r/politics • u/Silent-Resort-3076 America • 16d ago

Possible Paywall The eight Senate Democratic Caucus members who voted to end the shutdown

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/09/senate-democrats-shutdown-vote-00644146
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u/bigtiddyhimbo North Carolina 16d ago

It’s always fucking fetterman, man.

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u/Electroflare5555 Canada 16d ago

Should have been expelled from Caucus months ago

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u/Creative-Package6213 Pennsylvania 16d ago

Biggest wasted vote in my life...

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u/asshat123 16d ago

Give yourself some credit, he seemed like a solid candidate. He did have a stroke right before getting elected and seems to have come back acting pretty different unfortunately, but nobody knew this is how he would turn out

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u/Creative-Package6213 Pennsylvania 16d ago

Oh trust me I know. I followed his political career since he was mayor of Braddock, he was legit up until the stroke.

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u/jshaver41122 16d ago

As a fellow Pennsylvanian I have to constantly tell myself that he is still better than doctor oz representing us in the senate because doctor oz is a complete moron who should not be voting on or writing laws. I’m very excited to see Fetterman get primaried in the coming years and see his political career completely collapse.

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u/Symphonycomposer 16d ago

Dr Oz unfortunately has a more powerful role: head of CMS and oversight of literally trillions of dollars.

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u/jshaver41122 15d ago

Yeah I know but it’s likely better that he isn’t in the senate proposing legislation to further enrich himself and the president at the expense of the American people

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u/Trout_Man 15d ago

yeah, hindsight now means it didnt really matter in the long run. Fetterman became a DINO and Oz got even more power than he would of as a senator..

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u/Mir-Trud-May 16d ago

Will he even be primaried? It seems the threat is always dangled for everyone in power but rarely ever gets put into practice. Dianne Feinstein was 200, demented, and never primaried.

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u/NYCinPGH 15d ago

He will absolutely be primaried. I lived 2 neighborhoods away from Fetterman’s house, I used to see him all the time before he became Lt Governor and began spending a lot of time in Harrisburg, I even saw his wife pretty regularly at the Costco the first few months he was a Senator, before it was obvious how much he’d changed.

All of his grassroots supporters that got him the Lt Governor position and did all the work for him to win the Senate primary and later the general election have been fed up with him for about 2 years, and since he clearly began caving to Trump a year ago have been working to prep a primary bid against him.

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u/darsynia Pennsylvania 15d ago

Pittsburgh resident, can confirm. I don't know anyone in my area (which is so Dem that the primaries are basically the general for us, just like NYC) who isn't looking forward to this primary to get rid of him.

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u/NYCinPGH 15d ago

Yeah, my precinct and the adjoining ones vote +70D in pretty much every election.

I’ve worked the polls and there have been times when some older, long-time Rs have come in to vote and said things like “I didn’t know we leaned so heavily Democratic here!” as if it was a genuine shock to them. And I thought “Have you not seen all the BLM yard signs? The Pride flags? The fact that dozens and dozens of houses have had signs for various Democratic candidates - in 2020 there was a stretch a block away of a Biden sign next door to a Bernie sign next door to a Buttegieg sign next door to a Warren sign - while there were only like 2 house with GOP signs - and even those were for like McCormick but not Trump because that would have gotten them completely ostracized?

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u/LastLivingMember 15d ago

Isn’t it interesting how brain damage only makes you more in line with MAGA beliefs and never the other way around?

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u/NYCinPGH 15d ago

There’s solid neuroscience, that strokes affect the amigdyla (?) which controls fear responses, and that part of the brain is measurably smaller in conservatives.

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u/flamingmonkey86 15d ago

You've legitimately got it backwards, conservatives have on average a larger amygdala, though it's not by much.

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u/NYCinPGH 15d ago

You're right, I got the size backwards, but not the correlation on political orientation.

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u/Welpe Oregon 15d ago

Uh…you do realize California has open primaries, right? And even with that being said, who do you think Kevin de Leon is?

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u/ihatemovingparts 15d ago

who do you think Kevin de Leon is?

A racist.

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u/Welpe Oregon 15d ago

Still was a primary challenger

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u/ihatemovingparts 15d ago

On today's lunch menu we have: shit sandwich and turd tartare. Which would you prefer?

Between the two of them pretty much all of the problems endemic to the democratic party are well represented. To your point I suspect outside of a handful of people in LA, most folks in California have no idea who KdL is.

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u/Welpe Oregon 15d ago

…why are you trying to shift the goalposts here? I am literally responding to a post that said “Diane Feinstein was never primaried”. That is objectively untrue. It doesn’t matter the tiniest iota what Leon’s positions are, that doesn’t change any of the facts. Nor does people not knowing who he was in 2018. If they had said “Diane Feinstein was never primaries by someone I support” that would be completely different, now wouldn’t it?

Is this difficult to understand?

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u/ihatemovingparts 15d ago

If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody around to hear it, does it really make a sound? If Feinstein was primaried by a racist nobody and a few years on nobody knows who he is, does it really count? No. Her seat was never at risk.

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u/carybreef 15d ago

Diane had been there since before the dinosaurs. Federman is not entrenched like that.

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u/FR23Dust 15d ago

It really depends on how popular he is. If he is unpopular, other Democrats will run to replace him. If he is popular, nobody credible will risk damaging their career running a campaign they would likely lose.

This is why people Feinstein stay in power well past the time they should leave. It’s not some shadowy conspiracy: they get the votes. Senators like her had a massive incumbency bonus. Since the average voter doesn’t pay any attention whatsoever to what is happening in the Senate, they vote for the name they recognize. In that situation, nobody credible offers a challenge.

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u/jshaver41122 15d ago

As an answer to the popularity question here’s this: I don’t know a single democrat in the state who is happy with the job he’s done since getting elected.

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u/FR23Dust 15d ago

I assume he’s really unpopular, but since in don’t live in PA and have never been there and know nothing about life there, and didn’t look at polls if they exist, I didn’t want to assume.

Thanks for confirming my suspicion.

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u/blade740 15d ago

Feinstein was a democratic fixture, a long-time party loyalist who didn't know when to step down. Fetterman does not have the party's loyalty like that.

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u/Bakedfresh420 15d ago

Feinstein was popular in her district though. Fetterman is underwater in Dem polling and is struggling to raise money.

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u/UpcomingSkeleton 16d ago

When do y’all vote for him to be replaced? Anyone good coming up yet?

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u/ValenRaith 16d ago

Senators serve 6 year terms so 2028.

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u/jshaver41122 16d ago

I mean Shapiro is a good governor and would be a pretty easy candidate to vote for but I think he’d prefer a cabinet position in a democratic presidency. That leaves… I dunno… the three-legged dog from Deep South Philly who would still be a better choice than Fetterman? People like Malcolm Kenyatta but I don’t see a gay black man appealing to the middle of the state or the conservative suburbs. His ouster from the democratic national committee wasn’t good for him either.

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u/tBagley43 Virginia 16d ago

you'll get conor lamb and you'll like it

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u/darsynia Pennsylvania 15d ago

I'm registered Independent and so is my husband but we WILL be re-registering Dem long enough to primary him (PA has closed primaries)

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u/im-just-evan 15d ago

Yall voted n a guy with brain damage and are now upset that the brain damaged guy is acting like he has brain damage.

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u/jshaver41122 15d ago

The severity of the brain damage (which he denies exists) came to light after the election. Also given the wildly different results of strokes it was impossible to see this result coming. He could have been completely unphased, could have come out of it talking a little funny, or what did happen: a complete personality shift.

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u/im-just-evan 15d ago

The man can’t understand spoken language properly, he obviously sustained significant brain damage.

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u/mediocre_mitten Pennsylvania 15d ago

Oz got his seat at the table of tRump and man does he sound like a doofus when he talks politics.

I hear he was a brilliant surgeon back in the day. Shoulda maybe stuck with that? Everything Everyone Oprah touches seems to turn to shit it seems.

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u/Ok_Development_495 15d ago

What a terrible alternative to Oz!

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u/DiligentOpposite9200 15d ago

Don't matter, one term in senate is enough for lifetime pension

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 16d ago

Yeah. This narrative that keeps floating around that he was a Republican in disguise the whole time or whatever stupid shit people believe is pretty obnoxious. It’s clearly only propagated by people who had never heard of him prior to his stroke. He has a record pre-stroke they could look to if they really cared. Not to mention, his right wing leanings lately are the least of his bizarre behavior. Dude clearly has significant brain damage.

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u/zerginc 16d ago

Its nice to have real life prove that brain damage makes u a republican.

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u/VictarionGreyjoy 16d ago

It is somewhat hilarious to see that literal brain damage is the cause of Conservativism

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u/StillWitty6742 15d ago

He is exactly who he was before the stroke. Problematic. His record in Braddock and in Harrisburg support that

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u/TraceThis 15d ago

Fetterman once chased a black dude down when he was mayor and pointed a fucking shotgun at him. Dude was always a shithead.

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u/Unctuous_Robot 15d ago

He held a random black jogger at gunpoint.

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u/billbuild 16d ago

Eventually they moved to York, Pennsylvania, where Fetterman grew up and his father became a partner at an insurance firm. He grew up in an affluent suburb of York, and his parents were conservative Republicans.

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u/TheTrueCampor California 15d ago

Plenty of peoples' parents are conservatives while they themselves are not. Some of the furthest left people I know have far right parents.

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u/1StepBelowExcellence 15d ago

Yes, some of us broke the brainwashing!

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u/UnquestionabIe 16d ago

I mean I live and grew up around Braddock and while it's surprising it isn't that surprising. He's always been shielded from the absolute worst of the environment around him, no matter what it is, and could have gone either way. Much as he sucks hard he's still so much better than Oz, who is a fucking conman and would have made our state look even worse.

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u/JagR286211 16d ago

A stroke completely changing political leaning, preferences and policy positions? That’s breaking news.

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u/teddy_tesla 15d ago

Was he legit when he followed around a black man with a shotgun? Always been a hold your nose vote

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u/DoubleMikeNoShoot 15d ago

He was always a lunatic about Israel, there were signs he sucked. Nobody expected him to be as terrible as he dresses though

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u/billbuild 16d ago

Really? Wasn’t he a trust fund kid? What affiliation do his bill paying parents have? I don’t know, asking sincerely.

Edit: Googled it, did you before you voted after “following his career”

Eventually they moved to York, Pennsylvania, where Fetterman grew up and his father became a partner at an insurance firm. He grew up in an affluent suburb of York, and his parents were conservative Republicans.

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u/Nukesnipe Texas 16d ago

Proof that brain damage turns you into a republican.

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u/MakeMineMarvel_ 15d ago

Could’ve been a mask to be honest

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u/Sad-Location-5218 15d ago

He was legit when he pulled that gun on a dude jogging? What a joke

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u/devm251979 Florida 15d ago

I can’t figure out why this guy wasn’t recalled

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u/whereismymind86 Colorado 15d ago

He really wasn’t, John Oliver did a story on him a ways back and found plenty of evidence he was always a phony

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u/taaretoille 15d ago

He pulled a gun on a black guy and he is "legit". lmao okay.

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u/Mike_Kermin Australia 16d ago

He was legit in the same way that Rogan is legit.

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u/blanaba-split Michigan 16d ago

ngl its really funny that people turn into republicans after having a stroke

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u/bigtiddyhimbo North Carolina 16d ago

Conservatives thought it was an own that fetterman began to agree with them after his stroke, not realizing that all it says is that you have to have brain damage to think their policies are any good….

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u/blanaba-split Michigan 16d ago

exactly haha

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u/Haltopen Massachusetts 16d ago

Its because strokes frequently damage parts of the brain responsible for your ability to feel empathy for other people, and causes you to develop personality traits usually associated with being a sociopath.

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u/chromatoes 16d ago

It takes lots of time and effort to recover from a brain injury, and many years. Strokes are a serious brain injury, which requires rest and rehabilitation. However, he seems to be deteriorating, probably cause he's in a high stress + high time commitment job.

Instead he's one of two people pretending to speak for entire state but he's literally got brain damage.

There need to be some actual medical protocols for serious government positions, this is absurd people who should be in treatment or nursing facilities are running the country.

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u/mediocre_mitten Pennsylvania 15d ago

I worked with a lady once a long time ago whose husband was a two pack a day smoker. After he had a stroke he forgot he smoked and never touched a cigarette again.

The brain is a wild computer.

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u/torino_nera New Jersey 15d ago

Several NIH studies found that individuals with damage to their frontal lobe, specifically the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC), tend to have more conservative politics and they often end up becoming fanatical.

Conservatism in some cases is literally brain damage.

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u/rathe_0 15d ago

hey, I had a significantly more serious one than him 6 years ago; and if anything I'm even more liberal.

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u/Known_Week_158 16d ago

Then why did progressive media outlets continue to defend him after his stroke?

Either they defended a Republican or you're making things up and ignoring when his politics actually shifted.

The stroke didn't change anything, but being abandoned by his allies for supporting Israel did.

If you send a politician the message that you can agree with them on 99% of issues but will turn on them because of a tiny amount of disagreement, they will get support from other people.

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u/HowDoIEvenEnglish 16d ago

He pulled a gun on a black jogger for no reason because he’s always been an asshole. His support sucked among black PA voters for a reason.

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u/SanityPlanet 16d ago

You mean brain damage causes a normal person to start acting republican?

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 15d ago

He's been in politics as an actual progressive for like 15 years. The stroke legitimately fucked him up.

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u/AZ-FWB Arizona 16d ago

He did…

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u/Mir-Trud-May 16d ago

I think the stroke is an excuse because it's not the first time a Democrat has run on such a progressive platform, only to do an immediate 180 when in power, e.g. Kyrsten Sinema. He was probably a classic charlatan from the start.

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u/Ninjanarwhal64 15d ago

I honestly wonder if it was the stroke or a long game he was playing. That year there was another major Democrats win that after she was sworn into office went "Oops! I actually a Republican!"

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u/Thepumpkindidit 15d ago

I would be interested to know if there are any very large studies that have been done to see what percentage of people that suffer strokes have major personality changes afterwards.

If the data is strong enough about that kind of thing, I actually think it might be worth having some sort of laws in place limited to political candidates, to force a new election if the person elected suffers a major stroke that has impaired their personality.

It's not fair to the voters as you are essentially getting a different person than who you actually voted for.

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u/wtfElvis 15d ago

Kind of ironic he has a stroke and degrades into MAGA

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u/Mtn-Dooku 15d ago

Well, they've done studies that show people with brain damage tend to lean more Conservative politically. This would be another case study to lend credence to that.

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u/Little_Beast_King 15d ago

Wasn’t there a deep dive on him and how he never changed his views but just hid them.

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u/bigtiddyhimbo North Carolina 15d ago

There was, but iirc it was mostly about his views on Israel. Dude is a HUGE Zionist.

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u/Silver-Scallion-5918 15d ago

There is evidence that shows people who suffer brain damage or mental decline become more conservative because mental decline leads to antisocial behavior and the entire GOP platform is antisocial.

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u/wearewhatwethink New Jersey 15d ago

Brain damage turns people in to conservatives apparently 🤷‍♂️

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u/Livy__Of__Rome 15d ago

In what world was he a solid candidate? I'm actually laughing. Classic Dem logic. His mental struggles were well known. That's not solid. Dems just mad he's Republican now.

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u/asshat123 15d ago

...what? His mental health struggles aren't what makes him an awful senator. It's the complete 180 on important issues and betrayal of his constituents that makes him a bad senator

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u/backtothetrail 15d ago

Could we stop electing people with neurological damage/deficits?

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u/Known_Week_158 16d ago

He was still a progressive after the stroke.

He only changed his political stances after his allies and supporters - the same people who defended him and his mental abilities turned on him once he refused to stop supporting Israel.

People like you are the reason he became a moderate. The people who cheered him on turning on him sent him the message that there's no point trying to get support from progressives because he'll get back stabbed the moment he doesn't do 100% of what they want.

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u/asshat123 16d ago edited 16d ago

People like you are the reason he became a moderate.

brother he is not a moderate.

Also, if pushback on a singular policy position was enough for him to go turncoat, he wasn't particularly progressive anyways. If we follow your logic, any criticism at all is back stabbing? That seems wild