Running a candidate with a 37% approval rating is a terrible idea.
There’s been a lot of talk in the news propping up Mayor Pete Buttigieg as a candidate to run for President in 2024 or 2028. The press has been excitedly talking about him as if he’ll be the savior of the party if he runs and wins the Democratic nomination. And it will be a colossal disaster. Here’s why.
He Doesn’t Speak for Millennials and Gen Z
There’s this myth in the press that Buttigieg is a young ambitious person who is just the right kind of guy that would be perfect for President. And that he will automatically capture the millennial vote and Generation Z because “he’s young”. Except none of that is accurate. If those stereotypes were true white women would have voted for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump.
Millennials began their first jobs right around the time of the 2008 financial crisis and saw all their savings wiped out. To this day our generation still hasn’t recovered from that experience and left us skeptical of trusting financial institutions and corrupt politicians ever again. While we only hold 4% of the nation’s wealth compared to 16% when our parents were our age, Buttigieg was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He happily worked for corporate firms which fixed the bread of prices in Canada, contributed to selling more opioids, and during the great recession helped Blue Cross lay off hundreds employees in the state of Michigan.
“He won’t win Michigan” — Congresswoman Rashida Talib
We grew up during the 2008 crash where many of us were so cash strapped that we had to split the costs with our dorm mates over food and Netflix. A majority of millennials grew up in a collective culture that necessitated shared sacrifice, Buttigieg was handed everything because of his white privilege. And other thing we don’t like is his arrogance and double-talk when he claimed to speak to young people yet said he wouldn’t do anything to alleviate the student loan crisis. Our generation barely had enough savings until they were wiped out again during the pandemic, meanwhile he gets a cozy job thanks to his privileged background.
He Has a Race Problem
The Demographics of this country are shifting towards a more diverse country which is very welcoming. A record 33% of the American electorate was non-white in last year’s election and most of that demographic are working class people of color. African Americans constitute 13% of the electorate and they hate Pete Buttigieg.
“I’m not asking for your vote” — Pete Buttigieg to an African American crowd
As mayor of South Bend he removed an African American police chief from his post after being pressured by his campaign donors. If he had any principles, he could have told his donors to fuck off, instead he willingly complied and then claimed ignorance when he was asked about his stance on the issue during the debates. Furthermore, he tries to not talk about racial issues at all and seems very ignorant to the plight of African Americans. Did he ever mention the atrocities committed by the city of Tulsa against African Americans? Or did he mention any policy proposals to help black people who have been incarcerated at higher rates for weed despite whites consuming more pot? For someone who came from ivy league Mayor Pete seems unusually ignorant about systemic racism and instead is condescending and tone deaf. No wonder he won only 3% of black voters in the SC primary, he’s not trustworthy.
Arrogant and Condescending
Pete Buttigieg is very condescending not just to people of color and the intelligence of voters, but to his opponents. When there was a gaffe Amy Klobuchar made in the news about being unable to know who the President of Mexico was, Pete Buttigieg was all but happy to talk down to her like a smug prick. “Are you trying to say that I’m dumb or are you mocking me Pete?” which didn’t even seem to phase Mayor White Privilege. When Senator Klobuchar correctly pointed out that mayor Pete “lost by twenty points” he responded by saying a Senator doesn’t always become President. She got angry and they had a brief talking over each other moment before Klobuchar responded sarcastically “I wish everyone was as perfect as you Pete, but let me tell you what it’s like to be in the arena.”
Later when Mayor Pete accused Klobuchar of voting for Trump’s judges she tried to get a response in but Buttigieg would not shut up. As he kept talking over her Senator Klobuchar at one point clenched her jaw, shut her eyes, and grabbed her podium for dear life.
When Pete Buttigieg was called out in an earlier debate by Elizabeth Warren about him being photographed holding a fundraiser in a wine cave with the super rich he compared it to an average donation of $10. “Suppose you went home feeling the holiday spirit, I know this is unlikely but stay with me.” The equivalent of saying ‘I hope you go fuck yourself for Christmas’ is why he doesn’t have the temperament or the ability to work with people he doesn’t like. Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Cory Booker have the temperament to be President if they decided to run. But Buttigieg's ability to throw his potential allies under the bus and his arrogance will be seen by the American electorate as a huge turn off.
Corporate Opportunist
From fixing bread prices to helping privatize the US Postal Service Buttigieg was at the forefront of everything the American public hates. According to Data for Progress the American public have moved to the left on economic issues, but have remained stagnant on social issues. What this means is that there is an inherent distrust of anyone affiliated with corporate monopolies and private entities that seek to price gouge hard working people of this country. It would explain why House Dems that supported Medicare for All retained their seats in swing districts, while the Democrats who openly bashed it lost their seats in 2020. The Dems lost 13 seats in the House by running on Trump bad, and it backfired.
Running Pete Buttigieg runs the same risk. He is a creature of corporate America fueled largely by monied interests like payday lenders, oil companies, credit card firms, Wall Street, Big Pharma, and others. The American people know who is on the take, running him guarantees a catastrophic defeat to an increasingly Nazi-like Republican party that doesn’t even believe in counting. Given the choice between a fascist party and a corporatism, unfortunately that public will choose the former over the latter.
