Populist liberal politicians are unaccountable to voters over foreign policy issues like Israel's conflict with Hamas, a left-wing commentator has found.
US labor lawyer Dan Kovalik confronted Democrat Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman at a public campaign event for county council candidate Sara Innamorato in Pittsburg on Sunday.
Kovalik asked Fetterman him why he opposed a ceasefire in Israel's latest and most violent military campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip, pointing out that he and other left-wingers voted for Fetterman in the hope that he would promote more enlightened policies in Washington.
When Kovalik pointed out that more than 8,000 Palestinians had been killed so far, most of them women and children, the hulking senator's bodyguard pushed him forcibly out of the venue, Shorty's Tap x Taco bar in the Homestead district, and into the street.
Kovalik told Sputnik how the incident unfolded.
"I had a ticket for the event. He was hosting an event for a local candidate for county council, who I've already voted for by mail-in ballot," Kovalik explained. "I wanted to talk to him about his refusal to support a ceasefire in Gaza, and he said some, what I viewed to be kind of terrible things about what's happening there, and I wanted to talk to them about it."
The left-wing lawyer said the one-minute video of their encounter "speaks for itself".
"He didn't answer my question, and I tried to give him a very small flier with information," Kovalik continued. "And without any warning — he says nothing to me — and then his guy says: 'you got to leave.' And he grabs me and throws me out. It was incredible. He didn't even ask me to leave. He just threw me out."
"I just don't think he wanted to engage me at all," he added. "He could have said: 'well, I have to think about the issue' or 'thank you for your concern, constituent', and it would have been over."
Kovalik said Fetterman was simply unready to face difficult questions from his constituents over his decision to follow the Democratic Party line on Israel.
"But if you're a public figure, an elected official, and a voter in your constituency, which I am, I want to ask you a question, you can't go out in public and think that people aren't going to have questions for you," he said.
However, Fetterman's attitude has backfired on him since the commentator posted the video on social media.
"It was outrageous. But he shamed himself. That that video now has 4 million hits on Twitter," Kovalik said. "All he had to do is say nothing and walk away or say thank you and walk away. And he decided, no, he was going to have his goon attack me. And now it's a big issue."
The incident exposed the divide between Democrat politicians and their voter base. Recent polls have shown around four in five Democrat voters and more than half of Republicans want a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
"Within the elected officials, there isn't much of a schism. There's only a couple elected Democratic officials in Congress who are speaking out against the aid to Israel," Kovalik explained. "But amongst the base, I saw that 80 percent of Democrats support an immediate ceasefire."
"The base is very critical of Biden's position on this, who's, of course, stonewalling resolutions at the Security Council about to have a humanitarian cease fire. So the schism is between the Democratic voters and the Democratic elected officials for the most part," he added.
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