Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has been charting a course as a bit of a maverick among the Democratic Party. But when the chips are down, even he falls in line with the radical fringe of left-wing activists who run the party’s messaging.
HBO’s Bill Maher last week coronated Fetterman as the Democratic Party’s answer to President Donald Trump, specifically how Trump “bonds with everyday Americans because he talks like them.” Fetterman made his name as an Ivy League-educated man from a wealthy upbringing who LARPed as a working-class mayor. He has since carved out his current somewhat centrist path mostly by not acting like a frantic, hysterical Democrat like many of his colleagues.
Fetterman’s voting record remains reliably liberal, though, and Monday’s vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act showed his true colors. The Senate failed to pass the bill, which straightforwardly said, “To provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
In other words, boys can’t play girls’ sports. This position is supported by nearly 80% of the country, including a whopping 67% of Democrats. You would be hard-pressed to find a cultural concern in our politics that has more overwhelming support than this. And yet, Fetterman came down on the side of transgender activists, pulling the emotionally manipulative tactic of claiming that Republicans are demonizing “transgender” children rather than protecting female athletes from injuries caused by male athletes who are taking away girls’ spots on teams and their victories and records.
SENATE DEMOCRATS SINK GOP-LED BILL TO BAR TRANSGENDER ATHLETES FROM WOMEN’S SPORTS
It is bad timing for Maher because how else could his notion that Fetterman can bond with everyday people be disproven so quickly and decisively? If Fetterman can’t say, “Boys shouldn’t be playing girls’ sports,” he does not “talk like” everyday people. It’s a charade, the same act Fetterman has put on in Pennsylvania for years. It isn’t authentic and wouldn’t stand up to any scrutiny.
Fetterman has his own positives. He is the only prominent Democrat with total moral clarity on Israel and the Palestinian terrorists trying to erase it off the map. His unflinching support for Israel has been a breath of fresh air as the rest of his party continues to sympathize with the terrorists. But he is not an answer to Trump among “everyday Americans” because even he is committed to (or scared of crossing) the fringe agenda of transgender activists that 80% of the country rejects.