Remember when John Fetterman revealed what was wrong with politics?

John Fetterman has become a staple of American political life since being wad elected to represent Pennsylvania as one of its Senators, and the man has provided some interesting and valuable insight into the problems the U.S. political system is suffering.

One of the best examples of Fetterman's keen insight came while he was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in October 2023. It was during his appearance that he clearly laid out the country's biggest problem, voters were choosing the wrong people to represent them. 

The Pennsylvania Senator said what every American has probably thought at one point in the nation’s recent history when he explained that the country wasn’t sending its “best and brightest” to represent them in Congress. 

The comment earned Fetterman laughter and applause from Colbert's studio audience but he went on to explain what he meant in detail while ragging on the representatives that just about allowed the government to shutdown at the time. 

“Sometimes you literally just can’t believe that these people are making the decisions that are determining the government here. It’s actually scary,” Fetterman said. “Before the government almost shut down, I mean, it came down to a couple of hours.”

Fetterman explained that he was in his office when the final bill to avert a shutdown was passed by the House and he realized that the Senate would need a unanimous vote on the funding legislation in order to avert a shutdown. 

A no vote from one of the ninety-nine senators present would have led to a government shutdown according to Fetterman, something he said was a serious issue explaining no politicians should have that amount of power. 

“That’s how dangerous it is to put that kind of power in one’s hands,” Fetterman said, “because you have some very less gifted kinds of people there that are willing to shut down the government just to score points on Fox [News].”

Cobert and Fetterman also discussed the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the late-night host asked Fetterman if members of the senate thought the House was the most dysfunctional part of the government. 

"Well it’s a low bar, really," Fetterman replied. ​​"I just want everybody to realize just how truly dysfunctional it really is," he added. "And I always tell people, don’t worry, please don’t worry. It’s much worse than you think."

Fetterman’s comments came just as the Republicans sought to sort out the issues between the party’s moderate and far-right wings so that they could elect a new Speaker of the House, eventually settling in the unknown Mike Johnson to fill the role on October 25th, 2023. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was the leading candidate for House Speaker at the time but her failed to reach the 217 votes he needed from 221 members of the Republican caucus to win the speakership gavel. CNN reported that Scalise later dropped out of the speakership race. 

That left Republicans with Ohio Representative Jim Jordan as the leading candidate to be the next House Speaker. However, senior members of the party stated they were ready to block the Ohio congressman’s path according to a separate CNN report. 

An unnamed house member told CNN that there were roughly 40 no-votes against Jim Jordan and added that there were at least 20 members who were prepared to go to the floor to block Jordan if he tries to force a recall vote on October 17th. 

“The approximately 20 I’ve talked to know we must be prepared… We cannot let the small group dictate to the whole group. They want a minority of the majority to dictate and as a red-blooded American I refuse to be a victim.” the unnamed member explained. 

Johnson emerged as the right choice for the. party but the process to get him to the House Speakership revealed that Fetterman may have been right when he told Colbert people don't realize just how dysfunctional the American government can be at times.