You keep saying his family subsidized him, but it's unclear exactly what that entailed. I saw that he bought a building from his sister for a token amount, but that's something I see often in families. Oz mentioned a $50,000 loan from his dad in 2015, but I'm not sure Oz who was given huge amounts by his wife's family should open a $50,000 can of worms.
Fetterman went to school on a football schollie, so it doesn't seem like his parents paid for it like millions of families do. People buy their kids houses, cars etc... all the time. Every family has their own dynamics, but you seem inordinately concerned with those of the Fettermans. It's not like he was laying around collecting welfare he worked two jobs and basically devoted himself to trying to make lives of people in the city better...
So in your mind that makes him somehow less of a public servant than a Mayor who makes 2 or $ 300,000/ a year? It's the same job, he just got involved with and decided to lend his talents to helping an economically distressed town that couldn't afford to pay an exorbitant salary, rather than various cities that could.
AmeriCorps sent him to Braddock to be their rep in 2001, he decided to move there in 2004 and ran for Mayor in 2006. I see all of that flowing from the promise he made to the mother of the Big Brother child in Pitt whose parents both died of AIDS that he would continue to find ways to contribute to the public good. If he was able to do that because of his family's wealth, and contribute more to society as a whole by doing that rather than working in his family's business-I just don't see a negative there.
There are people in Congress whose own family speak out and urge people not to vote for them. I haven't seen anything where Fetterman's family has claimed he is a liar or horrible person. I don't see any claims from his parents that he never paid them back or any bitterness that claims he took advantage of them.
He's been Lt Governor for 4 yrs, so I imagine he's paid them back whatever amount they deem he owed them. That's just opposition research anyway, so we really have no actual idea how any of that played out in reality. I get that you don't like his policy positions, but the rest just seems pretty petty.
I worked for 16 yrs in providing direct services for people with Special needs, and you would not believe some of what that entailed on a nearly daily basis. To say we were underpaid at $8- $13/ hr is an understatement, and I worked usually 60-70 hrs a week to get the time and a half because otherwise I basically made nothing. The entire field is notoriously understaffed because a lot of people just can't handle it But as Noodle and others will likely attest, it's a field which provides services to people who desperately need them...
How is Fetterman a "career politician? He was a part time Mayor while working full time as the town's youth services director for 13 yrs. He's held elected state office for 4 whole years...
One way I'd say he was relatable was that he took a town with a notoriously high murder rate that was plagued by violence to a low of like 9 murders over the 13 yr period he served as Mayor .He worked to improve police-community relations, and he handed some administrative tasks that had been stripped from the Chief of Police, back to the Police Chief.
It wasn't all peaches and cream, and there seemed to be some tensions inherent in having a white Mayor in a predominantly Black town. But it appears his political base was a result of his work with the town's youth and the loyalty that inspired. He did a ton of fundraising, one example being his ability to secure a $400,000 grant from the Heinz Foundation which resulted in the creation of summer jobs for 100 kids.
I do think that has given him some valuable experience in dealing with people from the role of an elected official. But I just don't get labelling him a "career politician"? What legitimate candidate for office in 2022 who isn't some sort of Q freak fits your definition of other than a career politician?
Who am I missing, that isn't a complete loon, like Kari Lake or the Q guy in Ohio that painted his field in Trump's likeness? I think Fetterman fits the bill of having actual relevant experience, without being a "career politician...
I just think all of these issues have been previously fleshed out when he lost in the 2016 Senate Primary as a virtual unknown, won the Lt Gov Primary and general in 2018 and now has demolished the other candidates in the 2022 Senate Primary...He finished 3rd with 307,000 votes in the 2016 Dem Primary. He more than doubled that and demolished the field this year...It seems like a lot of people in PA feel they can relate to him...
