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** 1. An independent path forward for Pennsylvania’s maverick senator ([link removed])
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By Albert Eisenberg

It’s 2026. America’s 250th birthday celebration is coming to Philly. The wheels have been hot-glued back onto the Eagles wagon. And our state’s senior U.S. Senator John Fetterman is more popular with Republicans than Democrats.

There have been innumerable strange occurrences in the last decade in politics, but almost none more so than Fetterman’s transition from 2022progressive darling ([link removed]) to bane of America’s left wing. Whether in his obstinate refusal to appease Hamas and their growing number of supporters in the U.S., insistence that borders should exist and be enforced, or calling out Democratic intransigence on the government shutdown, Senator Fetterman has emerged as a voice of reason to many in Pennsylvania — and an apostate to the Democratic base.

Pollingshows ([link removed]) that Fetterman enjoys solid approval ratings overall, most significantly with Republicans (62-21 approve to disapprove), and floundering marks with Democrats. And he shows no signs of relenting; In an era where aesthetics and statements matter more thanactual votes ([link removed]) (Fetterman sides with his Democratic colleagues much more often than not), there is no room for him to reassume the progressive posture demanded by activist Democrats.

Why It Matters. Senator Fetterman is living through a social phenomenon that so many of us know too well: that Democrats demand ideological conformity, and exile dissenters. It is their modus operandi for holding and maintaining power. Republicans, with all of our flaws, are just not like this. The Senator could make himself a happy home as a maverick Independent, and work his leverage within a grateful majority caucus — while giving himself an actual shot at winning reelection if he wants to run again in 2028.

With his party base and legacy media moving against him, now is the best opportunity for Fetterman — and those who yearn for normalcy and moderation in politics — to make a change.

Continue Reading ([link removed])



** 2. A New Year’s Resolution — Taking a count of the days left to me ([link removed])
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By Richard Koenig

A friend of mine has urged me to think hard on the country song “Don’t Let The Old Man In.” He himself is bent on living out a full 100 years, and my bet is he’ll make it. Last year, in the space of eight months, he went big-game hunting in New Zealand, got a hip replacement upon return home to South Carolina, then set out on another expedition, this time to Colorado. If he’s to reach 100, he has 24 years to go.

So do I. But I know this about me: The old man is already in, and he insists on telling me I might not have a lot of New Years ahead.

I’m not complaining. I manage to swim a lot. It’s just that I don’t know that I can swim all the way to “triple digits,” to use a phrase you hear these days among my generation. What matters more is that I have yet to check off all the items on my to-do list, current and prospective, including a few big ones.

So my resolution for the New Year is to give myself a little prod — actually, to firm up a practice I’ve let slip. Each week as I turn to the Monday page in my weekly planner, I’ll write there the number of days I have left to me should I die at a certain age short of 100. That number is arbitrary, fixed, and my secret. (My father died at 80, my mother at 97.)

Continue Reading ([link removed])



** 3. Lightning Round
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* Guy Ciarrocchi: Minnesota’s daycare fraud is more proof that Democrats just don’t get it ([link removed])
* Beth Ann Rosica: Why phone-free schools are only the beginning ([link removed])
* Stacy Garrity: Shapiro’s Gas-Lightning Plan: Dimming Pennsylvania’s energy future ([link removed])
* Ferry, DiBello vie for Montco GOP Chair job ([link removed])
* Christine Flowers: Bardot’s death brings out another round of hypocrisy ([link removed])
* Thom Nickels: When Walt Whitman came to Germantown ([link removed])
* Philadelphia scientist shares Holocaust survival story at local film premier ([link removed]) [link removed]


** 4. What we're reading
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We started off the year with a bang as President Trump ordered our military to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro — a feat they carried off in spectacular fashion. Now, we have the repercussions, not just from the protestors who actually support the communist tyrant, but from those concerned about the international law implications of one country snatching up another’s leader. At UnHerd, Michael Lind took a long look at what international law really means ([link removed]) , and whether this action violates it or is quite in keeping with it. A thoughtful essay, however you come down on the question.
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With gratitude,


— The Editors at Broad + Liberty




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