Not all that long ago, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman seemed like a refreshing change in Washington. A much needed and desired breath of fresh air, if you will.
That, however, has seemed to change, and quite dramatically, in the weeks and months since Trump won another term in the Oval Office.
Suddenly, it seems like Fetterman is a little too willing to extend the olive branch to all sorts of frankly insane ideas. Like showing at least lukewarm support for the United States taking over Greenland, for example. He compared it to the Louisiana Purchase, which of course was a product of 19-century expansionism. But that kind of expansionism felt - at least until recently - like a product of a bygone era. At least until Putin invaded Ukraine, and with China always eying (but so far, not going ahead and invading) Taiwan. And, of course, the expansionist daydreams of Trump, who has expressed interest in the Panama Canal, in Greenland, in making Canada the 51st state, and in putting boots in the ground south of the Mexican border.
Even alone among Democrats, Fetterman has not stood in the way of some Trump appointees which the rest of the Democrats opposed. And he also hardly seemed alarmed - almost borderline seemed indifferent - to the government spending freeze imposed by the Trump administration.
Not long ago, when Republican Senator Lyndsey Graham called for possibly American military intervention against Iran to stop Iran's WMD progr.....er, I mean, nuclear program, Fetterman seemed to enthusiastically support the idea.
Then most recently, in perhaps the most outlandish show of support to frankly literally insane ideas, which seem to be coming fast and furious again these days, Fetterman actually seemed to like the idea of an American takeover of Palestinian lands, with boots on the ground.
Here, specifically in his own words, is what Fetterman said:
“I don’t know what the role [of U.S. forces] is, but they’re obviously a part of it, and I fully support,” he told Jewish Insider when asked if he wanted to see American boots on the ground.
Fetterman is beginning to really sound more and more like Democrats prior to the Iraq invasion, when they were busy making a show of being cautious and seemingly reluctant about the proposed invasion, but ultimately almost exclusively voting in favor of giving then President George W. Bush carte blanche to launch his ill-fated war in Iraq. Fetterman described President Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza as “provocative,” although the key here is that he refused to reject the idea outright, which is nothing less than it deserves.
“It’s a provocative part of the conversation, but it’s part of the conversation, and that’s where we are,” he said. “The Palestinians have refused, or they’ve been unwilling to deliver a government that provided security and economic development for themselves. They allowed 10/7 to occur, and now Gaza has to be rebuilt. Where are the people going to live? Where are they going to go?”
Wow.
It's difficult not to notice a real paradigm shift in his thinking, or in his values just lately. Perhaps not coincidentally, since Trump won the election. Some might feel that this is still something worth noting and maybe even admiring. That Fetterman is showing an ability to work with Trump and the MAGA nation which is absent in other Democrats thus far.
However, it also feels like it might be a bit of too early and too enthusiastic bootlicking on the part of the Senator. Who knew that he seemed so keen on the idea, just a few years after two American foreign wars ended quite disastrously, that he apparently learned nothing from all of that? That he went along with Trump's apparent desire to put American boots on the ground in diverse places all over the world, in what sure is beginning to resemble a new, 21st century version of Manifest Destiny?
Fetterman finds new ways to distance himself from the Democratic mainstream by Steve Benen, Feb. 5, 2025:
With each passing week, the differences between the old John Fetterman and the new John Fetterman become more obvious.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/fetterman-finds-new-ways-distance-democratic-mainstream-rcna190860
Democratic Senator ‘Fully Supports’ U.S. Boots in Gaza by Julia Ornedo, Reporter Published 02.05.25:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/democratic-senator-fully-supports-us-boots-in-gaza/?utm_source=facebook_owned_tdb&source=TDB&utm_campaign=owned_social&via=FB_Page&utm_medium=socialflow&fbclid=IwY2xjawIQ7N9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSkU5NM6UdV96cANrWAhfxD0XmHmGBvD1Ds3P60u4i91MFAV1QR9twV1oQ_aem_Plo2xx0F1prtPvzDnJ_Bhg
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