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Buttigieg 2020


Hugo Stiglitz

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1 hour ago, henrygandorf said:

some of the data seems confusing.

fox news viewers who didn't like him compared him to trump and obama? 

seems odd to hit on both sides of that spectrum with the anti-buttigieg fox watchers.

In their defense, Fox News viewers aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. 

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I wonder how long it will be before the Republicans start paying off guys that served with him in Afghanistan to talk shit about his service?  Or will some other Dem in the primaries beat them to it?

I'd like to think Mayor Pete has this one anticipated and has gotten his ducks in a row for the day when that comes, because we all know it's coming.

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14 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

YES PETE GOOD PETE YESSSSS

 

From the same interview, Pete's idea of a 30 year movement really resonated with me. That's what the D's need to do. Have a movement that defines the current era, and several more. Enough to make the other party bend to it's will kind of like Reagan did with the Democrats. 

He spoke of the year "2054" a lot, because he's going to be Trump's current age in that year and he wants to see something sustainable come from the current group of Democrats. If you folks haven't yet, you should listen to the interview. 

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New Yorker interview with Buttigieg: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/pete-buttigieg-plans-win-democratic-presidential-nomination-defeat-trump?utm_social-type=owned&mbid=social_twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=tny

He's asked about McKinsey and provides a little more color: 

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Mr. Mayor, the right has very successfully painted the Democratic Party as the party of the coastal élites. Now, you are the mayor of a Midwestern city, so you certainly escape that, and you’ve served in the military, which distinguishes you from just about everybody in the race. But, at the same time, you have Harvard University, Oxford University, and, an area where you’ll probably get hit from the left, you worked at McKinsey for a few years. Why did you work at McKinsey, and what do you make of the reporting on McKinsey’s work advising Purdue Pharma on how to turbo-charge—their word—OxyContin sales, and how they counselled dictators worldwide on how to build more efficient autocracies? Is your work for McKinsey something that you’re proud of in the rearview mirror?

I’m proud of the work that I did for our clients. I worked on everything from grocery pricing to renewable energy, and I would not have worked on a client engagement that I didn’t believe was ethical, as well as helpful, or at least not problematic in that way. I went to work at McKinsey because I wanted to understand how the world worked, how people, goods, and money move around the world, and I wanted that kind of private-sector experience, and they were willing to take a chance on me even though I didn’t have an M.B.A., and teach me what I needed to know about business. It was a phenomenal learning opportunity.

But are you angry at McKinsey for their work on Purdue Pharma, and with various dictators around the world?

Of course. I mean, my community has been harmed by irresponsible behavior of corporations of the opioid industry. And I think it shocks the conscience anytime that a murderous dictator can rely on the legitimacy of a Western consulting company, especially the most prestigious company out there, in order to further their goals. And I think that, you know, this firm needs to be a lot more selective and a lot more thoughtful in the work that it does. I mean, client-service firms always have a bit of a tradition of being amoral, and I think that that flows from the legal industry, where, you know, you don’t as often, I think, hold it against a firm if, for example, a criminal-defense attorney at that firm represents a nefarious criminal. But, you know, it is a little different, and should be, when it comes to consulting. There should be a higher standard because, while everybody recognizes there is a right to legal counsel, I’m not convinced that there is any kind of right to management-consulting services.

 

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8 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

I want him to debate the dotard so badly.

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It would be the biggest ass kicking in Presidential Debate history just from an aesthetic standpoint.  A calm, young, thoughtful presence vs. a blabbering, old, mentally ill dipshit.

The GOP will come after Pete soon. They know he's their worst nightmare. 

 

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I think Swift Boating will be their go-to smear.  I'm not sure they'll bother with his sexuality, because that doesn't matter to any undecided voter.

Connections he has to slippery companies (McKinsey) will be hammered as well.  That could affect moderates, perhaps.

I think he'll respond pretty well to whatever they throw at him.

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11 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I think Swift Boating will be their go-to smear.  I'm not sure they'll bother with his sexuality, because that doesn't matter to any undecided voter.

Connections he has to slippery companies (McKinsey) will be hammered as well.  That could affect moderates, perhaps.

I think he'll respond pretty well to whatever they throw at him.

They will turn McKinsey into Goldman and hammer him like they did Hillary and Cruz 

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59 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Thanks for this! Exactly the type of thing I'm hoping to hear from him.

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I just sent a Mayor Pete text around to my pretty liberal immediate family and my son surprised me by saying that his best buddy who is a pretty solid libertarian had just sent him a Mayor Pete article and said that he liked the guy. Not sure what to read into it, other than that a smart, coherent guy appeals to smart folks, even if they are of different political persuasions, especially in this time when we're ruled by morons.

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36 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

Ok so what perjorative is president dipshit going to use IN PUBLIC a la Crooked Hillary? I mean, we know what he's going to call him privately, amirite?

I love the fact that Pete's not a lawyer. God I so want to vote for a democrat.

I think he'll just go all in on Faggy Pete.  Why wouldn't he?

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I just sent a Mayor Pete text around to my pretty liberal immediate family and my son surprised me by saying that his best buddy who is a pretty solid libertarian had just sent him a Mayor Pete article and said that he liked the guy. Not sure what to read into it, other than that a smart, coherent guy appeals to smart folks, even if they are of different political persuasions, especially in this time when we're ruled by morons.
Feel free to send my link around to everyone!

His grassroots fundraising campaign is all systems go. We're also working on meetpete.org, so if there are any videos you find that aren't on there, let me know. Also give me topics you'd like us to get on there.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/grassrootsfundraisingteam?refcode=Eric4Pete1717


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The republicans aren’t gonna hammer him for McKinsey. They would just as soon keep that one quiet and know it won’t resonate anyway because the trumpkin sheep don’t know what it is and if they somehow did, would be even more pissed at the republicans.

Of course they won’t blame trump himself, but trump could take a dump in their mouth and they’d blame Obama. 

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2 minutes ago, Ozzman said:

Feel free to send my link around to everyone! emoji16.png

His grassroots fundraising campaign is all systems go. We're also working on meetpete.org, so if there are any videos you find that aren't on there, let me know. Also give me topics you'd like us to get on there.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/grassrootsfundraisingteam?refcode=Eric4Pete1717

Look, Eric, I see your games here. Trying to help us get some nice, smart guy in as President so he can, like, do good stuff.

200.gif

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1 minute ago, MidTexHorn said:

I just sent a Mayor Pete text around to my pretty liberal immediate family and my son surprised me by saying that his best buddy who is a pretty solid libertarian had just sent him a Mayor Pete article and said that he liked the guy. Not sure what to read into it, other than that a smart, coherent guy appeals to smart folks, even if they are of different political persuasions, especially in this time when we're ruled by morons.

There are a lot of folks that gravitated to the Libertarian thing that aren't Ayn Rand fetishists.  Living in a purple state, I know a lot of people that love guns, find the Democrats unfocused, and too quick to try federal solutions for any problem with little regard for cost.  They don't care for identity politics either.  That said, they're equally repulsed by Christian Sharia, laws specifically targeted at restricting minority groups, the gluttonous military budget, the war on drugs, et al.  I can see why the label of Libertarian appealed to them.

At this point, pretty much everyone I know like this is voting for Democrats in 2020 because Trumpism is a bigger affront to sanity than anything they've yet experienced.

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1 minute ago, elfenix said:

no way i'd bet against that (assuming simplified versions of same, say, subtracting "pete" and "gy" count in the bet)

I could honestly see Trump just rebutting everything he said with "FAG" and then making that self satisfied smirk to the camera.

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1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

 

At this point, pretty much everyone I know like this is voting for Democrats in 2020 because Trumpism is a bigger affront to sanity than anything they've yet experienced.

I hope that there are a shit ton more like them all over the country because this world is on the fucking edge right now.

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Just now, Al_4_ISU said:

I could honestly see Trump just rebutting everything he said with "FAG" and then making that self satisfied smirk to the camera.

I don't think that's Trump's style. If anything, Pete's too butch.

I guarantee you that Pete doesn't have long-running feuds with any fashion magazine editors like Donald does.

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Trump in a debate with mayor Pete:

Trump - ”Oh yeah! I hear your a faaaag!” 

Audience gasps. Moderator stumbles around a bit and eventually somehow tries to move on. 

Seriously the contrast would be glorious. An aging orange draft dodging narcissist fat orange bone spurs moron standing there with a quasi young Generation X/Melinneal well dressed, appropriate tie length, articulate war veteran who is smart enough to work for McKinsey for a brief period of time.

Ladies and gentlemen, we may have our compromise candidate to defeat president fat organize glob of a shitstain. 

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Ghoulish. 

Last May, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg went to Israel with the American Jewish Committee and two weeks later discussed his trip with that organization. At the time Israel was killing Palestinian protesters at the Gaza fence– 60 on one day within days of Buttigieg’s visit, getting global attention — yet Buttigieg repeatedly praised Israel’s security arrangements as “moving” and “clear-eyed”, said the U.S. could learn something from them, and blamed Palestinians and Hamas for the “misery” in Gaza.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/04/slaughter-buttigieg-responses/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=slaughter-buttigieg-responses

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Certainly just understanding the complexity and nuance of the issues. Also understanding the level of modernity there….So often you only see coverage of international tension. You only see what’s maybe going on with the prime minister and the Palestinian Authority and you’re not seeing nearly enough I think about the energy, the dynamism, the creativity, the innovation that’s happening at the local level and how some of that is also feeding up to the national context in a positive way.

lol why would the level of “modernity” be surprising?  Because Israel is surrounded by a bunch of blood thirsty barbarians?

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32 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

From what the author of that article said: "yet Buttigieg repeatedly praised Israel’s security arrangements as “moving” and “clear-eyed”, said the U.S. could learn something from them, and blamed Palestinians and Hamas for the “misery” in Gaza."

What Pete actually said: "I was in a very modern city surrounded by people going about their lives. Seeing how people fit those things together was illuminating and in many ways moving. There’s a sense there that no matter what challenges there are in the community or in the society,  they can’t wait for security issues to be resolved. People live their lives, they’re pretty clear-eyed about what is going on around them. 

"[We got] a more nuanced idea of what is happening on the Palestinian side. So one of the first things that was very clear to us was the extent to which there really is not a unified or single voice for the Palestinian … people. Most people aren’t aware of the difference between what’s happening in Gaza run by Hamas in a way that is contributing to a lot of misery there but also totally different than an environment where you would have a negotiating partner across the table is really important."

 

I'm not saying Pete's comments are correct or shouldn't be criticized. But the anti-imperialists' desperate attempts to villainize him are counter-productive to their cause. 

 

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From an Esquire interview on March 20th: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26861236/peter-buttigieg-interview/

What's a major national issue about which you've completely changed your mind since you entered politics?

When you actually go to the Middle East, you come away with more questions than answers.

So when you went to the Middle East which way were you leaning and how was it adjusted? 

I just saw more of the complexity there. So, on one hand, really marveling at the achievements that have taken place in Israeli society. And on the other hand, seeing the extent to which no one can explain how you can have a democracy and a Jewish state at the same time unless there's a two-state solution. And some of these other things that just cannot continue the way they're going. Seeing it just kind of gave me a richer sense of it. I've noticed that often at home, the folks who have the most strident answers are people who have less of a connection to the place.

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53 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

"[We got] a more nuanced idea of what is happening on the Palestinian side. So one of the first things that was very clear to us was the extent to which there really is not a unified or single voice for the Palestinian … people. Most people aren’t aware of the difference between what’s happening in Gaza run by Hamas in a way that is contributing to a lot of misery there but also totally different than an environment where you would have a negotiating partner across the table is really important."

I'm not saying Pete's comments are correct or shouldn't be criticized. But the anti-imperialists' desperate attempts to villainize him are counter-productive to their cause. 

These comments re: Gaza are fucking awful. Completely awful.

Gaza is a fucking prison camp. Apartheid is a kind way to describe Israel writ large, but Gaza itself is essentially a Ghetto in the original sense of the word.

48 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

There’s no winning position for a politician on Israel.  You pretty much have to walk a tightrope as a democrat.  It sucks. 

Ok, now work with me here, but what if you had...

now don't freak out, just work with me here....

what if you had...

courage?

*Dem Brain Explodes*

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13 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

There are a lot of folks that gravitated to the Libertarian thing that aren't Ayn Rand fetishists.  Living in a purple state, I know a lot of people that love guns, find the Democrats unfocused, and too quick to try federal solutions for any problem with little regard for cost.  They don't care for identity politics either.  That said, they're equally repulsed by Christian Sharia, laws specifically targeted at restricting minority groups, the gluttonous military budget, the war on drugs, et al.  I can see why the label of Libertarian appealed to them.

At this point, pretty much everyone I know like this is voting for Democrats in 2020 because Trumpism is a bigger affront to sanity than anything they've yet experienced.

In other words, they see as equivalent things that may or may not  help (federal solutions, identity stuff), and things that are already abject moral crimes (Christian hegemony, minority targeting, military gluttony, war on drugs, etc.).  In fact they are resolved to tolerate the latter, but will, in the end, work against the former as they may impinge on their comfort.

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15 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

It would be the biggest ass kicking in Presidential Debate history just from an aesthetic standpoint.  A calm, young, thoughtful presence vs. a blabbering, old, mentally ill dipshit.

The GOP will come after Pete soon. They know he's their worst nightmare. 

 

It's a shame this evil fucker is still kicking. He is in large part responsible for the GOP's recent amoral, hypocritical stance on everything.

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18 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

It would be the biggest ass kicking in Presidential Debate history just from an aesthetic standpoint.  A calm, young, thoughtful presence vs. a blabbering, old, mentally ill dipshit.

The GOP will come after Pete soon. They know he's their worst nightmare. 

 

It's not just Newt. Starting yesterday, Rush started talking about Pete too. It's weird. 

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It's not just Newt. Starting yesterday, Rush started talking about Pete too. It's weird. 
Ingraham today, too. They're scurred!! The thing they're focusing on is his dad's Marxism.

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I can't stop thinking about Trump debating Mayor Pete. There is no way he could stop himself from calling Pete a fag. 

"So look, we all know that there are some good people like Mayor Pete, some very fine people, but do you really want a guy who (makes a dainty hand gesture) talking to Putin? And listen, it's not Pete's fault that he's (smirking) a little light in the loafers, but it reminds me of when I was dating Cheryl Tiegs in 1981, beautiful woman by the way, just gorgeous, and she had friends like Pete over here and I really didn't have any problem with those fags, but come on, let's be honest, you can't have that in the White House." 

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USA Today: Mayor Pete Buttigieg's countercultural approach to Christianity is what America needs now

Quote

Does the country need an awakening of the Christian left? Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg thinks so. 

Mayor Pete, as he is affectionately called, is having a moment with a first quarter fundraising haul of $7 million and a third place showing in an Iowa poll at 11%. In January, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held last place at 0%. In the intervening months, Buttigieg has wowed Democrats with his mastery of policy issues and Midwestern charm. He’s a military veteran who served in Afghanistan, a Rhodes scholar and speaks seven languages.

He has also stood out as a devoted Christian who is speaking against the dominance of the religious right in the public square. As Buttigieg told me in an interview Friday, “The left is rightly committed to a separation of church and state … but we need to not be afraid to invoke arguments that are convincing on why Christian faith is going to point you in a progressive direction.”

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (Photo: Charles Krupa/AP)

 

Buttigieg criticized right-wing Christians for “saying so much about what Christ said so little about, and so little about what he said so much about.”

 

Let’s parse this insightful formulation: “Saying so much about what Christ said so little about” applies to the religious right’s treatment of abortion as a litmus test for Christian faith, when in fact Jesus never mentioned the issue. That omission has not stopped many right-wing Christians from using Trump’s anti-abortion rights judicial appointments as the president’s “get out of jail free card,” and license for them to support a leader who consistently behaves in a way that is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.

 

Christians are called to defend the poor

As to the religious right saying “so little about what (Jesus) said so much about,” Buttigieg made this observation: “When I think about where most of Scripture points me, it is toward defending the poor, and the immigrant, and the stranger, and the prisoner, and the outcast, and those who are left behind by the way society works. And what we have now is this exaltation of wealth and power, almost for its own sake, that in my reading of Scripture couldn't be more contrary to the message of Christianity. So I think it's really important to carry a message (to the public), knitting together a lot of groups that have already been on this path for some time, but giving them more visibility in the public sphere.”

He’s alluding to a burgeoning Christian left led by pastors and writers like Jim Wallis, the Rev. William J. Barber II, Rachel Held Evans, the Rev. James Martin, Lisa Sharon Harper, Diana Butler Bass and many others. But nonconservative Christians generally do not receive the same level of news media attention as the religious right, despite their deep understanding of Scripture and thriving faith traditions. Because most journalists are secular, they can be gullible in looking to the religious right as arbiters of biblical interpretation, especially as it relates to hot-button cultural and political issues. Because of this, many Americans aren’t even aware of the rich tradition of progressive Christianity.

When I asked Mayor Pete his favorite Bible verses, he cited a perennial favorite from the Book of Matthew: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these … you did for me.” Less frequently cited is his other choice of Matthew 6:5, in which Jesus says, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”

He's reluctant to call Trump a Christian

Buttigieg didn’t explicitly apply this passage to the religious right. Nonetheless, it’s hard to overlook the evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders who make a spectacle of praying publicly — in particular over President Donald Trump — as evidence of their holiness. Jesus himself warned against this kind of showy spirituality and said, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father.”

There are so many other examples of how members of the religious right, who claim allegiance to a literal interpretation of the Bible, ignore the literal words that Jesus spoke. Hypocrisy, something Jesus railed against, has become perhaps the most prominent feature of the religious right in the Trump era.

Does Buttigieg think Trump is a Christian? “I'm reluctant to comment on another person's faith, but I would say it is hard to look at this president's actions and believe that they're the actions of somebody who believes in God,” he said. “I just don't understand how you can be as worshipful of your own self as he is and be prepared to humble yourself before God. I've never seen him humble himself before anyone. And the exaltation of yourself, especially a self that's about wealth and power, could not be more at odds with at least my understanding of the teachings of the Christian faith.”

While Buttigieg is a gay man, married in the Episcopal Church he attends, he urges those who support LBGTQ rights to “beckon people onto the right side of history (rather) than … drag people there. If someone feels harassed and put upon by us, at the very moment we're demanding tolerance and acceptance, one consequence is that we can leave them with nowhere to go but the religious right.”

Preaching grace is critically countercultural

I pressed him on how he could advocate showing so much grace to those who continue to perpetrate a biblical interpretation that has caused so much harm to gay people like him.

“Well, obviously, I want them to change,” he noted. “But I also want to recognize the struggle they might be having and get them there. And in getting there, I want some kind of healing to go on, so that they can recognize ... that our marriages are just as good as theirs. Because people who are on what I would call the wrong side of this issue and of history probably don't think of themselves as hateful. So we've got to make sure that they feel good about themselves in the process of coming to a more accepting view.”

What advice does Mayor Pete have for those struggling to be graceful toward those with whom we disagree politically? “Well, I think it starts with a certain amount of humility and recognizing that how you voted doesn't make you a good person or a bad person, and we shouldn't think of ourselves as better human beings because of how we voted,” he said.

In our pugilistic take-no-prisoners era, preaching grace toward those on the other side of the political fence is decidedly countercultural. Whether Mayor Pete becomes our nation’s first millennial president or not, he has already started a crucial conversation for the country.

Kirsten Powers, a CNN news analyst, writes regularly for USA TODAY and is co-host of The Faith Angle podcast. Follow her on Twitter: @KirstenPowers

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com

Edited by Anastasis
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