These days, Democrats and Republicans seem to hate each other so much that when not attempting to incarcerate each others' principal political leaders, they can't come to a simple agreement to fund the government that employs them. What unites Washington is almost always more fascinating than what divides it, and thus, it is perhaps the most significant accomplishment of his entire career that Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) singlehandedly cajoled the Senate into passing a unanimous formal dress code written by the two villains of their own parties, Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).
"A requirement that business attire be worn on the floor of the Senate, which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants" can now only be changed by a two-thirds vote in the upper chamber. This formal dress code will be enforced by the sergeant-at-arms.
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In the nine months since being sworn into the Senate, Fetterman has not achieved much. While his wife has luxuriated in her status as a pictorial star for the political press, the Pennsylvania Democrat is mostly insulated by a phalanx of handlers whisking him away from questions. Fetterman has missed a full third of all roll-call votes counted since being sworn into the Senate, nearly 10 times the median lifetime rate of 2.4% missed votes per senator. Even long after his release from a six-week hospitalization, Fetterman has missed nearly 12% of votes since June.
Alas, Fetterman's refusal to uphold the standards of a statesman finally crossed a threshold too far for lawmakers with the proper reverence for the institution. Citing his crippling depression, which, according to his wife, Fetterman had long before she encouraged him to become one of the hundred most important people in the country, Fetterman refused to trade his hoodies for a proper collared shirt or even a polo, let alone his gym shorts for long pants. Now, the rest of the body has unanimously deprived him of the special treatment Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tried to gift him.
As the self-made but common-born bourgeoisie began to arise out of the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, early modern monarchs began to pass sumptuary laws to bar plebians from wearing the sable, silks, and royal purple reserved for the nobility. Schumer's exception for Fetterman was truly Tudor in its aim: to allow only the ruling elites of the Senate to dress like slobs while pages, interns, and outsiders would still be expected to dress in formal attire.
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Fetterman's slovenliness was certainly not about self-care, as doctors treating depression widely regard the dismissal of proper grooming as harmful in how it compounds the self-defeating sentiment sown by the illness, and if Fetterman's only interest was his personal comfort, he could have turned to trendy athleisure companies such as Lululemon and Alo, which have developed entire lines of business-friendly trousers and shirts that look office appropriate but feel like athletic attire.
But of course, like all children who throw tantrums to prove their parents will validate their worst behavior, the special treatment was the purpose, not an unintended consequence, of Fetterman's gambit. Kudos to the parents in the Capitol for finally calling his bluff.