Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) appeared in a video for the RNC's midterm convention last week. C-SPAN See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on Google Ronald Reagan famously said that he didn’t leave the Democrats, the Democrats left him — and now the party threatens to do the same to Sen. John Fetterman.
The Pennsylvanian’s video appearance at the Republican midterm convention, praising GOP colleague Dave McCormick as a bipartisan ally as they “work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life,” drove his critics around the bend.
The left loathes Fetterman even though he votes with his caucus most of the time, and stands by policies central to the Democratic identity . . . at least until 15 minutes ago . . . simply because he refuses to go along with the lunacy he calls an “orgy of socialism.”
The senator’s trademark hyper-casual dress and his pro-labor, pro-LGBT stances coded him as “progressive,” but he bucked the new meaning of that label to define himself as a “regular Democrat” and to stand up in vocal support of Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
He’d always been pro-Israel, but pasting pictures of hostages outside his office and waving flags in the faces of the pro-Hamas partisans who took up residence in the Capitol drove progs crazy.
He infuriated them more with a common-sense approach to immigration.
Yes, Fetterman in office changed his views on abolishing the filibuster and fracking. But so what?
Fracking is big business in Pennsylvania and keeps his constituents’ pantries stocked.
And it doesn’t take a political genius to understand that getting rid of the filibuster can only destabilize our democracy.
Democrats used to embrace idiosyncratic senators like the fervently anti-Communist but socially liberal Henry “Scoop” Jackson (Wash.) or legendary fiscal hawk William Proxmire (Wis.).
But these days being willing to reach across the aisle on matters of conscience is regarded as treason.
John Fetterman is still a Democrat, and no one would mistake him for the Great Communicator, but the fury over his sticking to the center left shows what’s really going on when Democrats claim that embracing rabid Israel-haters like Abdul El-Sayed is all about being a “big tent” party.
