This is one race that’s surely getting too much attention

The bottom line in Tina Nguyen’s article is that Nguyen, who is considerably more insightful than I’m giving her credit for in this really rather unfair summation, doesn’t know why Donald Trump chose to endorse Mehmet Oz in the race for a U.S. Senate seat representing Pennsylvania.^[1]

I guess I’m waiting to see if it matters. I doubt that control of the Senate will hinge on Pennsylvania because I can’t see the Democrats, who have only political impotence to show for their time in control of both the executive and legislative branches of Congress,^[2] winning enough seats in 2022 to control either the House of Representatives or the Senate and I can’t see them winning the presidency in 2024. This will almost certainly spell the end of the Democrats as a viable opposition, meaning one that can actually win elections, because of all the Republicans have done and are doing to ensure they never lose an election again except in those few remaining bluest of blue districts.^[3]

This will, of course, solve one of the Democrats’ problems for them: They seem so very much more comfortable in opposition, where they can whine about Republicans and no one will expect them to actually accomplish anything,^[4] which is probably why they can’t even manage to pass voting rights legislation that might actually keep them in the game.^[5]

After all, who can get excited about voting for a party whose promise is that “nothing would fundamentally change?”^[6] Winning is clearly the last thing they want to do.

It will be interesting to see if John Fetterman, whom I think probably is the state’s most popular politician, that is, in the category of damnation by faint praise, can actually win that U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, which is blue only in urban areas, purple at best in suburban areas, and bright Trumpian red in rural areas. The argument against, of course, is that he’s too far left,^[7] but that may serve to ameliorate some of the shame of the limp dick party^[8] under whose banner he runs.^[9]

1. ^[1]Tina Nguyen, “The Trump-Oz-‘Dave’ Love Triangle Takes a Dark Turn,” Puck News, April 12, 2022, https://puck.news/the-trump-oz-dave-love-triangle-takes-a-dark-turn/↩
2. ^[2]David Benfell, “Democrats and contradiction,” Not Housebroken, January 20, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/18/democrats-and-contradiction/↩
3. ^[3]David Benfell, “My 2024 forecast,” Not Housebroken, March 10, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/10/my-2024-forecast/↩
4. ^[4]David Benfell, “Democrats and contradiction,” Not Housebroken, January 20, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/18/democrats-and-contradiction/↩
5. ^[5]Mike DeBonis, “Senate Republicans block voting rights bill, dealing blow to Democrats’ effort to overhaul election laws,” Washington Post, January 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-brace-for-likely-defeat-of-voting-rights-push-due-to-gop-filibuster/2022/01/19/2f9a734c-792d-11ec-bf97-6eac6f77fba2_story.html; Greg Sargent, “Joe Manchin finally makes it plain: He is in favor of minority rule,” Washington Post, January 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/19/joe-manchin-filibuster-voting-rights-minority-rule/↩
6. ^[6]Joe Biden, quoted in Dominique Mosbergen, “Joe Biden Promises Rich Donors He Won’t ‘Demonize’ The Wealthy If Elected President,” HuffPost, June 19, 2019, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-wont-demonize-the-rich_n_5d09ac63e4b0f7b74428e4c6↩
7. ^[7]Julia Terruso and Jonathan Tamari, “John Fetterman skipped the first Pa. Senate debate. His rivals made it all about him anyway,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-democratic-senate-debate-fetterman-lamb-kenyatta-20220403.html; Julia Terruso, “An ad supporting Conor Lamb sparked a backlash for wrongly calling John Fetterman a ‘self-described democratic socialist,’” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 7, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/conor-lamb-super-pac-ad-john-fetterman-20220407.html↩
8. ^[8]David Benfell, “Democrats and contradiction,” Not Housebroken, January 20, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/18/democrats-and-contradiction/↩
9. ^[9]John Fetterman, “I'm running for the U.S. Senate to fight for all of Pennsylvania. . .,” Twitter, February 8, 2021, https://twitter.com/JohnFetterman/status/1358776958042181635; NEXTpittsburgh, “Why does Lt. Gov. John Fetterman want to run for Senate?” Public Source, January 15, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/why-does-lt-gov-john-fetterman-want-to-run-for-senate/; Holly Otterbein, “John Fetterman launches Senate bid in Pennsylvania,” Politico, February 8, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/08/fetterman-senate-pennsylvania-466932; Zoe Richards, “PA Lt. Gov. Fetterman Files To Run For Toomey Seat In 2022,” Talking Points Memo, February 5, 2021, https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pa-lt-gov-fetterman-files-to-run-for-toomey-seat-in-2022↩