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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   36220 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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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 of Mehmet 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.

But as of right now, the guy is one step above monosyllabic. . . . This is not a man who can do the job of Senator,

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.

  1. the ability to speak is critical to the job of Senator.

I think Mitch McConnell in 2016 made it very clear that the Republican position is that someone capable of doing nothing is capable of performing the duties of a senator.

  • -10

I think Mitch McConnell in 2016 made it very clear that the Republican position is that someone capable of doing nothing is capable of performing the duties of a senator.

This is a direct partisan claim, and so should be accompanied by proportionally direct evidence. (For example, you could provide a link to a video where Mitch McConnell says, "the Republican position is that someone capable of doing nothing is capable of performing the duties of a senator.")

I assumed everyone here would be familiar with the eventsof the garland nomination. My bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_nomination

Good to know that this place expects high quality evidence like... checks notes statements that the media isn't reporting an event accurately based on observation immediately following the event.

"Specifically refuse to take up this issue" is not the same as "doing nothing".

Difference without distinction.

Do you think Fetterman could not "Specifically refuse to take up [a] issue"?

What are you getting at here? Yes, it's not hard to argue that Garland was probably just a case of pure partisan stonewalling, with McConnell very tactically punting him so that Trump would get to make the pick instead. If anything, this isn't an example of incompetence on McConnell's part, which your first post implied--many people would agree that he is a slickly-tactical politcal operative, and few would agree that he's some sort of buffoon that holds up everything in Congress.

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