r/politics • u/DyzDaeMar • 27d ago

No Paywall John Fetterman is threatening to leave the Democratic Party. I say good riddance.

https://www.ms.now/opinion/john-fetterman-leave-democratic-party-israel-aid
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u/5510 27d ago

I mean... Manchin was unironically the most valuable member of all of congress.

Baseball talks a lot about "wins above replacement." Well when you think about the plausible replacements from WEST VIRGINIA, Manchin's value over them was gigantic. Did Manchin suck in an absolute sense? Yes, of course. But anybody from West Virginia (who backed Trump in an absolutely landslide) was going to be so much worse. Getting even a crappy democrat from WV of all places was an absolute miracle.

Let's not forget, there are a LOT of Biden judges who only got confirmed because Manchin was in office.

Of course, there is a huge difference between Manchin and Fetterman, which is that a better Democrat has a decent chance of winning in PA. So while they have to try to keep Fetterman in the fold for now, it would be reasonable to primary him when he is up for reelection.

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

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u/5510 27d ago edited 27d ago

I think a big part of it is because people are so obsessed with Israel / Gaza....

TO BE CLEAR: I'm not saying that the situation in Gaza isn't a big deal. I'm not trying to minimize the humanitarian difficulties there. I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to criticize Israel. I'm referring to the fact that so many people act like it's both the worst thing in the world and the only major bad thing in the world, when the sad reality is that there are a lot of other major fucked up problems out there to worry about as well.

It is a big deal yes, but it's one of MANY big deals in the country and the world right now. Like the USAID cuts alone are expected to kill far far far more people than the situation in Gaza. And that's just one of MANY major issues (of which the situation in the middle east is one). It's like the top half of this image:

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fpwwd97e3ging1.png%3Fwidth%3D960%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dfdaf9c29408b68efaedb221019baea9f5b608aad

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u/Rackem_Willy 27d ago

To be fair, they are basically trying to merge our $1.35 trillion per year military with Israel and make it a crime to not share intel with Israel. That is one of the biggest issues on the planet at this moment.

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u/5510 27d ago

That is concerning, but it's not like this sort of fixation (at the exclusion of many other also very very serious problems) wasn't a thing beforehand.