Fetterman's Wardrobe Malfunction: A Case of Identity Politics (Updated)
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Much has been made in the last week about John Fetterman, the Democrat who presided over the U.S. Senate wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Asked by a reporter why he chose to break the Senate’s informal rules favoring business attire, well, I couldn’t hear exactly what the junior senator from Pennsylvania said but it sounded like, “Blah, Blah, Blah, F-U.” The same message that his clothes conveyed.
Conservative voices — and some Democrats too — bemoaned this fall of sartorial standards in the Senate. The Federalist headline said: “Senators Dressing Like Clowns Is Just More Evidence Of American Decline.” They are right, of course. Looking like a rapper with a long rap sheet on the Senate floor is yet one more break in the armor we used to call civil discourse. But this is only a reflection of the steady dumb-ing down of our culture, including our political class, a tumbling into the muck of street cred.
As the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan presaged in his 1993 Defining Deviancy Down, standards have been toppling ever since LBJ’s War on Poverty separated men from their families, hurting the poor. Now, into the wind of our descent, American schools and universities have already lowered the bar on tests and achievement, eliminating anything that reeks of white privilege — like reading comprehension and basic math skills. So what does it matter if a U.S. senator wears a hoodie to work?
