‘Watch What I Do,’ Fetterman Says

Senator John Fetterman has, by our lights, the choicest forward-looking piece of news this week. He’s reached the point, he tells the Hill, that “If our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave because that’s been a moral clarity for me.” What with the way things are going in his party, that took no small amount of courage. Our question, though, is “What are you waiting for?” The senior senator from Pennsylvania, our Matthew Rice reports, is voicing concerns about the increasingly “hostile” posture of his party toward the Jewish state. Mr. Fetterman points to the recent Senate vote against the “annual defense authorization bill which would have established a new U.S.–Israel defense technology initiative,” per Mr. Rice. More than 100 House Democrats, too, voted this week to terminate all American aid to Israel.Developments like these amount to “a shockingly seismic shift,” in the words of Representative Josh Gottheimer, who laments that support for Israel “is quickly becoming a minority view among congressional Democrats.” Mr. Fetterman asserts that “I can’t understand why the Democratic Party that has these very specific values” would retreat on support for Israel, because the Jewish state “lives” and “projects” the same values, Mr. Rice reports.“It wasn’t long ago when we believed it was crucial to support allies such as Israel against threats to their safety and peace,” Mr. Fetterman wrote recently in an op-ed for the Washington Post. “In the wake of the war in Gaza, Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah have ramped up their attempts to dismantle our ally.” He stressed the need to stay “committed to fully backing the elimination of these terrorists and their leaders.”In Mr. Fetterman’s telling, “My views really haven’t changed; what’s really changed is the party.” That echoes of another convert to the GOP from the Democrats, Ronald Reagan. The Gipper famously quipped that “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.” A Senate colleague of Mr. Fetterman, John Kennedy of Louisiana, is another relatively recent convert to the Republicans. He left the Democrats in 2007 prior to running for the Senate. “I believe that the primary role of the government is to protect people and not run their lives,” is how Mr. Kennedy described his thinking. “You used to be able to believe that in the Democratic Party,” he added, but “you can’t anymore.” Subsequent senatorial switches have been made by Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who became independents while still voting with the Democratic caucus in the upper chamber.A cautionary example for Mr. Fetterman can be traced by the career of another Keystone State solon, Arlen Specter. In 2009 he left the GOP and became a Democrat. Yet in the Democratic senate primary of 2010, Specter lost to a rival in his new party. It’s unclear how competitive Mr. Fetterman would be in a Republican senate primary. Yet he could well face a primary challenger to his left in Pennsylvania if he stays with the Democrats. With whichever bloc Mr. Fetterman aligns himself, he is unlikely to toe the party line. He avers that “I refuse to cave on my conscience because Pennsylvania deserves someone who is honest and can work across the aisle.” As for his plans, Mr. Fetterman appears to be playing his cards close to the vest. Asked about whether he had spoken to President Trump or Congressional Republicans about a potential party switch, he replied: “Watch what I do.”

‘Watch What I Do,’ Fetterman Says

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