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Fetterman should do the job for which he was elected — or step aside
David Nabhan’s attack on an ill-defined enemy of “handwringers” and “despicable hit pieces” and, of course, “the liberal media” who, in his view, are attacking Sen. John Fetterman — for, um, what? Being too good a friend of Israel? — compels me to respond (“Sen. John Fetterman must have health concerns — since he supports Israel ,” May 23).
Our senators are in the United States Senate, not in the Knesset. I, and everyone I talk to, votes for the person we believe will be the best representative for the United States, not for Israel. Sen. Fetterman represents Pennsylvanians and Americans. Voters in Israel choose their own representatives. I voted for the person I believed would understand what it was like to need government assistance, whether it be to pave a road, pay for medical care, fund schools, clean up a community after a disaster, pay firefighters and police, or protect our democracy and freedom.
I am involved in political activism, and I assure Mr. Nabhan that none of the people in my circle (most of them non-Jews) talk about Sen. Fetterman’s support of Israel. Nor do we spend any time discussing any possible mental issues. We are disappointed by many of his votes, especially those which aligned him with the Trump coalition. We are angry that he won’t hold a town meeting. We’re perplexed that we can no longer talk to a live person in his office in Washington, D.C. or Pittsburgh. We’d like him to come to rallies against Trump and his power grab. We’d like him to take a stand to defend democracy. We’d like him to be a leader. (We’d also like him to dress in a manner that respects the institution and his colleagues, but we accept that’s not going to happen.)
If there is any reason that Sen. Fetterman can’t or won’t perform the job for which we, the voters, chose him, then he should step down now so that Gov. Josh Shapiro can replace him with another Democrat. By holding on to a job he’s not doing, he does our country a grave disservice. The footnote to his tenure should not be that, like Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Joe Biden, he didn’t know when to leave the stage.
Naomi Weisberg Siegel
Pittsburgh
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