Discussion: Mayor Pete Buttigieg Makes His Move In Early-Voting States

[osage]

A Sanders Buttigieg ticket is in our future.

[jwbuho]

I understand that. I still have reservations about someone who uses religion so freely to polish their public image.

I was raised in the Congregational church before getting off the train, where one’s religion was considered more of a private matter. Not something to be flaunted in public. Just makes me a little nervous about him, that’s all.

All of this is fair. Here’s what I’ll say, based on what my wife (an over-the-moon Mayor Pete fan) has told me and how I understand what she’s said about all of this:

My wife is not religious, but she finds it refreshing that Buttigieg talks about his faith as something like his lodestone, orienting him in his thinking on all kinds of matters, yet not telling him how to think. Belief, for him, is a guide for the self rather than a cudgel to whack others over the head with (compare/contrast with his fellow Hoosier Mike Pence). As a devout Lutheran, I understand and deeply respect that; like you, I’m deeply suspicious of people who preface their pronouncements on serious subjects by saying, "As a devout Christian . . . "

To the detriment of Christianity more broadly, evangelicals have had an outsized, and deleterious, effect on how Christianity gets talked about in broader, cultural contexts: they publicly proclaim their faith through word and action so much that you’d think that they’re doing so as a work to earn their way into Heaven (or at least not spend quite so much time in Purgatory). (Or, worse, they just out and out lie that that’s what they’re doing so the legal arguments they make, they hope, will pass constitutional muster.) They would be horrified by my comparing their behavior to a doctrine of medieval Catholicism, but what’s an old-school Protestant like me to do with their example?

Anyway: From what I think I know about Mayor Pete, I don’t think he’s that kind of guy. He’s preparing the rhetorical ground for the inevitable, if unasked, questions from some quarters re how his living his life as an openly gay man is compatible with his faith by, first of all, answering that and then asking (again) how Mike Pence, an avowed devout Christian, can square his faith with his choice to serve as vice president to someone like Donald Trump–someone who is on record as saying he’s never felt the need to ask God for forgiveness.

[atldrew]

You’re getting ratio’ed here.

My add: during Obama’s first run I think core America knew we were well off track. I recall reading a story about some pollster asking a flyover couple who they were going to vote for in coming election. Wife answers door, turns around and shouts question to husband who’s in another room: “Who you voting for.” He shouts out: “What’s his name, the ni**er.”

Hoping folks vote for the best candidate regardless of their race, gender, orientation etc., as well as against the treasonweasels running the country.

[jwbuho]

Buttigieg shows signs of being set to take the fight to the enemy on the religious right in a way we haven’t seen before from an aspiring politician.

I think this is right.

I’d had hopes that Tim Kaine (trained as a Jesuit) would be that guy, but for whatever reason he never got that chance.

[moreyampersand]

When I was a kid, nobody talked about religion unless they knew each other well, and I wish we could go back to that! Although I have to give some credit to piouser-than-thou politicians for having helped move me further and further from organized religion over the years.

In the meantime, from a strategic point, I’m glad Mayor Pete happens to be religious so he knows how to talk to people who are into that sort of thing.

[imkmu3]

I have nothing against homosexual people.

Substitute homosexual for black.

Explanation enough?

[Ken_a_roni]

Pre Moral Majority creation, Southern Baptists actually taught about freedom of religion and from religion. That’s before the Grand Old Party became God’s Own Party.

[kelaine]

People just kinda like the guy.

Hah! I first read that as “People just kinda like the gay”

[yskov]

I’m atheist and a member of a denomination where that’s by far the dominant view. Being religious and believing in God are two different things, in spite of a lot of understandable overlap and self-serving confusion on the part of various political forces.

Being a member of a church, and a believing member of a church, is hardly a deal breaker or even a detrimental factor for me. It’s what and how you apply your belief structure that tells me who you are. It’s like, in some ways, a field of study or a college major. If you’re a civil engineer building gas chambers instead of solar farms, that’s a problem.

MLK’s job title was minister, not an activist. What he did grew out of his beliefs. Just saying.

[turdburgler]

He’ll make a great VP to President Warren.

[yskov]

We’ve got so many great candidates this year I doubt I’d be heartbroken if he didn’t get the nomination. But I definitely want to hear more from him. Ditto for Castro, Beto, Harris, etc. And Warren, always Warren. One I don’t think I have to hear any more from is Biden. I mean, I think that guy has been running since sideburns were the cutting edge of style. He’s said whatever he was ever going to say. And don’t even get me started on Bernie Sanders.

Bottom line: there are a lot of candidates I want to hear more of, in debates and engaging with issues and voters. Buttigieg is one of them.

[yskov]

Small sample sizes in non-representative rural white states, where the margin of error swamps the differences between each of a large field of candidates.
“Do you know Bob?”
“What didya say?”
“Alrighty then, I’ll put you down as a ‘yes’.”

[tena]

I love this guy. He would be a wonderful veep for anyone running.

[kelaine]

Not sure about everyone else, but I really like Mayor Pete! He’s in my top 3 or 4, and even hovers at the top of those. The more that I hear him speak and the more that I read about him, the more I like him.

I don’t think that he panders to anyone, and he’s further left than some on here seem to think. I think he speaks to the religious among us the same way that he speaks to the atheists among us. I sometimes think that his personal look and demeanor appear to be much more conservative than he actually is.

A man who went to Harvard and Oxford and speaks multiple languages is not one to disparage elites - coastal or otherwise. Complaints about him using the term “coastal elites” reminds me of republicans complaining about Hillary using the term “deplorable” or Obama talking about people clinging to their bibles and guns - it’s foolish and doesn’t take into account the larger context of what was being said.

As far as the revitalization of South Bend, he’s the first to admit that some mistakes were made. And really? What revitalization project in any dying city or neighborhood hasn’t had some mis-steps?

[tena]

The more that I hear him speak and the more that I read about him, the more I like him.

Yeah me too - that seems to be the trajectory with Mayor Pete. How often does that happen? Usually the minute someone is hitting their stride they get hit from all sides and start to look less shiny. Not Mayor Pete.

[moreyampersand]

So far, I really think Warren/Buttigieg would be a great combination. Despite being a member of the “East Coast elite,” she really does seem to me more like a pragmatic Midwesterner, and I think his presence on the ticket would help people realize that she is offering bold but practical solutions for a lot of the systemic problems that are affecting their daily lives and imperiling the future of their children.

[tobie]

All the things you named are exactly why the Beltway media has fallen in love with this guy. He rags on the party. And for that he gets daily articles in the news section of the Washington Post that sound more like campaign press releases than actual news articles. I’d like to know what happened during his term with the South Bend Police. And perhaps it would be good to learn what happened the one time he ran for an office larger than a small-town mayor–it was for the Indiana State Treasurer and he lost by 30%. And I’m still unclear what the theme of his campaign is besides rebooting our democracy which sounds to me like a platitude and some sort of messianic wish all at once.

[zenicetus]

I don’t think that he panders to anyone, and he’s further left than some on here seem to think. I think he speaks to the religious among us the same way that he speaks to the atheists among us.

Well, no, he doesn’t speak the same way to this atheist anyway. He elicits the same exclusionary vibe I feel from the hardcore evangelicals. It’s just the softer and less threatening version of implied superiority-through-faith. I know it’s necessary to get elected to high office in this country, but I don’t have to like it.

I like everything else I’ve heard from him though, and it wouldn’t stop me from voting for him if he makes it through the primary, or was a VP pick.

[patterman]

I get what he’s doing, but California is now an early-voting primary state, and he should come out here. He’d get BIG BUCKS, I’m sure, and he could cement the LGBTQ community by campaigning in San Francisco.

[downriverdem]

My focus is who can win in November 2020.