Here’s why Fetterman won Pennsylvania’s Senate race

This is addressed to the people who are in a state of shock over last week’s election results. It is designed to walk some of you off of the ledge and explain why we will be sending John Fetterman to represent us in the U.S. Senate.

It is my attempt to explain what motivates otherwise sane and well-balanced citizens of a purple state to shove the bluest of blue zealots down our throats.

Many have said Fetterman won because Pennsylvanians did not like the “inauthenticity” of Mehmet Oz. It’s true that the Fetterman campaign successfully painted the cardiologist and television star as an elite carpet bagger who had a rich vocabulary. I mean, no Pennsylvanian is smart enough to use the word “crudites” west of the Susquehanna, right?

But this was just a symptom, and not the true motivation for voters who would choose the former mayor of Braddock over Oz. Authenticity is nice, but that wasn’t the reason Pennsylvanians chose Fetterman, albeit by a relatively close margin.

It’s much more likely that many white suburban women voted for the guy who said he’d fight for their right to abort their babies at pretty much any stage in the pregnancy, than that they appreciated his resemblance to a member of a motorcycle gang.

Abortion became the big draw for the triggered Madam Ovaries across the nation, and Pennsylvania was no exception. Indeed, the hysteria after Justice Samuel Alito stated the obvious fact that there was no “right” to abortion in the U.S. Constitution

was apocalyptic in scope and nature.

Many women across the state, but particularly in southeastern Pennsylvania and out by Pittsburgh were convinced we had lost our rights. I cannot tell you the number of emails I got calling me a misogynist, a rape apologist, a “Kavanaugh Killer” and other delightful things after I wrote a few columns praising the Dobbs decision. Actually, I counted them. As of this writing, I was treated to 236 emails, texts, Facebook messages and tweets letting me know that I was responsible for their daughters and granddaughters becoming second-class citizens.

I find that amusing, since I spend a lot of my time as an immigration lawyer helping other people become first-class citizens.

But abortion wasn’t the primary motivation for electing a man who cannot speak clearly and is still in the early stages of rehab, a man who has never owned his own home, a man who depends on his parents to put food on the table for his children, a man who held a shotgun to an innocent Black man, a man who wanted the murderer of my friend’s father released from jail for “compassionate reasons,” a man who supports the legalization of drugs (at least some of them) and a man who hates Republicans.

The real reason Fetterman was elected over a competent, well-educated surgeon who saves lives instead of seeking the release of those who took them in the most brutal manner, is because more people hated us, than liked Oz.

Fetterman’s supporters cast a vengeance vote. There was nothing appealing, inspiring or admirable in this man who will now represent us in D.C.

The thing that Fetterman harnessed better than anyone else could was the anger, the hatred and the resentment that Democrats have harbored since Donald Trump was elected president.

It has corroded the innards of progressive and center-left liberals for a long time, and this was their opportunity to exact revenge at the ballot box. Simple as that.

Some might dismiss this column as the ravings of a triggered fascist whose white Christian nationalism was defeated at the polls, as one person put it on social media. But the truth is that we now have a senator who was elected out of hatred and anger, misogyny toward conservative women, disregard for victims of crime, and a sense of gotcha.

Well, they got us. And they should be prepared for 2024. Elephants have long memories.