The longest-running premise in political analysis is that lawmakers act in rational fashion, even as the rest of us have felt like we’re living in a madhouse since 2016.
I thought of it this morning after my editor and I got to talking about the puzzle of Sen. John Fetterman’s relentless tug toward the right.
Could he be triangulating? she wondered. That is, with his term expiring in 2028, might a man who was elected as a Bernie Sanders-style progressive be edging toward the center to broaden his appeal to swing voters?
That line of thinking is a coherent strategic theory for the Pennsylvania senator’s conduct. It simply doesn’t fit the actual facts.
Fetterman has carried out a few deft moves to separate himself from the left’s most toxic cultural priorities, such as backing a bill early in Donald Trump’s second term that would compel federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes. He also earned some centrist goodwill by backing half of the 22 nominees Trump put forward for Cabinet-rank roles last year. That’s triangulation.
What he’s been doing of late goes far beyond triangulation to the point that it seems, frankly, irrational.
In March, during one of his numerous appearances on Fox News, he was asked who leads the Democratic Party. “Our party is governed by the TDS,” he replied. “TDS” stands for “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a phrase used unironically only by the president’s right-wing loyalists.
After the April 25 assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Fetterman joined a chorus of MAGA allies by insisting that his Democratic colleagues “drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom.” Public opinion opposes the ballroom by about a two-to-one margin. Democratic voters oppose it by a 4-87 split.
On Thursday he was asked what he thought of Graham Platner becoming his party’s nominee for Senate in Maine. Platner is the most Fetterman-esque Democrat since Fetterman himself, a progressive economic populist with the “vibes” of a working-class right-winger, and may represent Team Blue’s best chance of flipping a seat this cycle. Fetterman promptly sniped back: “Democrats really, really like Platner in Maine, but the Republicans f—ing love him,” he sneered, mocking the candidate’s electability. “If Maine wants an a–hole with a Nazi tattoo on his chest, they get him.”
