this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
275 points (97.6% liked)

politics

30676 readers
2296 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It totally depends on the candidate, their platform and who is financing their campaign. Just voting for someone because theyre a democrat gives us people like Kristen Sinema, Joe Manchin and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez who end up voting with the fascists.

[–] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Fetterman, Manchin, and Sinema, bad as they are and were, were still the better choice compared to their general election opponents.

An occasional collaborator sucks,. but is less-bad than either an unrepentant facist or an aligned "moderate" like Collins.

[–] tburkhol@slrpnk.net 21 points 1 day ago

I feel like people forget that the alternative to Fetterman was Dr Oz.

Swapping Fetterman for Oz would have given the GOP majorities in both House and Senate, put Mitch McConnell back as Senate President, and generally been an objectively worse outcome.

[–] Mpeach45@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago

People also fail to take account of Fetterman’s stroke, which clearly affected his allegiances.

He was known before it as a homespun man of the people.

Brain damage causes conservatism.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

Exactly this. I don't disagree with wanting to cut the weakest members of the team to find someone better, but that's for the primaries.

Looking at real numbers, Fetterman is better than Manchin or Sinema. Fetterman breaks with party lines around 25% of the time while Sinema was at 33% and Manchin was almost 40%. That makes him around twice as good as Manchin.

Idealogically, he also seems to stack up more favorably than both Manchin and Sinema, and a few other well know congressfolk that never get brought up in these conversations. Fetterman, like Manchin and Sinema, just seems to draw more attention to himself when he does it.

Do I dislike Fetterman and want him gone and replaced by someone better? Heck yeah! But the record shows he's about 75% better than having Dr Oz as my senator would have been. Ignoring the times he did do what he was sent to do is very misleading to people that don't take the time to look at actual data, which is going to be nearly everyone. Conor Lamb's ideology score doesn't look any better, so what we got is still about the best we had a chance to get.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

This is such a good point I hate to see it buried. The GOP in those areas would vote in satan2 if he had a red hat and said nice things about them.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Agreed. Fuck Fetterman, but fuck Oz even more.

[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 12 points 1 day ago

It totally depends on the candidate ...

That's what the primaries are for. Hope you have or will vote in yours this year.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

And who was the other option? Was it a Republican? Is it your assertion tha the Republican they were running against would have had a better voting record? Because that's what you're saying if you're saying not to vote for the Democrat, no matter how shitty.

Or are you saying magically go back in time and run someone better? Because the opportunity to do so was not the general, but th eprimary.

But when it comes down to the general and you have one blue and one red option, GIVE ME ONE FUCKING EXAMPLE WHERE VOTING RED OR NOT VOTING BLUE IS THE CORRECT CHOICE.

Because all these people who sit out the vote are effectively voting red.

[–] SaltyAmerican@lemmy.world -4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Bernie also gave Pennsylvania Fetterman

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bernie couldn't have predicted his traumatic brain damage

[–] antiphon@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Explain at what time and how he was brain damaged?

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Dude's had multiple strokes

https://people.com/john-fetterman-shares-graphic-photo-of-stitches-after-fall-11850101

Prior to his Nov. 13 [stroke], Fetterman experienced a stroke while on the campaign trail in May 2022, and in May of that year shared that he had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, which affects the two upper chambers of the heart. Ventricular fibrillation, the condition his spokesperson referred to after Fetterman's most recent hospital stay, affects the two lower chambers.

In February 2023, Fetterman was hospitalized overnight for lightheadedness. At the time, his spokesperson said, "Initial tests did not show evidence of a new stroke, but doctors are running more tests and John is remaining overnight for observation."

Just weeks after he was admitted to the hospital in February, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression.

[–] Dionysus@leminal.space 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks to the ignorant cunts who ignore primaries thinking they don't matter.

When that happens your November choice is between whoever got through the primary or the MAGAt, so people sit it out and bitch about their choices.

If enough progressives actually got involved rather than whining about things they could make huge gains and reshape the pathetic Democrats, alas, it's easier to whine on the internet then go pay attention in the summer and stand in line to vote.

[–] SaltyAmerican@lemmy.world -3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Voters have helped train the party that they can be horrible politicians that are never held accountable because voters will keep coming back. And every election they get slightly worse, because there is no accountability. Our current political landscape is the fault of the VBNMW crowd that's allowed it to happen, including getting trump elected.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

New York, and now Michigan, and I'm sure others will follow suite electing more progressive candidates because suddenly people are realizing primaries matter. Pointing backwards and shouting at the past isn't going to get all those fucking pedophiles out of office.

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/05/g-s1-137422/primary-elections

BE salty, but put that anger toward something useful.