The left does not universally love US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. In fact, some liberals hate him. Black activists and academics called him out in his 2020 presidential campaign for having a tin ear on racial issues — not that many white Democratic politicians did much better.
His low standing with minorities was in part due to his embrace of middle-of-the-road corporatism, sponsored by business interests, which also alienated progressives. In part to his spotty record on race as the Mayor of South Bend, IN. And in part to his ill-considered and amateur outreach to Blacks by his 2020 campaign team.
He finished the 2020 Democratic primary season with wins in Iowa and New Hampshire. But tellingly, he lost his home state, Indiana. And he finished in fourth place overall, with 2.5% of the vote. I do not know if Buttigieg will ever rehabilitate his image enough to have minorities and progressives take a second look. And, of course, that is their choice.
However, he does have one thing in spades that no other national Democrat currently has — a preternatural ability in interviews. He is so good at it he even won over a Fox News audience on the issue of late-term abortion. More on that later.
Last night Buttigieg was on Colbert. The subject of discussion was the vital but unglamorous role of the Transportation Secretary. The context was the anniversary of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
Colbert asked Buttigieg,
“Does it make you mad, or do you get frustrated, when people who voted against the bill like Rick Scott and Representative Tony Gonzales don’t refuse the money and then actually make a big deal about having gotten the money for their constituents?”
Buttigieg replied,
“It is striking that people went to the floor of the House or Senate and said “No” — this infrastructure funding should not happen. And then they can’t wait to be there when the funding is coming to their district.
But there’s nothing better than seeing a skeptic become a convert. And I called it the sincerest form of flattery if somebody was against your policy and then when it’s actually benefiting people who live in their communities, they can’t hug you close enough. And I’ll say this, politics aside, the people who live in those communities shouldn’t be punished because their Senator or their House member said “No” to this funding. We are going to serve everybody equally.”
His genius is that, without insulting anyone, he makes Scott and Gonzales look hypocritical, small-minded, and against the interests of their constituents. He turns the knife by characterizing their change of heart as “seeing the light”. He then implies that it was more than a sober consideration of the benefits that changed their minds. It was such a powerful conversion they had to shower him with love.
Then comes the coup de grâce. He excoriates these Republicans for pursuing politics no matter how much it hurts “their communities.” While he will put aside politics to ensure every American — no matter their voting record — is treated equally.
Colbert congratulates him for having the best interests of the American people at heart. But Buttigieg is not done. He adds,
“Don’t get me wrong. It can be frustrating politically when you see that sort of stuff go on. Well look, this is part of a pattern we have often seen where many congressional Republicans take stances that seem to be more about the problem than about the solution.
So you look at the things that they talk about the most often, immigration, inflation — of all the things congressional Republicans have proposed policy-wise, can anyone name the top five things they’ve suggested to fight inflation? Can anyone name three? How about one?
It is rare to hear a Democratic politician put the GOP on its back foot. How often is the answer to a Republican rant, “what’s your solution?” Too often, they get to launch brickbats at Democrats for everything from immigration to moldy bread while the Democrats hem and haw.
I would love to hear a Democrat say, “how dare you point the finger at us for the immigration issue. When you guys had control of everything your solution was to build a wall with the insane claim that Mexico was going to pay for it. How did that work out? Hell, you even voted against funding it. And the few sections that were built were cut through with Home Depot power tools. And whole sections just fell down.” Something like that.
Buttigieg did that.
“They voted no on the inflation reduction act, which was about lowering prices for Americans. And I would’ve loved nothing more than to have a debate between the Democratic Inflation Reduction Act and the Republican Inflation Reduction Act on the floor of the House and Senate. And argued over which one was better. But there was only one and it was ours and luckily it passed.”
Here’s the video. (NB If you are short of time, the meat starts at 4:15)
The Democrats need to celebrate their legislation wins that help Americans. And keep hammering away that the GOP has slogans - but no solutions. They have no platform, no policies, and no ideas. All they have is memes.
Anyway, as promised, here was Butttigieg on late-term abortion during a town hall with Chris Wallace on Fox News.
He’s so smart and it would be nice if he could win everyone over, thanks Pitt
So true and the irony is because he's gay, they think he will never measure up to them. When he already far and away exceeds