quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
A regular guy. Exactly.

I live in the white-collar burbs of Philadelphia - a college-educated, upper-middle-class white stay-at-home mom. I have a well-paid husband and a nice house and a stockbroker and a 401K and all the trappings of the American dream. But I grew up in a hardscrabble dying coal mining town in NE Pennsylvania. My grandfather was a coal miner. Neither of my parents went to college (well my mom went to community college while I was in middle school and got a 2 year degree in nursing eventually). We moved in with my grandparents a few times while growing up because we couldn't afford to live on our own. When we had our own house, we kept the heat at 55-60 degrees because we couldn't afford to keep it any warmer - and let me tell you I still remember EXACTLY how much it sucked rolling out of my cozy bed into a 55 degree house every morning. And in the town I grew up in, that was just reality for a lot of people. I was lucky that my parents scrimped and saved and stressed how important it was that I go to college. I was lucky that I got out. A lot of my friends didn't.

In the history of Pennsylvania politicians, I don't feel like there have been a whole lot of them that can really understand that experience. Politics tends to be a rich man's (and yes, I say "man" very intentionally) game. Democrats talk about raising the minimum wage or supporting unions but how many politicians have ever watched their mom sit at the kitchen table and try to figure out whether the electric bill or the gas bill should get paid this month out of her minimum wage salary? What's the least amount of money she could possibly put towards each bill to keep the utilities on and still be able to afford to pick up the prescription my sister needs? I watched my mom do that math for years.

The reality is that pretty much everyone in Washington is completely out of touch with that life. They say they care. They say they understand. But they don't, not really. They haven't seen it. They haven't lived it. And sure, you can say that Fetterman has a masters degree from Harvard and he had his parents paying his bills while he was mayor of Braddock and he's more privileged than he seems. But he made the choice to immerse himself in it. He worked with Americorps. He involved himself with Big Brothers Big Sisters and mentored kids who lived that lifestyle. He moved to Braddock and ran for mayor because he saw what people were going through and he genuinely wanted to help. He CHOSE to help. He is the real deal - a person who sees the problems in the world and does what he can to fix them. Is he a perfect person? Of course not. Everyone makes mistakes.

But compare him to someone like Oz, with his custom tailored suits and his 8 (or is it 9 now?) mansions. Do you know that Fetterman not only refused to live in the Lt. Governor's mansion, he also opened the pool for public access and camps for underprivileged children? Think Oz would ever do anything like that? Think the fact that underprivileged children don't have anywhere to learn to swim would even occur to Oz? Do you think Oz spends any time thinking about underprivileged children at all???

So yeah, when I'm thinking about who I want representing me in the Senate -- who I want making decisions about how much insulin should cost and what minimum wage should be and whether student loans should be forgiven......or on the other hand, whether big banks should get another tax break or whether big pharma lobbyists should get their way AGAIN or whether we should prosecute some hedge fund guy for fraud or just wink and look the other way again like we always do.....I want the guy who understands me. Not just the privileged life I live now, but the life I came from, the life that made me who I am, and the life that so many other people in Pennsylvania still struggle through every day. And out of all the votes I have cast over my lifetime, I honestly think that this might be the first time I am voting for someone that I think really, truly, gets all of that.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
I didn't know much about him. Thanks for posting that.

quote:

I mean, Trump literally called me a "raging lunatic" and said I would "bring death and destruction" to PA.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
There are contrary opinions on Fetterman. I suspect neither narrative is entirely true.

https://nypost.com/2022/10/11/...man-claims-he-saved/

quote:

Fetterman has boasted that “as mayor of Braddock and its chief law enforcement officer, I worked with the chief of police, our police officers, and the community to reduce violent crime.” But data between 2005 and 2018 show that violent crime actually rose under his leadership.

quote:

Crime rate in Braddock, PA The 2019 crime rate in Braddock, PA is 160 (City-Data.com crime index), which is 1.7 times smaller than the U.S. average. It was higher than in 59.7% U.S. cities. The 2019 Braddock crime rate fell by 61% compared to 2018. In the last 5 years Braddock has seen decline of violent crime and increasing property crime.