The media is currently writing “reflective” pieces about John Fetterman and his current health crisis. You see, we just haven’t destigmatized mental health enough in this country to accept a clinically depressed senator.

In this particular case, Jen Senior wrote in The Atlantic about Fetterman’s current condition, and bemoaned the difficult job that “we” expect him to do, all after suffering a stroke and battling clinical depression. Uh, just who the hell is “we” here???

Politicians, particularly members of Congress, are almost always required to be front-stage creatures, for exactly the reasons I have described: all those damn committee meetings, constituent sit-downs, puffy hats. We tend to expect a certain level of formality from them—and absent that, a certain consistency of performance.”

But depression, almost by definition, is a backstage emotion: lonely, prickly, uncomely. When you’re in the throes of it—something I know a thing or two about—it positively defies salable shtick. What this means is that every high-functioning depressed person has a self they try very hard to conceal. It is work performing your wellness—for some people, it’s more exhausting than their actual day job.”

And from what little we know, that seemed to be the case for Fetterman. It is said that he was unhappy that he missed out on (and still hasn’t gotten) the time he needed to properly recover from his stroke. And now here he is, in one of the most public-facing jobs imaginable—possibly even more so than the presidency, where you have the luxury of retreating into the antiqued seclusion of the White House, away from reporters and constituents.”

On top of this, Fetterman was spending his weekdays alone, apart from his wife and three children, who are still in Braddock, Pennsylvania. For most of the week, he doesn’t have his loved ones by his side, the people with whom he could safely pull off the mask. Instead, he had to perform all day long, then return to an empty home.”

Illness, too, can be cruelly isolating. Fetterman was trying valiantly to adapt to a demanding, high-intensity job with closed-captioning at his desk and audio-to-text transcriptions of committee hearings; he carries a tablet that converts what his colleagues say into text. This technological wizardry might make his work easier to do, but it also sets him apart, accentuating how different his lot is from everyone else’s. I’m guessing it isn’t easy to experience this difference during every interaction he has—not when his condition is so new, not when he hasn’t had ample time to adjust.”

Fetterman has basically been forced to contend with the effects of a severe brain trauma while working an absurdly demanding job in one of the most polarized and toxic political climates the country has ever known.”

Hold on just a hot second here. The media was quite clear during the election that a senator’s job was simply voting yes or no. Why, a trained monkey could do it! Why was everyone so worked up about John Fetterman’s current state of health???

Any comment on this @davidsirota? Or are you going to continue ignoring this story? https://t.co/84A5zcL3aJ pic.twitter.com/3Z625kR5di

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) February 18, 2023

Robert, will you be revisiting this? https://t.co/17or8kYftT

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 18, 2023

And here is the problem. The same media that bought every lie coming out of the Fetterman campaign uncritically, with the exception of Dasha Burns who was targeted for committing the mortal sin of telling the truth, is now wringing their hands over the state of mental health in this country and the unreasonable demands that we put on United States Senators, in their attempt to rationalize and excuse their immoral abuse of one man’s health for their political ends.

One person could end this all right here and right now, and make sure that John Fetterman gets the help and the time to heal that he needs. That person is Gisele Fetterman. She could stop this entire circus right now. Gisele could stand up and say, “My husband’s health and mental well-being is more important than his Senate seat, and he is going to resign” and let Governor Josh Shapiro – a Democrat – appoint a new Senator for Pennsylvania. Yes, that would mean a special election in 2024 where both Senate seats in Pennsylvania would be on the ballot in a presidential election year. But what is more important – John Fetterman’s health or keeping that Senate seat until 2028?

Sadly, with each day that goes by, we are seeing which one is more important, and that is Democrat control. The most shocking detail, and the one that has to be laid at Gisele Fetterman’s feet, is the acknowledgement that John Fetterman has been living alone in Washington D.C. during the week. The New York Times confirmed that same detail:

Since January, Mr. Fetterman has been trying to dig into his new job, attending caucus meetings and committee hearings, meeting with constituent groups and attending high-profile events like President Biden’s State of the Union address this month. He has been living alone in Washington during the week, while his wife and three children remain in Braddock, Pa.”

A man who suffered a stroke, has known heart problems, and an apparent (now admitted) history of clinical depression, has been LIVING ALONE WITH NO FAMILY SUPPORT while adjusting to the demands of an elected office THAT HE AND HIS TEAM WILLINGLY CHOSE TO PURSUE. Who in the hell thought this was a good idea, Gisele? I understand the desire to keep your children’s lives as normal as possible, but YOU SIGNED UP FOR THIS. YOU chose to not withdraw from the Senate race. YOU made excuses that the media swallowed whole. YOU wanted Dasha Burns punished for telling the truth. And now YOU are enjoying the spotlight a little too much.

How Mrs. Fetterman spent the weeks before her husband was hospitalized for clinical depression. Just a quick Google News search. pic.twitter.com/4cYJMFPfBZ

— Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) February 17, 2023

Remember that during the campaign, Gisele was slobbered over as the “de facto candidate” and got tons of glowing press coverage. She even got a shout-out from Joe Biden, who told her she would be a “great lady in the Senate.”

Gaffe or prediction? That has been the ongoing question for a long time now. There is no question that Gisele Fetterman has political aspirations, but it seems the intent was for her to be the power behind the proverbial throne to begin with. John Fetterman’s stroke and health issues were nothing more than a speed bump for the candidate and campaign who swore he would be “better in January.” We are now at nine months since the stroke, and only now are we hearing about a lifelong struggle with clinical depression, as admitted by his current chief of staff (and former Harry Reid lackey) Adam Jentleson. While that is nothing to be ashamed of, don’t you think that should have been a determining factor in letting candidate Fetterman continue on the campaign trail? Why did Gisele not look at the total picture, between stroke, heart problems, and ongoing depression, and insist on stopping everything right then and there?

The longer you think about it, the more venal this feels. The longer that John Fetterman is at Walter Reed, receiving his needed inpatient treatment, the more obvious it becomes that Gisele had zero problem continuing to push him instead of pull him back. Power über alles, and if that meant sacrificing John Fetterman, oh well. Gisele could have stopped this, but she didn’t. What does that say about her and her ambitions? Nothing good.

May God help John Fetterman, because it’s clear no one in the media, Democrat leadership, or his family has any intention of doing so now.

Featured image: Gisele Fetterman via Governor Tom Wolf’s Flickr account on August 13, 2020, cropped, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)