Oz’s wealth and celebrity image—not ideology or public policy debates—seem to be driving the campaign. This is ironic, in part because Fetterman (who boasts a master’s degree from Harvard) is also from a privileged background.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer noted earlier this month, “for a long stretch lasting well into his 40s, his main source of income came from his parents, who gave him and his family $54,000 in 2015 alone. That was part of the financial support his parents regularly provided when Fetterman’s only paying work was $150 a month as mayor of Braddock, a job he held from his mid-30s until he turned 49. Partway through his tenure, in 2013, he moved to an industrial-style loft he purchased from his sister for $1 after she paid $70,000 for it six years earlier.”

So, we have a rich guy whose entire life and career, well into his middle age, were subsidized by mommy and daddy, versus a rich celebrity doctor, whose residency in the state is dubious.

This is more a microcosm of today’s U.S. politics than an anomaly.