Summary
Sen. John Fetterman faced backlash from progressives after his first post on Truth Social calling the hush-money case against Trump “bullshit” and suggested pardons for both Trump and Hunter Biden.
Fetterman reiterated his stance from recent interviews, arguing such cases erode public trust in institutions.
The response has been divisive, with Trump supporters and progressives both criticizing him.
Fetterman’s broader shifts, including support for Israel and mocking climate activists, have alienated some Democratic supporters while gaining him favor among conservatives.
Fetterman can’t go Joe Manchin even if he wanted to. His party affiliation wouldn’t single-handedly swing contol of the Senate like Manchin. He’s not in a position where he can all but single-handedly decide if Democrat bills survive or fail. He has no political leverage. The Democrats aren’t going to throw money to save him because doing so would not impact their ability to control the Senate or conduct business.
If Fetterman tries to go full Manchin, he had better hope the GOP are willing to prop him up, because Dems are just going to cut their losses and focus their money on more winnable races.
Fettermans got AIPAC backing. He’s in a heavily jewish district, which is why he talks so much about Israel. Dems wouldnt DARE to cut their losses with Fetterman, he’s a made man.
Please don’t equate Judaism with support for Israel. Some of the most anti Israel people are Jews. Fuck the zionists.
I don’t think kraeskin was equating the two. At worst, that comment expresses the political force that Fetterman is leveraging by messaging toward a group that is primed to be (unfortunately) significantly Zionist due to Israeli/Zionist propaganda.
In other words, Israel is the primary actor conflating Judaism and Zionism (as I’m sure we both know). kraeskin is saying that Fetterman is aware of the prevalence of that lie (whether he thinks it to be a lie or not) in the Jewish American population of his district, and is exploiting it for political footing. That doesn’t mean that kraeskin thinks that lie is true, only that they are aware that it is prevalent.
I skimmed your argument below and
I don’t see much of anything that contradicts my more charitable reading of the above, though I am welcome to examples.Yeah that user has some… suspicious takes. I still think the above comment is benign but the rest below isn’t historically or morally excusable.We’re talking the reality of statistics here, even if they tread on taboos. Across jewish american respondents theres high support for both the state of israel generally, and israels actions in palestine. Isnt there.
So we end up with hard truths. Stats are stats, and for the Fettermans of the world-- money is money, when used as bribes to purchase political outcomes like brutally silencing students and professors, and news commentators expressing their right of political free speech. I worry about the very real bad outcomes for them more than the possible hurt feeling of a minority portion of religious group. You want to be mad at someone, be mad at the far right of that group for their self-abasing terrorism.
And where is the sympathy for muslims in general and muslim americans specifically? I havent seen anything but bashing of them in a long time, from both parties. Thats unamerican. Are you worried at all for them?
I hear very little sympathy for the crushing of our constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech, and thats unamercian. I’m tired of it. So feel free to wring your hands on your cause, and I’ll wring my hands on mine, That IS American.
Or its supposed to be anyway.
There’s a large contingent of anti Zionist Jews in America. Stop conflating Judaism with Zionism.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/02/how-us-jews-are-experiencing-the-israel-hamas-war/
62% of American jews say the way Israel is carrying out its revenge on all Palestnians for Hamas’s actions in October is “acceptable”. 33% say its “unacceptable.” 5% unsure.
Draw your own conclusions from those statistical facts, but dont tell me how I’m allowed or disallowed to view that data, and wrap insinuations and accusations in that suit your narrative. Thats not your business and I have politcal free speech. Facts are facts.
What I dont hear from the broader jewish community is sympathy or support for Muslims, I’ll tell you that straight up. Are Palestinians coequal human beings worthy of rights the same as every other human, goy or not? I’d like to hear you explicitely say it before I take you at all seriously. I’ve been asked for a year if I condemn Hamas oct 7 attacks, so I’d say my question of you is more than fair.
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Well then our opinions overlap. If you check my comments you will find that I am a student of history. I dont know how many comments I have made about the Jewish roman wars, the state of judaism in the middle east during the ottoman era, and comparing the zealots to the zionists but its been quite a few. You wont see me citing that zionists collaborated with nazis like you just did, but I have read that somewhere before as well. I was just never sure I could trust the sources as its so inflamatory. I dont know that we’ll ever truly know the whole story of why Hitler did what he did.
I disagree that the zionists came about 150 years ago. I’d argue that the zionists are the same group as the second temple era zealots, with a rebranded name. If you see any difefrences between the groups, lets see em. Zealots wanted to eject the romans and establish a judean state, which is what they did, using genocide. That state lasted 3 years until the legions marched back and counter genocided. I point this out because Nothing has changed. We’re fighting the same wars for the same reasons. Same genocide, different year.
And I stand my ground on the idea that I have heard very little in the way of support for muslim people in the US media. Anti muslim sentiment is out of control, and anything that even lightly offends judaism is rapidly being criminalized, which is a violation of all of our rights, a bad precendent, and something I find odorous.
You say you’re of the jewish faith, and I tell you I dont care. I’m an atheist. Your cursing and anger doesnt move me much. And if I want to draw conclusions from polls I will. I dont need to wait for a poll that shows me something like “every single person of jewish faith support zionism” before I am allowed by you to say that its logical for fetterman to support zionism in a heavily jewish district, because 2/3 of jews support the war crimes that’ve gone on.
Its simply math, whether you like it or not. I do think your yelling at me about what I can say and what I cant is unamerican and I flatly reject it. Your feefees dont trump my right of free speech, or my right to draw obvious and mathematically sound conclusions from polls. So wrap up all your curse words and shove them right back up your rear.
You’re oversimplifying history by equating Second Temple-era zealots with modern Zionists. The contexts, motivations, and methods are completely different, and ignoring that weakens your argument.
Saying “nothing has changed” since the Jewish-Roman wars ignores how much societies, politics, and conflicts evolve over time. History doesn’t work in simple repeats.
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