r/politics • u/masterchief6913 • Jul 15 '26

No Paywall Fetterman warns he would leave Democratic Party if it turns its back on Israel

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5970730-john-fetterman-democratic-party-israel/
19.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

4.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

145

u/letsseeaction Jul 15 '26

What is the % for critical votes that actually matter?

105

u/officer897177 Jul 15 '26

Don’t forget the confirmations.

4

u/Equivalent-Excuse-80 Jul 15 '26

I’m no political scientist, but I believe that confirmations require a vote.

-2

u/Solaries3 Jul 16 '26

So many asterisks needed. Fucking ridiculous system.

90

u/mcarvin New Jersey Jul 16 '26

Fetterman voted with Rs on ICE funding in January and against the war powers resolution in June.

When it matters, he's a Manchin.

38

u/Cadamar Colorado Jul 16 '26

The Manchinian Candidate.

15

u/_MrDomino Jul 16 '26

The important distinction is that Manchin was the best possible left candidate you're going to get out of that district. We can certainly do better than Fetterman.

4

u/zabby39103 Jul 16 '26

At least Manchin was somewhere that would have definitely gone Republican as soon as he left, Fetterman took the position of someone who could've been an actual Democrat and ran to the left of the mainstream.

-1

u/TheMireAngel Jul 16 '26

Tbf most of the time feds vote for feds funding

1

u/7ddlysuns I voted Jul 15 '26

Right now he is critical. Not enough to keep propping up Israel’s genocide but it will be a loss whether we like it or not

-2

u/badamant Jul 15 '26

DEMS currently have almost no power as the minority.

12

u/7ddlysuns I voted Jul 15 '26

But in a new Congress he could be the difference between 50 and 51 votes

9

u/badamant Jul 15 '26

assuming he votes DEM.

If DEMS have tiny majority the right-wing pressure on Fetterman will be extreme and he will very likely NEVER vote with DEMS when it matters.

7

u/IAmTheNightSoil Oregon Jul 16 '26

But the senate majority leader controls what comes to the floor. If Fetterman elects a Democrat to senate majority leader, then Democrats will control the agenda. If he defects and goes Republican, the Republican leader controls the agenda. That is practically the only thing that matters in the senate when the president is the other party

1

u/badamant Jul 16 '26

agreed IF he is the one vote required.

3

u/IAmTheNightSoil Oregon Jul 16 '26

He's either the one vote required or they don't have a majority

4

u/MadManMax55 Jul 16 '26

“Very likely never” is still better than “never”. Which is what will happen if he flips parties.

For as much as people are (rightfully) frustrated with the more conservative members of the Democratic Party, it’s objectively better that they stick with the party. The solution isn’t to kick Fetterman out. It’s to win enough in November that his vote has less power and primary his ass in 2028.

0

u/ProfessorZhu Jul 16 '26

We can't win more seats if we keep tolerating this. The vast majority of the complaints against democrats is their failures caused by the more conservative members. We can keep pretending we're Stratego masters and maneuvering to tip the balance in our favor, but as long as we keep posting failures on our most important issues then people will continue to stay home.

1

u/MadManMax55 Jul 16 '26

The Democratic Party doesn’t control which people get sent to congress. The voters do. Most conservative Democrats come from more conservative states and districts. Places where primary voters (and especially general election voters) typically don’t like progressive candidates. That may cause a lot of complaints among progressives in more solidly blue areas, but that’s the will of the people for you.

0

u/ProfessorZhu Jul 16 '26

Except the democratic party absolutely does have power over the primaries, and they have repeatedly sunk progressive candidates for moderates because they are all still traumatized by Mondale. You should know this

5

u/eskimoboob Illinois Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

And assholes like this will leverage that to their own benefit as much as they can, just like Manchin and Synema did. It’s kind of like management (and these people do work for us).. if an employee tells you they want out, believe them and let them go. No use negotiating.

1

u/MadManMax55 Jul 16 '26

That analogy doesn’t really work here. A company can just hire someone new as soon as they fire someone. And there aren’t any industries where the exact number of employees in one competitor compared to another has such drastic effects on the industry as a whole.