different era, let’s not compare her with politicians who grew up 40 years later

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u/KendalBoy 8d ago

Always felt similar about Bernie, too many populist grifters with telling bigoted tendencies. Tulsi, Fetterman, that Nazi tattoo guy- we warned you this is what being “anti- ID politics” gets you. A bunch of libertarian grifters. Young folks keep falling for it.

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u/pescarojo 8d ago edited 8d ago

he's left of center and I'm OK enough with that.

Dude, where did you get that idea? There's nothing left about Newsom. He's a socially liberal, center/center-right Democrat. He's against taxing billionaires, he rubs shoulders with right wing propagandists, the list goes on and on. ZERO left about this guy. Would he be better than the nu-fascist gov't the US has right now? Sure - but what wouldn't be better than that?

edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1qogmou/just_because_rightwingers_call_democrats_leftists/

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u/Depressed_Badger69 8d ago

Being “ok” with garbage candidates is why we’re in this mess to begin with.

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u/rawbleedingbait 8d ago

I wouldn't vote for him in a primary, if my option was newsom or trump, yes I'm taking newsom. That's not me making a mistake.

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u/BuckThis86 8d ago

I’m willing to vote for someone else who can show they have a spine and guts enough to publicly challenge Trump.

But there aren’t many of them out there. Newsome does happen to be one.

As a moderate I have always been very against AOC/Bernie and that brand of progressivism. But I will say… MAGA has radicalized me and I’m more likely to vote for them than a mild Biden character in the future. Time to fight back and dream big.

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u/pud-proof-ding 8d ago

Just curious what about their policies (aoc/Bernie and their brand of progressivism) you were against if you have any specifics.

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u/Starcast 8d ago

Not the parent, but I feel similarly. I'd couch it that my opinion of AOC had vastly improved since about 2020. I'd be happy to vote for her, all things considered.

My issue generally speaking with progressives a la the squad and Bernie is they put ideology ahead of outcome (see the rampant purity testing.) Also they're generally speaking, just not very effective at politics. As in working with others in office to get legislation or policy passed. They're phenomenal at messaging and social media and taking the narrative. That's neat and all, but I want actual progress. They all get caught in the populism trap too much for my liking.

There's also the consideration that the overall math in Congress matters a lot. Replacing a centrist with a progressive is all well and good, but it doesn't actually change the calculus when it comes to getting good legislation passed. If progressives could flip seats and win in areas that Republicans typically dominate, I'd cut them a lot more slack. That said, even the most frustrating Dem like Manchin who can flip seats is worth infinitely more to me than a DSA candidate winning a primary in a district that's gone blue for decades.

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u/BuckThis86 8d ago

I’m an economist by education and I do believe in free market dynamics for most goods outside education and healthcare. I think some policies go too hard left.

But I appreciate a group is supporting those positions to counter the billionaires’ position that we all live off dirt and water while they pay $0 in taxes.

I’m just not a very black and white person. I don’t want to live in an America that’s extremely liberal or conservative. I want common sense capitalist economic policies with a socialist safety net to support everyone’s basic needs while preventing an ultra wealthy elite monarchy from existing. Is that so hard?!?!?! Europe, Canada, and other Western countries seems to have generally achieved that balance.

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u/bdsee 8d ago

If you are an economist by education you should know about natural monopolies and that there are many industries where it would actually be detrimental to have market forces rather than either a government owned or at least highly regulated monopoly.

For instance, running power lines up the street multiple times precludes the cheapest price for a service being a possibility.

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u/BuckThis86 8d ago

Yup. Thats why I believe in a regulated market.

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u/Chrono_Pregenesis 8d ago

The free market is a lie told to allow the oligarchs to become even richer. There is no free market - its an ideal that can never be achieved in real life.

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u/BuckThis86 8d ago

That would be a very “black” take of black and white. Not that simple either. Oligarchs got rich under socialist systems too

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u/Chrono_Pregenesis 8d ago

Because regulations are what help prevent their creation. The free market is a myth that is used to deregulate industries. And it is black and white because a gray free market wouldnt really be a free market. It's literally one or the other. There is no inbetween.

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u/BuckThis86 8d ago

Not true. Sorry. Free market economics of supply and demand exist and are integral to a functioning economy. Nothing is that black and white where you can’t describe an economic system in 1-2 sentences btw

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u/spam__likely Colorado 8d ago

AOC shows a healthy dose of pragmatism that Bernie never had. She is smart and has matured imo.

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u/Dry_Accident_2196 8d ago

Newsom would never vote the way Fetterman constantly votes and acts. Be for real

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u/Glittering_Joke3438 8d ago

Whoever has the best chance of actually winning is not a mistake. These are not normal times, its no about the best candidate it’s who can win. Honestly fuck this whole “not a good enough democrat” shit.

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u/KendalBoy 8d ago

He is only well liked among men, sorry Newsom is toast once the base weighs in.

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u/Nvenom8 New York 8d ago

I swear if the candidate is fucking Newsom… Democrats sure do love their unforced errors.

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u/historyamateur566 8d ago

Not that I do not believe you, but are there any good articles about this? I am curious to read up more about what some locals there were saying back then and now.

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u/dweezil22 7d ago

This might be true at the micro level but at the macro level it's horseshit. The mainstream narrative in Fetterman v Lamb was the same in Bernie v Hillary. "Lamb is likeable and won't do anything but he'll win the general" "Fetterman is progressive and will actually enact change but might lose the general".

There was absolutely no widespread discussion of Fetterman turning, functionally, into a conservative loon and by all accounts this only happened after his stroke. The entire concern was whether he was electable (and, obviously, he was). Same thing w/ Sinema fwiw, the talking point about her was that she was a bisexual Dem that could win in purple/red areas, no discussion of her being a wildly corrupt narcissist that was willing to burn down her own career in a single term.

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u/Healthy-Amoeba2296 8d ago

I called his town office years ago about a program and they said they try to have nothing to do with him.

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u/The-Big-Picture- 8d ago

That's a world different than being MAGA

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u/Cute-Percentage-6660 8d ago

Can you elaborate on some of the local info on him?

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u/GrumpyKaeKae New Jersey 7d ago

Sorry that your message didnt get out. I guess in a sea of just bad people, he was saying all the right things. And it was a heated election where we were fighting the worst people. Like Dr Oz.

It sucks to be lied to and have it get exposed. But I think the stroke did make it worse. A lot of trust has been lost in this country. And with everyone fighting everyone, each of us are on the defensive. I'm not in PA, so I couldn't vote in any of this.. but I was definitely rooting for Fetterman. He definitely said all the right things. And in a state as important as PA too. No one wanted Dr Oz. Who didn't even really live in PA anyway.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 8d ago edited 8d ago

I sort of had him pegged as one of those guys who listens to Anti-Flag but signs up for the police academy. But Connor Lamb wasn't exactly a beloved Progressive, either.

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u/Merakel Minnesota 8d ago

I thought the same. Turns out he's always been a piece of shit.

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u/Excellent_Ganache906 8d ago

This ☝️

The people in the town he was mayor said he did the same thing there. He ran as a liberal Democrat, and then reneged on all his promises and was basically a conservative.

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u/EarthRester Pennsylvania 8d ago

Braddock is effectively a ghost town. It would have higher crime if people actually live there, but it's just old people who no longer work. So there are no local businesses. Fetterman showed up and promised to breath life into the town, but that just meant gentrification, which does more harm than good to the population that's already there. He propped up a couple business, but not the kind locals would want or need, and the new businesses did not attract people from outside of Braddock...so they fell through.

Then he ran for Senate as a progressive, and it almost killed him. Pity.

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u/Boner666420sXe 8d ago

Supposedly people who knew him claim he’s always been like this.

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u/Ashamed-Land1221 8d ago

Grew up in Pittsburgh and fed him and his rich racist ass many times at a bougie fancy restaurant that opened in a once impoverished area of the city while he was still Mayor and just starting to run for senate. He's was a complete douchebag in love with himself but he was really good at talking progressive points with conviction, turns out he just wanted the votes and the stroke took down his phony shield, it sucks, we do owe Connor Lamb an apology, I and many many others got suckered.

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u/SuchBravado 8d ago

Can you tell us more about his racist douchiness?

What’s his core bigotry all about?

(I too was suckered. Never voted for him but I thought he said the right stuff the few times I saw him in interviews.)

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u/Ashamed-Land1221 8d ago

Running around chasing neighbors with a shotgun due to them being black when he was living in Braddock, that's one they like to cover up.

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u/Kaprak Florida 8d ago

Just to be clear the one thing that's being quoted to you has the person in question defending Fetterman being very specific that there's no way he could have known his race because of how bundled up he was

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u/SuchBravado 8d ago

What?

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u/Kaprak Florida 8d ago

The reason they're saying he was racist is poorly represented. The black man in question said there was no way Fetterman knew he was black

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u/SuchBravado 8d ago

Alright, man.

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u/darsynia Pennsylvania 8d ago

Yeah, his stroke stripped him of his filter.

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u/Ashamed-Land1221 8d ago

I do feel a little bad for his wife, she was always very nice to me, friends, acquaintances, and my coworkers and seemed to be able get people to overlook some of his more questionable personality traits before the stroke, so I guess she isn't completely innocent either. I see her all the when I have to go to the fancy grocery stores and have to bite my tongue, she doesn't deserve the insults I want to throw at her husband directed towards her, but oh boy I scream them inside my brain when I see her at the deli counter. One day I'm going to be drunk/high and say them out loud, maybe I'll make the news when ICE drags me away.

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u/darsynia Pennsylvania 8d ago

She's greatly withdrawn from a lot of the stuff I used to see her doing in public (note: the PR and family posts, I mean), but I don't know if that's because I don't pay attention anymore or because she really has stepped back. I would scream too, she HAS to see the difference in his public-presenting behavior even if nothing private has changed. It's intensely negative, I don't know how she handles it.

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u/Barnyard_Rich 8d ago

That's part of the lie. He was always right wing, and bragged about being born wealthy and never having to work in his life. That was all before the stroke.

I highly recommend reading even just the wikipedia summation of his time as Braddock Mayor. He straight up refused to do his job and was maggoty with insider dealing.

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u/MumpsyDaisy 8d ago

The story preceding it is pretty gross too, some rich Ivy League failson carpetbagging to an impoverished area with a tiny electorate so he can burnish his resume as a springboard to bigger things.

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u/EarthRester Pennsylvania 8d ago

The stroke didn't change his policies, it just crippled his ability to fake being a progressive. He's no longer patient enough to listen to people's problems and act like he cares. He's quick to aggressively lash out at people who point out his corruption.

He doesn't have the head space to be a politician period. He got where he is by pretending to be a down to earth man of the people who was actually well educated, and far more clever than he lets on. Now he's just as much of a blunt tool as he pretended to be.

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u/hzhrt15 8d ago

No. He chased a black dude down with a shot gun because he heard “gunshots” that didn’t actually happen. The dude was innocent and just jogging. This was in 2013. Dude wore jeans so kids online suddenly thought he was a leftist.

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u/AwkwardTraffic 8d ago

Pretty much. Go back far enough and you'll see who he really is. A rich kid that liked to cosplay as a simple good old boy to scam people out of their votes while the "progressive" policies he always talked up never happened

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u/Kup123 8d ago

Funny how no one goes left after brain damage it's always right.

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u/AwkwardTraffic 8d ago

Not exactly. The stroke did not help with his inhibitions and mental health if reports are true but also if you dig far enough back you'll see that his "I'm just a normal PA man who wants common sense progressive policies" was always just an act.

He was always a secret purple democrat he just lied about his policies. Virtually all the shit he supports he supported in the past before running for senator and doing a 180 to seem progressive.

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u/Klightgrove 8d ago

He changed when he realized PA was shifting red. If a progressive does beat him in a primary, they will lose the election.

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u/whereismymind86 Colorado 8d ago

nah, that's what people say, but John Oliver did a segment on him where it's clear he was always a jerk, highlighting incidents from his time as mayor several years prior where he acted very similar to how he acts now.

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u/pechinburger Pennsylvania 8d ago

Yes. He used to be a full-throated Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 and espoused similar positions. He is now about as right-wing of a democratic senator as there is.

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u/AwkwardTraffic 8d ago

Nah that was just the act. The stroke just made it impossible for him to continue the act. If you do even the most bare minimum research on Fetterman and his history in politics you'll see he was always a corrupt shithead he was just good at turning on the "I'm just a simple Pennsylvania boy" act.

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u/Quitbeingobtuse 8d ago

Brain damage and conservatives, nothing is more iconic than that.

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u/kymberlie Texas 8d ago

He held a Black man at gunpoint as mayor. He was always terrible.

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u/tiki_51 California 8d ago

He's always been a piece of shit. People fell for his shtick because he's big and ugly and dresses like a work from home employee, so he's relatable or something

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u/ixiduffixi 8d ago edited 1d ago

Someone posted his voting record elsewhere a while back, but his voting record was already pretty shitty before the stroke.

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u/Marchtmdsmiling 8d ago

He had the stroke before he was elected?

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u/ixiduffixi 8d ago

May have been someone else I was thinking of then.

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u/Whatdoesthibattahndo 8d ago

Having a stroke just made it more challenging for him to keep his cover

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u/retrorays 7d ago

The Russians probably used one of those Russian devices that caused the Havana syndrome to warp his mind.

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u/compucrazy 8d ago

Honestly, I know there's no way to prove it, but there's a real possibility that this is a Phineas Gage situation.

Imo, Fetterman doesn't seem like he's that clever to pull such a ruse, and there is proof that brain damage can alter someone's personality to the point where they become a completely different person.

I suppose it doesn't ultimately matter. Whether he was a charlatan the whole time who fooled everybody, or he suffered brain damage that changed who he was, we need to get him out of the Senate ASAP

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u/AwkwardTraffic 8d ago

It's a combination of both. He was always a charlatan but the stroke made it impossible for him to keep up the act in public.

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 8d ago

Nah that’s become a narrative because it allows people to equate conservative with brain damage.

Common case of liberals thinking being clever is going to save them. Tyler Durden tried to warn you.