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What in the fresh hell, Pennsylvania?
Has the Motte discussed John Fetterman? If so, I missed it... I admit there are enough races I'm watching across the country that it is hard to keep track of them all. But in case you, too, have missed it, John Fetterman is the Democratic candidate for the seat of outgoing Senator Pat Toomey, one of 7 Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment circus. Seven days before winning the Primary, John Fetterman had a stroke.
I am not a medical doctor. For all I know, Fetterman will make a full recovery, eventually. But as of right now, the guy is one step above monosyllabic. Which made tonight's debate absolutely excruciating to watch. Over the course of the night, PredictIt shifted ten cents in favor of Fetterman's opponent,
the Wizard ofMehmet Oz. And yet most media accounts of the debate are steadfastly reporting only the substance, such as it was. No surprise--the media has been carrying water for Fetterman for weeks. But like... really? You can't report a single sentence saying, "Fetterman was clearly not up to the task." Watching people hit Twitter to unironically praise him for "doing really well, for a stroke victim!" is shocking. The level of partisanship required to vote for Fetterman at this point simply boggles the mind. On the flip side, #Festerman was briefly trending on Twitter before (I presume) someone elbowed their censors.Of course, we can trust our outspoken President to just tell it like it is. Perhaps President Biden understands better than anyone, given the possibility that he, too, might simply be functioning as a sock puppet for the Democratic establishment. The counterargument that criticizing Fetterman's cognition is some kind of "ableism" is just hollow. This is not a man who can do the job of Senator, at least not right now, and to pretend otherwise just seems exploitative to me. (And calling that a "bad faith" argument seems willfully ignorant. The man can barely speak, that's much more than an "auditory processing" problem.)
Of course, voting has been open for a month in Pennsylvania, and the state has already declared its intention to turn a blind eye to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling as it counts undated ballots. So in addition to potentially electing someone with the mental faculties of a young child to high federal office, Pennsylvania is also setting up a judicial crisis for its election process.
And all because Oz is, well, a Trumpist. If this is what midterms look like, 2024 is going to be... just something else. I can't even imagine. It's simply too much.
I'll preface this by saying I didn't watch the videos. I don't think there's a point.
I remember how Reagan's obvious dementia was treated as a cultural touchstone, a constant point of mockery and derision, evidence of how screwed up his supporters were. As it happens, he was one of the more successful presidents we've ever had.
I remember when Hillary was clearly dying on the campaign trail. I remember arguing over how she was dragged into a van, toes-down, and people were asking if she was actually going to survive till the election. As it happens, she's still kicking, evidently fully functional.
I remember when the argument was over Trump's obvious cognitive decline, how he was clearly too senile to occupy the presidency and it was time for 25th amendment solutions.
Now it's Biden who's clearly incapable, and Fetterman with brain damage.
A few quick thoughts.
I have never seen this general topic produce a useful result. Opponents think it's clearly necessary to remove the person, supporters think they're fine and the system can take it. This result is monotonously reliable regardless of the facts.
The system can, in fact, take it. We operate under a machine system, and that system can keep on running with an incumbent with brain damage or even deceased and being puppeted by their staff. No, this isn't ideal. It's not how it's supposed to work. Leaders are supposed to be leaders. But is is not ought.
Sympathy for the other side that mainly consists of calling for them to do something highly convinient for your own side is a very unusual sort of sympathy, and not, I think, a particularly helpful one. People should resist the urge to engage in it. Leaders make a variety of sacrifices for their tribes, and tribes accept those sacrifices. It's on a tribe itself to judge when a leader serves them poorly; outside opinions are generally not very productive.
Counterpoint: Reagan, Hillary and Trump were all too old, and all of those criticisms were 100% justified. Cognitive decline ramps up starting at age 62. It's an indictment of our country that we have such a preponderance of septuagenarians on our general election ballots. That things turned out well for one of those presidencies is very thin soup given the sample size of modern presidents. We can and should do better.
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