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Braddock Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman — clad in his usual black short-sleeve button-up shirt, gave a ringing, and official, endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore Thursday night.
Sanders, the U.S. Senator from Vermont, is currently polling just four points behind front-runner former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, according to an Investor’s Business Daily/TIPP poll, and is growing his lead in New Hampshire.
“I think America is looking for authenticity, and I think that is what is driving these numbers,” Fetterman said on the panel that featured Wilmore and two stand-up comics. “And [Sanders] is surging and surging in demographics that you wouldn’t normally think a 70-year-old democratic socialist would be.”
Another panelist thought Sander’s proposal of free tuition at public colleges and universities was unobtainable, but Fetterman disagreed with this notio n and said some of Sanders’ ideas are what Americans are looking for.
“I don’t think Sanders is radical. I just think he is proposing common sense things that need to happen in America,” said Fetterman.
City Paper caught up with Fetterman after his appearance on The Nightly Show, and he elaborated that his support for Sanders should not come as a surprise because the presidential candidate’s ideas align with his. “There is a massive epidemic of inequality in this country, and that is what the campaign about,” says Fetterman.
Earlier today, Fetterman guest DJ’d on WPTS-FM, the University of Pittsburgh’s student station and combine that with his appearance on the Nightly Show, it appears Fetterman may be gaining popularity among millennials. Fetterman says these appearances were not part of some plan to target young people, however.
“I am getting invites from all over the place. I don’t pick and choose,” he says. “If somebody wants to hear about our campaign, I go.”
But Fetterman does believe there should be a focus on the issues young people are facing. “[Their] student loan payments are starting to exceed mortgage payments. It is a big issue, and it is something that people should be paying attention too.”
At a recent campaign event, another Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Katie McGinty, also spoke about the issue of rising student loans. Although he has been politically active for years, Fetterman may be the political neophyte in this race. Besides McGinty, who served under both Govs. Ed Rendell and Tom Wolf, he also faces former U.S. Congressman and retired Navy Admiral Joe Sestak, who came close to beating incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in 2010.
To watch Fetterman on The Nightly Show, follow the link here (enjoy the skit on dildos being sent to the Oregon-standoff participants beforehand). Also, since we cover all our comic bases here at CP, so check out our comics journalism piece on Fetterman from last fall.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2016.
“Bernie Sanders identifies himself as a Democratic Socialist. Democratic Socialism in the U.S. arose in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries in opposition to growing corporate power and increasing militarism. Sander’s Democratic Socialist views are not incompatible with free enterprise, nor even capitalism.
Sanders simply believes, as do a growing number of Americans, that capitalism should play by the rules and be subject to the same laws and regulations as everyone else. Sanders, like those who support him, understands that private corporations that grow “too big to fail” threaten democracy while exercising the kind of tyranny that is endangering the very existence of life on Earth.
Sanders also understands that, while free enterprise does many things well, there are institutions and resources that belong to all of us together and none of us alone – and therefore, should never be subject to a system focused on profits.
These are the Commons: water, infrastructure such as roads, bridges and utilities, health care, education, prisons, public transportation, the right to basic housing, energy resources and communications.
The last thirty years have demonstrated how badly private corporations have administered the Commons, using them almost exclusively for their own benefit to the detriment of society and the environment.”
https://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/08/gop-and-mainstream-media-read-this-to-understand-democratic-socialism-and-why-people-are-feeling-the-bern/