Embarrassed by the folly of identity politics, and perhaps fatigued with octogenarian politicians, would Democrats push a white upper middle-class male to satisfy their insular elites?
Should Democrats try to appease connections with the left-leaning activist class more so than with the electorate? It did not work with Kamala Harris in 2019.
Let’s first remind ourselves that Harris does not suffer because of sexism or racism; she’s an ineffectual politician serving in an embattled administration. The unlikable Californian — once the frontrunner — dropped out of the Democrat primaries two months before the Iowa caucuses because she lacked a consistent message. Her staff of inept millennials moronically took their cues from left-wing Twitter, creating a parochial bubble and zero understanding of Americans’ priorities.
To the surprise of no one, including me, she’s basically picked up where her haphazard campaign left off as vice president. In a poll earlier this month, Harris had a dismal 28 percent approval rating.
As for Pete Buttigieg, before running (and failing) for statewide office in Indiana at the tender age of 28, he briefly was a management consultant at the elite consulting firm McKinsey. Despite being overly credentialed, he is banal and easy to mock. He seems unaware of how he comes across and of his own limitations.
“He embodies, to a fault, the party’s growing strength among college-educated whites. He’s smooth, credentialed, hyper-articulate and a quick study who knows enough — sometimes just enough — to charm and impress journalists and other white-collar creative types,” Rich Lowry wrote last week. “It’s become increasingly clear, though, that the Democratic Party’s new base among college-educated voters is a trap if it is pursued to the exclusion of an appeal to working-class voters. The party’s poor standing with non-college-educated voters has begun to show up in eroding support among Latinos.”
Nothing says 'we're in touch with reality' like a Politico article on Presidential buzz for the incompetent Pete Buttigieg, floated by Terry McAuliffe's disastrous campaign manager, Michael Halle, whose wife Tara McGowan ruined the Iowa caucuses. https://t.co/QZKAXGV7jA
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) November 25, 2021
Ask honest South Bend residents, and they’ll say Buttigieg was a subpar mayor from 2012-20.
Alexandra DeSanctis was a student at Notre Dame during part of his tenure. Now a National Review staff writer, she mentioned during this week’s “The Editors” podcast that in the 2020 presidential primaries, compared to other zany Democrats with ridiculous policy proposals, Buttigieg could appear moderate; she then added a caveat.
“But then if you stopped and listened a little bit harder, you notice he was saying a lot of words that sounded nice but none actually meant anything,” she said. “And they certainly weren’t moderate…he was trying to have it both ways.”
Related: In Bizarre Interview, Buttigieg Equates Supply Chain Debacle with Vaccines
Biden and Harris are very weak, and national Democrat advisors want people who look and sound like Buttigieg, but do voters? Black people dislike him, and in the progressive box-checking world, does being gay make you “historic” enough?
Take it from liberal-leaning New York Magazine, which encapsulates the affluent urban white crowd that admires Mayor Pete. They still offer warnings.
“If everything he does in public or private becomes interpreted as little more than a calculated step toward the presidency, that goal may grow further and further away,” Ed Kilgore wrote Wednesday. “Buttigieg hasn’t even turned 40 yet. If Biden has set a new standard for the lifespan of presidential ambitions, Buttigieg can keep hope alive for close to four more decades. What he doesn’t need is to burn out and become yesterday’s news…”
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