JOHN FETTERMAN MPP 1999 is the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. His parents were just teenagers when he was born, but his father went on to build a successful insurance business, and Fetterman grew up in a comfortable suburban home, played football at Albright College, and then earned his MBA at the University of Connecticut. But after a tragic personal loss changed his outlook, he embarked on a career in public service, including as the innovative mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, a hard-hit small town outside Pittsburgh. A progressive known for his ability to relate to working-class Pennsylvanians, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2016 but was elected lieutenant governor two years later.
Q. Can you talk about the formative experiences you鈥檝e had that contributed to your entering public service?
I had a defining personal tragedy that put me on a path of reflection and on a different career path. Ultimately that鈥檚 what brought me to the Kennedy School. I was getting ready to graduate [from the University of Connecticut School of Business]; my friend was supposed to come over, and we were going to go to the gym. He never showed up. I found out why a few hours later: He鈥檇 been killed in a car crash on his way to my house. That really put me in a place that I鈥檇 never been before鈥攔ealizing you could wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, and kiss your family good-bye not knowing that you had 15 minutes left on this planet. I wanted to get involved in something that felt more meaningful, more directed. So I joined Big Brothers. I got paired up with a little kid whose father had just died of AIDS about nine months earlier, and his mother had end-stage, full-blown AIDS. This was 1994, so that was of course a death sentence. It was such a jarring experience. I thought, How can this coexist with the world I know? How can you have a child who will be an orphan before his ninth birthday? At that point I had my MBA, and I was good to go. But it didn鈥檛 seem right. So I joined AmeriCorps and ultimately ended up at the Kennedy School.
I think there鈥檚 going to be a better era of acknowledging that government for the most part is effective, that we need it, and that when it doesn鈥檛 work, we see things like how it鈥檚 gone with the pandemic.
Q. What were the memorable experiences you had at 糖心vlog官网 that shaped your thinking as a policymaker?
One was meeting Alan Simpson, the former senator [from Wyoming]. I had him for a class. He was a Republican who wanted to be bipartisan and was pro-choice and would attack his own party just as easily as the other one. It鈥檚 very hard to imagine him now in today鈥檚 political environment. We hit it off, I think in part because we鈥檙e both very tall [Simpson is 6鈥7鈥, Fetterman is 6鈥9鈥漖, but it was really more about the wisdom he imparted and the way he carried himself. We could use a lot more of that in today鈥檚 political landscape. I was also thrilled to be able to interact with Robert McNamara, the former defense secretary, who鈥檚 been described as the architect of the Vietnam War. One of the most meaningful, impactful books I鈥檝e ever read was In Retrospect. It鈥檚 about his reflections on the Vietnam War鈥攖hat it didn鈥檛 have to happen and in fact was largely based on a misunderstanding. Just think of some of the biggest calamities we鈥檝e had in our society鈥攈ow they were caused by not having all the right information or not understanding the governing dynamics on the ground. For him to admit that he was wrong in a way that was so public, about something of which the outcome was so tragic, and then for him to want to pass that lesson on鈥擨 can鈥檛 overstate the profundity of that and how meaningful it has been in public life for me. If I hadn鈥檛 gotten anything else out of my time at the Kennedy School, that alone would have made it worthwhile.
Q. Do you have hope that we might be entering an era where good public policy and public leadership are more highly valued?
I hope so. It鈥檚 undeniable that President Trump has fundamentally altered the political genome of American politics. And we have to push back against this weird anti-intellectualism and this idea that you don鈥檛 want to listen to people who have informed opinions and years of experience and expertise. But then again, sometimes the smartest people in the room can鈥檛 get their arms around something that鈥檚 very simple. I think there needs to be a balance, and I think there鈥檚 going to be a better era of acknowledging that government for the most part is effective, that we need it, and that when it doesn鈥檛 work, we see things like how it鈥檚 gone with the pandemic. That鈥檚 when people say, 鈥淵eah, it鈥檚 actually kind of useful to have an organized governmental response.鈥
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Images courtesy of John Fetterman