You deserve retribution — but Democrats in charge won't deliver it

United States Senator John Fetterman is not going to switch political parties. That’s not how politics works in America. While it’s true that the Democrat has seen his favorability rise among Pennsylvania Republicans, they are never going to vote for him. He’s a Democrat.

His fate will be decided by a Democratic primary in two years’ time. As of now, that fate looks increasingly bleak. According to CNN, Fetterman's net approval is negative 40 percent. That’s as low as any approval rating for any sitting senator that anyone has seen. Even former US Senator Kyrsten Sinema was more popular before Arizona Democrats hounded her out.

Fetterman believes the problem he is facing is “Trump Derangement Syndrome." Those are his words and by using them, he’s trying to get himself off the hook. While Pennsylvania Democrats expect him to vote with the Democratic Party, his record-low approval rating is not due to their hatred of Donald Trump, though I'm sure there’s no shortage of that.

It’s due to none other than John Fetterman. He campaigned in 2022 as the anti-moderate. He promised to be a reliable 51st vote. He mocked centrists for their mealymouthed excuses for caving to the Republicans. Yet here he is, voting with them in highly visible ways that are clearly intended to outrage Democrats who are in the mood to fight. His was the deciding vote to confirm Markwayne Mullin as the secretary of the Homeland Security Department.

Fetterman’s approval isn’t in the toilet because of the animosity of his supporters toward Trump. It’s in the toilet because he didn’t mean what he said. He sold himself as a man of principle who refused to engage in bad faith. He broke his promise, resulting in lost faith.

It’s tempting to attribute Fetterman's bad faith to the stroke he had in 2022, which was nearly fatal. But I think that also lets him off the hook. The signs were evident long ago in his decision to create for himself a regular-joe persona similar to those of his constituents in order to generate leverage over Republicans who were making inroads among working-class white voters. In reality, Fetterman’s background is one of considerable comfort and privilege.

That he shares more in common personally with Republican rivals than he does with actual working-class Pennsylvanians was invisible when he was Joe Biden’s surrogate in a critical swing state. But since 2024, when fellow Democrat and former US Senator Bob Casey lost reelection and Trump won Pennsylvania, Fetterman’s background has come back to the fore.

That he wore a suit and tie in order to greet Donald Trump before his State of the Union address in February, after succeeding in getting the Senate to change the rules of decorum so he could wear hoodies and shorts, can be seen as not a departure but a return to form.

Is that fair? Perhaps not, but the fact remains that John Fetterman’s case is a cautionary tale of sorts. There is a price to be paid by progressive Democratic candidates who do not keep their promises, or who turn out to be something that they said they would never be.

It’s the story of the price of bad faith.

Few know more about bad faith than Denny Carter. He’s the publisher of the Bad Faith Times, a newsletter I have profited from reading and encourage you to check out. In the following interview, we touch on Fetterman and the fighting mood that Democratic voters are in.

“People want vengeance. They want retribution. They want the DOGE boys to go to jail and they want Miller and Noem and Rubio and Hegseth and the rest to face severe consequences for their crimes. You're not getting any of that with the Schumer contingent in charge

I think Fetterman's days are numbered, but his shtick will endure, alas. When do you think Democrats will figure out that punching left is not going to accomplish what it used to?

You can't dismiss the effects of his stroke. His policy stances and his demeanor have changed dramatically since then. Profiles and insider accounts have painted the picture of a man who is no longer operating the way he did before his stroke.

I wrote about Fetterman's campaign in 2022, because it was one of the first campaigns to refuse to engage in the right's bad faith around abortion rights and gun control and taxes and other issues that sometimes prove disastrous for Democrats.

His current shtick – which mostly involves being obstinate for the sake of being obstinate, and triggering the libs just for the fun of it -- wasn't his shtick when he headed into his Senate term.

Fetterman reportedly cares a lot about what his father thinks (I think a lot of men can relate to that) and longs for his dad's approval. Fetterman's father, a rightwinger who mainlines Fox, reportedly praises him when he sides with Trump against Democrats. I think that explains a lot about what drives him to essentially function as a Republican in some instances. (Fetterman still votes with the Democratic Party at an 80 percent clip).

Punching left, I think, will become a lot less common among congressional Democrats in whatever comes after Trump. The Democratic base has been very clear about what it wants, and it has nothing to do with bipartisanship. Part of me thinks it's not so much punching left as it is punching those who want Democrats to fight the authoritarians tearing apart the country.

For now, it's not so much about where you stand on Medicare for All as it is about whether you will deliver justice against the monsters robbing the country and terrorizing Americans.

Fetterman has been clear that he will not be part of that Fight Caucus. Maybe because daddy would be disappointed.

Some progressives want to see more progressives in the Democratic Party while normie Democrats tend to see Fetterman as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The same thing is happening with Graham Platner in Maine. How do you see people on the left resolving this tension?

I'm not sure that tension will be resolved no matter how the midterms turn out. A big part of the appeal of guys like Fetterman and Platner is that they are physically imposing men who talk tough. The Democratic base – along with anyone paying even passing attention to the regime's crimes – is in the mood for fighting. It makes sense that big men capture their attention. Of course, this ignores a lot of determined women candidates who fight but don't look like they could step into a UFC cage.

I will point out that Governor Janet Mills, Platner's opponent, last year stood up to Trump in person and told him to f--- all the way off with his threats around defunding Maine schools if they did not abide by his regime's anti-trans executive orders.

We talk a lot about bad faith among Republicans, but perhaps not enough about it among progressives. Fetterman isn't working class, but his persona is based on the idea that he's authentic (ie working class). Thoughts?

I suppose politicians pretending they are working class is nothing new. Almost all of them come from extreme wealth. It's the only way one can run for office anymore. Fetterman and Platner have taken this art to a new level, though. You'd think they were punching a time clock between campaign appearances. They both look like absolute hell, which can be (very) appealing to actual working class folks. Politics is a game. It's theater. You dress the way you need to dress and say what you need to say to get elected. That's no different today than it was during the Obama years or the early 2000s or the Clinton era. A guy like Platner definitely understands the WWE aspect of politics, horrifying tattoos and all. That makes him formidable.

My feeling is that Platner is succeeding because he's the podcasters' idea of an authentic working-class American, even though Platner and the podcasters come from the same elite backgrounds: born into affluence, attended elite schools, etc. They all know it's a game, but I think the goal is real: taking over the Democrats. I welcome you pushing back on that.

That's not a bad theory. I don't know if the entire podcasting class comes from privilege, though. I think they find common ground in committing to the end of the Schumer era and all that entails. Again, I don't know if this necessarily has to do with so-called left policies as much as it does about empowering elected officials who won't hesitate to imprison their enemies when they commit crimes against the nation and its people.

Chuck Schumer and the current Democratic leadership have proven unwilling to breach that barrier, as we saw in the months after January 6. The thinking among the pro-Platner, faux-working class podcasting folks might be this: Secure power by any means necessary and remake the Democratic Party into a pro-democracy organization that will punish those who have run roughshod over constitutional governance.

People want vengeance. They want retribution. They want the DOGE boys to go to jail and they want Miller and Noem and Rubio and Hegseth and the rest to face severe consequences for their crimes. You're not getting any of that with the Schumer contingent in charge.