Hey, I came to very similar conclusions regarding nat’s comments.
Yeah, I think from an American perspective Fetterman is considered progressive. That’s mostly because he supports American progressive policy proposals…things like nationalized healthcare (Medicare for all), free college educations, paid family leave, affordable housing, etc. I know these things are common sense for most of the rest of the world, but America is especially barbaric towards its citizens, so those of us on the left are still fighting for these basic human decencies. Fetterman included.
Where Fetterman really lost me is with his handling of the war in Gaza. I’ve heard his position described as a political calculation, and a poor one at that, but I think there’s more to it. Not sure if you saw the video of him being asked very reasonable questions about a ceasefire by one of his constituents, a former university professor…but in it, he totally ignored the guy, and had a security thug literally shove him 30 feet out a nearby door into the street. That level of callousness tells me there’s something more to his position, although admittedly I’m not intimately familiar with Fetterman as a political figure, and wasn’t quite sure if his reaction was resulting from post-stroke trauma or what.
On the matter of Bernie, yeah I wholly agree he has been very weak on this. That’s been a defining feature of Bernie throughout his whole career though. He’s pretty much always had the right idea policy-wise, but he’s just too nice. Nothing’s going to get done by playing patty-cakes with the establishment, and I just don’t think he has it in him to fight aggressively. Especially after “shooting his shot” in the past couple of election cycles. Bernie mistakenly thought the DNC believed in democracy and would let him win the nomination fair and square if he had the voters. Clearly not the case.
imho, American progressives must form a new party in order to seize power, and the Dems and republicans can fold into the uniform corporate party they already comprise. I think MAGA would likely fall off a cliff as a result of this, losing much of their power. Its my hope that progressive leaders like Tlaib, Cori, Ro Khanna, and the rest of the squad will lead this effort but it’s unclear how affected they are by the time they’ve already spent in the capitol of corruption.
Hey, I came to very similar conclusions regarding nat’s comments.
Yeah, I think from an American perspective Fetterman is considered progressive. That’s mostly because he supports American progressive policy proposals…things like nationalized healthcare (Medicare for all), free college educations, paid family leave, affordable housing, etc. I know these things are common sense for most of the rest of the world, but America is especially barbaric towards its citizens, so those of us on the left are still fighting for these basic human decencies. Fetterman included.
Where Fetterman really lost me is with his handling of the war in Gaza. I’ve heard his position described as a political calculation, and a poor one at that, but I think there’s more to it. Not sure if you saw the video of him being asked very reasonable questions about a ceasefire by one of his constituents, a former university professor…but in it, he totally ignored the guy, and had a security thug literally shove him 30 feet out a nearby door into the street. That level of callousness tells me there’s something more to his position, although admittedly I’m not intimately familiar with Fetterman as a political figure, and wasn’t quite sure if his reaction was resulting from post-stroke trauma or what.
On the matter of Bernie, yeah I wholly agree he has been very weak on this. That’s been a defining feature of Bernie throughout his whole career though. He’s pretty much always had the right idea policy-wise, but he’s just too nice. Nothing’s going to get done by playing patty-cakes with the establishment, and I just don’t think he has it in him to fight aggressively. Especially after “shooting his shot” in the past couple of election cycles. Bernie mistakenly thought the DNC believed in democracy and would let him win the nomination fair and square if he had the voters. Clearly not the case.
imho, American progressives must form a new party in order to seize power, and the Dems and republicans can fold into the uniform corporate party they already comprise. I think MAGA would likely fall off a cliff as a result of this, losing much of their power. Its my hope that progressive leaders like Tlaib, Cori, Ro Khanna, and the rest of the squad will lead this effort but it’s unclear how affected they are by the time they’ve already spent in the capitol of corruption.