Democrats: Who is more disappointing?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Fetterman is definitely more disappointing over a shorter time scale.

Silence, Republican!

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Actually it's somewhat close, but only because I had very high expectations for Fetterman and very low expectations for Sinema. Still voted for Sinema but that might change.

Can you name three non-Israel policy issues where Fetterman has been disappointing to you?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Actually it's somewhat close, but only because I had very high expectations for Fetterman and very low expectations for Sinema. Still voted for Sinema but that might change.

Can you name three non-Israel policy issues where Fetterman has been disappointing to you?

This was pretty sh*tty.

Was it though?  Two random activist with a group that has been constantly attacking him show up and ambush him as he’s leaving his office.  One starts recording him while the other launches into a clearly performative/bad-faith attack.  Why should Fetterman have given them the time of day or trusted them not to edit the footage?  Whatever you think of Fetterman or his handling of that, these folks clearly weren’t there in good faith.  It was a performative stunt which is fine, but Fetterman had every right to ignore them. 

In any case, not to be rude or anything, but can you name three non-Israel policy issues where Fetterman has been disappointing to you?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Was it though?  Two random activist with a group that has been constantly attacking him show up and ambush him as he’s leaving his office.  One starts recording him while the other launches into a clearly performative/bad-faith attack.  Why should Fetterman have given them the time of day or trusted them not to edit the footage?  Whatever you think of Fetterman or his handling of that, these folks clearly weren’t there in good faith.  It was a performative stunt which is fine, but Fetterman had every right to ignore them.

The question seemed pretty straightforward and good-faith to me. Of course there's a performative element any time you're filming someone, but so what? Having to be questioned by activists on important issues is a normal part of being a politician, and it's your job to screen out the bad faith actors while still responding to substantive questions. I didn't see you complain when it was Republican Senators getting hounded by activists for trying to repeal Obamacare, or even Sinema for her opposition to Build Back Better.

In any case, not to be rude or anything, but can you name three non-Israel policy issues where Fetterman has been disappointing to you?

No, and I don't have to to say I'm disappointed by his general behavior. Why are you being so defensive?

And I didn’t complain when Sinema was extremely rude to those folks.  Heckling politicians in an attempt to provoke them into losing their temper and doing something dumb like Bob Etheridge did is nothing new.  Politicians have every right to ignore such people though.  It is an inherently antagonistic dynamic.  

Obviously you don’t have to name any non-Israel issues, but you basically said he was almost as bad as Sinema (a de facto Republican who worked tirelessly to try derail Biden’s agenda at every turn).  That seems like a pretty ridiculous claim if it isn’t rooted in anything more than not agreeing with Fetterman on one foreign policy issue and thinking he should be nicer to bad-faith hecklers (and I’m not even sure what he did that was supposedly so rude).  

I mean, you can believe what you want, obviously.  However, it makes it sound like you had been expecting him to share your views on every single issue and I think that’s pretty unreasonable. 

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

And I didn’t complain when Sinema was extremely rude to those folks.  Heckling politicians in an attempt to provoke them into losing their temper and doing something dumb like Bob Etheridge did is nothing new.  Politicians have every right to ignore such people though.  It is an inherently antagonistic dynamic.

Yes, being a politicians means having to accept some degree of antagonism and making some effort to handle it with grace. Obviously that doesn't extend to indulging obvious bad-faith provocateurs, but I still haven't seen any evidence that that was what's going on here. It was an activist highlighting an concrete issue that matters greatly to them and on which Fetterman has a say. This is the kind of antagonism our elected representatives ought to be subjected to, because it's part of how they're held accountable to their constituents.

Obviously you don’t have to name any non-Israel issues, but you basically said he was almost as bad as Sinema

...I did not. I explicitly did not. Did you actually read what I said??? I know you're smart, so I refuse to believe this is actually how you interpreted my post, unless you were in a real hurry or had a bizarrely visceral reaction to it. Go read the post again and then we'll continue.

I guess I tend to assume any activists doing these sort of stunts are acting in performative bad-faith.  That’s just me though.  The truth is probably somewhere in between our two positions.

In fairness to you, I was in a pretty big rush when I read your post and upon reread, it looks like unlike some others you were not saying he was as bad as Sinema.