Democratic Dissident John Fetterman

About this episode

Who owns the future of the Democratic Party? That’s the question on everyone’s mind since last Tuesday night—when the richest city in America elected 34-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as its mayor. You can see Mamdani’s win as a one-off—a charismatic contender facing a rival mired in controversy. But the other way to see it is as emblematic of something larger: a sign about the state—and future—of the left.  Here was a candidate promising to solve the affordability crisis with free childcare, free buses, rent freezes, and even government-run grocery stores. And despite the socialist bent, most establishment Democrats fell in line to support him—from Kathy Hochul and Hakeem Jeffries to Barack Obama, who reportedly called Mamdani to offer himself as a sounding board. If that’s true—if Mamdani is the new standard-bearer for Democrats in the way Obama once was—then where does that leave someone like Senator John Fetterman? The Pennsylvania senator didn’t just withhold his endorsement—he went so far as to say that socialism is not the future of the Democratic Party. It’s an interesting stance, given that just a few years ago, Fetterman ran a progressive Senate campai