It's amazing how easy it is for politicians and pundits to flip. A couple recent examples are John Fetterman and Bill Maher. Here they can be seen together on "Real Time" lamenting the direction the Democratic Party is taking and how they are seriously considering switching parties or voting for Republican candidates, VP Vance in Maher's case, whom he also recently interviewed.
To this point Fetterman has considered himself a Democrat. He even took a progressive stance in his 2022 run for the Senate before suffering a massive stroke. Takes a lot to bring down a big guy like that but he spent much of his campaign in the hospital. Since then it has been hard to tell where he stands. "Libertarian" perhaps? A convenient moniker for those who no longer want to align themselves with a political party, but here he was supporting Trump's ballroom because he thinks it will give the president better protection, Trump's foreign policy including the Iran War, and the Republican SAVE Act, if only they dropped the provision on mail-in voting. He's also supported most of Trump's cabinet and judicial appointments. This has put him in direct confrontation with the entire Democratic establishment, not just the "Democratic Socialists," whom he abhors.
He often finds himself alone on Senate votes in siding with Republicans, such as a resolution to end the US war in Iran. Three Republicans crossed over to vote with Democrats on the measure. John was concerned there might still be nuclear dust and voted against the resolution. Gotta give the Prez every benefit of the doubt.
This is a far cry from the Lt. Governor we saw during the COVID crisis, who was urging Pennsylvania resident consider the measures Dr. Fauci and other immunologists put forward to contain the deadly virus. He gained a lot of positive notoriety during this time, spurring him to run for the vacant US Senate seat. It was good to see him defend Fauci during the humiliating Senate hearings this past week. It seems that when it comes to health care he continues to side with Democrats.
Bill Maher is another story. It is hard to tell whether he is a comedian, political commentator or social gadfly or all of the above. He has made a name for himself with his talk show on HBO by challenging guests in his acerbic way. For the most part he had gone after conservative guests but ever since the war broke out in Gaza, he has been venting his ire on liberal guests that don't support Israel. He's long harbored a grudge against Muslims but it has now become a deep loathing.
He's been particularly harsh in his appraisal of highly popular New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and believes that Democrats are taking a wrong turn by embracing the Democratic Socialist Mayor, who also happens to be Muslim, thinking it will drag them down in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, Bill continues to attract liberal and conservative guests far and wide, although he has yet to invite Mamdani on his show.
Bill has invited VP Vance and they seemed to have a great time together. Given the current state of the Democratic Party, Bill now considers VP a viable presidential candidate for 2028, assuming Trump doesn't try to run a fourth time.
Flipping isn't unusual. There have been any number of disgruntled politicians who switched parties or at least didn't like the direction their party was going and supported the other guy. A famous example of this was Chuck Hagel, a Senate Republican who chose Barack Obama over John McCain in the 2008 presidential election and served in Obama's cabinet as Secretary of Defense. Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman threw his support behind McCain because of their longtime friendship in the Senate and became an Independent in the next session of Congress, although he continued to vote mostly along Democratic party lines.
It's a free country. You're allowed to go which ever way the political tide takes you. In Hagel's and Lieberman's case, they made decisions that cost them a lot of political clout within their party. These days, politicians seem to be making these decisions largely for political gain. Fetterman saw that Trump won a the tightly contested Pennsylvania election in and realigned himself accordingly with the hope of retaining his seat in 2028. This came about long before Democratic Socialists started winning primaries across the country. He just now uses it as a convenient excuse on talk shows, hoping to generate support from Independents and Republicans.
Maher lost favor among his liberal audience for his rigid stance on Israel and now seems to be catering more and more toward conservative listeners to make up for his sagging ratings. He loves to reminisce on his dinner with Trump, his budding relationship with VP Vance, and is calling out the "woke left" more and more often in an effort to gain a broader audience. Maher and Fetterman claim they are maintaining independence, but this has nothing to do with keeping an even keel. Politics like entertainment is heavily dependent on ratings and when your net approval is -18 among Democratic voters, Fetterman finds himself seriously considering a change in parties. This is a tactical decision, not one driven by core values.
Of the two, Fetterman is the most worrisome as his votes affect policy. We ran into this before with Joe Manchin, the former West Virginia senator who is now actively promoting an "Independent Leadership Council" that he hopes will eliminate "D" and "R" from politics. Most of their arguments ring hollow because they are supported by industrial lobbies. Fetterman knows how important fracking is in his state and despite the well-documented evidence of the environmental harm continues to support it. Manchin is a big coal guy despite coal no longer being a vital part of the West Virginia economy. Most of their angst is aimed at environmental groups. So much for political independence, especially in the wake of Citizens United, which allowed lobby groups to pour huge sums of money into political campaigns. Fetterman figures with the fracking industry and AIPAC behind him he can beat anyone in a general election.
Maher is just an outlier, one who is constantly being made fun of in Reddit, viciously so. You do wonder how this guy won the Mark Twain Prize, sponsored by Netflix, with the oddest cast of characters cheering him that you ever will see. He is neither particularly funny nor politically astute, which of course were Mark Twain's hallmarks, but what can you say in this day and age?
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