Even Pennsylvanians who don’t share his politics admire his authenticity. “Whether or not I believe in everything [Fetterman believes in], I believe he’s being honest with the people,” an antiabortion Republican voter told Bloomberg in May.

In fact, Fetterman is so Pennsylvania that he brings to mind Gritty, the 7-foot-tall fun-scary Philadelphia Flyers’ mascot. Like that strange orange creature, Fetterman crosses up expectations. He has a master’s degree from Harvard, but it’s hard to see him among the TED talkers. Instead of bland James Taylor warmth, he has introduced notes of thrash into the Democratic sound.

“Metallica makes anything better,” Fetterman tweeted in April 2020. (“What’s your favorite song of theirs?” someone asked. “Yes,” he replied.)

Baby boomer Steve Bannon once tried to make far-right politics “countercultural.” Tattooed Gen Xer Fetterman, who uses the word “weed” with abandon, is reclaiming the counterculture for the left, where it started and clearly belongs.

In short, Fetterman has capitalized on his own-the-libs demeanor to own the neos — both the neolibs, like Lamb, and the neocons, like Oz.