Review: "Unfettered" By John Fetterman

 

Unfettered

By John Fetterman

Crown; hardcover, 240 pages; $32

Senator John Fetterman has represented Pennsylvania since 2023, and he has staked a claim as arguably the most common sense member of the chamber. This is the high point of a career in which he has fought for the state's forgotten communities. As Mayor of Braddock, PA, for 13 years, he worked to rebuild the city by creating jobs, stopping gun violence, engaging youth, and bring creative urban policy solutions to the city. In 2018, Fetterman became Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor and transformed it into a bully pulpit where he advocated for marijuana legislation, economic justice.

In the engaging new book, Unfettered, the Senator delivers a memoir that is written in a conversational style unique for someone in politics. If you already like him, you will appreciate him even more.

Fetterman has been a prominent figure since that campaign a few years ago when he ran against against celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, and most notably, had to run the final few months after he suffered a stroke. While he admits now that he probably should have dropped out, he does reveal one aspect of the reaction to his plight.

"What I did not anticipate were the continued vicious personal attacks on me by Oz and the media and on social media," Fetterman writes. "All is fair in love and war and political campaigns, and I hit back at Oz hard, but I felt going after my health was really hitting below the belt. It wasn't only me they were attacking, but also my wife and children. Maybe I was applying a double standard, and admittedly, the attacks by Oz were nothing compared to what was being said about me on social media Those comments came in waves of frothing whitecaps, and so did my descent. I had no idea where bottom was except that I hadn't hit it yet. I was still just in a free fall."

Three years later, these kinds of attacks are something Fetterman is still dealing with, but from different sources, such as the left flank of the Democratic party and media outlets, such as New York magazine this past May, accusing him of ignoring his health.

With regards to what could be viewed as a hit piece, even after Fetterman refuted their allegations with letters from three doctors, he sees a broader ripple effect, as he writes, "While I'm certainly disturbed by the level of betrayal - and incredulous that a news outlet would have published the records - I think I'm most disappointed at the collateral damage that has been done to openness around mental health issues. I fear that after other public figures see how my mental health crisis was weaponized against me, that nobody will ever be open again. I hope that's not the case."

Senator Fetterman has made waves as being someone taking positions avoid a broad range of topics that don't fit in a box, and picking his spots on when to attack President Trump, while also working in a bipartisan manner with the other Senator from Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, who was elected last fall. 

"This is my third year in the Senate, and now I wonder if what we politicians really like to do is fight and invoke lofty principles we don't remotely embrace," Fetterman writes. "In 1964, twenty-seven Republican senators crossed the aisle to vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act. Could you imagine that happening today? Now Democrats blame Republicans, and Republicans blame Democrats. The members of each party vote like lemmings, in a monolithic bloc, regardless of whether it is good for the country. It just isn't possible that every Republican actually disagrees with every proposal put forth by a Democrat. The same is true for every Democrat disagreeing with every proposal put forth by a Republican. There has to be some give-and-take, some accommodation, if we are to survive. Do you truly want to Make America Great Again? Start crossing the aisle in the name of what is right (instead of staying out to accrue more power)."

Fetterman was drawn to a career in public service after his best friend Eric was killed in a car accident in April 1993, a month before Fetterman was set to graduate the UConn School of Business. After graduation, he got a job in the insurance agency in nearby New Haven, Connecticut, following in his father's footsteps. 

While that did not inspire Fetterman, to say the least, at that time, he started volunteering with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and he chronicles his work with a child he took under his wing. By the spring of 1994, he went west to the central Coast of California, and then to Seattle, where he stayed with a friend who had been applying to graduate schools.

Fetterman enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh's dual graduate program for social work and public policy. While he did very well in his courses, he wasn't sure about spending three years to get a degree, so he withdrew from the program. He then took an AmeriCorps service job in Pittsburgh with the Hill House Association, and he helped prepare parents without high school degrees for the GED. He also opened the first computer labs in Pittsburgh's Hill District.

After two years with AmeriCorps, of which Fetterman advocates for to this day in the face of cuts from the Trump administration, he was off to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and earned a master's degree in public policy. He learned from leading figures like Alan Simpson, who was a Senator from Wyoming, who he had an "instant kinship" with, as they both had similar personalities and also was exceedingly tall at 6-foot-7.

Fetterman eventually ended up in Braddock, a town whose history he describes in great detail. It was a town that was a favorite in the region in the 1940s, and boasted three movie houses, as Fetterman writes, "The Capitol Theater showed The Virginian, starring Gary Cooper. If for some inexplicable reason you did not like Gary Cooper, you could go to the Lyric or the Knickerbocker."

It was a town that suffered a gradual decline before what he called a "shocking collapse in the '80s, as the steel industry declined. Poverty in Braddock was four times higher than in Allegheny County, and triple the national average.

Fetterman ran for Mayor of Braddock in 2005, and he won the Democratic primary by one vote. With no Republican running, that was essentially the general election. He thought he would be able to have a bully pulpit, but it was clear early on that the borough council wanted nothing to do with him. Their view of a Mayor was only to show up and break ties.

The only real goal Fetterman had was to get stuff done, so he worked through the nonprofit he created, named Braddock Redux, which he never made a profit from, or took a salary. One project was getting basketball courts built, and he bought balls at Costco, which were left there for kids to use all the time. He wanted the theme of the town to be one of resilience, so he used a tree that was thriving, despite it being near abandoned buildings, as a symbol of hope. 

The genuineness that Fetterman has in wanting to make a difference, and having all parties involved come together is something he has brought to the Senate, along with his clarity of thought that shines through this memoir.