Fetterman immediately was endorsed by two large unions (steel workers and food service) representing 80000 Pennsylvanians. Within just two days of announcing his candidacy he has received 37000 small dollar donations from all 67 counties in Pennsylvania and all 50 states.
Fetterman was endorsed by Bernie Sanders in all of his election cycles and was one of the only people elected to high office in Pennsylvania to endorse Sanders for president in 2020.
Honestly thanks for bringing it up because it's very possible, it's something I actively try to fight in my analysis. Canvassing as a new leftist for Bernie has an undeniable emotional attachment to the project.
But I also think we need to look at it as a reflection of the weakness of the left today. We're just witnessing the beginnings of class consciousness. In a country like the US, it's pretty expected that this beginning will take the form of not-really-that-anti-imperialist soft democratic socialism / social democracy. The fact that we had that at all was surprising to me.
But yeah I think it's important to decouple our Bernie support from our material analysis. To have more far-left politics and supporting Bernie, it was definitely silly to describe him as "hiding his power level" etc, but I think it was still a good unifying factor of many tendencies in a time when the far left has 0 power. I understand the historical danger of allying with imperialist socdems, but I do think it's the only thing possible currently in the US. Hakim brought some of this up in V*ush's stream from his ML standpoint, that social democracy in the US is worth fighting for even if you're not a socdem, as long as the end goal is anti-imperialism.
I don't know, I think getting roped into the big ol' chess game isn't...worth it. i'd rather focus my energy on building solidarity outside of the political system, rather than convince working class people to engage with it (eg, canvassing for social democracy). but i mean, it's just my personal opinion.
Despite what I said above I do totally agree with this, and it's hard to square these ideas. For example in retrospect, the labor I spent on Bernie (wasn't a huge amount or anything) would have been better spent organizing and radicalizing my union, which I previously wasn't active in at all. But ironically the Bernie run is primarily what led me to this idea (tbf maybe not the Bernie run, maybe it's the general specter haunting USA) :gold-communist:
Sometimes there is a difference between knowin the path, and walking the path. but eventually, we must join the same road.
Excellent quote comrade Morpheus.