Rather than fundamental reform, many of his proposals end up sounding like opportunistic incrementalism, as if he wants to be seen to be doing something without really doing much at all for fear of arousing the forces arrayed against reform.Įven Biden, who has built his brand on common-man folksisms, seems more believable, and he has explicitly promised billionaires that nothing much will change for them. A politician who pushes for these reforms needs courage because the forces arrayed against structural change are powerful.īut while Mayor Pete has outlined several progressive-sounding ideas for overhauling Americans' economic lives-including a call for universal health care (that will still include a hefty role for private corporations), an idea for lowering student debt (but not making college free), a promise to strengthen regulations against monopolies (but a reluctance to break up Big Tech)-he lacks authenticity. The only way to reverse the trend toward inequality is to reform the way America does business. Today's seemingly rosy climate is the culmination of a political economy that consistently rewards the already wealthy at the expense of everyone else. That argument goes like this: Though the economic stats look pretty good, the Trump boom is a mirage and a moral disgrace. Ultimately, I worry Buttigieg will easily lose to Trump because he is ill suited to make the simplest and most powerful argument against the current administration's apparent economic successes. Yet every time I hear him speak, I get the sense that he's trying too hard to please everyone and that-in a way that recalls some of Obama's worst tendencies toward misguided centrism-he'll end up pleasing no one in the process. He has also articulated some interesting policy ideas, and has managed to win a lot of hearts online-a talent, of a sort, in an election measured in cheesy viral hits. Like Biden, the mayor seems to possess the baseline capacity to run America in a way that isn't an embarrassment or a disgrace, which would certainly be a step up from the current administration. It's not because I think he'd be an especially bad president. So I'll tell you why I don't like Buttigieg. I am not so young, but am one of those crazy radicals who have been concerned about the intractable domination of our society by a small band of wealthy interests. In a field of many other milquetoast moderates-including front-runner Joe Biden-why has Mayor Pete been singled out for special skewering by young radicals? There's something curious about the disdain, notes Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. And yet the mayor has drawn the ire of the plugged-in progressive left. You can't write about Mayor Pete without mentioning he's a Rhodes scholar, he's a veteran, and he has an articulate, cool-tempered decency reminiscent of Barack Obama. On paper, Buttigieg ticks a lot of presidential-candidate boxes. But with success has come a backlash, and then a backlash to the backlash.
In the past few months, Buttigieg, the presidential candidate and young mayor of South Bend, Ind., has enjoyed a steady yet unlikely rise in early state polls. A funny debate has been roiling the online left: Do young liberals hate Pete Buttigieg too little or too much?
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