The Lion and the Lamb
Graham Platner’s credibility deserves to be scrutinized…but not by servants of corporate power like Conor Lamb.
Buyer’s regret. Those are probably the two words most likely to pop into the brains of Pennsylvania Democrats any time the 2022 Senate Primary is mentioned. On the fateful day of May 7th, 2022, Pennsylvania Democrats put their faith in a burly, tattooed iconoclastic bad boy over a clean-cut, well-mannered good boy. The narrative that Pennsylvania Democrats’ choice of John Fetterman over Conor Lamb was a vote for progressivism over centrism would unravel quicker than Fetterman’s mental state in the months after his May 2022 stroke. As a Senator, Fetterman’s politics would shift shockingly right, well past both progressivism and centrism, becoming his party’s most prominent apologist for both Donald Trump’s authoritarian power grab and the State of Israel’s unrestrained slaughter in Gaza. To his credit, Conor Lamb has reemerged as a loud and vocal critic of the Second Trump administration. While Fetterman scolds Democrats for labeling Trump a fascist, Lamb has spoken out about the dark turn the country has taken, rightfully asserting that “The second Trump presidency is far worse than the first. It felt like we were on a path where people were afraid to dissent. In politics, you have to mount open physical resistance to add political pressure.”
The fact that Lamb is itching for a rematch with Fetterman is readily apparent from his recent barnstorm tour of Pennsylvania. Lamb’s plan for another Senate run is the second-worst-kept secret in 2028 Pennsylvania politics, eclipsed only by Josh Shapiro’s naked ambition to be elected President. Lamb’s early shadow candidacy is refreshing to many Pennsylvania Democrats sick of Fetterman styling himself as “independent,” despite being so morally bankrupt and cognitively impaired that he would collaborate with an authoritarian regime that is tearing apart the United States Constitution with a ferocity unmatched in the country’s 249-year history.
Lamb’s recent return to the spotlight is not just a performance for disgruntled Pennsylvania voters; it is also a showcase for the moneyed and connected party elites looking for a Senate candidate to rally around in 2028. There is no better indication that Lamb’s shadow candidacy promises a return to centrist, pro-corporate Democratic politics than his recent criticism of Maine Senatorial candidate Graham Platner, who has energized the Left with his aggressive anti-oligarchy and anti-genocide platform. In a Substack piece entitled “Maine Character Energy,” Lamb claims that Platner’s candidacy gives him “flashbacks to 2022,” portraying Platner as the second coming of Fetterman - just another gruff, burly, tattooed everyman who should be met with skepticism because of “obvious character issues.” Lamb concludes, “Character, in my view, should be weighed by the voters irrespective of moderate vs progressive or young vs old.”
The scion of a prominent Pittsburgh political family with military service and an Ivy League legal education, Conor Lamb embodies just the kind of “character” that makes Democratic party insiders and the donor class swoon. On a surface level, Lamb strikes the perfect contrast to the gritty, rough-around-the-edges image projected by both Fetterman and Platner. The “obvious character issues” that Lamb ascribes to Platner have been well-documented and much discussed over the past few weeks, from his chest tattoo with Nazi symbolism, to racially insensitive Reddit posts, to his service as a mercenary for the private military contractor Blackwater. Leakage of these stories by Platner’s establishment rival for the Democratic nomination, current Maine governor Janet Mills, has rightfully caused his credibility to be questioned not just by mainstream political pundits but also by his most ardent supporters on the far left of the Democratic Party. Yet as the impact of these stories sinks in, Platner’s stature and standing with his growing fanbase have only intensified, and his backing from current Senators like Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy has remained solid.
The enduring support for Platner should be a wake-up call for centrists like Conor Lamb. The kind of “character” Democratic voters are looking for in 2025 is not a squeaky-clean image and an impeccable resume from cradle to Congress. Americans have been sold out time and time again by “high character” Democrats with all the right Ivy League, armed service, and Junior Achievement credentials. Having knocked on doors the past two months to be re-elected Supervisor of my purple Pennsylvania district, I can tell you voters are absolutely sick of the establishment Democratic Party’s fixation on “character,” “messaging,” and “optics.” Americans are looking for a different kind of character, the independent crusading spirit that comes from taking on and fighting the vampiric elites who have drained this country into a desiccated husk of its mid-20th-century greatness. In barely a month of campaigning, Graham Platner has exhibited more of this brave, anti-establishment character than Conor Lamb and John Fetterman have shown in decades of political service.
Beyond the superficial bad boy similarities between Platner and Fetterman, the current Pennsylvania Senator shares far more in common with his golden boy Democratic primary opponent than he does with the oysterman from Maine. Like Lamb, Fetterman was an Ivy League grad, beginning his political career just a few short years after graduating from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Teach for America would lead Reading-born Fetterman to the other side of Pennsylvania, to the desperately poor and decaying steel town of Braddock, just a few miles up the Monongahela from Pittsburgh. Within four years, the towering 6-foot-8 giant with a shaved head would be elected mayor of a town whose dwindling population was over 70% black. Fetterman’s tenure as Braddock’s mayor would bring both national notoriety and accusations of an opportunistic white savior complex, thrusting the small town of 1,700 residents into the national spotlight with a compelling narrative of either rustbelt revival or hipster poverty porn, depending upon your perspective. Fetterman’s greatest successes often came from bringing outside attention to the town, from a Levi’s advertisement filmed on location to his Colbert Report appearance to bringing an acclaimed chef to open a high-end restaurant in an abandoned car dealership. While Fetterman cultivated and capitalized on a gritty persona that fit the progressive zeitgeist of the mid-2010s, like most Democratic politicians, his connections within the party and the outside media were often prioritized over his connections to the constituents he represented. His relationships internally with the Braddock community would be questioned, including an incident where he pulled a gun on a black jogger, and his distant relationship with the town council. Once Fetterman turned his horizons beyond Braddock, his so-called progressive stance on policy rarely extended beyond symbolic gestures to culture war issues like gay marriage and marijuana legalization, causes that posed no threat to the class interests of liberal elites and Democratic Party insiders. If anything, the idea that Fetterman was a “socialist” was promoted by none other than Conor Lamb, whose 2022 red-baiting ad was deemed “false” by both Politifact and Factcheck. Despite differences in aesthetics, both Fetterman and Lamb exhibit the tendencies of ambitious lifelong politicians whose every move is calculated to climb as high up the ladder as possible. Fetterman crafted a persona marketed to a different demographic than Conor Lamb while still peddling the same product beneath his unorthodox packaging: liberal social values, pro-corporate economic policies, and complete devotion to the Democratic Party establishment.
Graham Platner’s unscripted, unpolished life story stands in stark contrast to the lifelong politicking of Lamb and Fetterman. While Lamb and Fetterman were calculating their next political move, Platner was wandering the wilderness from Afghanistan to Reddit chatrooms, giving no thought to long-term electability. As someone who did not build his career on favors from powerful patrons in politics and business, Platner has the courage and independence to call out those who have driven our country to the brink of ruin. “I am running as a Democrat, despite my party trying to destroy my life,” Platner declared on October 27th. In launching his campaign, Platner stated plainly and unequivocally, “The oligarchy is the enemy.” This is the true independent character Americans crave, the ability to name the true enemies of the people and critique the two major parties who have sold us out time and time again on behalf of their oligarchic overlords.
In all his years as a phony “progressive,” Fetterman’s independence rarely went beyond shaving his head, wearing cargo shorts, and flying a weed flag. Now, during his tenure as Senator, Fetterman’s brain-damaged sense of “independence” is nothing more than licking the boots of MAGA authoritarians with a gusto unmatched by any other Democratic Senator. While in Congress, Conor Lamb’s single greatest act of independence from his party involved siding with Republicans on the 2018 Volcker Rule Regulation Harmonization Act, which would have allowed banks with less than $10 billion to make risky investments with customers’ money - an eyebrow-raising break from the Democratic Party line from a Congressman whose father, Thomas Lamb, is a banking lobbyist. After losing the Senate primary to Fetterman, Lamb would then join an organization that promotes spending billions of taxpayer dollars on dubious hydrogen hub projects that provide a lifeline to the oil and gas industry. For all his holier than thou talk of Graham Platner’s “obvious character issues,” Conor Lamb is out of touch with the fact that Democratic voters in this day and age are less likely to see bad tattoo choices and unwise Reddit posts as character flaws than being a pliant political servant of the banking and fossil fuel industries that have immiserated the lives of the average American in the 21st century.
Democrats want a Lion like Graham Platner that will roar at the elites who have betrayed them, not a well-groomed Lamb that will sheepishly flash a golden smile at the people while docilely doing the bidding of the donors and lobbyists behind closed doors. If the Democratic Party is to have any future at all, that future belongs to candidates who talk like Graham Platner and call out the elites as enemies of the people. Whether Platner will walk the walk or if he will become a turncoat grifter like Fetterman remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure. There is no future for the Democratic Party in candidates like Conor Lamb, whose connections run far deeper with corporate donors and party insiders than they do with the common people.
Maybe he was just being cagey, but Fetterman's ostensible views on Israel/Palestine were very different before his stroke. I wouldn't underestimate the level of cognitive damage.
Extremely perceptive piece as always!