Fantasy Ticket: Fetterman/O’Rourke 2024
A Common Sense Option for a Post-Biden Democratic Leadership?
Every now and again I kind of like to consider what I know is pure fantasy, but once in a while, it is instructive. For example, I’ve been imagining what a Fetterman/O’Rourke 2024 run would result in. Think about it for a moment.
Fetterman won every county in Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary¹. Every county ain’t chicken feed. The man is as practical as he is spiritual. Consider that he has tattoos on his arms². They’re not pretty nor are they decorative. The first one is O1.16.06 is Martin Luther King day of that year and the date of the first murder on his watch as Borough Manager in Braddock, Pennsylvania. He has nine dates tattooed on his arm³. Each one is there to remind him of a life that was lost on his watch. Imagine a 6 foot 8 inch man caring that much for someone he never met but would go to that length to remember them. Do you think that kind of man would throw paper towels to Puerto Ricans to clean up after a devastating hurricane? Me either.
Want some more examples? He won his first election by one vote. Really, by one vote. His wife was born in Rio de Janeiro and came to this country as an illegal immigrant as a child. She read an article about Fetterman in a magazine while attending a yoga retreat in Costa Rica and got in touch with him with a letter. He was a Big Brother to a now grown man. Even though Fetterman moved away from where the boy lived he continued to support him. The boy had no one else. He’d lost both parents to AIDS before he was out of grade school.
Fetterman is a man who does not put on airs. He wears cargo shorts and hoodies. He’ll wear a suit to work as Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor, but refused to live in the Lieutenant Governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, preferring to live in his brother’s Harrisburg home and commute back to Braddock to live in his permanent home in a loft of what was once a Chevy dealership. In other words, John Fetterman is not a politician. He’s a man. A practical man with good common sense and a spiritual side that dominates his life’s actions and behaviors. I can imagine such a man as President.
The other part of my fantasy ticket is named Beto O’Rourke. Beto, who at this moment in time is not an elected official, had the chutzpah to confront Greg Abbot about his loosy-goosy gun policies. Greg actually celebrated his passage of lowering the legal age to buy automatic weapons of war in Texas. Beto confronted Greg at Greg’s own press conference and told the Governor that he has blood on his hands. Greg could not face that hard cold fact.
Beto tried to run for President but just didn’t have the chops to stand in for such intense scrutiny. But Beto is the real deal. Just like Fetterman is the real deal. I could see how the two of them could certainly counter the kind of faux leadership that the Orange pumpkin generates. In comparison, I suspect that even the most infected MAGAist would have to admit that practical, hard-nosed leadership would be preferable to smoke and mirrors and unabashed wantonness as represented by the Snake Oil Magnate from the failed Casino wannabe. The thing the Snake Oil Magnate had going for him was that he sounded like he knew what he was doing. But then that’s why they call it reality television. It is not reality, it’s television. Fetterman on the other hand is authentic. People relate to him because of his no-bullshit practicality. How refreshing it would be to have a President and a Vice-President who actually cared about and for people.
There are no charismatic leaders on the horizon in the Republican ranks. There are even fewer leaders in the Democratic ranks. The leadership that does exist in the Democratic Party are singing old folk songs and those are songs and dances we’ve all heard before. The leadership in the Republican Party do not have a platform and seem to think that forced control of non-Republicans will result in a Republican reign which will last a thousand years. Now that’s something that I have trouble picturing in my mind’s eye.
Does anyone actually think of Matt or Marge or Loren or Mo or the Cruzer or the Hawley kid as presidential? Lindsey is too short, Cruz doesn’t even care if the lights are on, Jeff has no idea what he’s backing with his fist in the air, and Moscow Mitch is only interested in his own personal agenda. I think they’re all well within their rights and maybe even within their obligations, but they ain’t presidential in word or deed.
It is not comforting to consider that Nancy at her age is third in line to the presidency. It’s not much more comforting to know that Kamala is next in line for the presidency. Chuck isn’t ideal and the voters rejected Elizabeth and Bernie. That kind of leaves slim pickings, you know? I mean, were the Orange Pumpkin to have chops he must be licking them and dreaming of a White Christmas in ’24. I can kind of see how Fetterman could be the Grinch that steals that Christmas. But God knows what kind of a hullabaloo that would cause.
The Sultan of the Lago is still griping about the 2020 election and he’s known since the week of the election that he lost. And that was to Old Joe. A guy with a half-century of experience in government. Can you imagine how damaged the Sultan’s ego would be to lose to a practically minded upstart like Fetterman and a brassy take-no-prisoners ex-congressman like O’Rourke? We’d never hear the last of it. But by the time that Duo would be done with it the grim reaper might well have found time to bring the bitch session to a close. The Sultan ain’t a spring chicken after all. And many of his MAGA believers are not young and virulent either.
It could well be that dreaming that the ship of state would right itself so soon after that devastating sojourn in the White House by the smug Javankas and the self-promoting Disinfectant Proponent along with all his Trailer Hitch Polishers, but it is fun to imagine a nearly normal common sense based governance led by young men with both spiritual guidance and respect for human beings. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind basking in a government that promotes common sense solutions as opposed to fascist fantasy of world domination. I’m a white guy and I know I’m not about to be replaced by anyone. I can not imagine a government that is based on me being the representative of baseless fear concerning hoards of people marching northward to the US border so they can vote to control me. I’m fortunate enough to afford life without social security and I don’t really care that folks without the means to feed their kids or even to keep them safe might get some of the tax benefits I’ve earned during my life. What the hell, I grew up with S&H Green stamps and blocks of government cheese. It wasn’t much but I grew up. Those folks can do the same, don’t you think?
References
1. Terruso, J. (2022, May 18). John Fetterman dominated the Pa. Democratic Senate primary. Here’s how he won. Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/how-john-fetterman-won-pa-democratic-senate-primary-20220518.html
2. Tanenbaum, M. (2021, March 17). What do John Fetterman’s tattoos mean? US Senate candidate in Pennsylvania explains. PhillyVoice. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://www.phillyvoice.com/john-fetterman-tattoos-pennsylvania-braddock-senate-lieutenant-governor/
3. Fetterman, J. (2022, March 16). The truth about my tattoos…. Here’s why I wear Braddock on my sleeve | by John Fetterman | Medium. John Fetterman. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://john-fetterman.medium.com/the-truth-about-my-tattoos-cc4b2940ceb6
