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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.
This implies either: 1) a stroke that results in inability to speak necessarily also affects the ability to think analytically; or 2) the ability to speak is critical to the job of Senator. Neither of those things is true.
Re: #1, it would certainly be news to Steven Hawking that speech problems = inability to think, and it is pretty common knowledge that different areas of the brain control different processes. Moreover, suppose Fetterman's stroke had left him completely mute. Would that prove that he would be cognitively unable to perform the duties of Senator? I don't see how, and in fact I rather doubt that anyone would make that claim. Thus, the mere fact that Fetterman has language problems is hardly the ironclad proof that he is unqualified that you think it is.
Re: #2, Senators spend most of their time doing everything other than speaking. And, perhaps more important is that the number one job of a Senator is to represent his constituents. Hence, if Candidate X supports policies that I disagree with, and Candidate Y supports policies that I agree with but has suffered a stroke, it is nonsensical to argue that Candidate X will do a better job as Senator than Candidate Y - from my perspective, he will do a worse job.
Have we been given any other data other than seeing him speak that would reassure us as to his analytic and, shall we say 'comprehension' abilities?
If not, then why should we prevent people from 'reasoning under uncertainty' using the only reliable information they have?
I would broadly agree that sending a mentally disabled candidate to congress won't actually harm the overall function of that institution, mind you.
My dude, how do you expect a Senator to do things like direct staff, discuss possible legislation with colleagues... ANSWER E-MAILS if he is unable to effectively form sentences? You are eliding the difference between PUBLIC speaking in the actual Senate forum and all the other communication that the guy would have to do as part of his day-to-day operations. If he is to be making decisions, he has to be able to make said decisions clear to others, and that's the part he's actually struggling with.
This isn't the case of having, say, a deaf legislator who needs to use sign language to communicate but otherwise can clearly express their opinions and insights, maybe through a translator.
This is a guy who is literally having difficulty expressing his accurate internal thoughts in a coherent fashion.
Like, would you be okay sending a Senator who has Locked-in Syndrome to Congress, who could only communicate through blinking, as long as he had a long prior history of supporting your favored policies?
Do you see how someone who is otherwise 'on the fence' between the candidates policy-wise might reject the candidate who can't fully perform the job?
Sure. But that is not what OP said. OP said that his speaking ability is per se proof that he is incapable of performing his duties.
This simply begs the question. All we know is that he has difficulty expressing himself orally. We have no idea whether he can express himself in writing, nor in other ways (see eg., Steven Hawking)
No... but the failure to present other proof that he's suitable is concerning.
You can't update in favor of his ability to perform his duties when all you have is evidence that suggests he is less than capable.
These tend to be extremely correlated, though. Hawking's case was a bit different, he had ALS, which impairs all MOTOR function, but not cognition. If Fetterman has damage to the expressive speech processing part of his brain then his ability to express himself is impaired regardless of which medium is used. He can move his mouth, he can move his hands, but the information produced will not be accurate at reflecting his brain's intended message.
Quoth:
And again, why don't they just present an easy proof of his capabilities to allay concerns?
I'm sitting here wondering at the possible reasons they'd put this guy on the debate stage and yet wouldn't provide any other demonstrations of his capability that would make his debate performance excusable. Can't think of a single reason to grant benefit of the doubt now.
If you can give me an obvious reason for this other than the Occam's razor "he's not able to do that, either" I'd really like it!
And let me be clear, if he is suffering from expressive aphasia, I really and truly feel immense sympathy for the man, it'd be a nightmare scenario if it were me!
Yes, I already agreed that it is "concerning." But that was not the claim that OP was making.
Evidence?
I didn't say that the cases are the same, but rather I used Hawking's example as evidence that an inability to express oneself orally does not per se prove that a person has intellectual limitations.
I did not think otherwise.
That's the claim.
The inability to speak doesn't necessarily effect the ability to think analytically, but a stroke that causes enough brain damage to effect the ability to speak could absolutely impact analytical ability as well, which would be hard to observe from the outside.
So you'd REALLY want to rule that out, and they simply haven't done so.
And as I argue here, the ability to speak IS critical to the job of Senator, to the extent he will need to communicate with colleagues, staff, and other aspects of the congressional machine in order to actually keep his office functional and not just take up space in the building.
If we think that keeping a functional office and communicating with other senators isn't part of the job of a Senator then we're probably better off replacing them ALL with deaf-mutes.
*The inability to speak doesn't necessarily effect the ability to think analytically, *
So, you are agreeing with me, because that is the only claim I took issue with.
Deaf mutes are capable of communicating, and being deaf and mute is not per se a disqualification for the office of Senator.
Sure. But that's not how I'd bet if I had to put money on it. Especially given the information that he had a major stroke. I will bet $100 right now that he's got more extensive damage than merely the difficulty speaking.
Like, you want to use Stephen Hawking as a counterexample, fine. But then you have to admit that he is an outlier since in the vast, vast majority of cases where someone loses the ability to form coherent speech, they usually also have diminished cognitive capabilities.
All I'm saying is that many voters are going to use the information they can directly perceived (his difficulty forming coherent sentences) and use that as a basis to form conclusions about something they can't (his actual cognitive fitness) and may likewise have doubts about his abilities to carry out the requirements of the office.
And they're right to do so, if his campaign won't provide other proof of his current state of recovery.
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