Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has lost his unique leverage in Washington now that his party has pulled off a blue wave in the midterm elections.
The Democratic Party was handed control of the House and the Senate on Tuesday, dramatically reshaping Congress for the country.
In Pennsylvania, Fetterman has wielded the power of being the deciding vote in what was a narrowly divided Senate, as a Democrat willing to break with his party. But Democratic Senate gains across the country on Tuesday have pushed their seats from a minority of 47 to a majority of at least 54, after flipping at least seven seats, as of early Wednesday morning.
This means Fetterman, who has long faced criticism from wings of his party for obstructing the Democratic agenda by voting with Republicans, will now have less power to force his party to listen to the views he represents.
No, he does matter. We care about getting rid of this doofus. He will be hurting PA citizens.
I’m worried he’s not the only plant, he’s just the one that got brain dammaged enough to out himself.
My biggest worry is finding out one of our newly elected senators turns out to be like him or Sinema. I really wish there was a fast acting recall mechanism for those saboteurs.
… like him or Sinema …
So. Carolina Senator-elect Andrews is already hinting that she will do exactly that. I hope I’m misreading the situation.
This is why our work as voters has only just begun. We have to hold our reps feet to the fire on everyrhing. Call them. Make sure they know that if they try to shift their policy to the center we will primary them for someone thy will. If we get more fettermans we make sure they only get one term.
We can only yell at them so much. Someone like Fetterman likely has a lucrative gig with some lobbying group or think tank set up after this. They can easily do their damage as instructed and then duck out when the next primary comes by to challenge them. I want a recall mechanism that takes weeks/months to do rather than wait 6 years where they can still thwart any meaningful bills in the meantime.
Getting a recall mechanism approved though would be next to impossible as the ones who have the power to make that rule wouldn’t want to.
Chances are, a dem winning in a traditionally R county or state is not going to be the hardest socialist or progressive you can find. Best to suck it up and keep moving the window in the right direction
In the left direction ;)
It’s not a narrow margin anymore though. Even in the senate, there’s 54 democrats, and 2 races still haven’t been called.
Oh dont worry, the Dems will all be able to vote as a unified block now. Because there is zero chance that Trump will pass anything to the left of anything he wants.
He will matter when the time comes to get things done. You want to convict trump? 2/3 majority in the Senate. Want to amend the constitution to teach John Roberts how to read? 66 votes. Hooked on phonics, John. Start with seeing spot run. Democrats can legislate with the majority they have, but now they have to do that and override vetoes. You guessed it, 2/3.
People aren’t going to accept “we tried” again. If Democrats fuck this up now, again, just disband the party.
Hooked on… P… Puhonics? Puhooonicks.
2/3 majority in the Senate.
Democrats are never going to convince enough Republicans to defect, to reach 67 votes in the Senate. So Fetterman indeed doesn’t matter.
People aren’t going to accept “we tried” again.
I can already see people like coming with criticism like “why didn’t the Democrats win that vote that requires 2/3rds majority? Surely because the Democrats don’t truly care. Both sides are the same.”
The last few times the Democrats held a majority in both houses, they rolled over for Republicans who were absolutely relentless in their attacks.
When Republicans held both houses, Democrats just silently let them get away with whatever, instead of going on the offensive the way they should.
Attack. Legislation isn’t going to happen. Investigate. Obstruct. Be so offensive that simply existing in Washington becomes unpalatable for Republicans.
Instead what they’ll do is send through the most milquetoast of progressive legislation, watch it get vetoed and when it comes to a point where it could actually happen, they’ll forget the ever brought it up in the first place. Like they do every time.
I really hope we can bully the Dems into investigating corruption. I am not expecting that we can, but I am hopeful that we can.
If Democrats fuck this up now, again, just disband the party.
not how the gop ran the country into the ditch, now it’s all about how fast the dems can fix everything that’s been fucked up.
2009 all over again.
No one will be trying to amend the constitution, unfortunately
you don’t have to amend the constitution if you just change what words mean.
Lot of bummer headlines lately. This one really feels good.
Hopefully we get a handful more good ones in the near future.
The stuff that is going to start surfacing will turn out stomachs, but we need to power through it to rub some right wing noses in the poop they were willing to overlook to pwn the libs
(This is such a terribly written sentence you can rest assured I am a real person)
So can they kick him out of the party now?
They should.
I mean, Haley Stevens was booted in a day. At this point his exit from the party is mandatory.
I mean, he sucks, but being butthurt that your primary opponent beat you, throwing a tantrum, then endorsing the other party’s guy during a close election is such an egregious betrayal, it’s basically unforgivable. I hope her political career is over and she has to survive on whatever AIPAC and fossil fuel companies already gave her…
to force his party to listen to the views he represents.
Dropped the ball at the end there. That’s the whole problem, he doesn’t represent the people who got him in there.
He’s not representing the people that elected him. He’s representing his views. Article still technically correct.
The real question is who will be speaker. Jeffries means they’ll sit around and do fuck all for 2 years. AOC means they’ll actually DO something. I guess we’ll see.
Corpo Dems would rather reverse the election than let a progressive lead. They are most assuredly going with Jeffries. So don’t expect any big Israeli action.
The people who decide congressional leadership, are the sitting members of Congress.
2 years ago when the vote was held Jamie Harrison was still DNC chair, and not voting how he wanted would have gotten your state party cut off from “the victory fund”.
That fund is gone now, has been for a while.
The current DNC chair named in February 25 dumped all that money back to the states it was stolen from.
It’s not just that we have to trust him not to use “the stick”, he fucking burnt the stick to ash already.
Representatives can vote for the leadership they want, but we need to reach out to them and tell them what we want them to do.
Billionaire owned media is already calling him “speaker in waiting” and other shit.
Everyone needs to reach to any elected Dem rep they have and let them know we can’t waste time on bullshit.
Yay! But can we still kick him out?
When is his primary?
If he runs for reelection, 2028. Hopefully he just goes away or a stroke gets him. Being a stroke survivor makes him more likely to have another stroke.
I’ve never voted in a primary before, but in 2028 I will be looking into that.
Just FYI primaries are more impactful to vote in than general elections.
Why have you never voted in a primary?
Lots of people don’t fuck with politics. But politics will always fuck with you.
Sounds like somebody who finally woke up. We have to participate in democracy for it to function.
Bro only 10% of americans vote in primaries. AKA the literal check and balance to incumbent power but i digress.
like FR, that is such a 2016 question.
My personal answer is that you have to register as a member of a party in my state, and I’m not fond of being on lists like that.
My state has this policy, too. I wonder if it is something we can change
Get over it like the rest of us have. Time to be an adult.
No.
I usually don’t know anything about candidates before the actual election starts ramping up. I’m usually voting against people rather than for them.
That’s literally because nobody votes in primaries.
It’s like people don’t put 3 seconds of thought into figuring out why the candidates you’re presented with suck.
Vote blue no matter who is for the general. Vote for the best candidate in the primaries. Sometimes your candidate wins the primary and the general.
Might not have been old enough
Nah, I’m old as Hell.
Let’s not blame people looking to change, but embrace them. Primaries are how we move the party to the left.
Last night was great progress towards damage control. Now we can start fixing things in the primaries.
Where do you see blame in my question? It’s an honest question.
A+++ headline, meh article 🤷🏻
I especially loathe the formulation
has long faced criticism from wings of his party
As if it is he-said-she-said, whether Fetterman has been a total dick. And then the next moment the press will print Trump’s most outrageous and blatant lies with exactly the same “some disagree” type of formulation.
100%
I also really like that they’ve filed it under “conventional wisdom” btw:
“The existence of Fetterman is now utterly futile”
Most bills can be blocked by the filibuster and need 60 votes to advance so all seats matter. Like all votes matter, and the more the better to pass bills that the majority wants, even if the rapist vetoes them. End healthcare bankruptcies, pass paid work leave, higher wages, etc. and show what could have been with a Dem president and enough congress, and a better leader than chuck.
Fun fact, a simple majority can remove the filibuster. The House never had one, and the senate only adopted it as an internal rule.
Dems keep saying it has to stay though 😭. Maybe change will happen after this election
The Democrats watched one episode of The West Wing and convinced themselves that the filibuster needs to stay
Meanwhile the Republicans are changing the rules so Strom Thurmond can pick up his filibuster where he left off
They’re already saying we can’t think about investigations only going forward
https://bsky.app/profile/barackobama.bsky.social/post/3mzhnlxo7fs25
While the people voted for https://bsky.app/profile/lopatto.bsky.social/post/3mzhoflf3422f
So this vague statement about unity from someone not in office is your smoking gun for democrats already refusing to do anything?
I take that very much as saying “what republicans have been doing for a long time is fucked up and most people voted against that”. Also, this is Obama, who is no longer a politician.
Claiming Obama is not a politician is like claiming Gordan Ramsey isn’t a chef. Obama still wields a lot of political influence because he’s basically Liberal Jesus. He can turn out numbers, fundraise, and influence political policy. His opinions are seen as the “correct direction for the Democratic party” and his approval is a jet engine to wider popularity.
The people want MAGA to be held accountable. They can see clear distinctions between themselves and the fascist Republicans. We want fuckers in jail at the very least. The kind of message Obama and other Centrist Dems like Hakeem Jeffries are sending is one of unifying and accepting the crazies back into polite society.
He has influence but he is far from Jesus. Even people who remember him fondly will immediately acknowledge his shortcomings. In any case, the statement was vague and I noticed you ignored that part which was the focus of my comment.
Go away, troll.
I mean, we’ll see.
I suspect the magic number to pass a bill in the Senate is going from 50 back to 60, again
MAGAs aren’t going to be as obedient to Trump any more. Clearly his influence has crashed. EVERYONE he endorsed lost, and a bunch lost in the Primaries, too.
Trump has become toxic, and if a Right Winger wants to have a career past 2028, they better show some resistance to MAGA and Trump.
Some, but hopefully we can get Ukraine the support it should already should have had.
