So, John Fetterman has been making waves lately over his relative shift to the center on issues. Now he says he's "not a progressive" as he comes under a lot of fire from progressive voters over issues.
And...I feel mixed about this.
On the one hand, I can't say Im surprised, his shift away from the bernie lane started with his run for the senate. He said he would govern like bob casey if elected in 2022, and we're seeing the result of that. The fact was, fetterman believed that this is what he needed to do to win here in PA. he didn't think a bernie wing progressive would pull it off, but that if he ran most as a centrist he could. So he shifted his politics to meet the perceived needs of his citizens.
I don't really like this, as a pennsylvanian voter. I actually didnt vote for bob casey in 2018 but instead the green senate candidate in large part because casey did not support medicare for all. Casey isnt progressive enough for me on economics so i didnt want to support him. And now fetterman shifted rightward to emulate him.
On the flip side, on the issues in particular, I'm full on with fetterman. Fetterman supports israel, i support israel. And you know how many times I had libs scream "KIDS IN CAGES" at me over immigration? Im a centrist on that issue, im not for this far left crap. I very much like Biden's immigration policy and think it strikes the balance im looking for.
And thats why i myself am breaking ranks with progressives on a lot of non economic issues, and even soemtimes economic issues. because at the end of the day, i'm not a leftist, I'm just a liberal with a left of liberal economic platform. The fact is, liberalism is diverse economically, encompassing a huge swath of politics all the way from the likes of Bill Clinton to the likes of FDR or Bernie Sanders. Im more on the left wing side of that on the economic argument, but theres almost as much diversity within liberalism as there is between the fringes of liberalism and other factions like conservatives or socialists.
And outside of economics, being a liberal doesnt mean much. We actually used to have liberals being full on reactionary conservatives by modern standards during the new deal era.And modern progressives dont fit well within the traditional meld of liberalism at all. If anything many are way further left and often quite...illiberal in their outlooks on things like cancel culture. And I dont align with this brand of modern left. I'm more a traditional liberal left in the line of someone like clinton or obama or biden. Far left of the new deal types who were quite conservative by modern standards, but I also reject this new far left brand we're seeing in modern "progressives". Im a classical progressive, from back when progressive meant making our lives better before being coopted in some postmodernist sense involving caring about underprivileged groups and identity politics. In other words, I'm a modernist, not a postmodernist.
As such, fetterman's politics aligns a lot more closely with my own. And while I hope he maintains left wing bernie economic policies, im not really counting on it, and outside of economics Im perfectly happy with him breaking ranks with the far left. If anything i despise the far left on these issues as theyre way too left for me and come off as kinda psycho. So yeah. Based fetterman is still based until he turns on based economic ideas.
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