Is there anything really wrong with John Fetterman?

So what’s up with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman? I mean really.

A traitor to progressive policies? A manic depressive? A brave, middle-of-road politician? A speeding car looking for a guard rail to crash?

Is he going rogue, or returning to his basic principles?

I can’t definitely answer that, but I can lay out what I know, piece together other reporting,  and predict the potential consequences.

Such as his ability to run for his seat again as a Democrat.

Polling says, nay, nay Pauline.

A recent poll reported only 26% of Democrats would definitely vote for him again, and 65% of likely Democratic voters dislike him. The poll was paid for a progressive group, headed by a Fetterman foe, but that doesn’t mean it is wrong, and those numbers should be terrifying for any candidate.

A recent YouGov/Economist poll said Fetterman had a 34% unpopular rating among Democrats, with only 32% viewing him favorably. He did better among Republicans, with 36% favorable, and 29% unfavorable.

As the Inquirer reported, “Fetterman has drawn the ire of progressives since becoming an outspoken supporter of Israel in the war in Gaza and after voting for several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who received her only Democratic vote from Fetterman.”

Fetterman, who is not Jewish, is among the strongest supporters of the Jewish state in the Senate. 

Those positions are poison to partisan, lock-step, group-think Democrats, not to mention that Fetterman met (gasp) with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and has fashioned a friendly relationship with Pennsylvania’s junior Senator, Republican Dave McCormick.

Progressives can’t stand that. Civility is treason.

Fetterman recently defended himself to Bill Maher, who also committed the unpardonable sin, in progressive eyes, of meeting with Trump at his palatial Florida home. On his HBO show, Maher defined himself as an “old-school liberal,” and, like Fetterman, denounces the extreme left, and the unpopular, positions taken by them.

“I have taken a hit from the base” because of his enthusiastic support for Israel and secure borders, Fetterman told Bill Hemmer on Fox’s America’s Newsroom June 17th show.

Maher referenced what has been called a hit piece in the May 2 issue of New York Magazine, followed by two more critical pieces. (No link because all are behind a paywall.)

The original piece, based almost exclusively on anonymous sources, raised questions about  Fetterman’s work ethic, mental depression, delusional thinking, even his driving.

What say you?, Maher asked Fetterman.

“Parts of my party want to turn me into Col. Kurtz,” Fetterman replied with a smile, citing the central character, a West Point graduate who goes rogue in “Apocalypse Now.” 

Fetterman acknowledged he has a bad, but not the worst, Senate attendance record, but said he always was there for important votes. His record, he said, has been weaponized “in a very cynical way.”

During the interview, Fetterman did not use the voice translator he has used in the past, and his syntax was slightly choppy. 

“We’re one of the few people that actually had dinner with Trump,” said Fetterman. If you talk to the other side, he said, you pay a price for it.

“When I first got into my career, people assumed I was a Socialist or a Marxist, and now people think that I’m going to turn into a MAGA, and I’m going to go this other way. No. My values haven’t changed. In some cases I think our party’s values have changed.”

Here’s where I can shed a little light on Fetterman’s values, based on interviews with two of his classmates at Reading’s Albright College, the 1,300-student school, where he majored in finance.

Both agree Fetterman was conservative then, a Reagan Republican, “which was unusual then,” one of them said.

He had a full head of hair then, was popular with girls, and with everyone else to have been elected class president twice.

He believed in God, one of the classmates said, and opposed abortion. He was a gun owner, “and scared of Black people because he was never around them growing up.”

He had a good sense of humor and performed LL Cool J’s “I Need Love” in a college talent show. 

The classmate said Fetterman believed the poor deserved to be poor, while the rich had earned what they had, like his father, Karl, had done.

His Albright classmates thought he’d go into his father's business. No one could have imagined he’d become a social worker. Becoming a U.S. Senator was on no one’s bingo card.

“His change of heart [politically] is probably legit,” said a football teammate.

I have seen no reporting on why he turned away  from finance and toward public service.

A hint is given in his authorized bio: “At 23, John joined up with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and his life has never been the same.”

He then joined AmeriCorps and served in Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District, where he set up a computer lab and taught GED classes to young mothers and fathers. 

He also taught GED classes in down-on-its-luck Braddock, where his students encouraged him to run for mayor. He won by a single vote, got re-elected and served 13 years.

He fought for immigration rights (his wife Gisele was a Dreamer, brought here illegally by her parents), for LGBTQ+ rights — he married gays before it was legal, and fought a four-lane highway coming through Braddock on the grounds of environmental racism.

As lieutenant governor, and head of the parole board, he was very lenient about turning prisoners loose, while campaigning statewide for legalizing marijuana.

Now, today, Fetterman scoffs at the notion that he ran as a progressive. I just showed you his record. What do you think?

Well, me — and everyone else — thought he was a progressive. It kind of worried me. His platform was pretty hard left.

But given he was running for the Senate against a Trump sycophant election denier, I warily decided to vote for him and explained why. 

—-

Another progressive, Larry Platt, took a shot at explaining Fetterman, from an unusual angle. 

[Personal disclosure: Platt was my boss for the short time he was editor of the Philadelphia Daily News. I got along with him; many on staff did not.] 

Now editor of the Public Citizen website, Platt wrote a long piece (longer than the one you are reading) starting with the New York Magazine hit piece, which he called “a sad, disturbing tale,” and a “pile-on” followup Inquirer piece. The state’s leading newspaper, the Inquirer has no Washington resources and is routinely scooped on Fetterman by the Washington Post, The New York Times, and others.

Platt believes Fetterman is the victim of a progressive political attack, and also the victim of “a subtle type or bigotry” focused on his mental illness.

Neither piece, writes Platt, delves into the mystery and intricacies  of Fetterman’s stroke, and how it is normal to struggle for normalcy after it. Platt writes that he, too, had a stroke, but a minor one, that left him a changed man.

“So much of the behavior described in the New York Magazine piece,” he writes, “is actually quite common to stroke recovery.”

I think Platt is trying to help Fetterman, but even if Fetterman’s internal demons may be understandable because of his condition, it still raises this question: Is he qualified to serve?

Believe me, progressives who would reduce murder charges against a suspect who claimed to have a bad childhood, are going to come after Fetterman with sharpened stilettos, to gut him like a two-headed catfish.

The most likely Democratic primary opponent will be former West Pennsylvania moderate congressman Conor Lamb, but he might not be the only one. Sensing an opening, other pretenders to the throne may flock in like pigeons after bread crumbs.

And how much daylight will there be between Lamb and Fetterman‘s policies? Or will Lamb run to Fetterman’s left?

Unlike most Democrats, I liked Fetterman’s positions a whole lot better after he spent six weeks in a mental hospital being treated for clinical depression. He is a centrist now, as am I.

Some right- wing radio hosts insist Fetterman will make a run for President in 2028, or run for Senate as a Republican.

I think he’d sooner return to being mayor of Braddock.