Pete Buttigieg is young, funny, and charismatic, a veteran and businessman, and a beloved small-town mayor who can also pack an intellectual punch. Many on both the left and right laugh off the seriousness of his candidacy. Some say that serving as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana does not qualify one for a run for President, and others disparage everything from his low name recognition in an already crowded field to his less than unique policy proposals. But, counting him out entirely would be a mistake. “Mayor Pete” seems sane enough, but his policy proposals are as consistently leftist as most of the 2020 primary pack. His appeal makes him dangerous, and people who care about the free market should be paying attention.
Buttigieg references James Joyce as easily as he throws out an offhand joke. He’s a polyglot, at least conversational in seven languages (Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Arabic, Dari, and French). He learned Norwegian because there were books that he wanted to read without translations to English. He served in Afghanistan and is finishing his 8-year term as the mayor of South Bend. He and his husband, Chasten, a Montessori junior high school teacher, are an appealing pair, and Chasten’s social media presence, likable and genuine-seeming, is a boon to the Mayor’s popularity. All of these things give him appeal, and his support is burgeoning. He has raised 7 million dollars as of April 1st. He’s unassuming, and probably not one of the candidates that are most visible on anyone’s radar, but those who oppose the expansion of government power would do well to be wary of the well-spoken small-town mayor.
“Mayor Pete”, and his confluence of likable qualities could prove to be a major threat later on in the campaign. He supports single-payer healthcare, the abolition of the electoral college, and other extreme policies. Despite his measured way of speaking, and seemingly commonsense approach to issues, he is as far left as the rest. Therein lies the threat he poses.
He’s also smart enough to know better than to position himself as exclusively existing in opposition to Trump. Many Democrats this cycle have fallen into the Trump trap, existing only to oppose the President without providing any substance of their own. Buttigieg has signaled his plans to avoid this, as he said in an interview on Real Time with Bill Maher, “The paradox here is in order to beat Trump, we’ve gotta run a campaign that’s not all about Trump…we’ve gotta talk more about how our ideas actually cash out in everyday life, because when we do that, we win.” This approach will work much better with undecided voters than nonstop attacks on Trump would.
He’s personable and intelligent, there’s no use in pretending that he isn’t. But, lots of smart people have really dangerous, downright bad ideas, and it’s important that we not discount his candidacy at the outset. He presents an insidious political threat, and it’s essential to confront and respond to his ideas before his popularity takes hold.
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