Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg had an opportunity to be a strong contender on the Democratic bench.
He is at home on paternity leave. It signals the wrong thing for him--and for Democrats.
What does anyone know about the infrastructure bill? We know it's a lot of money. We hear about price but not about the benefits--the bridges, tunnels, highway bypasses, and broadband coming our way. Democrats are making the number one classic mistake in sales: letting the focus be all about price, not benefits.
Why aren't people barnstorming the country, selling infrastructure? Their not doing so sends a message of Democratic dysfunction.
Pete Buttigieg's biggest political branding problem isn't his homosexuality. It is that he is the exemplar of the White liberal upscale meritocracy wing that is pushing working people of all races away from Democrats. He could use this opportunity to re-focus his brand, and that of Democrats. Infrastructure is built by working people. It is hands-on and physical. Workers get dirty. These are the people Democrats are losing. Buttigieg could be doing a “50 states in 50 days” tour, selling the infrastructure bill in each of the 50 states. Someone needs to do it, and who better than the Secretary of Transportation?
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Americans accept the idea that "it takes a thief to catch a thief." Trump said he could drain the swamp because he knew the swamp. FDR was a supposed "traitor to his class." A Harvard Rhodes Scholar can be the meritocracy "insider” who understands all too well the insularity of the professional classes, the impossibility of everyone going to graduate school, and the failure of trickle down. He could run against privilege, legacy admissions, good old boy networks, and tax-free inherited wealth.
In a “50 states in 50 days” tour Buttigieg could be praising Biden's steady leadership. Biden needs somebody to do that, and the infrastructure package gives Buttigieg an example of "Scranton Joe" Biden's practical empathy for working people. Buttigieg makes himself look good by making Biden look good, because Buttigieg has the rhetorical ability to tie things together in an overarching message of progress--something beyond Biden's skillset. Biden isn’t out selling. Harris isn’t doing it, either. Schumer and Pelosi are busy doing legislative sausage-making. Buttigieg would be the visible articulate Democrat on a national stage telling the Democratic story. That makes him Biden's heir.
I like maternal and paternal leave. It is compassionate. It is necessary in many cases. Buttigieg should praise it--and then not have taken much of it. Two months of paternity leave is not a requirement. It's an option. His country called. He has a mission of national importance on hold.
His paternity leave sends an indelible message. He could have spent these two months getting to a different state four days a week. Sure, be home weekends and hold your babies. But then go back out on the road to tell the nation what it is getting from its trillion-dollar investment. People in our armed forces sacrifice family time, away for a year at a time. Truck drivers go on the road. Construction workers go away on jobs. Front-line people in "essential" jobs had to scramble with day care and children at home during this COVID era. Juggling work and family is what working people do.
Instead, Buttigieg demonstrates the life that prosperous, privileged elites get to live. He has a prestigious job that pays well that he can do by phone and video from home, where he knows the boss personally, and the boss says "ok, sure.” Having an indulgent boss is a privilege. Working remotely is privilege. To the working people drifting from the Democratic Party, two months paternity leave is unmistakable body language of elite privilege. That marks him as "other."  |
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I love how Buttigieg handles himself on Fox News. He is an extraordinary talent. But he had a job to do being a national spokesperson for the most popular thing Democrats are doing, and he isn't out there--a big lost opportunity for him.
Neither is anyone else--a big lost opportunity for America.
12 comments:
Family leave is a centerpiece of Progressive legislation, and the infrastructure bill is popular and held hostage by Manchin and Sinema. It will pass, and then Republicans will take credit.
He is absolutely entitled to take this time. If the Sec. of Trans. was a woman this wouldn't be controversial, so let's not fall for Regressive hypocrisy.
Do we care about our children or not?
"Why aren't people barnstorming the country, selling infrastructure? Their not doing so sends a message of Democratic dysfunction."
If Democrats weren’t so pathetic at messaging, Bush would never have served a second term after his gratuitous invasion of Iraq and preposterous “Mission Accomplished” photo op. Even in dethroning such an obvious psycho as Trump, the Republican “Lincoln Project” did a better job than Democrats. They need a new PR department.
Hopefully, Buttigieg will be suitably chastened when he reads this post by Peter.
One of Buttigieg's children was recently hospitalized. Peter, your timing for singling Buttigieg out for criticism is awful.
"Buttigieg announced that they had welcomed two newborn fraternal twins on September 4, 2021."
I had forgotten that Sec'y Buttigieg welcomed twins; I only remembered that he had taken family leave to take care of his adopted child.
In any case, I don't know the particulars of his husband, or his career, either.
It is a tough situation, and apparently Pete's stand-in during this parental leave time is invisible.
As others have pointed out, this could have been a situation to highlight the progressive cause and beliefs.
Instead, no one is championing the message for the infrastructure bill from a Transportation perspective.
From Wikipedia:
After conservatives criticized Buttigieg for taking paternity leave, Buttigieg declared that he would not apologize for "taking care of my premature newborn infant twins. The work that we are doing is joyful, fulfilling, wonderful work." According to his department, Buttigieg had been on paid leave since mid-August 2021, where for a month he was "mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated", and he "has been ramping up activities since then", making many media appearances in early October 2021. The White House had approved Buttigieg's leave.
I was not among the conservatives criticizing his decision. Rather, I wondered who had the job - that of being the public face to the public.
Democrats in the Obama Administration and Obama himself made the same critical error of staying silent on the benefits to the heartland of the ACA. Biden is repeating the same pattern, delivering for the American people but not cheerleading the accomplishments and impact on our society. Rather Democrats are locked in defending their programs against an onslaught of lies and fake news ginned up by the likes of FoxNews and OneAmerica. This is a game of capture the flag and carry the banner high enough for all to see the Democratic team leading the whole of American society embracing the words in the Bill of Rights: For the People.
It's almost as if the Progressive Caucus, MSNBC, CNN, and other media outlets don't do exactly the same. An omission of facts is also considered a lie by many. Alas, our media outlets spend more time taking sides rather than explaining, and providing context.
Both sides are recruiting teams for their version of capture the flag.
In the good old days, policies and proposals were presented AND discussed in detail, pros and cons.
In the good old days, both political parties at least made a pretense of patriotism and caring about the common good. Now one of them is guilty of an attempted coup, making it rather difficult to discuss policies and proposals.
“Pete Buttigieg’s biggest political branding problem isn’t his homosexuality”.
Indeed not. It’s by far his biggest political branding asset. He has a nice list of admirable qualities and personal achievements, no question. But if never a Rhodes scholar, or a Navy veteran, he could still be where he is, in a Cabinet position for which he is entirely unqualified except for his general intelligence and aptitudes. Without his homosexuality no one outside South Bend would know his name to this very day, justified ambitions or not. Ironically, his actual biggest political branding problem (in my opinion) is…..wait a second…..Mr. Sage is correct! It IS his homosexuality, crucially so for BIPOC voters. Isn’t it why his momentum, like Bernie’s, stalled in and after South Carolina? Maybe kingmaker Jim Clyburn would have come out for Mayor Pete as he did for Biden had Biden not been available as that necessary option to Bernie? Would a preternaturally talented early-first-term white Senator named Obama have even had the opportunity to topple HRC if a white guy? Now look at Trump and the identity “credentials” are less salubrious, if no less needed for eventual success. Was it ever so? I thought being Catholic was supposed to have been a potential millstone for JFK, but maybe not in the end. I hope we all move to ideas and talent only in the end, but maybe that’s simplistic. The total package with all the pieces brings it off, and always has? If so, Buttigieg belongs in the mix.
Why were my comments removed? No profanity or slurs. I also agreed with the author of the blog, which is not always the case.
Duh on me, again. I meant—halfway in—think Mr. Sage is incorrect, but for a different reason. Apologies. Sipping mezcal.
Dear Anonymous:
Probably my error. I must have mistook it for the Troll’s. Best to sign with your real name reasonable, non obscene, posts. I m ok with harsh criticism here in the comments section, or even something positive, and assume signed posts are almost always useful. I have been getting a flurry of anonymous comments and have been working quickly to delete ones whose style seems suspicious.
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