I had never heard of John Fetterman before he’d had a stroke. I can’t speak to his pre-stroke politics and am not inclined to hunt them down. Someone in the Democrat party thought him a suitable meat puppet to prevent the Republicans from seizing a US Senate Seat in Pennsylvania. The same party that picked Biden, Kamala, and whose base is rallying around people like Socialist Sandy Cortez, the nutty Neiman Marxist.
He must have been a good prog. He was also recovering from a stroke, and being more incapacitated than President Joe Biden is a good thing until it’s not. Uncle Joe became a polling liability, so his puppeteers set him up to fail in an early debate (that’s the current theory, at least). It worked if the plan was to burn two billion dollars on a word salad in a pantsuit so Trump could win re-election.
Fetterman got to wear sweats and hoodies in the Senate and was treated as if the large white man had a post on the left’s Victim-Class totem poll. He was fine so long as he didn’t make a decision on his own, a problem that plagues the Machine. The Senator appears to have found the wrong marbles.
His speech and elocution are much improved. He makes cogent points and connects thoughts across a conversation. The stroke had deprived him of these things to such a degree that his campaign hid him until it was too late to prevent his getting elected. Now, they’d like to hide him some more.
Fetterman’s failure to toe the party line put a target on his back. And on Friday, New York Magazine’s Intelligencer fired the first shot with a lengthy exposé titled All by Himself. It begins: “John Fetterman insists he is in good health. But staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.”
It was a hit piece for the ages, a Capitol Hill version of Mean Girls. In a deep dive into Fetterman’s current mental and emotional state, author Ben Terris drew a portrait of a madman. Using conversations with his former and current aides, Terris portrayed the senator as unhinged, desperate, and failing.
It hardly matters if the “staffers” are honest about his health. Any deviation from the progressive plantation is grounds for political hobbling—a proscriptive message to the accused and the balance of the caucus. If he is no longer willing to take their advice, while his notions are outside the typical range of Left-Wing opinion, well, of course, he’s unhinged. There is no room for independent thinking in a Democrat-Socialist cabal. The party line is the only line, and thinking outside the box will get you the sort of attention reserved for Trump supporters.
Having said that, the Right’s embrace of Fetterman as cogent for having finally come around on a few issues important to them isn’t proof. Even if he were to take the attacks as a sign and leave his party, he still fits the RFKJ/Tulis profile. In their lanes, they are evidence of the potential for big-tent politics. RFJK’s MAHA fits the Trump agenda. Tulsi’s national defense posture fits the Trump agenda. They both bring moderate Dems to the Republican table, and once there, they may be influenced to see how smaller government can lead to better outcomes in other areas. Outside those lanes, – until further notice – they have a long history of advocating bat-shit crazy leftist stuff. Fetterman is still a Democrat.
According to GovTrack, Fettemran’s ideology score based on his voting record makes him a better Democrat than at least 15 of his fellow Democratic Senators, including New Hampshire’s Shaheen and Hassan. How that makes him a threat to the party’s agenda is an open question, unless you include his unwavering support for Israel.
Fetterman’s position on the Israeli-Hamas war came up frequently in the piece. When calls for a ceasefire began, Fetterman wrote on X, “Now is not the time to talk about a cease-fire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children.”
The article cites a “heated” argument between Fetterman and his wife (in November 2023), whom Terris describes as “a kindhearted philanthropist,” over his support for Israel. According to a staffer who was present at the time, Gisele, “with tears in her eyes,” said, “They are bombing refugee camps. How can you support this?”
Supporting Israel over Hamas makes you crazy, and that’s not a position limited to the Left. Still, it is the foundation of their political smear and a warning shot to elected Democrats. If you are on the wrong side, it could be your name instead of Fettermann’s.
Israel-hating jews will love it. Anyone who thinks Jews have been plotting to take over the world for the last 4000 years will love it. But does Pennsylvania love it, and how about America?
If the 2024 elections are any indication, they don’t love it.
If Republicans were Democrats, they’d be milking this all over the place from here to 2026. Maybe they will. Or, maybe they wait to see if Trump’s first economic boom shows its face before the midterms.
I wouldn’t wait. Breaking things is easy. Fixing them takes years.
