When Buttigieg created a "feud" with Pence he exposed his inner progressive ideologue. His stock rose after that faux feud. It's clear why he did it. Clever, but not clever enough to fool those who were approaching him with an open mind. It was his first chink in a very well crafted exterior.
12
This piece epitomizes cynical partisanship at its worst. Douthat evinces an undisguised hostility toward Pete, borne of envy of this shining new light’s incandescence.
If Pete had not attended Harvard and Oxford Douthat would no doubt suggest Pete’s resume was lacking.
If Pete had not joined the Naval Reserve and was “briefly deployed in Afghanistan” Douthat would observe Pete lacks real-world experience and foreign policy expertise.
If Pete were not multilingual Douthat would argue Pete was far too parochial.
Douthat even attacks Pete’s performance of his sexuality, that it is “boring,” as if Pete were auditioning for a role in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” or “Paris Is Burning.”
If Pete had remained in Washington, D.C., Douthat would argue Pete was simply another coastal elite.
That Pete returned to his hometown of South Bend, Indiana and became an effective mayor is seen as a careerist ploy, a “meritocrat’s ‘hack’ of the system of ascent . . . that, having served its purpose, can now be abandoned while he tries to vault insanely high.”
Few Presidential candidates embody Gramsci’s “organic intellectuals.” Most are elites. The President with the humblest background in recent memory is Bill Clinton. But he, too, eventually became a Rhodes scholar and attended Yale Law.
America needs more Pete Buttigiegs and fewer Ross Douthats.
Pete has thrown his hat into the political arena in order to serve his country. Douthat is just another superfluous journalistic hack.
166
Very sneaky, Ross. You made me like Buttigieg even more!
89
Douthat's approach seems to have been to keep typing in hopes that he would make a point.
76
In short, Ross might almost appreciate Buttigieg, if only he would just allow Christians (and, I'm sure, only Christians) to discriminate against people based on with whom they want to have sex and marry, and if he would force all pregnant women to give birth. Got it Ross.
57
“(T)raitor to his class” says Mr. Douthat. Wow, what a catchy opening line, and what a denigrating comment. I doubt that Mayor Buttigieg merits that demeaning appellation. In three back handed slaps Mr. Douthat tarred the Mayor.
Would Mr. Douthat speak that of Donald Trump who portended to be the “go to guy,” the “stable genius” smarter than the generals, and the one and only one “to fix it” and drain the swamp, but who, on multiple occasions, has kissed Putin’s boots and evinced treasonous conduct, by word and action, to the nth degree?
36
And, sir, for all your complaints about the elites living the the coastal areas and cities, where have you chosen to live and write.
53
Another even more refined allegation of elitism from uber-conservatism. Lead the way Mr. Douthat, begin by showing disdain for resumes by calling them fake, insert an exaggerated respect for poor people by blowing a whistle on the the removal of urban decay. The cause of which is...............Stu-da-bay-ker !?!?
That South Bend, Ind. company went into receivership 13 years after it stopped making horse drawn carriages Mr. Douthat. In 1933. Something about bankruptcy, done in by Albert Erskine, an elitist from Alabama, Notre Dame Trustee and Harvard benefactor. Those elitists, they build industry, name brands and then fail, they never rebuild.
I have driven by South Bend a few times, on my way to Chicago, the emerald city on the shore of Lake Michigan. I suppose if there is a museum honoring the company store I would see a billboard ad for it. Never have though. So Mayor Pete rebuilds South Bend 80 years after its demise by removing the dead cultured elegance of a previous elite and you have a problem with that.
Your columns are always a search to keep it the way it is. Searching and searching. That is not what this country needs, or wants. Elites build, Like Albert Erskine, and Pete Buttigieg. The reason why they are elites.
35
I'm sorry, but Buttigieg did not "invent" the ugly hypocrisy of Mike Pence or of evangelicalism itself. He merely pointed it out. The biggest "invention" here is the comparison to Emmanuel Macron, based on groundless speculation the Buttigieg might turn out to be just like him. This is insulting to your readers (or is it?)
54
Wow ... just wow. Another NYT columnist who tries to use the presidency of Macron as an example of an elitist politician’s failure. Maybe visit France first Mr. Douthat and see the changes and the support that Macron has among the real people, the people that actually have jobs here. Instead of looking at the few thousand protesters who don’t have money and yet, are able to make their way to Paris every weekend you should come to Paris and see for yourself that more people visited the Eiffel Tower yesterday than protested. If only Major Pete could have as much success as Macron our country could get back on track.
28
Why the daggers out for this guy? Oh, Ross is threatened. That's not a surprise.
47
Buttigieg “invented” Mike Pence’s homophobia? Mrs. Pence’s homoexclusion? Wow! That’s one amazing feat. Dr. Strange must have lent him the time stone to go back and fill the mouth of Pete’s erstwhile governer with all those anti-gay pronouncements, not to mention the surreptitious submission of Mother’s application to Straight or Wait Academy.
Man, with those Avenger chops, Pete sure has my vote!
42
Douthat sets up for his knockout punch by first giving credit copiously to Buttigieg.
He does so by delving deep into Buttigieg's background, the academic parents, the Harvard and Oxford stints, the McKinsey job, the Navy Reserve assignment, and finally the homecoming to South Bend. He goes on to praise Buttigieg's "performative intelligence" but takes him down because "his college-interview style" represents a form of "“humble” showing off."
Douthat reserves his stronger criticism by citing a couple of other sources including one by a younger member of Studebaker family. According to Douthat all of Buttigieg's past achievements and accomplishments and "his unusual trajectory back homeward" was merely to "vault insanely high, to return not only to Washington but to the Oval Office (or at least the Naval Observatory or a cabinet office)."
In other words, Buttigieg is not the real deal; he was merely auditioning for the job of POTUS ever since he was born. You got that? Why not take Mayor Pete at his word? When he says that he is gay and a devout Catholic, maybe he is just that. When he says that he learnt Norwegian so as to be able to read a particular book, that is all there is to it.
Clearly Buttigieg is intelligent, smart, well-read, personable, and civil. But Douthat comes up with arguments and plants seeds of doubt only to blunt Buttigieg's rising stars. This column is a hatchet job. I urge Douthat to use that hatchet in analyzing 45 and leave Buttigieg alone.
40
Is there some clown car somewhere spitting out all these internet pundits who need to invent something to say just for the sake of saying it?
32
If you saw but a few minutes of Trump's thing last night in Green Bay, Wis., watched and listened as his mob howled in agreement at the stupidity and the lies, cheered every further indignity heaped on the office of the president of the United States, then in fact it becomes clear that those people are deplorable.
Rhey are deplorably bigoted, deplorably ignorant, deplorably dangerous and deplorably easy to lie too mislead, use and, as Trump does every day, abandon.
The Democrats road to the White House doesn't pass anywhere close to them and there are not enough of them to put him back in the White House if the Democratic candidate understands that the way to winning is through the suburbs an to motivate its modern constituency to record turnout.
For the eventual Democratic candidate to do less, for the Democratic Party to fail to unite behind that candidate to win back the White House -- now that would be deplorable, wouldn't it?
20
Geeez Ross, you are holding back. Perhaps until the flock is down to a more qualified few. Or until Buttigieg's success begins to endanger your religious principals. Still in the "can you believe this guy's audacity" camp.
7
Ross claims to be a religious conservative. So who embodies the teachings of Jesus more, Pete B. or Trump?
Pete seems honest, decent and hard working. He seems to be self-less and concerned about others. He was raised Catholic and currently is Episcopalian.
Trump is a lying, cheating, stealing, adulterer who could care less about the sick and the poor and pretty much anyone but himself. And he definitely doesn't read the Bible because he doesn't read period.
Religious conservatives have lost credibility after they embraced Trump. So Ross, why don't you get your house in order before you start throwing stones.
53
"...another theory of Buttigieg, in which his unusual trajectory... is actually just a clever meritocrat’s “hack” of the system of ascent..."
Yeah, right. And another theory of Donald Trump is that he's a dedicated altruistic liberal operating under deep cover with the aim of discrediting the GOP.
Maybe so. In all these things, time will tell. But you know, sometimes---maybe even most of the time---what you see is indeed a pretty good approximation of what you get; so perhaps you'll excuse me if I don't dash out and bet the farm on anyone's alternative-reality theory du jour just yet.
16
What we badly need is something different: a meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement....
That would be someone like FDR.
15
For Mike Pence and evangelicals that proclaim they are promoting “religious liberty” , they actually want the freedom to discriminate against who are not part of their predominantly white, anti gay, anti pro choice, ( amazingly) guns for everybody tribe. Why would anybody who doesn’t want that agenda imposed on them cede any ground to the Mike Pences of the world.
24
I’m not sure Ben Studebaker finds anyone but himself acceptable for much of anything. And I doubt the Studebaker name really means much to South Bend 56 years after the plant shut down. Nor really does manufacturing, which has now morphed into highly automated, low job numbers type of employment. I live in a town 100 miles to the south of South Bend, with the same problem, only more recent: our auto industry used to employ 20,000 and now employs zero. They’re gone. Just retirees remain.
So, Pete gets criticized for wanting to go high-tech? What the heck is he supposed to do? He needs jobs that pay, that will attract young people to move to his town, the same as the mayor of my town. You know, we are all fighting the same battles, these Midwestern smaller cities. We are falling apart and these old dilapidated properties are just rat’s nests and dope houses They need to be torn down, and it has little to do with race or gentrification.
I challenge the media to come to these towns and report that what Pete or my mayor is doing is a bad idea, if you will be honest. Our property values are awful and we need good jobs.
Report that.
47
It is astounding at the length to which NYTimes writers will go to disparage Pete Buttigieg rather than simply taking Pete for what he is and asking if he would make a good president.
I don't think Pete is trying to get out of South Bend. I think he enjoys his and Chasten's lives in South Bend. Folks from his home city by and large like the Mayor and what he has accomplishled a lot.
For all of his intellectual prowess, Pete has always found the lifestyle and tastes to the mid West appealing and restorative. He doesn't have to become President to get out of South Bend - he has many other options. He could have been a big business success among his intellectual cohorts from Harvard or Oxford or wherever. Instead, he chose to live in South Bend even while working for McKenzie.
Over intellectualizing Pete's startling trajectory running for president misses the question - would Pete do a good job in the Oval Office with the least social upheaval and tension, and promote democracy, peace, and proserity around the world to increase national security? I think the answer is yes. He gets things done because he's good at analyzing problems, demands, and threats, then implementing practical solutions. Of course change makes some enemies and mad people.
He's a get-it-done guy. He is also startingly a-political! Pete knows he's a Democrat because Democrats care for the poor and down trodden - like Jesus.
He's running on competency to administrate and solve problems - his record.
42
"... might be able to call a truce in the post-Obergefell culture wars and convince cultural liberals that they don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heel."
----
That is offensive. It promotes the idea that dignity in the marketplace is unreasonable while "we don't serve your kind here" is somehow reasonable and acceptable.
As for those adoption agencies, they do the work of the state with taxpayer dollars. Somehow it is unreasonable to compel them to conform to nondiscrimination laws.
We wouldn't put up with this for a second if they refused service to Jews and Blacks. Why are LGBT persons fair game?
42
For the sake of politics, conservative columnists can find the tiny, imaginary cloud in every silver lining.
Buttigieg is the kind of guy most Americans want in leadership positions. Therefore, he must be torn down. I guess that's how the thinking goes.
Yeah, instead, let's stay with Trump, and people like Kellyanne Conway, who teases the press with another veiled threat of what Trump might do with respect to McGahn testifying before Congress. Yeah, let's stay with that game-playing and deceit at the top of our government. Anything different must be attacked by conservatives.
Sad.
37
As a foreign person I am happy to se that someone like Pete Buttigieg has many intelligent defendants who do not share Douthats impression. I wish them all well and thought that Douthat, whom I have often appreciated, this time missed the goal completely.
36
God forbid an American Macron! And coming from the Democratic party that would set us back for years to come. Mayor Pete should try for another office and mature before seeking the highest office.
Those who can throw their hat in the competitive ring and run for office; those who can't attempt to subvert or smear.
16
Mr. Douthat, this line deeply offends me: That Buttigieg, "invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence." Invented? INVENTED??? You can't be serious. Pence's entire political career has been informed by his determination to trounce on the rights of LGBT people like me to even exist. How dare you suggest that Buttigieg "invented" this feud? How dare you?
46
Mayor Pete must be getting to the conservatives and his liberal critics. So much written in just the last few days. Take downs and put downs from the left and right.
He seems an honorable man, fighting for his idea of a better American life. So far has sounds good to me. He does need to provide more specifics, as do many. The first specific appears to terrify Mr. Douthat. A gay Christian, happy to point out the hypocrisy of a Christian like Mr. Pence.
26
"a meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
I'm wondering, isn't the incapacity to implement cultural and economic alternatives the reason there is a brain drain from certain regions of the country in the first place?
1
Ross Douthat’s snide, intellectual dismissal of anyone who isn’t a card-carrying Catholic who graduated from Harvard and sees everything through a right-leaning lens, like him, can be very off-putting. He definitely rubs me the wrong way. However, I took the trouble to read the two articles cited by Douthat. I also remembered two things that had been troubling me: (1) over a year before Buttigieg announced his candidacy, Barack Obama touted him as an up and coming bright star in the Democratic Party and (2) recently there were reports of meetings being held by stop-Bernie Democrats like Neera Tanden, Terry McAuliffe, Chuck Schumer and other establishment Democrats. The purpose of these meetings was to strategize about how to deal with Sanders. Who attended these meetings? Pete Buttigieg. Obama’s gratuitous picking of him out of obscurity, these articles pointing out that Pete may be more a product of very clever packaging than actual substance, and his curious alignment with these scheming establishment Democrats is worrying. They may publicly revel in the diversity of the Democratic primary field, but privately they fear and detest Sanders and would do anything to clinch the nomination for Joe Biden. Already, Buttigieg has been making comments designed to undermine confidence in Sanders. I admit I was drawn to Buttigieg when he announced his candidacy. But one has to wonder if he wasn’t put in the race as a stalking horse for Joe Biden to draw support away from Sanders.
6
Bravo Mr Douthat! The Current Affairs piece and your analysis are hopefully well on the way to scuttling the Mayor's run.
4
A "theological feud" with Mike Pence?
Well, that was Pence's re-framing of the issue.
Mayor Pete was condemning Pence's backwards views on what it means to be gay.
So, once again, Ross demonstrates he cannot see beyond his own religiosity.
Sorry, Ross. Whether you can wrap your mind around it or not, treating people equally regardless of the choices they make in their personal lives is about human rights, and not about your warped sense of religious freedom.
14
This column -- like Nathan Robinson's takedown of Mayor Pete in "Current Affairs" -- reeks of cynicism. Why do Mr. Douthat and Mr. Robinson have such a problem with goodness, with earnestness, with intelligence, with a candidate who actually listens to people? Why do they brand Buttigieg's comments and actions as "humble showing off," as premeditated acts of "resume building"? Perhaps because they're both so immersed in the swampland ethos of Donald Trump?
21
Why so cynical already on Buttigieg? Mike Pence is the theological aggressor, as anyone who knows his history as Governor of Indiana can tell you. Gay rights are human rights. "Religious liberty" is an oxymoron, wrapping bigotry in a flag to continue aggression against humans that don't fit their fundamentalist opinions.
15
What this country doesn't need is another inexperienced politician to follow a grifter who may do irremediable damage to this country before he departs from his throne. We've had our share of mediocrity and disgrace following the only President post Roosevelt who knew how legislation could effect change. He was Lyndon Johnson, and he'd spent enough time in the sausage factory viz.,the US senate, to know how sausages are made. He didn't speak like a patrician, didn't go to an ivy league college, and could walk and chew gum at the same time. He used the N word but accomplished more for blacks than any President after Lincoln. Mayor Pete might be fine for HUD or some lower level cabinet position. But there are only a few(4 IMO) Democratic candidates (out of 20) who have the requisite experience to lead US out of our current morass. If you don't know who they are you'd be well advised to do a little digging below the surface of Times OP-ED pieces and MSNBC so that we don't get "fooled" again.
3
The more biased, misguided, virulent hit-pieces (like this one) that I read in the NYT against Buttigieg, the stronger my resolve to support him in his candidacy. Pete is exactly the kind of President I'd like to see guiding our country into the future.
20
So, learning a language in order to further one's career has more virtue than simply being good at language? No Ross, not all of us live in career driven, capital creating, rule the world jobs. Some of us appreciate the liberal arts for their own sake. Somewhere out there is a guy with a blue collar job that can play 5 instruments, sing, paint, etc who didn't do those things for a career. Everyone is amazed by autodidacts. Go watch the youtube video of a nearly blind 7 year old boy playing the piano, fully self taught. Pete's career will make it on its political merits or not. Singing a sour tune on his innate and aquired abilities is just anti-intellectualism in disguise
19
Being a moderate conservative that was born and raised in the industrial midwest, I tend to not like many people in presidential races. Buttigieg is different, and many other midwest moderates are starting to agree. He, unlike the NY Times, is attempting to speak to a lot of people that were left out in the last election. Ross Douthat, maybe we can save the hate-based opinion pieces for later on in the election season? I bet Buttigieg is doing more to help things in our divided society than you and your article are...
25
Sooo bottom line, Ross - Buttigieg is somehow "too smart"? Just angling his way forward in life - looking for an edge (beyond his name)? Looking to hoodwink voters by not REALLY caring about them, because he must have SOME kind of other ulterior motive? OK. If any of that is true (the cynical slants, I mean), then what do we do? There is no perfect candidate for this thankless job. But IMO it would be nice to have someone in the White House who is - if only on the surface - though I think this young man's surface has some depth - willing to learn something new. Willing to think about something beyond what he already "knows". Willing and proven able to take a studied risk here and there. And just generally not be an obvious idiot. Or demostrably completely out of touch. Nor a maddening vacuous sound bite spewer. Probably too much to ask these days. But with no perfect candidate, this one at least seems to be trying.
12
Ross's piece is in itself the product of an eminence grise clad in a "gilet jaune" of the right and a work of "performative intelligence." In essence, "an advertisement of his seriousness.."
As a "pungent" right wing critique, it delivers a "cursus honorarum" of conservative thought and provides reciprocity to Mayor Pete's formerly "unreciprocated theological feud..."
It proves that words are no more effective at rouging the conservative pig that has given us the world of Tump, born out of the "post-industrial states"... than disguise what is a colorful, if not haughty hit piece, short on logic and tugged into distortion.
I guess we're better off with an uneducated stiff without a resume.
11
I read the short Studebaker article you recommended. In it, one of the members of the family that abandoned South Bend to its fate berates the mayor for not working any miracles there. Would Studebaker like to make something again in South Bend?
Hmm?
I didn't think so.
12
How about a meritocrat not from your class, Mr. Douthat, who commits acts of loyalty to the class he or she came from?
1
Why is it you seem to think that somebody who is extremely intelligent, well educated, and sophisticated can't genuinely be a rural mid-Westerner? That would seem to imply that working-class folks across the United States are dumb and backward. By the way, if he's so irresponsible as mayor of South Bend, why did they re-elect him with 78% of the vote--and that was after he announced he was gay. Maybe working-class folks aren't homophobic either.
19
As a Christian, I want to see the Religious Right back down and get out of politics. The Founding Fathers gave us religious freedom, Douthat and his ilk have given us religious zealotry and theocracy. I want to live in a secular society where my faith is not propped up by the state. I dont want Jesus's name invoked at every public meeting out of respect for religious freedom. Placing any religion before another is anti-democracy, and clearly not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Freedom to believe, or not believe. That said, my God is about love. Period. My God doesn't make "mistakes". My God made gay people, and, brown people, physically deformed people, handicapped people etc., for a reason. None of it, like skin color, is a choice. Religious zealots like Douthat are threatened by progressive religious thinkers. Zealots know that Progressives represent something purer than anything they know. Their ideal is a loving God, but they are so filled with rage, hatred, and self-righteousness that they know actually separates them from their ideal God. Pete Buttigieg drives them nuts.
303
I don’t think I’ve read a single comment in this section that has referenced one of Pete’s policy proposals. Therein lies my (and I believe Ross’) problem with Buttigieg.
45
What is a meritocrat?
It sounds like a term used to put down someone:
who achieved academic merit by studying very hard in school.
Someone who served our country (without faking a disability).
Someone who chose to go back to his home town and turn it around.
Someone who has achieved more in 37 years than most do in a lifetime, while at the same time being a good, decent human being.
We should all be meritocrats.
I am 65 years old and that's what I done my best to be a meritocrat (thanks for the term) my entire life. I am neither famous nor rich. Nor perfect.
I am not religious; I am totally secular. Yet I do believe the same thing that Pete does; that we are all here to love and be of service to each other.
I feel a debt of gratitude to him for focusing on these values first and foremost. It really is exactly what we need inform our national priorities.
13
A lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. True of Russian collusion. True of all the political jockeying going on for the already doomed Democratic nomination. Trump has the greatest advantage possible with his control over the AG and the Justice Department. You can bet that all the FBI and DOJ figures swept up in the investigation into political spying will be doing their perp walks at the most opportune times for Trump’s campaign and probably right after the Democratic convention. Revenge is so sweet especially when your enemies have done it to themselves.
1
Douthat's on-going war on "meritocracy" is disingenuous at best. America is not a meritocracy. It's a society in which "haves" have most of the advantages from birth. For example, Douthat's argument requires a belief everyone that goes to Harvard is there because they earned a place through their abilities. Yet it's common knowledge that a very large percentage of students at elite schools get in through legacy admissions or other non-merit-based means. Moreover, the vast majority of those that actually "earn" a place in elite schools based on achievement are born with advantages -- economic, social, cultural -- most Americans could never hope for. Ultimately, Douthat really seems to be pining for a reversion to an older, better time when the hereditary nobility unashamedly ruled over the unwashed masses without needlessly exciting them by dangling before them the dangerous pretense of "equality of opportunity."
6
“ ... and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement.”
Intriguing. What sorts of things do you have in mind? Do you think Sen. Warren is exploring that sort of thing?
I don’t agree with everything she says but I’d like to see the body politic work through the relationship between lower taxes, less taxpayer support for public higher education over the years, higher loads of student debt, and debt and the financialization of the economy generally.
When we dramatically cut taxes on wealthy people, spend less money on public community colleges and public four year universities, public higher education becomes more expensive, for-profit colleges come along to meet the need, and a for-profit legally advantaged student loan industry develops to meet the need, it seems to me like a great opportunity to talk about what people mean by the financialization of the economy and about how you might be disappointed if you cut taxes hoping to get something like new factories in return. Because it may turn out that new debt instruments seem like more profitable investments.
When Sen. Warren went to U of H tuition and fees were cheap (thank you Texas taxpayers) and it wouldn’t have occurred to anyone to discuss whether taxpayers should help pay 100K loans used to study French Lit at a fancy private university.
5
I've watched Buttigieg several times in town halls and other venues. He appears to be not just very intelligent, but very thoughtful with his intelligence and his personal philosophy. Aren't these desirable characteristics for a leader?
He supports a "gap" year for some kind of national service, a simple idea that could profoundly narrow the differences in perspectives and reduce the lack of empathy that currently plague our grotesquely unequal society.
He, like many people raised with opportunities, may have recognized the need to experience and comprehend all walks of life - not just as observers, but as active participants in a daily life so different from their own. It takes courage and a commitment to search for emotional and spiritual truth in all its shapes and colors, not just binary and lily-white.
19
Mayor Pete is doing very well already to rate such a column. Good, may he keep inspiring such criticism. Mayor Pete has the intelligence, commitment, morals and ethics we need in our leadership.
20
Get used to it. A younger generation of politicians are needed. They face a country and world in rapid transition. They will be alive deep into this century. It is their time (maybe not for the presidency yet) to take up the mantle from the current crop of aging and aged out politicians. Local, state and federal government will be filled with their ranks in the next decade. The pace of the political landscape they will inherit will need well grounded individuals that can rally people together to achieve common goals not divide them with a few wedge issues. Pete Buttigieg represents that movement. He may not be the be all end all but he is a start.
10
Ross, the one thing you have supported in Pete, he is smart, even intelligent. This makes him a candidate vs. Trump. Of all the Democratic candidates today, Pete is the one I'd most like to see against Trump in debate. You outline a carefully planned political design by Pete. Yes, perhaps your observations are correct. But, this all the more makes Pete look political intelligent and a worthy opponent to our present white house occupant.
20
How exactly does an educated Democrat (or meritocrat as Mr. Douthat calls them) commit treason against his class and what specifically are the economic and cultural alternatives he should favor to demonstrate this treason?
Should he favor lower taxes on the rich, getting rid of Roe v. Wade, eliminating the EPA, imprisoning asylum seekers, destroying workers unions, abolishing government regulations across the board, expanding the second amendment to permit people to carry loaded guns everywhere, exiting every multilateral organization which has helped keep the West secure for seventy years, embrasse the religious right, and believe in creationism? In other words become a Republican?
Please educate us Mr. Douthat.
34
I don't know about Catholic adoption agencies but evangelicals DO need to brought to heel. Their current influence is far beyond their numbers and we are going to suffer the consequences for many years.
28
It's to the good this kind of think piece/kill piece, including toxic article links from the hardline progressive left, comes packaged so early in Mr. Buttigieg's campaign.
Being the intelligent and gifted politician that he is, it's guaranteed he'll absorb and use the feedback to his own advantage and strengthen his campaign going forward.
32
Pete Buttigieg will switch his positions as his support falters. He was higher in the polls but has slipped somewhat. What are his positions on important issues? Is he waiting until he gets farther along in the race before he lets us know? He needs to stop belittling Mike Pence and concentrate on his campaign.
4
@KMW His poll numbers have continued to climb as more people get to know him through his media appearances.
His positions are outlined in his appearances on Morning Joe, the View and his CNN Town Hall (both) as well as appearance on Rachel Maddow.
If you prefer to read them, here is one article outlining some of them:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-pete-buttigieg-believe-where-the-candidate-stands-on-7-issues
He doesn't belittle Mike Pence. He is challenging him on his pushing of the discriminatory policies targeting the LGBT community. Ultimately, Pence was forced to back down.
Pete Buttigieg has stated in interviews that if Pence wants to clear this up, he can simply state that he has changes his mind and now believes that it should be illegal to discriminate against anyone in this country because of who they are.
And Pence hasn't and won't.
14
So the ruling class lacks legitimacy? I wonder how that came about. Could it have something to do with media outlets like Fox News brainwashing its viewers to doubt the veracity of anyone who does not follow conventional Republican thinking? Could it be the crazy conspiracy theories espoused by such outlets?
No, a meritocrat does not have to be a traitor to his class. It is up to the leaders in the right wing to have their epiphany and accept truth as truth before it is too late. There are many economic alternatives (btw, the culture cannot be legislated or won) being proposed by the Democrats. It is up to serious thinkers to acknowledge them and give them a chance. (Hint, it's not clean coal, a tax cut that favors the rich and the red states at the expense of the poor and the blue states or immigrant baby kidnapping).
14
Studebaker is an important voice, and knowledgeable, with a sincere concern.
But Robinson appears to be a Bernie bro with an ulterior motive.
6
@Alix Hoquet My thoughts exactly.
2
It is so sad keep seeing Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs and his uber, extremely biased takedowns of Pete Buttigieg in that venue as well as the Guardian held out to be in any way the "last word" on the amazingly calm, decent and brilliant mayor. Nathan Robinson has admitted he is biased and even had he not, informed progressives know that he is an avowed Bernie supporter. It seems that people like him and (for example) The Young Turks are so wedded to their own candidate that they risk coming off as the Fox news of the left. They really ought to know..and do..better. Sorry, Ross but you miss the mark.
18
I heard The Argument. I grudgingly thought if nothing else Ross might be a good guy to have a seltzer with (he was giving his evaluations of different types of seltzer). But I have grave second thoughts.
4
One of the basic problems here is that we allow people like Mike Pence to get away with claiming to be Christians. They're not. I grew up in the church, I have read the New Testament, and I know what a Christian is. Trump supporters do match the description.
18
“Who is a Christian and who is not” has caused more problems in world history than just about anything else, starting back in the 12th century.
2
@John P
Didn't John P mean to say "Trump supporters do NOT match the description?"
Otherwise, Mr. P's remark makes no sense.
4
It’s a mistake to support someone just because he’s gay. In fact I would say that, save for his sexual orientation, there is little about Buttiigieg that is authentic. As Douthat points out, he’d do well in a college interview, but the vision that would heal the political divide of our nation, just isn’t there.
2
@Edward Well who is your favored candidate? You can't claim that Trump, who has campaigned on and reinforced divisiveness in our country, would be a healing presence. He will further divide us in the next two years. Who of the many candidates do you think could heal the political divide and restore democracy?
2
@Edward
What's inauthentic about serving in the military, being named a Rhodes Scholar, graduating from Harvard or being a successful mayor? Our conman-in-chief was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and were it not for having an uber-wealthy father, might be a used car salesman today.
6
@Edward
It appears that neither Ross Douthat or Edward of Honolulu has read Pete's autobiography, "Shortest Way Home."
Any one who takes the time to learn directly from Pete about Pete's background would not be so ill-informed as Mr. Douthat and Edward of Honolulu. Oh, and there are many, many unbiased observers who have verified the veracity of Pete's bio.
5
Pence has, over the years, virulently attacked gay rights and gay people. He has voted against employment non-discrimination, and perhaps worst of all, called for Ryan White funding, which provides HIV care for indigent people, to be cut unless they provided assistance for conversion therapy. This feud is not invented. When Buttigieg says, Pence has a quarrel with him, it refers to Pence's attitude with gay people. He does not treat them with the same respect or accord them the same rights as heterosexuals, even if they are Christian. Douthat is just parroting the WSJ editorial here with this trope, he has just substituted the word invented for imagined. Very unoriginal Ross.
22
“Post-obergefell?”
I consider myself fairly literate , especially when it comes to foreign words, but you got me on that one.
No worries. I am going to look it up.
But you should have provided a link.
3
What ever happened to white privilege? It seems to be off the table where Buttigieg and Beto are concerned, but I doubt either one of them is up to the challenge of the office they seek. So I have to wonder what do they have that’s so great?
1
The conspiracy theory hypothesizing - "a clever meritocat's "hack" of the system of ascent" - in this article and its abject cynicism is exactly what is wrong with this country and the state of political media coverage. Maybe its pretty simple, Buttigieg is running because he's a patriot and actually cares about the current state of our country instead of as a clever surreptitious vehicle so he can hangout with the elites and powerful. Enough with this machiavellian nonsense.
17
Yea, so you don’t like PB, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. But what interested me about your opinion piece was the part about “brain drain.”
As conservative ideology becomes more and more extremist, more and more young people will leave. It’s not only because conservative enclaves are intolerant and repressive for many young people, it’s that these areas are boring and lack good job opportunities. Many interesting, creative and enterprising people leave these areas and with good reasons.
Once there were free states and slave states. Now we’re evolving to free states and Bible states.
18
@Frank Salmeri
The great thing about Pete Buttigieg, and in my opinion one of his chief advantages over other Democratic Presidential candidates in the Midwest and other Red States, is that he wants to make it clear that Democrats are much closer to Jesus' teachings than current Republicans, especially those in the White House.
5
Yep. Just one more thing the intelligent urban folks will soon need to feel guilty about - leaving the uneducated, evangelistic folks behind to stagnate in their rural conservatism.
5
"he [Buttigieg] invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence, as if to advertise to liberal donors that he would be fully committed to traditionalism’s rout.."
Buttigieg didn't invent a theological feud, he called out Pence for his anti-gay rhetoric and policies. Yes, granted, there is a long anti-gay tradition, as there have also been long traditions of slavery, misogyny, warfare, etc.
As an "-ism", traditionalism is a bit loosey-goosey, especially when espoused by those with their noses and minds buried in ancient texts that proffer moral lessons that may have made sense to Jewish tribes in the desert 3,000 years ago but leave rational, objective readers scratching their heads at the sheer incoherence of much of them.
You proudly belong in the nose and mind burier camp.
18
Sadly this entire conversation is already rendered moot. Thanks to the Democrats and the media.
Good grief. Talk about looking for criticism ...
Buttigieg is wholly legit and I hope he goes all the way!
19
I will vote for any Democrat nominated but my heart is with Buttigieg in the same way it was with Obama. Obama made me feel joy and extreme hope. Pete calms me down and gives me extreme confidence.
My daughter once said to me about Obama, "You know, mom, he's just another politician" and in hindsight she was right. But he was an honorable politician and a smart one and if he hadn't had the McConnell Obfuscation Juggernaut our country would be a lot better off right now. But he wasn't perfect.
Pete is not perfect. But he's smart. He's calming, he's confident, he's kind and compassionate. Has he made enemies in South Bend? Probably. People don't like their houses, even if delapidated, torn down. But I watch him listen to people, I hear him truly answer questions when most pols go into 'pol speak spin' and I turn them off. When most of them come on TV, I mute them because I know exactly what they're going to say. I'm eager to hear what he has to say.
And anybody who loves a one-eyed dog has got my vote (for now). We have ten months to go before the first contest. We'll see how it all shakes out.
334
@sophia "Joy and Hope" are what we need so dearly.
That is why FDR was so loved.
Thank-you.
31
@sophia
I couldn't agree more with Sophia. I would like to add one more point: not only is their dog one-eyed but he's also overweight and a shelter dog. Pete and Chasten have heart.
Their dog Buddy also has a co-dog, another rescue, who is part of their household.
It's easy to Oh and Ah over pure bred Portugese Water Dogs like the Obamas. It takes real heart to love a shelter dog no one else wants. Ya' gotta have heart to do that!
42
So Ross' blindspot reveals itself: “invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence”. I guess that Religious Freedom License to Discriminate Act (which Republican business leaders and NASCAR shamed him into retracting) was no big deal? Or because Pence isn't Franklin Graham, tweeting asinine remarks all day long, his actions can't be challenged?
Buttigieg is young, but there is something unique about the way people respond to his message. He doesn't yell or hector. He recognizes that Trump is a symptom and not the problem. And he's demonstrated the ability to listen and adapt his views (including from the minority residents of South Bend).
His renewal of South Bend was admirable, given his starting point and given the constraints within the Indiana system. If he can produce imperfect results under these constraints, he'd make a great President.
Buttigieg's rise has provoked the inevitable backlash. Bring it on, so we can get it over with.
25
Fantastic and thoughtful article. Despite any negatives, Pete is someone I can support. He brings new energy and clarity, while Kamala Harris and E Warren speak of their own hypocrisy. Want to make millions in elite cities and talk about social justice while doing nothing from their money and life to help the unfortunate.
6
"..... his official positions on the 'gay rights versus religious liberty' questions cede zero ground to religious conservatives."
Many who have commented here have rightfully expressed strong support for Mayor Pete. Indeed he is bright and has an impressive record. Combining those qualities with his interesting ideas and a generally positive disposition, makes him a very attractive candidate anywhere.
At the same time, if Democrats' primary goal is defeating Mr. Trump, one has to be mindful of the impact that a particular Democratic candidate can have on the coalition that handed Mr. Trump his 2016 victory. With that in mind, one could claim that Mayor Pete is probably the one Democrat presidential candidate that Mr. Trump and Republican party desperately hope to run against in 2020.
It is no secret that fundamentalist Christians voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump in 2016. But because of Mr. Trump's immigration policy as well as some of his obvious lies and comments during the last two years, Republicans have been losing support among the "Christian" voters. In particular, Mr. Trump's support among "Christian" women has been going downhill since the last presidential election. But, if Mr. Buttigieg turns out to be the winner of Democratic party's primary, once more the Republicans will be able to unite "Christian" voters behind Mr. Trump.
2
I agree with you. Getting Trump out is the goal. People will have differing views on a Gay President, but we all know where the religious zealots stand. The Dems could lose in 2020 by going too far out, too fast. Outside of Trump’s base, there are still people unsure about the prospects of a gay President, and gays in general. Trump will do all he can, as will Pence, I am sure, to spotlight the Gay card. This election cannot become focused on simply that one aspect.
Trump cannot be perceived as the “least worst” in 2020.
4
@Eddie B.
Pete came out during his 2nd campaign for Mayor of South Bend. His percentage of voters in his first campaign was 60%. After Pete served for Mayor for 3 years and came out during the 4th year of his first term as Mayor, Pete was re-elected with 80% of the vote.
It is almost unheard of for any politician to get 80% of the vote when contested. Even in my District, which sends Nancy Pelosi to Congress, Nancy usually wins by no more than 73% - and she's been around for 50 years!
So for Pete to win re-election by a vote of 80% is good evidence of how people who know him best think of him. Ignore vicious, ill-informed criticism like Douthat's and Eddie B. of "Toronto." Listen to the folks who know Pete best and have the longest time with him.
Pete is also running as a strong Christian who wants to retake Jesus for Democrats because Democrats are more like Jesus than most Republicans now in power.
6
Methinks Ross, given the snarkiness of this column and the quoting of others with fairly obvious axes to grind, must sense that Pete is a real threat to one day become President, even if it's not in 2020, and a real threat to undermine conservative theocratic aims with a true religious language of love.
And that can't be allowed to happen, because it would threaten a lot of Calvinist/Social Darwinist/libertarian oligarchic presumptions and policies, too.
Jesus, remember, was not too thrilled about the oligarchs, the money changers, or the autocrats.
29
An 'Uber-meritocratic' politician in populist clothing? Could that be just a convenient way of dismissing a gifted intellectual who decides that he or she could possibly gain a better understanding of the American experience from the prospective of a struggling rust belt city or a rural agricultural area of the country, rather than from a thriving metropolis?
So, if this is true Mr. Douthat does this mean that you think that if you are gifted or talented, unless you were born and raised in one of these struggling areas of the country, you ought to just stay put and not try to gain first hand knowledge of what it means to live in an underprivileged or under served part of our multi-cultural nation? Now, who is being parochial (or even tribal) and perhaps could rightly be accused of reverse-discrimination?
20
How does one bring "working class under educated jobs" that no longer exist to "the Heartland?"
This entire "meritocracy" idea is off its rocker. Perhaps a technocracy, which to my mind beats a capitalistic money-based oligarchy any day, but merit simply is a name for a rational system of value rather than one based on a genetic lottery.
Merit as opposed to "name recognition" - gee, I wonder which I will vote fot? "You're fired," or "let's teach you how to function in the 21st century workforce?"
Tough choice.
14
Exactly what is this "elite" that everyone uses as an expression of a group of people or ideas that seem to be so negative? What is meant? Rich?educated? famous?. Why so much attention and seemingly dislike? It seems the real "elites" are those who use our democracy for their own use. I think this includes many corporations, especially the oil, coal, pharmacy and defense contractors. They use $$ to buy the system and protect their interests at the expense of millions.
Trump was elected to stop the "elites" yet he has filled his cabinet with billionaires, has rewarded his rich donors, lowered the revenue and rewarded a very few with millions of tax deductions. He is definitely a poster boy for "elite" yet he puts on a baseball hat, and talks like an uneducated rube and he passes as "one of the regular guys". He spends 1/3 of his time golfing at a private exclusive club, his wife wears more expensive clothes each day then a family of 4 has to spend each month. So, "elite" is a term that is used to describe those who are different then you, but not richer or smarter.
30
I love that Douthat doesn't provide any examples of how Buttigieg, or anyone else, might merit Ross's approval.
That's because he'd have to admit his approval would be bought only by furthering lowering the tax burdens of the richest Americans, denying health care from tens of millions of people, telling gay people that their families don't actually count after all, and telling women that they should have absolutely no say about what happens within their own bodies.
24
Mayor Pete is right for our times intellectually speaking. Unfortunately, many people in the country, especially in the Mid-West and South, haven't wound their clocks to the 21st. Century yet.
13
@Phil M
Don't be so bleak! Many of Pete's voters in the Midwest Rust Belt City of South Bend, Indiana, voted for Pete and Donald Trump in the last presidential election!
And Pete won his re-election to a second term as Mayor with 80% of the vote after announcing just a short time before that he was gay.
Things have changed. I think a lot of evangelicals have been embarrassed by the current president and think they will look closely at another out-front Christian candidate who has a good record restoring a dying city to life.
Pete wants to make it clear that Christians are welcome in the Democratic Party!
2
" I especially recommend a long takedown of the young mayor’s memoir by Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs."
Well that article was an arch piece of junk. Jealous maybe?
18
Ross, would you please stop with the faux populism? You claim to be a tribune for the great masses of the U.S., but then you show off your elitist education (all those Latin quotes) and go off on rants that would be right at home in any seminar room in academia. Do you think the great masses would be moved by your arguments that Catholicism should not tolerate divorce, but it's okay for the Church to give Newt Gingrich two retroactive annulments so that he could marry Wife Number 3 (and Mistress Number 2)? (Yes, I've been reading you for awhile.)
The reality is that, for all her faults as a candidate, Hillary Clinton actually had plans that might have helped the vast numbers of Americans struggling in the face of dire economic and demographic trends. Trump did not, and neither did the mainstream Republican party. Excessive political correctness may be a problem for the Democrats, but every day the Fox News and the other tribunes of conservatism show that they have their own brand of that.
(And I don't see any of them living a life in imitation of Christ, so stop trying to give the conservatives the moral high ground.)
27
The fact that Buttigeig is now trying to become a president at such a young age without getting much done as a mayor makes me think that his mayorship and being in the Navy Reserve were just resume-building steps towards his ultimate goal for maximum power.
Just like the young techies who want to rule the world with their start-ups, Buttigeig just seems to be interesting ruling the world.
4
@Say What
This comment is totally counter factual. Pete has made major accomplishments.
You don't put your life at risk in Afghanistan to build up your resume.
Read Pete's bio, Shortest Way Home.
4
He's being given far too much credit for treachery. Lol
1
Mr. Douthat,
The mental gymnastics you had to employ in this less-than-subtle take down of Pete Buttigieg reveals more about your personal prejudices than it does about any larger, international trend...e.g. Mr. Macron.
We get it. You are a conservative Catholic who is not happy with current moral and ethical trends but is trying his best not to subscribe to precepts best reflected in discredited religious superstitions...women and gays, bad; patriarchal leadership good.
Mayor Pete has the fortitude to stand toe-to-toe with the Mike Pence's of the world...and you as well...as to his legitimacy and lifestyle in the context of of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Do you know how hard that is? Imagine the emails and tweets his campaign receives from religious fanatics? Imagine the disgusting personal attacks?
Champion such bravery. It is too easy to question it.
31
He's make a good VP for Warren.
8
Ross, nice piece. However, I'm going to take issue with your smug comment about The Mayor's "brief" deployment to Afghanistan. He did seven month there. Seven months a a war zone.
That's precisely seven months more than you.
35
Without looking it up, who could possibly know what a gilets jaunes is? I doubt that Hemingway ever used that term.
I don’t agree with Ross, but the gilets jaunes have been all over the news.
7
Further explanation please.
Exactly how is Pence an aggrieved holy man for Trump.
8
@coastal
Pence stands faithfully in the background of all official Trump press briefings - standing up for Christ in front of the Porn Star President.
Pence is hardly aggrieved by his position. Pence sees himself as next in line for something and gets a very nice house in Washington DC to live in.
3
Your comparison with Macron is not apt. After all Macron made millions working for Rothschild & Cie and was always within the inner circles of influential French politicians.
Also your claim that Buttigieg invented a theological feud with Pence does not stand close scrutiny. You need to put yourself in the skin of a gay person witnessing his governor unleashing his Taliban-ish instincts on your state and attempting to institute an Orwellian "you're -not-as equal-as-the-others" policy. Pence dressed his actions in sirupy layers of pious statements that, in the burning Trump light, were revealed not to be rooted in any solid belief. Somebody had to say the "governor has no clothes".
If you do not find Pence's hypocrisy disturbing maybe then you can call Buttigieg's theological feud invented.
I live in a suburb of South Bend, IN. Every politician and his mother say "we need to do fix our infrastructure" Mayor Pete actually did that. The water and sewage system in South Bend has moved to the 21st century. It is truly a new age system and, if you do not believe me, read Bloomberg's assessment.
26
What have the tut-tut Studebakers done for South Bend since closing up shop? And if the jobs that South Bend "needs" are in a Studebaker plant, news flash: they ain't coming back. So I'd say cut Pete some slack on that one.
The thing about a mayor or a governor is they have a budget to balance and a legislature or council to deal with. Unlike a Senator they can't spend their days spinning out Utopian policy positions that please their base but are d.o.a. when put to the test of getting passed. That was Obama. And it's also Elizabeth et al. It's most of Mayor Pete's "competition" assuming he has risen to the level of a competitor.
Pete comes in a package a lot more marketable to the elites than people like Sherrod Brown, who are really really what we need but we as a country have no interest in accepting. We don't in our hearts want someone to bring us together in the middle: "I'll give you this if you'll give me that." Dems and Repubs both want the same thing: someone to pound the crud out of the other guys that we hate.
As for the argument that he can't appeal to doctrinaires on the right, he doesn't need to. He needs to appeal to the decent middle, to your grandmother. Read the comments to this column Ross, before you decide that he's not up to that. And if the best shot ya got is taking him to task for going after Mike Pence-Mike Pence for God's sake-that's a pretty limp noodle to thrash him with.
10
@highway
Studebaker was sort of a joke before it closed. The original founding family ran the company into the ground rather than innovating with changing markets, suppliers, and tastes.
4
The world is infested with bright young men. Look at the incredible damage they did in the Kennedy administration.
Mayor Pete needs to build a career in politics, not just decide he is suited for the Big Seat after being mayor of South Bend.
2
OK.
It’s the guy’s name in a court case.
But, c’mon. It’s not like Dred-Scott or Roe v Wade.
Not everyone has heard of Obergefell.
3
All the talk these days is of Buttigieg, Dems already know he's their guy, but everybody agrees that he's too new, lacks experience, what used to be called, 'bottom'. Maybe after this he runs for Senate and in his 40s has another go at President, he doesn't have to get the gold ring on the first go-round. In time the Dems will have to admit that they need to get to the center. Maybe by then he'll have shown political staying power and voters will have gotten used to and come to accept him. American politics has second and third acts; he's only 37, he doesn't have to win on the first try.
1
@Ronald B. Duke Because I believe experience as a Governor is important for a President--the one important deficit in Obama's resume--rather than the Senate my hope is that Mayor Pete snags the Governorship of Indiana.
All America needs in the Oval Office is a decent, thoughtful and smart human being, uncorrupted by the corrupt 0.1% campaign-finance-system that poisons good public policy to death.
Pete Buttigieg supports universal healthcare, reducing income inequality, pro-environmental policies, universal background checks for firearms purchases, preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program immigrant children, ending gerrymandering, overturning Citizens United, and abolishing the Electoral College.
These are things that the majority of citizens support and would make America a healthier and safer place.....and would also make America a representative democracy instead of the sham democracy it is today.
Buttigieg taught himself to speak Norwegian and is conversational in Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Arabic, Farsi, and French, which would be a nice contrast to our current President who can barely speak English.
Buttigieg plays guitar and piano and has performed with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra as a guest piano soloist.
This contrasts with the current Oval Office occupant who plays Twitter and has performed exclusively with Fox News as a Grand Old Propagandist.
Buttigieg is also an actual Christian, not a fake one; I'm uncertain if Republican voters could handle that one.
All in all, Pete Buttigieg looks like a jackpot of a guy.
And wouldn't it be poetic for that fake tough guy in the Oval Office to lose to a guy who happens to be a homosexual ?
Buttigieg 2020
24
You got my vote!
1
“As it happens, we have a striking example of an uber-meritocratic politician who ran as an outsider but turned out to just represent the elite from whence he came......”
Yes,..his name is Trump
8
Douthat showy his stripes when he minimizes Mayor Pete's service using "briefly served in Afghanistan" when he was there for 7 months. Normal tours run from 6 to 18 months. I would hardly describe any of that range as brief.
13
@William Parsons
Pete had already learned Arabic in college - a very difficult language to learn with a different alphabet from English/Romance languages based on the abc's.
He picked up Dari - one of the many major languages in Afghanistan. He worked in intelligence in Afghanistan because he spoke the local languages and could read Arabic.
That's hardly a light committment.
Oh, and Pete drove out on highly dangerous tours of the countryside every few days - heavily armed and armored. Pete's backgound is well document on Google. The fact that Ross Douthat's opinion article i so far-fetched from what Pete actually is makes me think something has happened to the editorial standards of the New York Times.
Even titular Far Right Columnists of the NYTiune ought to have some obgligation to at least get their facts straight. All columnists are entitled to their opinions. They are not entitled to their own alternative facts unless they have joined Kellyanne Conway and the Merry Trumpsters at the White House.
5
"But this bridge-building possibility coexists with another theory of Buttigieg, in which his unusual trajectory back homeward, far from a rejection of the meritocratic mentality, is actually just a clever meritocrat’s “hack” of the system of ascent — an advertisement for his own seriousness that, having served its purpose, can now be abandoned while he tries to vault insanely high, to return not only to Washington but to the Oval Office (or at least the Naval Observatory or a cabinet office)."
This above sentence caused me to take a long pause in reading your op-ed, Ross. First of all, it is an eighty-word sentence, which is way too long for effective communication; and it is packed with multiple assertions lacking any persuasive justification. Next, and more important, you obviously would have readers believe that you have a gift only mind-readers and God are presumed to have regarding an ability to read another person's thoughts and motives.
This whole op-ed is way over the top, loaded with grandiloquence and short on documentation to support your assertions; and if you think the citing of sources such as The Washington Free Beacon provides credibility to your op-ed, please call me about the bridge in Brooklyn I am willing to sell you at a very low price.
6
Perhaps someday Ross you can reveal your preferred candidate for the presidency. You seem to perform a sustained (although unconvincing) job of denigrating virtually everyone that appears in the headlines. It would be a remarkable and memorable column that actually praises someone rather than identifies their perceived shortcomings.
Perhaps the subject of that column would be Ross Douthat?
5
Douthat smears Buttigieg for saying gay love is how God made him. Why?
Reactionary extremist Christians have been very scornful of homosexuality, infidelity, promiscuity, dishonesty when done by Democrats. The GOP sinners get' we hate the sin, not the sinner.'
6
“Humble” showing off? A clever meritocrat’s “hack” of the system of ascent? Doesn’t sound like the mayor we know here in South Bend. I know there are a lot of candidates to cover, but Mr. Douthat, did you take time to do much research on Mayor Pete, such as reading his book, Shortest Way Home, or check out the new searchable website by topic & video, meetpete.org? You don’t have to like his policy proposals, or even have any interest in voting for the candidate, but mischaracterization of a subject is a poor reflection on any writer. Do your homework.
10
I'm not sure if one should confer the notion of promoting the most uneducated among us as our new Rulers or is this is a veiled promotion that we should stick to the same old white guys who claim they got lots of smarts and can run stuff really good?
1
I see that this writer has wasted no time to trash Mayor Pete and thus detect his fear that the man is already succeeding in showing up religious hypocrisy. Here are but 3 of this writer's claims that fall under "facts not in evidence" objections and reveal that the gun of his argument has no bullets:
"And beyond the résumé, an obvious part of his appeal depends on his performative intelligence, his college-interview style of “humble” showing off." [not obvious to us, Ross]
...as the first gay president who, like Nixon going to China, might be able to call a truce in the post-Obergefell culture wars and convince cultural liberals that they don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heel.
...No sooner had my colleague David Brooks praised him for the way he “deftly detaches progressive policy positions from the culture war” than he invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence, as if to advertise to liberal donors that he would be fully committed to traditionalism’s rout." [He called out Pence on April 8 with his quote "your quarrel, sir, is with my creator". Then Pence twisted his meaning and huffed about respecting his religion. And Mme Pence opined that Buttigieg was just looking for notoriety. These two, not Buttigieg, therefore reciprocated. And have on their sham Christianity.]
4
Oh, Ross...where would journalists be without the mandatory protocol packaging us all into neat and tidy categories...
...then when one goes "rogue," the ulterior motives just HAVE to outweigh any possibility there might just be something more deep and personal going in this young man's endeavor. Like, maybe, actually DOING something? Your insistence that meritocracy be devoid of ANY genuine altruistic tendencies needs to be reserved for the obvious Bozos in politics like our AmeriKan Csar. It's an interesting indictment for one that aligns with the "spirituality" of Roman Catholism. Funny, I always thought that such stories would be Christendom's inspiration and hope here dead-center in the rot of unfettered capitalism. My guess is, this has more to do wth the typical/tired "christian" penchant for social/personal judgement than any serious indictment of "elitist"(whatever that is) motives.
Before we assassinate this round of candidates, let's keep our on the ball, shall we? One to stick to labels? How about the Mussolini Wannabe serving us up a deconstructed Constitution on an authortarian platter?
7
All of the NYT right leaning columnists seem to bemoan the fact that the Democrats have not come up with the “perfect” candidate yet, as if we need some sort of Second coming of Jesus in order to unseat the worst person ever to be elected President.
I’d vote for my local dog catcher if he ran for President overt the disaster we currently have.
12
" populist alternatives that are poorly led and unready to govern."
as opposed to the current republicans that are organized and ready, not to govern, but to obstruct and tear down.
6
At This Point He's Not a Progressive (NP )
No NP will fight against Income/Wealth Inequality. The record is very clear.
Perhaps only one can pull it off- Yang and his idea for 1K for every person. That will ameliorate but not solve the problem.
If the problem is not solved we can kiss What's Left of Democracy by-bye.
1
I would take the "uber meritocratic" Pete Buttigieg any day over the corrupt, narcissistic, infantile, uncouth, "go for the gutter", "unter meritocratic"incumbent. If Buttigieg "hacked" the system of ascent, then Trump "uber hacked" it--- cheating, lying, falsifying, litigating, tax dodging, his way to the Presidency.
14
After reading your column, Ross, I wanted to defend Mayor Buttigieg from your petty if quasi-erudite sniping at him. I see that just about everybody in the readers' comments is pinning you down with their fire. It seems that most of Pete's defenders are on your intellectual level. What's your hidden agenda, Ross?
10
Mr. Douthat has a knack for pigeonholing everything and everybody. And if you don't fit into one of his imaginary holes, he'll just invent a new one. Kind of lazy.
8
First, opposing civil rights for gay people is not "traditionalism." Mike Pence is an anti-gay icon, worthy of ridicule. He is the joke everybody is in on.
Second, our political class thrives on money. There is more of it in New York and LA than there is in South Bend or anywhere in between. So it's unlikely a politician would waste much time in the little places.
The natural political urge is for a pol to try to attract some of that money to the middle of the country.
The dichotomy is that most pols come from small red states with a lot of land but not much money. So even they gravitate to the coasts.
Once again, the problem with representation is money -- or as our naive Court has called it, "free speech." Until we stop catering to the few rich donors -- who do not live in South Bend or Youngstown or Amarillo -- we can't fix politics.
6
There seems to be many elephants in the room when talk revolves about the very compelling candidacy of Mayor Pete. They are not just his Republican and Evangelical opponents but also homophobics of all political stripes, races, colors and creeds. Many voters had a hard time with a woman running for president in 2016. A married gay man will face many more obstacles to overcome. It is unrealistic to think their ingrained biases and beliefs will evolve no matter how qualified and fit for office Mayor Pete may be. I know some of them. They will not change. Sad but true.
6
Best line here.
"What we badly need is something different: a meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
Agreed, still waiting.
4
@somsai
I am considering a Warren/Yang Ticket with mayor Pete appointed to head Commerce Dept.
1
Pete is correct in bringing dot.com companies to the Midwest. The old "Studebaker" jobs are not coming back. The loss of these jobs are the natural result of innovation, which has driven America's economic prosperity since inception. We lost a lot of blacksmith and stable jobs with the invention of the automobile that were replaced by auto industry jobs. Let's focus on education, science and developing new technologies while making a "real" effort to train the "forgotten" men and women in rural America to be meaningful participants in America's never ending wave of innovation. When you look to recreate the past as a solution, the result is and will be more economic decline.
8
Consider Bernie Sanders then. He's an "elite" in the fact that he's now a millionaire, yet he still wants to raise taxes on himself. Isn't that a "real treason against his class"?
"Populist" conservatives, like Douthat, claim to want to help the same people as progressives, yet they are terrified of that "S" word so much that they can't bring themselves to support any progressive who genuinely wants to make things better for the working class.
3
@Vince Corporate capitalism is a government to protect and promote corporations.
Democratic-socialism is a government to protect and promote the needs of the citizens. Thats the difference Ross.
2
Why must people be pigeonholed? Why can’t someone like Mayor Pete be seen as a composite of different influences: a product of a midwestern small town who is trying to use his education and professional experience to better his home, a proud gay man who won’t relinquish his faith, no matter how others treat his sexual orientation? Why should complexity be dismissed as posing?
1119
@NM Because Ross Douthat loves the "straw man" method of argument. It's none of his business anyway. This is going to be another binary election -- Trump or anybody but him. I personally am very attracted to Pete Buttigieg's candidacy, but I will vote for whomever the Democrats choose and there will be no talk from me about holding my nose. The whole darn country is losing its sense of smell anyway, given the gangrenous stench coming from the Republican party.
202
@NM Because it doesn't ring true, he's a product of an elite university couple, nurtured in the rarified academia that is removed from the lives of normal people, with solutions that favor that same class. Extreme privilege is also part of the resume. Fifteen years ago I'd of been a booster, now I'm looking to radical change. Enough.
7
@somsai - the facts of what Mr Buttigieg is currently doing argues against those smug swipes about "product of an elite university couple", "reserved from the lives of *normal*people", "extreme privilege".
Why the negatives about what most people want for their children? - ability, ambition, a good education and a moral grounding. That holds true for kids on either coast as well as here in FlyOverLandia.
We are getting the "radical change" you mention - with the Orange Oligarch accelerating the divides in our society.
88
I would think a “real” Christian like Douthat would applaud Buttigieg challenging Pence’s blatant hypocrisy. If I recall correctly, Jesus was not big on hypocrites.
I am also struck by the fact that the religious right keeps insisting that those of us who favor abortion rights are getting more extreme in our views, when in fact, our views aren’t changing at all. No restrictions during the first trimester, modest restrictions in the second, major restrictions in the third. If fact, it’s the right that is getting more radical, now essentially proclaiming they don’t believe a woman should be allowed to get an abortion even to save her own life.
I am not sold on Buttigieg. I get the impression that he is a “coastal elite”’s best guess at what the heartland wants (full disclosure, I work in tech in San Francisco). He’s gay, but in the straightest, most boring way possible. He’s a veteran. He lives in Indiana. People in the Rust Belt things like that stuff, right?
Most of my friends love him. If he can get Ohio back into our column, then by all means, let’s get behind him.
15
@Mercury S "He’s gay, but in the straightest, most boring way possible"? You prefer self-marginalization and affectation?
Sorry, Merc, we're not here to entertain you -- except, perhaps, for those of us in show biz. Meanwhile, if you work in tech in San Francisco, you're driving up the rent.
4
@Mercury S
I think the current orthodoxy among Democratic politicians is that there should be no restriction in any trimester. That, for example, was Bernie Sanders recently expressed view.
1
@Mercury S And this business about religious adoption agencies supported almost in their entirety by tax dollars.
If they reach into a tax payers wallet they should not be allowed to refuse that citizen services.
10
Sometimes Ross makes it easy in the first sentence. The ne plus ultra of a "governing class that lacks legitimacy" isn't an Ivy grad with a great CV; it's a U.S. Senate that repeatedly blocks the will of a majority of the country while remaining in the un-democratic grip of senators from over-represented rural states. And if we still actually drove Studebakers, we might criticize fancy college boys for failing to "supply the jobs that South Benders need." But are the Studebakers supplying the jobs that South Benders need?
6
Ross you are my favorite conservative columnist though I am very disappointed in this piece. This is the kind of take-down that gives the media--left and right--a bad name.
While you have some excellent points, this undermining tone of someone who is obviously quite sincere and trying hard to create creative alternatives to our polarization I believe deserves uplift, more gentle critiquing and support for trying hard to connect the disparate parts of our country yes?
5
I have to laugh at Douhat dismissing what he calls Macron’s less than successful presidency. There are no magic wands and it is impossible to please everyone. There are many intractable challenges with no clear solution. At least Macron is trying to improve things. The truth is that nobody from the US has much right to criticize considering our own situation.
5
Obscurantists love to quote even more obscure tomes in some 'last verbalist standing' shoot - out. Clarity, Mr Douthat, is not the enemy.
Here is a central question concerning a young gifted democrat; does this democratic cat catch mice?
While we are the Centralia barnyard Sir, may I remark on your beautiful verbal plumage? Well done for Iowa farmers and their phd's on the poetics of late Byzantium.
2
So Buttigieg "might be able to call a truce in the post-Obergefell culture wars and convince cultural liberals that they don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heel."
Or could, perhaps, the right be convinced to stop their never-ending assault on gay people's basic rights?
6
We don’t need bridge builders to phony conservatives. We need to expose these cons for the frauds they are. It is about power and control and then taking as much as you can for yourself. The only difference is that the democrats will give a little more back to all people along the way.
3
Ross, the problem with your analysis is that it ignores the character of this man. His personal actions show who he is, just like Trump's personal actions betray what kind of man he is. Methinks you may be clutching at straws when faced with someone who really does have the intellectual chops and the charisma other charlatans can only dream of.
9
@Tom Rowe Replying to myself, I did not intend with the phrase "other charlatans" to imply Pete was a charlatan. The word "other" should have been deleted, but once I hit the send key, it was gone. Oops.
1
Pete is the rightful successor to the line of enigmatic, harizmatic, handsome, smart, and yet totally ineffective leaders, read: JFK, RBK, Obama, now Boutlieg (s?) Being youngish, elite-educated, and pseudo-patriotic (read: a brief history of semi-serious military service designed to enhance one's resume. wait... Obama didn't do even that little) does NOT qualify one to be a leader, except in the eyes of charmed Democrat Party elites. I prefer doers, like Trump. In two years of His Presidency, He has accomplished 10 times as much as Obama in his 8...
Trump is even less accomplished than the Dems you list. And BTW, only a deity or a king gets a capital letter at the start of the words “he” and “his.” Trump is neither, however fervently he and his followers might wish otherwise.
3
I just want a president that has elected experience, wicked smart and compassionate.
Is that elitist?
8
Douthat, you're sounding a bit like a conspiracy theorist. Perhaps Buttigieg has worked on building a particular image - but who hasn't. And he sure as heck didn't have anything to do with the election of Donald Trump - a massive factor in creating the environment that Buttigieg has correctly recognized as befitting his rapid rise in politics.
4
Pence has and always will be a hater of women and anyone who is not a white heterosexual male. His policies as governor spoke for themselves. The perfect wife works in a Christian school that believes in conversion therapy and she writes children’s book s that are a tax write up. Pence displayed his disdain for African football players by a staged walk out when the minority football players took a knee during the National atheme two seasons ago when his ignorant boss was once again raving about black men. His orchestrated stunt was an embarrassment to himself and his boss.
So what did Mayor Pete do? He called Pence out for the anti Christian that he and his family are. Pence has every right to be a hater so stand up own your hate vs talking about how well you worked with mayor Pete
The GOP who represent those red states, don’t seem to want to do anything but obstruct democracy and complain. Democrats have programs that implemented could make a difference in people’s lives. Ms. Warren ‘s website address rural issues. Mayor Pete and Mr. Wang (who is getting no traction from the media, despite his great ideas with discussing on how to move everyone in the country forward) also know what they are talking about.
Right now the American people are
Listening and learning about the candidates.
We have many opportunities to learn more about everyone’s policies
Mayor Pete exposed Pence for the arrogant hater that he is. Perfect VP for a womanizer,liar , hating president.
4
Why can’t the President of this country be young and smart? Most artist, musicians and athletes are their most creative and productive in their 20s and 30s. Look at how many successful companies, especially tech, were started by people in their 20s and 30s. I’m not discounting experience that comes with age (heck, I’m 62), but I feel it’s time we have more young people like Pete Buttigieg in politics (sorry Bernie and Joe). We’ve tried really dumb for President (how’s that working out?), now let’s try really smart.
9
Why are the "elite" singled out and denigrated if they "self-segregate" in the "metropoles"? Don't the "less-educated Americans" who stay in “rural and post-industrial states” also self-segregate? They choose to remain in the "hinterlands." Why blame the "elites" for that? If residents of the fly-over states truly feel left behind, why don't they do something about it? Go to one of the "metropoles" and make a place for yourself. It's what Americans have been doing for hundreds of years. The notion that these left-behind-by-choice Americans turned to Trump because of the "economic stagnation and social breakdown" that they created is false. They turned to Trump because they shared his racism, his xenophobia and enjoyed his belligerence. People afraid to better themselves usually resent people who are not. Trump fed into this resentment. He tells the left behinders that they are not to blame for their lack of education and gumption, the elites are. At least Buttigieg went back to his hinterland hometown and tried to make a difference. Millions of his Trump-voting neighbors do nothing but feel sorry for themselves and do nothing to "save a piece of the heartland from stagnation and decline."
4
Hold your ground, Mayor Pete. You've scratched the thin-skinned sentiments of those most fearful of what they have to lose
(nothing), which to them is everything. You've drawn their blood and their paranoia by speaking truth to their alleged power.
Be strong!
5
Ross seems confused.
He seems to have fallen for the big lie that merit disqualifies. That's exactly the thinking, really more of an emotion, that got us in our present mess.
Individuals aside, Ross. Don't you want to elect leaders who have obvious merit?
5
Mr Buttigieg may have a swell resume, and certainly seems superior to the grievance mongers making up the rest of the Democrat field, but I simply do not see broad support in this nation for a gay man as president.
I’m puzzled. If Buttigieg, who has overseen a genuine economic renewal in South Bend, has not delivered “the urban renewal (and) jobs that working-class South Benders need”, who has? The implication is that those preferred jobs out there for the taking, but politicians like Buttigieg are too elitist to bring them into their cities. Really, is it that all Buttigieg has to do to revive Studebaker is put on a flannel shirt and a hardhat, and drink a few Budweisers? Or is it that those jobs are a thing of the past, and writers like Douthat are trapped in a kind of nostalgia, refusing to acknowledge that Buttigieg is making the best of the economic hand South Bend has been dealt?
5
"his official positions on the “gay rights versus religious liberty” questions cede zero ground to religious conservatives."
And has much are you willing to cede Ross on having the right to be married and not be blocked by any group who thinks it knows better? Bigotry in the guise of religion is still bigoty.
1
Why aren't you writing about Trump's continued refusal to make his tax returns public. IT SHOULD BE FRONT PAGE NEWS EVERY DAY until he does. Instead you whine about the first gay person's attempt to run for the presidency and who has shown more intelligence in one phrase, "your issue is with my Creator", than Trump has shown in his life time!
4
Much still has to be learned about Mr. Buttigieg, but his manner and words have thus far indicated he is a person who appears to want to help all Americans. But helping all Americans can't happen if we look backward.
The reality is that the world is changing and our next president must find ways to provide support and quality of life to the highly educated, those with less formal or advanced education and everyone in between.
As for the language used in this article, why words like traitor? That seems unnecessarily provocative and just a way to generate "clicks."
Additionally your line: "he invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence..." shows you are either ignorant of Mr. Pence's past statements and actions (which hold immense weight as the VP), or purposefully neglecting context. As evidence, Pence has long spoken openly and forcefully about his theological stance against gay marriage, and co-sponsored a proposed Constitutional amendment that would enshrine heterosexual marriage as the only permissible form of marriage in the U.S. Mr. Buttigieg saying he is a man of faith who worships and was created by the same God Mr. Pence worships, seems more an invitation to a conversation with the person who actually started an unreciprocated theological feud with millions of his fellow Americans.
3
Populists could bring blue-collar jobs back by subsidizing them, solving the problem by keeping factories busy that economics says to close. This is what the Soviet Union did and China still does. The free market solution is one that many in South Bend have already adopted -- acquire new skills and move to areas where these skills are in demand.
Mike Pence has already launched a theological feud with all gays, by wanting them to convert to straighthood or at the very least go back into the closet so he and his ilk can pretend they do not exist. One could just as easily say that M.L. King initiated an unprovoked feud with segregation.
The problem with modern society is the rule of economics and money, which is a sort of meritocracy itself. The alternative to meritocracy is the respect for tradition embodied in aristocracies and caste systems. There is also a different sort of meritocracy, its evil twin, based on merit in scamming as the winningest and therefore best form of merit. This is Trump's inverted meritocracy, his native habitat where he excels. The merit of the great scam is the only sort of merit he sees or knows.
2
"...he invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence,..."
Everyone of us should call out Mike Pence for his evangelical Christian-based intolerance toward any life that does not abide by his interpretation of scripture.
I have never heard Pence say that his marriage is anything but loving and sound despite the fact that there are a growing number of same-sex partners who are similarly happily and lovingly married.
I have never heard Pence say that his children are healthy and happy despite that fact that there are a growing number of gay men and women, and transgender men and women living openly and unashamed of who they are.
I have never heard Pence say that his faith has been shaken despite that fact that the majority of Americans do not share his evangelical faith, much less try and force him to hide his faith to - as it would be - be closeted. Certainly no one has seriously suggested "conversion" therapy for Pence to create a more tolerant version of himself.
Donald Trump picked Mike Pence as his running mate in large part because of Pence's religious bigotry toward the Queer community so I guess in that one way, Pence can say that his life was impacted by Queer men and women. Instead of trying to enforce inequality, maybe Pence should say "thank you".
5
Another interesting Douthat column. I agree with the importance of the task he lays out at the end. In doing some book research to understand the South Bends of America I have recently read Yuval Levin's The Fractured Republic, Timothy Carney's Alienated America, and reread Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone - still the best of the bunch. I am now reading the Shortest Way Home. I am familiar with the related work of Senator Mike Lee's committee, but prefer the state and community wellbeing time series research of Gallup.
Anyone interested in the task, including Douthat and Buttigieg, should become familiar with it. South Bend ranks in the bottom 15, down with Scranton, Youngstown and some places one might not expect like Salem, OR. No doubt South Bend still has serious social problems which will take a generation or more to address.
I give Buttigieg credit for trying, not least of which by addressing the "brain drain" issue Douthat mentions. (J.D. Vance deserves credit here too...) I say put that fine brain to use, and yes draw on the time at McKinsey, to better understand the "economic and cultural alternatives" at the heart of the Task. One might start by looking at Lancaster, PA which in spite of the odds is ranked 8th in the Gallup metro wellbeing list. What's the outlier formula there and will it work elsewhere? Hint: look at its "community" ranking which appears to be the key. Incidentally, Lancaster is quite ethnically diverse.
Wow. Haven't finished reading the column but I did read the article by Nathan Robinson. Pungent? I guess. Robinson wants a politician with pure hatred. Oh maybe not for people he says but for the injustice in the world.
Now I don't know about you but there are things in our world that rile me up. I do feel a bit of hatred from time to time but I try to pull myself out of it. Left-wing hatred has led to a lot of really awful, hateful deeds. And I'm not going to mitigate the awfulness of it by pointing to the ongoing injustice in the world. Pol Pot didn't actually help the poor people of Cambodia. And yes, pure hatred will lead you in that direction.
The basic point of Robinson's polemic is that Mayor Pete is an empty suit. But Robinson hates him for having been a management consultant which is so stupid that I have a really hard time taking Mr. Robinson seriously.
I'm guessing he voted for Jill Stein last time. I have some left-wing friends who I disagree with on a number of things but they are capable of rational thought. Robinson not so much.
4
Cynical critique - putting thoughts and motivations into Buttigieg's persona
I'd actually like to see Mayor Pete as President and Biden (historically) at his side as the Vice-President as the hero who put our country's Government bback on track
1
"Class", "uber-meritocrat"?!
Buttigieg is a personification of those qualities which I see as being a part of American virtues. His intelligence, harnessed by his concerns as a citizen, is a very useful thing for any leader and the vacuum at the very top of American governance just now should draw in people, like Buttigieg, who are direly needed in this age of lies and cheating.
For the author to attempt to stick a mere label upon him as if this is all he is, is not worthy of anyone.
4
“politician who never really escaped the mentality of Harvard and McKinsey,” wow, that’s something to strive for, escaping the “mentality of Harvard and McKinsey”.
Dog whistle racists have a variety of narratives. Homophobe/misogynists are more accomplished. They have the Abrahamic tradition of subordinating all women to men and persecuting all LGBT people in the name of “God”. Buttigieg is a dangerous threat to “religious conservatives” because he has read the texts... Ross should try a simple experiment. Download the New Testament into a Word or text document and then run a search or a few searches. What did Jesus say about women? Gay persons, rich people and riches, poor, sick, dying, prisoners, and widows? What did Jesus condemn?
Pundits on the right yearn to convince us all that if only we got rid of all taxes and let corporate leaders and billionaires run the country without any regulation we would all be better off. After all, the super rich are the very best leaders, because they must be smarter because they are rich. They cherry-pick religious scripture and never reference those portions that condemn greed and avarice but concentrate on sex and sexuality as the only “moral” transgression.
Buttigieg is illegitimate according to Ross. Meanwhile Ross’s President, his Party, and his “righteous indignation” are a lie. Butttigieg is a breath of fresh air. His rejection of right wing Evangelism is essential. The role of religion in our Constitution is personal and private
5
Oh dear Ross,
Your freedom to swing your arms around stops at my nose. That does not make me anti-arm-swinging. Likewise, the unwillingness of reasonable people to allow your religious beliefs to dictate other people’s lives do not make them anti-religious.
I believe you are intelligent enough to understand the distinction.
3
This column is an example east coast snobbery. Mr Douthat sits on his throne looking down his nose and making contorted pronouncements about those in the provinces. Mr Bouttigieg is engaging in the world and trying to make a difference with what he has. How many others make sacrifices of this magnitude to try to make positive change in the world?
2
Ah yes, even on the editorial page of the august NY Times, homophobia rears its ugly head with a completely unwarranted and factually corrupt analysis of Mayor Pete. You criticise the mayor for trying to re-invigorate South Bend with high tech, smart investments, and a thoughtful approach to urban renewal. Yes, houses were torn down (only the ones that were beyond the point of no return) and gentrification may follow. However, what exactly do Mayor Pete's want him to do? How about being like Trump and telling the yokels that Studebaker is coming back and it'll run on coal? Ross is digging for dirt fast and furious. Having trouble finding it aren't you Ross, so let's make things up!
6
So someone with a magic wand can invent a product that poorly educated workers can assemble for 60 dollars an hour plus benefits. And its up to an educated Democrat to produce this wizard. What nonsense. Maybe a church piece next week?
1
So it seems, Mr. Douthat, that you googled Buttigieg for everything negative you could find and then tried clumsily to stitch it together. Somehow it slipped past you that he was re-elected by 80% of the vote. How is that possible if he really did nothing to help South Bend? Perhaps, Mr. Douthat, you should spend some time in the Midwest to learn how to properly stitch a crazy quilt that is functional and well-crafted.
3
Buttigieg is a master of the hook, the key that opens the door to Harvard, Rhodes Scholarships, and McKinsey.
Hook masters are brilliant at gaming the system, at perfecting how to make those who are being hooked not realize they are, and Buttigieg has had many years to cultivate it to the extreme.
2
Ross's sacrificed his credibility in his first sentence with the line "a governing class that lacks legitimacy". Obviously America's leaders and institutions have made plenty of mistakes over the years, but it is the cynical assaults on government that began with Ronald Reagan and led to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News blowhards denigrating education and expertise as "elitist" that is the core problem in America today, not the legitimacy of the erstwhile governing class that has been swept aside by a bigoted fool and a cast of grifters and incompetents who are destroying our democracy brick by brick. And you, Ross Douthat, did not speak up until it was far too late. I won't even comment on your snide take on Mr. Buttigieg. It's not worth my time.
4
I think he is betraying his class. I, like him, am the son of two humanities academics and I find it almost unfathomable that he is not more left wing than he is. Being in a world around people who study suffering tends to lead one to become a skeptical leftist, not a stooge serving the needs of billionaires. He is a sellout, only he sold out long ago, and continues to sell out. He is a neutral in a school yard fight, not the man you want fighting for you--unless ur a billionaire
So, Buttigieg is a fake! Deep down he's a privileged intellectual who fools people by doing the right thing for a selfish reason. He even went so far as to serve in the military, take the lowly position of mayor of a small town in Indiana, and bulldoze a few substandard houses to make way for job-creating enterprise. Eek, the man reeks of geographic sorting and class-based polarization!
Even the heir to the Studebaker misfortune finds fault with Buttigieg. Even Pence, who views discrimination against gay people as theology, criticizes his fellow Indianan.
Heaven forfend that we would elect a President who is personable, intelligent, compassionate, experienced, and under 65! Who needs meritocracy in Washington? Aren't we satisfied with Trump and McConnell?
4
Ross is simply identifying - in oh-so-many words - the basic schism between running for the nomination versus running for the general election [regardless of whether it is a mayoral race or for President].
The progressive Democrats will demand their Kabuki theatre from all candidates where they will pledge/pretend to renounce their adherence to the basic criminal law [Harris] or actually chairing a committee/women never lie about harassment [Biden] or proclaim themselves 'sufficiently black' [Obama] and toe the line during a quasi Cultural Revolution Long March.
I do admit that it makes great viewing for folks like me however. There is no greater entertainment than watching progressives eat their own and a strong second place is to watch reasonably intelligent men [and they are mostly men] squirm as they support the Trumpster's 'ideas'.
Oh yeah - just in passing - if you don't think every step in Buttigieg's choices [military service, consulting, small town mayor] was a conscious and prescient decision then you are either naive or insane.
The only thing "traditional" about Pence is his hypocrisy.
5
Too many people are running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Many of those people will not be able to beat trump. The Democratic party (of which I am a member) is so divided that I doubt any Democrat will be able to win. It will be another Hillary fiasco.
If these Democrats who are running really cared about the country rather than themselves most of them would exit right stage and let some one run that might actually have a chance to win. I doubt that anyone under 45 is qualified to run this country. They need to wait. I also question whether a black or a woman can win. There are several women who are running that I could support, but I just don't think, sadly that the country is ready for a woman. Neither Beto or Buttigieg is another Obama in any way, shape or form. Both remind me of clowns.
Every time I see a critique of a popular presidential candidate listing all the good points in his plus column and then doing the backhanded "But what about.....," I see someone who's scared of losing to that candidate. Buttigieg is a lot smarter than most of his critics, be they Demorats or Republicans, and his IQ is certainly miles ahead of the incumbent.
1
This column is typical of the self-deception in right-wing thinking that aims to be deep but isn't. There is something of an analogy in the commonplace and fallacious accusation that it is somehow "hypocritical" for the rich to call for higher taxes on the rich. Huh? There's nothing hypocritical about that at all. Rather, it's the commendable capacity to see justice and fairness in spite of one's own circumstances and to be willing to do something about it.
With this kind of disturbing, delusional, and frankly self-serving right-wing logic, we'll never get out of the mess we're in unless starving and voiceless people rise up and bring it about with a pitchfork revolution.
Show me a right-wing intellectual these days, and I'll show you a right-wing stooge who isn't half as smart as he thinks he is.
2
Conservative elitism snobbery on display.
He seems to be claiming you cannot be an elitist AND honestly understand the needs of the hinterland, much less work to solve those needs, unless you are trying to game the system for personal gain.
Besides, weren't it conservatives who came up with the idea of masquerading their blue blood as nothing more than Crawford cow pies?
1
Ross, the bar for me is so low now...I just want a President who can put subject, verb, and object together..I don't even care what Mayor Pete is saying...the coherence of his sentences is music to my voting ears...
3
Mayor Pete is not even remotely qualified to be POTUS or VP. I do not know why any respectable news source would waste space by devoting an article to him. I will say the same for Beto, though to Mayor Pete's credit he at least has some platform and can offer an intelligent answer to questions. My biggest, and I think others, complaint about him is a mayor of a medium size town does not have the experience to run a country.
Perhaps you should devout your space to someone more credible and qualified , like say, Tulsi Gabbard who seems to lack any coverage in any main stream news source.
1
I live in South Bend, although I didn't grow up here and certainly don't have family that lived here during the Studebaker era.
Setting aside the rest of the discussion of Mayor Pete, I just wanted to say how disappointed I am that Ross cited the blog of a Studebaker "scion" whose only standing to speak - apparently - is that his family members were titans of industry three generations ago.
Three full generations.
I suggest you follow that link and see for yourself. What you will find is a very bitter, very shallow, very narcissistic piece that repeats ghostly slogans for a long-dead car company. It doesn't seem to matter to the author that Studebaker hasn't employed anyone or done anything meaningful for the community in 60 years. He bristles with pride, and abhors attention given to a community leader who doesn't share his last name.
And for Ross Douthat it's recommended/insightful reading?
3
“... and convince cultural liberals that they don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heel.”
It must be enormously gratifying, even thrilling, to imagine yourself as persecuted, as a victim.
Wish I could think like you, Ross!
Be very careful. Those cultural liberals are out to get you.
1
I see Russ Douthat venturing out at night with his glowing lantern to find the perfect candidate who can "commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
Such is Douthat's high-minded pursuit.
There is always somebody like a Russ Douthat who searches far and wide for perfection. Finding none they grieve. Finding somebody like Mayor Pete who come close to their ideal is just not good enough. So they move on.
Meanwhile a most corrupt and dishonest man runs amok. But Russ trods on, swinging his lantern, until he disappears into the maw of darkness.
1
Geez Ross. You criticize him for encouraging internet companies to move into South Bend. What do you think he should have done instead, try to re-open the Studebaker factory? What are your suggestions on how to bring back good paying jobs for people with high school diplomas?
2
"What we badly need is something different: a meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
I think his name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And Ross, I am sure that you would not have backed him in 1932.
3
Oh my God! Are you suggesting that Mayor Peate has progressive ideals and is trying to find ways to make them appealing to a majority of the voters? The horror!
4
I’ve always thought of fundamentalist Christians like Franklin Graham as basically decent people who have sometimes fallen short in their responsibility to be sufficiently charitable to sinners like me; but when I consider the fact that millions of them are now preparing themselves to go out for a second time and vote for a man who has violated almost every moral precept in the book, I think again.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/440500-franklin-graham-rails-against-buttigieg-for-calling-himself-gay-christian
3
You can tell Buttigieg has got the attention of the Republicans. We are starting to see a lot of conservative columnists telling us how fake and unsubstantial he is.
Yay, Mayor Pete.
7
You know, Ross, it's really getting tiring to read of the supposed attack on Mike Pence by Pete Buttegieg.
I believe what Pete was attacking was Pence's hypocrisy in his so-called "Christian" attitudes. People like Pence and his perversion of Christianity likely would make Jesus weep with their day-in, day-out holier-than-thou judgement and hate-mongering.
He wasn't attacking Pence for being a Christian. He was merely pointing out that he may be a hypocrite.
2
Douthat’s critiques say more about himself than his subject.
If a meritocrat does something un-meritocratic, he’s a poser. If Buttigieg can relate to trumpsters and liberals, he’s using humility to show off. Even though he’s a typical democrat, he is the man who should persuade fellow liberals to leave florists who want to refuse service to gay people alone and explain nuances of Pence’s narrow views.
Are there any virtues, in this candidate or any human, that douthat can simply appreciate without analyzing them into flaws?
2
Ross, your Op-Ed is just hogwash! To me and many others. Pete seems to be genuine, smart and have basic values of fairness and all of that is so refreshing after the 2 years of all that’s Trump.
3
I submit to you Ross that Buttigieg has already committed the "treasons" you are referring to. Talking about religion is one of them. If you don't see them is because you may not like them.
Once again or ALWAYS, Douthat ties it all up in reproductive rights. Very subtle Ross. We see you. We just don't respect you.
2
I think we need smart people who are in touch with reality and pragmatic in seeking solutions. Is Pete one of these? Maybe. He is young and lacks broad experience, but could develop into an exceptional politician.
One thing we for sure do not need, is lying, phony, divisive faux populists like Trump. He has done nothing but drag us back to a time of discrimination and small mindedness that represents the worst of the small town mentality.
181
@Kathryn Aguilar
I would be very interested in knowing how an "exceptional politican" is constituted !
At least he has ideas. Someone needs to tell “working class” people they need to take control of their lives and stop believing politicians will give them jobs, self confidence, or status in our society.
4
This is not, per se, pointed at Ross, but when will the press, and I suppose the rest of us, get off the politician-as-savior/protagonist shtick. Whether from Harvard or Ohio State, no one individual is going to save the mid-west, or anywhere else for that matter. Pete isn't going to save the mid-west, nor is Trump, or Warren or any of the others. Economic and social forces are burgeoning mile-wide rivers that throwing a rock or two into isn't going to make the slightest difference. Local communities and their associated educational, religious and political organizations will have to figure out how to create their own eddies of opportunity.
2
He is just too fluffy and without substance. And no, he doesn't merit the presidency - he hasn't paid his dues or gotten enough experience to do the job. Just being young doesn't ensure you have new ideas, and even if he has them he doesn't have the experience to make them happen. I'm looking at Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren.
2
@Renee Hoewing. Really? Kamala has barely been a senator in her first term. She was a state lawyer before that. No governing or executive experience in comparison.
3
@Renee Hoewing. How about Amy Klobuchar, smart, empathetic, practical and candid?
1
@Rain And her national political skills are starting to look questionable.
1
Ross you never fail to disappoint. As the vast majority of comments I read here seem to indicate, Mayor Pete is on to something. People from all over this country are weighing in and each is finding something encouraging, something that resonates, a grain of strength and purpose that is, quite frankly more than just refreshing. Any chance of healing the toxic division that we are experiencing now is, for me, welcome and essential. Enlightening - no. Accurate - nah. But at least you're consistent.
42
A “Governing class that lacks legitimacy”? Where did that come from? Did Barack Obama’s administration lack legitimacy?
Unintentionally, Mr. Douthat has stated the conservative way of thinking: Only conservative ideas have legitimacy; liberal ideas are not only wrong, but illegitimate.
That pernicious, anti-democratic perspective has way more to do with our dysfunctional politics in general, and the emergence of Donald Trump in particular, than any sins of the meritocracy.
60
@Mark Roderick
I think you may have misunderstood Ross. I took his "governing class that lacks legitimacy" to refer, not to Ross's personal opinion but to the broad, well documented phenomenon in the West of distrust of expertise- the anti-intellectualism and fear of elites, science, globalization, cosmopolitanism that is driving everything from Brexit to The Wall to anti-vaxxers.
While this is an idea that appeals to many self-styled 'conservatives', its appeal is not limited to the right; there are many on the left who have always insisted that the elites, by definition, lack legitimacy.
In their distrust of elites, experts, science, and rationalism (what Ross terms the 'meritocracy'), right and left frequently find common ground.
1
I have never thought of Buttigieg as the final answer but he does seem one to have a conversation with. Like Bernie there is at least a conversation. I wouldnt mind to have the lackluster performance of Buttigieg in the oval office for a while. I strongly suspect he would do a half decent job. Anything but the establishment please.
16
Thanks--I learned things from this column. Perhaps I grow more conservative in my advancing age, or you are providing more actual information in your columns, or both. In any case, I'm still reading. :-)
I'm still puzzled by why religious conservatives wouldn't simply not have an abortion if they consider it to be wrong, or remain celibate if they find they are gay and consider it to be wrong to act on it. Or, put another way, why is it that, speaking morally, in their view what is theirs is theirs, and what is mine is theirs, too?
121
Of course, in abortion’s case some progressives like myself see the reason to be opposed is that “choice” actually is the intentionally killing of a human fetus. (The fact that this killing is very gruesome and results in the loss of a human being’s life is graphically shown in the movie “Unplanned.”)
I am also very opposed to all weapons of mass destruction, assault weapons, unjust wars, our present massive and discriminatory incarceration system, capital punishment, racism, sexism, xenophobia and misogyny...and certainly Trump’s frequent appeals to racism, xenophobia and misogyny; as well as Trump’s wall and his morally reprehensible policies of cruel and inhumane treatment of refugees and their children.
Every human being at every stage of life has the right to be treated with dignity and respect as a human person including those to whom we disagree. When White nationalists acting as terrorists who egregiously harm others then their actions require severe and certain consequences among which is the quick removal from society so they cannot harm anyone. As human beings they still deserve humane treatment and if deemed to begenuine candidates for rehabilitation, the opportunity to redeem themselves and rejoin society.
Gay marriage harms no human being and affirms the dignity of human beings.
2
@mrkee
Their notion of sin seems to focus around matters of human sexuality, at least that of people to whom they don’t relate.
The kind of religious conservative you refer to seems to be able to find ways to ignore behaviors that fall into the other categories of sinfulness.
And when you tell yourself that your leader was anointed by divine intervention apparently that gives a pass to him for anything he might do or have done, even while you condemn others.
This is their moment, I guess, and they are making the most of it. It vitally important to continue to question and speak out.
6
I'm just going to enjoy the intelligence and eloquence of all the Democratic candidates after being subjected to the fifth-grade vocabulary, incoherent sentences, non sequiturs and vulgarity of Donald Trump for so long. Buttigieg is probably the best of the lot for drawing me into his "conversation," maybe because he shares his own thought process on the way to taking a position.
244
@abigail49
A fine reply -- although you perhaps degrade the vocabulary of fifth graders, every one of whom I've ever met spoke with more clarity, better judgement and more maturity than Donald Trump.
67
@abigail49
Yes anyone of them is a refreshingly articulate contrast. My vote however, although I find Mayor Pete engaging, goes to Senator Warren, for her work over the years to even the playing field for all.
4
The article confuses cause with effect. The "elite" do not choose to "self-segregate." They follow capital. Capital -- employers, jobs, means of production -- concentrates in ever-smaller circles. Not only from "hinterlands" to coasts, but in turn to specific centers on the coasts -- to LA and San Francisco and Silicon Valley and Seattle out west, and to Boston and New York and DC and the Research Triangle on the Eastern Seaboard.
Disagree? Look at Amazon -- where did it choose to expand?
This story is old news. If you want to find a culprit for the growing divide between urban rich and rural poor, look at the ownership of capital in America. That drives everything else. Don't blame those who respond to the forces of capitalism for going where the economy steers them.
47
After ticking off his intelligence and charm, Mayor Pete's core argument for becoming President is that he takes a long term view of public policy because he's young. It is a great argument and a perfect reason to make him the VP nominee.
I would love to see a Harris-Buttigieg ticket. The contrast with Trump-Pence (if Pence manages to keep his job) could not be starker.
20
Ross, Pete Buttigieg didn't just pick a theological fight with Pence, who wouldn't recognize Jesus if he tapped him on the shoulder. He shut down Pence and his hypocritical evangelical fellow travelers by forcing them, as Jesus said, to first cast out the beam from their own eyes so better to see clearly enough to cast out the mote from the eye of their brother. Mayor Pete is a living example that a man can be both a man of faith and gay. The former attribute is a choice; the later is who God made him.
63
Faith is not supposed to be an election gambit though it has often been used that way in the past. Buttigieg does not have an inside track into the mind of the Creator anymore than anyone else. Trying to take on Pence for his beliefs on gays is just a political ploy, and, as Douthat points out, is hardly calculated to heal the political divide.
1
Anytime a conservative mentions the word "elite" or any related word in a negative way, the reminder is necessary that their current leader, our president, sits on gold toilets and likely never met anyone in the rural heartland until a few years ago when it was required of him. America, if your choice is between two "elites" in 2020, please choose the intelligent, thoughtful one with a humble heart who was willing to lay down his life for this country and returned to his midwest roots because he loved it there and wanted to serve its citizens.
53
You’re a victim of good taste.
1
You conveniently overlook the central issue between Pete and Pence: Pence's hypocrisy in his suport for a man as immoral as Trump. He also points out that Pence, like many self-proclaimed "christains", ignores the central message of Jesus in terms of helping the poor and disadvantaged. Your version of catholicism does a similar omission. Pence's "christianity" needs to be discredited and Pete made that point eloquently. Real christainity focuses on the teaching of Jesus not a pick and choose use of the Old Testament.
51
Ross Douthat actually claims that Mayor Buttigieg "initiated an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence". I don't know what plane of existence Douthat is on, but it is obviously one that does not include Indiana. Pence was a rabid talk show host. As a Congressman he pushed right wing evangelical theology some of which even his fellow Republicans could not stomach. As Indiana's Governor he attempted a number of religious bills. One of which that passed, legalized discrimination against homosexuals (and for that matter, blacks, like in the South when I was growing up and many claimed God did not want the races to be equal or together). The legislature had to quickly gut it, because many businesses (including ones like the NCAA and Eli Lilly) said they did not want to be in a state with such evil theocratic laws.
Douthat should stay with theological topics that he is familiar with, like writing columns and a book about how the Pope is not Catholic enough. That's a subject on which Douthat is the Highest Authority. Or so he claims.
60
I’ve seen this line of critique against Mayor Pete before, and I can’t stand it. So by heading back home, he’s doing something wrong? Instead of making fat paychecks at a consulting agency, he came back to help out, and you’re portraying that as a bad thing? And how dare he sound smart! We hate brains now!
I understand his resume seems a bit “try hard” or reaching, but I refuse to live in a world where these are manifestly and inherently bad things. He has been Mayor for eight years, and if he sees President as his calling, good for him. You can critique all 20 candidates for something, but these criticisms seem particularly weak.
43
Identifying Buttigieg with Macron reveals the sad but deeply-ingrained impulse of every meritocratty intellectual, to put a label on an original to make him or her appear less so. The tone of this article couldn't be more elitist despite the implied journalistic claim for impartiality. There seems to be no such thing as an intellectual elite who can abide a phenomenon for long without giving in to the impulse of the intellectual, to find a pigeon-hole for the newcomer. And yet, despite this tendency, Pete Buttigieg is no Macron. He is like nobody else remotely on the scene. His unique combination of humility and intelligence defines categorization. That doesn't mean he is our next President by any means. But it does suggest that the compulsive analysis of columnists like Douthat might consider a 'time-out' while the rest of us use our own judgment. Because we don't know much about Pete Buttigieg -- as compared to Biden for instance -- we have yet to know if his exceptional gifts are more about personality than character since character, in the end, is what counts. But trying to label someone outside the box from a place inside that box won't find the answer.
30
@seaheather Brilliant point thank you!!!!
1
All these pundits thinking they're oh so smart as they nitpick at people who really HAVE accomplished something good and who might really have a great deal to offer this country in the way of trying to get this country going back in the right direction. I cannot help but feel, as I read this Op-Ed by Douthat, that he'd only be happy if HE were the one running for president but guess what? HE doesn't have what it takes and therefore prefer to use what he thinks are clever little snide observations to diminish the qualifications of someone who has really achieved something good. As I know well, the best NEVER succeed in the world of American politics. It's ALWAYS the second rate and that's simply because the American voters are not smart enough to know a good thing when they see it and then stand behind it. On the left and the right, when someone good comes along the initial instinct is to tear it down, not build it up. Such is the mediocre nature of the American electorate and American political class. I doubt that Buttigieg will survive the jealous haters but IF I'm wrong, then it will be a case of the cream finally rising to the top, for once. But I'm skeptical, ladies and gentlemen.
16
Ross, his “McKinsey” is the approach that attempts to harness the market forces you and other conservative commentators profess to trust. He turned the page on the industrial past because to say he would bring it back “again” flies in the face of common sense, basic rules of economics, the advance of automation, etc. It’s not “elitist” to use numbers.
But we should listen to the heir to the Studebaker fortune because they are related to someone who had a great idea 100 years ago?
20
Thank you yet again for proudly displaying your conservative bona fides and your utter hypocrisy by doing so. Your statement about Mayor Pete being willing to "cede zero ground to religious conservatives" completely ignores the conservative view that homosexuality should be criminalized everywhere at all times, and that religious believers should have an unequivocal right to deny goods and services to people solely based on their sexual orientation and/or behavior. How about conservatives ceding ground by acknowledging the humanity and the rights of those who happen to be different? How about standing up for the right of someone to simply walk into a bakery or pizza parlor and be able to walk out with a cake without being denied, harassed, or overtly discriminated against?
34
“invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence”
Sadly, yet another piece refusing to recognize the efforts by the religious right to marginalize everyone who does not accept their god.
Mayor Pete and Pence may have worked together but this must not obscure the major affront that Pence’s views of gays represents to the Mayor and to the majority of American citizens. The actions of the administration that Pence is the vice-general of has taken aim at every group and religious opinion that differs from its own.
Efforts by the “religious right” (actually the right wing of one particular religion) to gain political power, beginning with the Reagan presidency, has proceeded with the clear view that tolerance, or live and let live, is not acceptable to them. Rather, they have been seeking to force all citizens to live according to their personal religious precepts. The best examples of this might be same sex marriage and health care for the transgendered. Still, nobody has explained how someone else’s marriage diminishes your own mutual commitment or why we should pay billions for sexual incompetence of the heteronormative but not for the care of the sexually troubled.
Mayor Pete is the first person who is truly religious and I afraid to express this, yet also willing to take on religious fascism. Nothing could be less than an “invented feud”
269
@Gary Swergold OK. There are a couple of things that you and a lot of others on the left don't get about Christianity. First, before you criticize us, please read the bible. When you do that, you'll understand that according to Christ's mandates, Christians are neither to "marginalize," as you say, anyone or hate anyone. Christians are - above ALL else - commanded to love everyone, even our enemies - even those who hate us. To say that Christians hate gay people is simply ill-informed or a purposeful lie. Good Christians love gay people, and they love Muslims and Buddhists, etc. etc. YOU CAN CERTAINLY FIND PEOPLE WHO CALL THEMSELVES "Christians" THAT TREAT GAY PEOPLE HORRIBLY, BUT THEY DO NOT REPRESENT THE FAITH OR THE MAJORITY OF CHRISTIANS. Second, the bible is unambiguous that homosexual acts are sinful. Don't feel bad about that, though, because many heterosexual acts are also sinful - e.g. adultery. BUT in both instances, they are REAL biological urges. No thinking person denies that. BUT for Christians the denial of a biological urge as an expression of obedience to God is an act of worship. It's an act of joy. Again, though, Christians do not hate gay people or anyone else for that matter. That's the central tenet of the faith. We love.
2
@Gary Swergold I would also recommend Mr. Bruni's column titled "The Catholic Church is Breaking our Hearts." This is what the Catholic Church of the 'religious conservative' looks like. Mr. Douthat practices the art that so many of us in the Church have grown so tired of.
Mayor Pete brings to the public debate a long delayed and much needed topic. That is; Is the marriage of conservative politics (especially Trumpism) with religion an existential threat to the practice of Christianity.
Specifically, does one have to be a 'Trump Christian' to be seen as an authentic Christian? Catholics will recognize the 'authentic Catholic' characterization. Mr. Douthat speaks the language the authentic Catholic- Pope Francis consistently warns us against the dangers of this division.
7
@BK I have read the Bible but I've also witnessed Christianity in action. While I haven't read the Koran, I'm told that it also is full of peace and love but, as we've seen, is pretty much aligned with Christianity in not practicing what they preach.
17
Wow, what a cynical and overly analytical take on an emerging young candidate. I guess he's fooling us all. If South Bend, or any similar small town, can attract businesses and new residents, that seems better than becoming hollowed out ghost towns with opioid addicts. The guy speaks multiple languages, served his country, is open and proud of his sexuality, has a sense of humor, and is one of the most well-spoken politicians I have ever listened to. His candidacy is a long shot but I'm glad he's in the race. It's a breath of fresh air.
33
" . . . his official positions on the “gay rights versus religious liberty” questions cede zero ground to religious conservatives.” Well, since religious conservatives also cede no ground but essentially want all gay people to shut up, go away, or die, I think not ceding ground to them is a good thing.
29
Mayor Pete has every qualification for the Presidency, the problem is society has not developed enough to overcome religious bigotry. What is desperately required is an editing of the scriptures, for example, Homosexuality is an a abomination, what is an abomination is this archaic comment . Modern medicine has accepted that we are born with the sexual instincts that we have, it’s not something we have control over.
We find Gay people in every profession, and in most cases doing outstanding jobs.I wonder how many talented people have been pushed aside because of their sexual orientation , or religious persuasion., or any other form of bigotry.I would cast my vote for Pete without any reservation.
10
I would like Mr Douthat to venture forth from his cloistered, solipsistic world and share with us any candidates he could support.
If none of the current bunch are up to his standards, I would be agog to learn what his criteria for a truly good candidate might be.
“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain --and most fools do.”
-Benjamin Franklin
24
If Buttigieg policy and approach for reviving small town America (bring more knowledge based jobs) is not the right approach i.e. it is Harvard-type of thinking, what is then the right approach? Bring manufacturing back from China? Or tax the billionaires and give giveaways? If buldozing blocks and bocks of abandoned homes is not the right approach, which one is then? Let them decay forever and serve as centers for crime? And what is wrong with being the American Macron? Mayor Pete is so impressive!
15
Douthat wringing his hands over the idea of "bulldozing poor people's houses" is laughable. Are we to believe he cares about poor people?
Let's be clear. Mayor Pete's problem with Pence is political not personal. He finds fault with two positions espoused by Pence. The first and foremost is Pence's support for Mr. Trump. Pete asks, "How can you be a cheerleader for the porn star presidency?" Pence here represents the evangelical right wing, which, more than any other demographic, has brought us Mr. Trump as president with 81% of them voting for Trump in 2016. It is hard for me to believe that anyone claiming a relationship with Jesus Christ could support Mr. Trump for anything but Trump's election provides much proof that they do, as Pence will attest.
The second area of concern is Pence's stand on gay rights. He contends that being gay is a choice and said keeping gays from marrying was not discrimination, but an enforcement of “God’s idea.”
This article brings no credit to Douthat. It is second rate hackery at best, snide and sneering on a level occupied by the likes of Tucker Carlson of late CNN fame.
16
Seven months in Afghanistan perhaps led to an epiphany in Pete Buttigieg (as I am certain it would for most people deployed to a war zone). He came back a changed man. He could have chosen many intellectual pursuits, but he chose instead to try and make a difference in South Bend. He was re-elected in 2015, so he must have been doing something right. His policies apparently created economic growth and successfully encouraged business investments.
Your assessment that he perhaps is the American Emmanuel Macron is pure speculation, with no basis in reality. He is a meritocrat in the best sense of the word. He is a moderate compared to most on the extreme right and left. Is he "the one"?
I am uncertain at this point, but he certainly does remind me of Barack Obama, who while not a seasoned politician, had national appeal, and a plan to give this country access to affordable health care, which he did. Quite an accomplishment for an "inexperienced" politician.
Pete Buttigieg is a religious man, and a family man who happens to be gay. Most of all he is a moral man, which cannot be said of the person currently occupying the White House. Time will tell if Pete Buttigieg will win a spot on the ticket come 2020, but if he does, I will happily vote for him. His deciding to run, is far from "pointless" as you have stated. You must be afraid he will win.
9
10:10 am
"His name is Emmanuel Macron, and his presidency in France has been something less than a success."
I'm always amazed how the crux of Ross' arguments usually turn on statements which he inserts without justification and which he neither explains nor defends.
Unless you're in a war, our democratic societies demand more of their leaders than they can deliver. So naturally they fail in some sense. Who was the last "success" in the U.S.? All you can do about Trump is laugh. Obama's legacy is Trump, so that makes him a complete failure. Bush II had Iraq and Dick Cheney. Clinton had Monicagate. And so forth.
Macron is unable to do that much about inequality in France, because he is boxed in by constraints. More taxes on the rich will send them to the U.S. or the U.K. and actually lower tax receipts. Because of its size and influence, it's the U.S. which decides how much inequality Western countries will suffer. And unfortunately, the U.S. accepts a very high level of inequality, because that is the business model of U.S. Inc.
6
We could do worse than an American Macron. It's true that Macron has been seen by many as representing the elites rather than the masses, although that has as much to do with his style - arrogant is an understatement - as his policies.
But Macron was elected by a country justifiably fearful of candidates on both the hard left and the hard right. If voters here have to look at a Soviet-nostalgic Sanders and a fascist-adjacent Trump, why wouldn't they consider Buttigieg as a sensible middle ground?
2
I have noticed that some people count against Pete Buttigieg the fact that he is "a product of an elite university couple, nurtured in the rarified academia that is removed from the lives of normal people" -- another manifestation of America's Anti-Intellectual Syndrome. Does anybody else remember when the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia were shooting people because they wore eyeglasses?
14
Toby Johnson had it right when he stated "Many non-gay people simply cannot understand homosexuality. That is the problem with being in the majority: Your way seems like the only way." Ross Douthat fails to understand that some rights supersede other rights when he accused Pete Buttigieg of inventing a "theological feud with Mike Pence.” The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as well as other "freedoms" apply to all Americans, straights and gays alike. The founding fathers were quite aware of the tyranny that can occur when "the majority rules".hence they did what they could to prevent it. The misguided "theology" of homophobic bigots like Mike Pence does not and cannot be used to deny the basic rights of every American, gay and straight alike.
9
"....as if to advertise to liberal donors that he would be fully committed to traditionalism’s rout."
But this Machiavellian scheming possibility coexists with another theory of Buttigieg, in which he's merely reminding Mike Pence of Matthew 7:5 and exposing him for the hypocrite he is. Is it possible that Mike Pence's religiosity is merely a clever politician's "hack" of the system of faith in America? An advertisement for his own piousness that, having served its purpose, can now be abandoned as he makes common cause with the most immoral reprobate to ever hold the office of the president in order to vault into that office himself.
12
The far left dislikes Pete because they want Bernie, not Pete, to win the presidency. So they bash him for being 'heteronormative' and 'a corporate Democrat.'
The far right dislikes Pete because he's a great candidate and they're afraid he might beat Trump. So they bash him for being gay and
insufficiently meritocratic.
Ross, you're fooling no one.
10
The blindness that afflict Mr. Douthat is so all-pervading as to (almost) defy belief. His take on the decline of vast swaths of the United States ignores the simplest fact on the ground: the ironbound imperative of dog-eat-dog capitalism: to minimize the costs of production so as to maximize profit, whatever the damage to the social fabric upon which it depends. Whether it be transferring factories to places where the prevailing wage is $2/day or investing in robots that do not need bathroom breaks and pensions and never strike, our MBA geniuses never miss a trick (and Mr. Douthat's commitment to not see this never misses either). However, there is a fatal flaw in this system, even in its own terms (never mind such frills as social comity, and basic human needs, let alone real Christian values). That is: when you have pauperized almost all of your potential customers who will be able to buy the products which your sweatshops grind out? Ultimately all that will be left is financial manipulation and a meaningless race for more zeroes in a computer in the Cayman Islands --- after all, how many yachts, Lamborghinis, and mostly empty vacation homes can satisfy? Wake up Ross --- the coffee is burning.
8
I'm in no position to assess Mayor Pete's success or lack of it on the political stage of South Bend. But as for his being a "maximalist' on the issues of reproductive rights and same-sex rights, I'd say it's hard to see how any sensate human being could behave otherwise. Compromising on the first issue would infer settling for conditions under which some women are either condemned to death or denied the ability to determine what happens with their own bodies. Or are we suggesting that some fetuses are more important than others depending upon how long they've taken up residence in the womb? As for item #2, gay marriage is now the law of the land, and our Constitution makes it perfectly clear that the U.S. is not to be governed in accordance with the principles of any organized religion. If bakers could cite references in scripture alluding to a commandment to accept no orders for wedding cakes from homosexuals or any other "sinners," I'd concede- nah, even then they wouldn't have a case.
comment submitted 4/27 at 4:14 PM
5
Again we have the canard that Hillary called Trump voters "deplorables." This is as fine an example of ripping a word out of context as I have every seen.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?
The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now how 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America. But the other basket — and I know this because I see friends from all over America here — I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas — as well as, you know, New York and California — but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they’re in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."
5
This is the sort of in-betweener the Europeans love to love; and yet those fools would elect a Polanski or a Clooney, just as they elect an oleaginous Macron and a defiant Five Star. Americans can learn nothing from Western European habits other than how to build an effective rail system and how to surrender entire armies during wartime. Seen Warren’s numbers? Wonks need not apply, including man children who don’t yet have to shave. They have only one hope at victory and half of them shudder at the thought. That name is Bernie! and we expect to have quite a bit of fun with it.
Mr Douthat's comments exemplify how, in a Fascist society, politics is replaced by esthetics. Candidates are reduced to commodities, designed to appeal to the voters who make their consumer "choice" based on which image they most identify with. What could be more unreal? . . . Where are the real conflicts, the destruction of the American labor movement, the impoverishment of the US working-class, the total political dominance of the ultra rich, that are really dividing our country? . . . Don't give us double talk about "meritocracy"--it is far too late for that . . . . We cannot nominate yet another corporate spokesperson Democratic candidate for the racist demagogue Trump to defeat. The young Sanders voters understand: only Socialism can defeat fascism.
1
Obama is the poster child for class allegiance. Despite the riveting arc of his personal narrative, a vintage "only in America" story, and what helped get him elected, his ultimate fealty was to his Ivy League brethren, because that's where the money is. When faced with the meltdown in 2008, he gave away the store, asking nothing in return, while providing a pittance in relief for millions of affected homeowners. Always at the back of Obama's mind, was who was going to pay for his library, something which influenced much of his fiscal policy, and sure enough, he's spent the time after leaving office cavorting with billionaires, giving Hillaryesque speeches to Wall Street, and trying to scrounge up funding for his library from very same people he, and his similarly spineless Attorney General Holder, should have jailed. Never underestimate the power and influence of the "secret handshake".
When I listen to Buttigieg, I see a reincarnation of Obama, high on rhetoric and low on specifics, only this time we're expected to vote for a gay man instead of a black man so we can all celebrate ourselves for a few months before we're sold out once again by someone intent on "fulfilling their destiny". Usually I lament the length of our campaign season, but this time around, it might be a godsend, since we are actually hashing out issues with enough time for everyone to become familiar, if not comfortable with them, and we can determine who's just a flash in the pan and who isn't.
6
Ross Douthat, you are so wrong to critize Peter Buttigieg taking for on Mike Pence's religious phoniness. It's about time that those who aspire to lead expose the Evangelicals' cherry-picked scriptural dogma. And it should be the duty of all self-respecting Christians, such as Mayour Pete, to expose the hypocrisy of those who game the First Amendment for their bigotry. All too long, silence on the Evangelicals' usurpation of the scripture became the void they exploited to gain political traction for their agenda of intolerance.
9
Ross, you're really reaching to find a way to undermine a guy who really does seem to have what it takes to solve the big problems we face. Does he have shortcomings? Of course, all politicians - all humans - do! He reminds me of another really bright, young guy who came out of nowhere and had a major stigma attached to him: Barack Obama - black with a "muslim" name. No way he could get elected! But then he did - twice!
Personally, I don't favor Mayor Pete at this point because I worry that he would also be like Obama in that he would be too willing to compromise and not take the bold steps needed to restore the working and middle class by taking on the elites and the donor class.
And perhaps that's what you trying to say with all your word gymnastics. But I can assure you of one thing: your dear conservatives and Republicans will NEVER adopt any policies that help the populists that are drinking their Kool Aid. They will always be the vanguard of the 1%. They were the ones who spawned "trickle down" Reaganomics that have created an ever-widening wealth gap. The only use they have for the "little guys" is to dupe them into electing people against their best interests. Populist programs are anathema to conservatives, which is why your suggestion is laughable.
You don't serve the chickens by putting a fox in charge.
8
@Kingfish52 Well said. Buttigieg is at the top of a bright young class of candidates who understand they have much to gain and not much to lose by running for President at this stage, even if they do not get there in a single bound. What we voters must understand is that they would be staring down the titan of Wall Street and its minions in the Senate. It is a job for a battle-tested warrior. By the same token we must be suspicious of counsels from our opponents about how to win the war.
2
Charisma is in short supply in this political season and when someone has it and they happen to be of the opposition party,
what's a columnist to do? Maybe link negative pieces written about the charismatic candidate and use dismissive rhetoric
and cockamamie theories to thwart his rise.
Hit pieces are to be expected because charisma matters and coupled with a gifted intellect and genuine decency there is a lot to fear and a lot more to take down.
4
It is hard not to like Mr. Buttigieg. Very hard. He is the option to Mr. Trump in that respect.
5
Read this column. You can find the manifold ways, the logic and process, the implicit assumptions that make Ross wholly unreliable. Ross speaks of an impasse, Trump speaks of a coup. Both are wrong. Both mislead. Both are indifferent to cruelty, hate and poverty. Both put power before freedom. By misrepresenting storylines, facts, historical evidence, and postulates, both lie.
4
Ross speaks of the anti-Buttigiegians who criticize Mayor Pete for "encouraging internet companies to move in to South Bend" instead of applying a theory of urban renewal that would supply jobs that working class South Benders need. What jobs might those be? Are they the same jobs that Trump has restored to the rust-belt?
6
Buttigieg is right to cede zero ground to religious conservatives, and his feud with Pence is hardly theological. Pence wants to take basic rights away from people like Buttigieg. The left's newfound willingness to stand morally opposed to religious bigotry is one of the few things it gets right.
7
RD's cynicism turns my stomach,
As to those (or maybe resume builders), I wish more people were ambitious. And curious. And compassionate. And concerned about their own health, and the planet's.
As to elite enclaves: where do YOU live RD? where do you want to live? with what people do you want to associate; self motivated thinkers and strivers or the "undereducated", often self loathing (yet curiously) self satisfied.
5
Why are Buttigieg’s pro choice views a problem? Most of the country is for keeping abortion legal. Perhaps we need a leader that can take the country in a direction the country seemingly wants to go in. That goes as well for preparing workers for the new jobs landscape. Why hanker for dying industries? Why are you looking for more division?
5
Mr. Douthat, along with his comrade, Mr. Brooks, can't bring themselves to recognize the elephant in the room - namely that racism is the rocket fuel of Trumpism and Republicanism. So they blather on about resentment of the elites, cultural conservatism, and the rest of the dog-whistle rationalizations. The value of a home is based on location, location, location. For the right (and particularly white evangelicals) their world-view orbits around racism, racism, racism. Many progressives clearly understand this situation and can't help feeling a deep sense of revulsion. So yes, we liberals disdain the deplorables, but racism is very, very real, and disgusting and unAmerican to the core.
But I couldn't imagine our conservative commentators will ever shed their hypocrisy, so the beat goes on.
4
So the ideal mix of left and right policy proposals to meet with Mr. Douthat's approval is this candidate:"meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
Reminds me of some of my undergrad essays, in which I used a lot of fancy words to say nothing, really, to fulfill the word requirements.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Douthat is quite clear about what he doesn't like in Pete Buttigeig's ideology : Namely all his liberal leanings,"invented religious wars," or the embrace of allegedly militant culture wars against homophobic cake bakers.
Where Douthat waffles is in his liberal wish-list substance for Buttigieg, discovered as a new Never Trumper: "economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
Since he knows we don't know what any of that means, Douthat uses Emanuel Macron as the Buttigeig-mould we DON'T need: Meantime, Emanuel Macron probably deployed THE most interesting and innovative alternatives of any meritocrat who came to power: He engaged the whole country in a Grand Debat and went on a long, in-person listening tour to ultimately cut taxes for the middle class. his reward, alas, was that gilets jaunes spit on his efforts. I'd be be proud of Buttigeig for emulating Macron and happy if Mr. Douthat searched his heart for what liberal leanings he actually likes as an anti-Trumper.
2
According to Ross, Buttigieg must either be "rejecting the meritocratic mentality" or he is engaged in a Machiavellian "hack of the system". Does the rarefied air that Ross breathes only allow for those two possibilities? Maybe Buttigieg is doing neither, maybe he is simply sincere.
While it might come as a surprise to Ross (as well as his colleague referenced within), not everyone defines themselves by whether or not they have been accepted by the self-declared elites. There actually are people who don't spend most of their waking hours debating whether or not they are a "traitor to their class".
Maybe Pete Buttigieg is actually who he appears to be: an extraordinarily gifted high achiever who wanted the challenge of revitalizing his home town.
Ross writes as if he can't possibly conceive that any person would actually choose to live in the Midwest, unless they absolutely had to. South Bend instead of Southampton? There MUST be an ulterior motive.
No, Ross, there doesn't have to be. Maybe Mr. Buttigieg has more important things to do with his life than worry about what pigeonhole label you want to put on him.
7
Douthat must be intimidated by Buttigieg, an earnest and talented young man who seems to genuinely want to make things better, and may well have the chops to do so. Not having any similar stars on the Catholic-Republican side of the house, which is struggling with a 500-year, existential plague of grotesque corruption, Douthat's only option is to attack a promising new voice from the other side.
4
It’s a good sign that all the evangelical and catholic conservative columnists are writing pieces critical of Pete Buttigieg this week instead of Joe Biden. It is an implicit acknowledgment of the legitimacy of his campaign and strong potential to be the Democratic nominee.
7
This article drips with cynicism. On no credible basis--aside from a disbelief that anybody with a Harvard education and Fulbright scholarship could genuinely want to return to his Midwestern roots--Douthat breezily waves away Buttigieg's eight years (!) of service as mayor of South Bend as nothing more than a "hack of the system of ascent".
Yes, Buttigieg is ambitious. He admits it himself. But his ambition is consistent with his values, which include an appreciation for his state and region. Douthat suggests Buttigieg is an east coast elite in Midwestern clothing. Is it so hard to believe one can blend the two?
I'm also unnerved that Douthat would recommend the Robinson article in Current Affairs. Robinson's reading of Buttigieg's memoir feels dismissive out of hand, and often contradictory. As a singular example, let's highlight Robinson's avowed distrust of "wunderkinds who become successful too early." He writes that "Few people amass these kind of resumes if they are the type to openly challenge authority...So when journalists see Harvard and think 'impressive,' I see it and think 'uh-oh.'"
It's rich criticism, considering Robinson received his BA and MA from Brandeis, his JD from Yale, and is now pursuing a PhD at Harvard.
Buttigieg is not perfect. No candidate is. But he’s authentic, smart, and down-to-earth. That should not be a poisonous combination. I truly hope the contrarian polemics of Douthat, Robinson, and others won't stifle a good man’s potential.
10
I am trying to be a good boy, committed to not being dazzled by the shiny objects Pete is dangling before us. So I avidly read the critiques as well as the paeans, including this piece and the two critical "take-down" articles Douthat links to.
Let me pick just one example to point up, and that is the assertion that the "1000 Homes in 1000 Days" project was somehow damaging to struggling working-class homeowners in South Bend. To this point, Studebaker says, with more than a bit of snark, "Studebaker gave South Bend’s workers jobs. Buttigieg took their homes."
I WANT TO SCREAM!! First, to my knowledge nobody has contradicted Buttigieg's rejoinder when asked about this: "Not a single occupied home was demolished." I am deeply familiar with the blight situation, which can strike dying small towns as well as dying cities. Anyone who thinks a significant stock of empty, decaying buildings is not a major impediment to renewal hasn't spent time in a place where the problem exists; it is existential, attracting drug-dealing, prostitution, squatting, theft and vandalism. It lowers property values and destroys neighborhoods.
What would Studebaker have done about the problem? We don't get that; we get a snappy but wildly incorrect meme-ready line that misrepresents both the severity of the problem and the particulars of the way in which South Bend under Mayor Pete addressed it.
I remain a skeptic, but also I remain unconvinced by these snarky, petty take-downs.
388
@farmboy "I remain a skeptic, but also I remain unconvinced by these snarky, petty take-downs." A very wise statement.
21
One of the primary reasons that the 'hinterland' has experienced the loss of good paying jobs is the tactic since Reagan of decimating the unions and making certain unions had no role in NAFTA or any decisions regarding the transferring of jobs internationally in search of low wage workers. And I would trust the information published by a committee investigating the coastal educated elite led by Mike Lee about as much as I would trust a report by a fox on how best to safeguard chickens.
7
The same analysis could be better applied to President Trump. He ran as the only Republican candidate who didn’t propose cutting Medicare and Social Security to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Three years later he put forward a budget proposal to cut Medicare and Social Security to pay for the tax cuts enacted by his administration. That sounds like a good description of a populist outsider reverting back to defending the class they came from.
19
while the assessment makes a very important point, we need to remember that nobody can possibly effect change without being elected.
in buttigieg's case one critical question is what policy leadership would he show if elected. I'm not sure that his approach i n South Bend tells us much about his approach in a nation which has many more seemingly intractable problems than does the saving one city trying to forge an economic future.
it is important to look at his decision-making process and his advisors and staff. is he a know-it-all who surrounds himself with yes men and women or does he seek to learn and adapt, encourage healthy debate? in other words somewhere along the line between Obama and Trump but much closer to Obama.
1
I love how cultural liberals don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heal. Why is it the cultural liberals who are expected to compromise or settle? Do social conservatives apply this same standard when it comes to sensible gun control or a woman’s right to choose?
I fully support the art of compromise. I don’t support the level of hypocrisy that has consumed the right.
45
@Sue "Heal" is a great Freudian typo here!
2
Yes! An “obvious part of his appeal” is that he is intelligent and thoughtful. How refreshing would that be?? And Pete might just be smart enough and loyal enough to build up healthy vibrant well-educated hi-tech communities across the heartlands. America needs a few new from scratch sustainable hi-tech cities built for the 21st and 22nd centuries.
26
I'd like to wait and hear more of his ideas before making any judgments about Mr. Buttigieg. But just a quick thought about the 'hinterland'. It appears that the widely held concept of the polarity between the elite bi-coastal Emerald Cities and the great forgotten unwashed masses is belied by the fact that New York is hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of educated, cultured, people of means annually to rising new centers of culture in the South and Southwest. Perhaps a moment of introspection on the many cultural bases for this mass exodus is in order.
8
Mike Lee's Joint Economic Committee “brain drain” study is interesting but not particularly useful. The study defines four different ways of looking at brain drain. Depending on how you combine them, you'll reach very different conclusions. That's if you accept the definitions as appropriate in the first place.
I would suggest the study does a poor job identifying what we're really tracking: Domestic migration by education. Where are people moving within the United States? We are trying to understand the patterns of our own in-migration. There are easier ways to track this data than the JEC study.
Even if you accept the methodology as appropriate, the study still isn't particularly useful. There's not enough precision. You're talking about state-wide percentages.
Depending on how you look at the data, you might find Texas has a healthy brain gain. However, the study doesn't tell you where the educated people are moving. We're left to assume they are clustering in Houston, Dallas, and Austin but we don't really know. There are other gaps in the explanation of what we think is true.
On top of all that, the study is deeply unsophisticated. We're talking about arithmetic, not statistics. At the end of the day, we don't know if any of this matters. Should we be alarmed? There's no significance test. We don't know.
I'm equally confident rural America is just sour grapes on what is otherwise a natural, normal, and healthy migration pattern. Lee's study can't prove me wrong.
9
@Andy I would venture the migration is as much due to cultural factors such as repressive religious dogma permeating communities, accompanying ignorant discrimination, and lack of creative outlets and energy.
2
@Rocky
Agreed. I've known plenty of educated professionals who left Utah because they felt it was uncomfortably white and/or [fill in the blank]. Economics certainly weren't the problem.
I guess my point is nothing in the Lee report is going to tell you how much is one thing versus another. Nobody is polling expats to ask them why they left. No pollster has ever asked me why I left New Jersey/New York. Even if they did, I probably wouldn't answer honestly to a pollster. I'd just say "job stuff."
1
When will we actually admit that many of the working class jobs you speak of are gone, not to return. Technology and a global economy have eliminated them. ( We do need to respect and honor, encourage the well paying trades that we seem to have forgotten.) But this insistence that we must return to yesteryear is a fantasy that does not serve the rural and small towns at all.
35
My father was an agricultural/mechanical engineer. While he never to my recall owned a Studebaker, he was a fan of the car and laid the blame for its demise on his belief they were too far ahead of the times, in appearance (notice the similarity of the mid-50's Studes and the body styles of practically every auto maker world-wide over the past two decades) and technical design, for the American motorist.
It seems Ross has the same opinion of Pete Buttigieg: Too good-looking and ahead of his time.
18
@Glen
And too white and too male. Get him outta here plenty of other things he can do. We need a president who looks like America.
Ironic to have one Harvard grad challenging the credentials of another one to lead the masses in the hinterland. Sorry Ross, but as a product of the "dynamic" coasts, with an Ivy League education, working for a New York media conglomerate, you have little credibility to speak on this topic.
I find the ideas here stale and boring.
+ Americans have always been willing to pack up and move to where there is opportunity. For 100 years or more there has been a movement off farms to urban areas. And for much of that period we have had authors praising the rural life and dismissing the negative sides of the "concrete jungle".
+ Theories on "brain drain" are elitist, both missing the importance of those not "highly educated" or the millions of highly educated who stay in their home communities and become doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants and business people. When you look out across America, you can find one of the most important hospitals in Cleveland; hot spots of research on genetics in Madison, WI or St. Louis, MO; major businesses headquartered in Nebraska and Michigan. Despite the negative findings by Senator Lee, the fact is that migration has been declining and most people stay in the state where they were born.
+ New York City has plenty of populists who love Trump. The notion that America can be easily split into left/right, urban/rural... is just flawed. I see plenty of conservatives in the Big Apple and plenty of liberals in rural Wisconsin.
35
The rural and urban, city and farm were the organic structuring of our society over thousands of years and the structures were seamlessly intertwined with our cultural landscape. Then came disrupting technologies and MBA know how, it separated the business from the community . First outsourcing and then globalization make the successful businesses as Logo game and spread sheet assessment caricature, where community and human relations are nonexistent. Now we have this urban rural divide problem - the same Harvard elites and Rhodes scholars who created this problem, are trying to solve this problem. Two gigantic war is going on all over the world - the tug-of-war between supply chain model and war of traditional community culture. The solution is not simple - both forces are subtle and powerful, one is logical and the other is emotional - battle of head and heart. Only logic will not find the answer, only emotions will not give the solutions. We need deep empathy and intelligence, a monk like detachment to see the luminosity of the purity and truthfulness of human evolution. This human evolution, values love over profit, empathy over violence, happiness over material, and peace over prosperity - deep detour from current American materialistic culture, the message that was preached by Concord’s Trio. We hope we can feel that call.
5
@K Basu
You have gleaned the real issue: community. It isn't rural v. urban as communities can exist in either context; communities can (and used to) exist in urban areas, but due to gentrification and neoliberalism, these communities have been disrupted in favor of wealth.
5
@K Basu...No. The rural community once had a dependence on semi-subsistence farming supported by small towns and cities which served as local supply centers. Educational requirements were minimal and people tended to live out their lives in the general area where they grew up. With the industrial revolution farming became a business and as farms necessarily gradually grew in size better jobs were available in larger urban centers. People began to migrate to larger cities. Education became a priority. Year after year the better students in rural areas went of to college and never returned. With fewer people and better transportation the commerce in the small towns and cities that once served as supply centers dried up. So more people migrated to the urban areas, and again the best students went off to college and never came back. Jobs in the rural areas simply disappeared. The rural urban divide today is more about better educated versus less well educated, people with worldly experiences and those that never left home.
5
"...don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heel."
I find this statement offensive. So it's OK if some lunch counters are still segregated so long as most are not? Some swimming pools, motels and apartment rentals can be off limits to certain groups of people but it's OK if all of them aren't?
36
@Heart Exactly this. What makes more sense is to say that Buttigieg shows exactly why "traditionalists" don't need to fear gay people. Likewise, his "unreciprocated" feud with Pence is one which Pence started. Enacting policies that support discrimination, however politely, is still something that must be called out.
20
@Heart Are you really comparing those situations to the Jim Crow south? Some might find that comparison offensive as well.
A raindrop and a tsunami are both movements of water.
@Carolyn Shhhhh, don't disturb Ross's bubble of the zealous convert.
1
Note to Douthat: It is easy to throw stones from the ivory tower, and a lot less simple to make genuine improvements in cities that have lost much of their middle class and industrial past.
29
Let me get this straight, Mr. Douthat. There is a candidate who is intelligent and has a coherent political philosophy, who could right now be making megabucks in some elite business run by his fellow Harvard Alums but instead chose to serve in the military and revive his “dying” home town (by the way with a project involving demolishing ABANDONED houses, not displacing anyone at all), who can connect with a broad range of voters and represents a new generation of leaders...and these are all reasons to dislike him? Ok, got it.
89
@Margaret Speas It is often difficult to follow the thought processes of conservatives. But maybe Douthat is paying Buttigieg the compliment of seeing him as a real threat and threats need to be eliminated even if the means seem ridiculous.
7
"whose big idea for the city involved bulldozing poor people’s houses and encouraging internet companies to move in — a “creative class” theory of urban renewal that didn’t supply the jobs that working-class South Benders need."
While bulldozing houses is certainly not good, the homes were vacant and even the mayor acknowledges some of the problems. And, with bringing jobs, is Mr. Douthat really criticizing the mayor for making an attempt at bringing jobs that didn't work. Is Mr. Douthat suggesting that the mayor should know an idea will work before it happens? To defeat Trump in 2020, we need a perfect candidate who can see into the future? The reality is that jobs are not easy to come by in America because it is a mature service-based economy. It has not been helped by the GOP's horrific and uneducated economic policies that only favor the extremely rich.
48
Since when do the gilets jaunes are a party with seats in the French parliament akin to Brexiters in the UK?
And then Douthat opines that "[Buttigieg] might be able to call a truce in the post-Obergefell culture wars and convince cultural liberals that they don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption age to heel".
Methinks the lawsuit about "religious" freedom was not won by evangelical florists, but by an oh-so-pious evangelical wedding cake bakers, Mr. Douthat.
And how cute to change evangelical to "religious conservatives" when it comes to the evangelical Pastor-in-Chief Mike Pence.
Evangelicals have giving us the most immoral and corrupt president ever - one who is supported by Republican senators without morals and a spine -, in order to stack the courts and turn this country back to the Middle ages and the pre-Enlightenment era.
52
It seems as if you are going to great lengths to find possible limitations in a democratic candidate while rarely questioning the Republican President currently sullying American institutions, America, democracy and decency in general.
57
I find it interesting that Mr. Douthats idea of bridge building is to "convince cultural liberals that they don’t need to bring every evangelical florist or Catholic adoption agency to heel". How about convincing cultural conservatives they gays and lesbians are part of the human race and should be treated with equal dignity and equal rights? How about convincing evangelicals like the current Vice President of the same? Now, *that* is a bridge I'd love to see built. And I'm not holding my breath.
86
At this point, I'd accept as manna any candidate who shows himself or herself willing to learn. We learned, Mr. Douthat, that you don't have to have a whole lot of experience to demonstrate breadth. Mr. Obama showed us that quality as well as the breathtaking willingness to listen to those more expert in fields that were, initially, not his strong points. Our smartest candidate in this field of would-be presidents is probably Elizabeth Warren, and wouldn't that be an amazing person to be our president? (I'm sure you don't agree.) But she's almost too smart, Mr. Douthat. She isn't, I truly fear, electable. She may hail from Oklahoma, but she represents East Coast eggheads (I know I'm dating myself) to so many voters who won't be inspired to show up in droves to defeat Trump. I wring my hands at the thought that the real "meritocrat," as you put it, doesn't really have a chance. So each of the twenty (so far) candidates has strikes against him or her, but let's pick someone who can communicate to a range of people -- who better than a former prosecutor or a mayor from Indiana? -- and who is able to grow both emotionally and intellectually and someone who we feel is honorable.
48
@Martha
I, too, think Elizabeth Warren is the ideal candidate; and I, too, feel she likely doesn't have a chance. Even though she has plenty of charisma it somehow isn't the right kind. With a sinking heart, I suspect older women will never be considered the "right" kind of personality. When a woman candidate speaks with authority and conviction, Fox news calls them "shrill."
15
@Ellen
Of course, I agree with you. I will not forget until I can no longer even remember my own name when Mitch McConnell shut up Elizabeth Warren by claiming that she "persisted." When did "persist" become a pejorative? And this is the man who controls whatever comes to the Senate floor. Your "sinking heart" beats with mine.
6
@Martha Well stated.
3
Mr. Douthat, many of your essays contain language that is intended to make you appear smart but wind up undercutting your authority by showing your limited breadth of knowledge.
For example, consider your first statement, "One of the central problems in Western politics is the impasse between a governing class that lacks legitimacy, and populist alternatives that are poorly led and unready to govern."
This is so obviously not just a Western issue. In fact, throughout the twentieth century, many such non-Western states lacked legitimacy precisely because "the West" - and specifically the United States - put or kept such regimes in power. We have a long history of supporting dictatorships in the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America. This mistake of yours points to a fundamental problem with conservatives, that they tend to ignore the problems the U.S. has created abroad. And ironically, this is a core reason that this segment of the American 'governing class' lacks legitimacy to some of us on the left.
29
Well, Ross, at least you gave him a fair chance. He has been a candidate for, what, a few weeks now, and you have a gut feeling that he is not going to make a substantial concession to your morally superior cultural conservatism. Thus, you dismiss him out-of-hand at the very inception of his candidacy. Please, share with us, what is the crucial reason that he must be denounced at this moment, 18 months before the 2020 elections? Why must he be throttled before he even has a chance to be heard? He might fail mightily, given that chance, but it is most interesting to observe your determination to do what is in your power to insure that he is denounced and rejected BEFORE he actually gets to even make a case.
109
Who cares which way. This planet is at an existential moment and this country's democracy is, too.Even if Pete wanted to, he does not have the experience to get us out of either one. We need Bernie for his vision and his expertise. We need Tulsi as his running mate or perhaps Barbara Lee (D-Oak). AOC should be the Speaker and I would love to see Warren replace Mitch McConnell. I am sorry, but you can take the rest of them and send them packing along with the Old Guard that got us into this.
8
@Ken Sayers
One question Ken Sayers. Did you voted in the mid-term election of 2014, the year Republicans gained control of the Senate. There is a direct line from low Democratic turnout in 2014 to Merrick Garland sidelined and selection of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. I am a red state Democrat. I am aghast how angst-filled liberals don’t vote in numbers, not finding the “ideal” candidate. AIC gets the publicity but the House flipped in 2018 from unseating Republicans in swing district. Th path to victory is to flip moderate Republicans. Why. Because not enough Democrats bother to vote.
3
A Bernie/Tulsi ticket would guarantee another four years of Trump.
1
@Ken Sayers
Too bad Bernie's vision doesn't include how he'd get things passed and they pay for them. Tulsi is terrible. You the Bernie voters got us in to this by voting 3rd party and putting Trump in the WH.
1 In 10 Bernie Sanders Supporters Ended Up Voting For Trump : NPR
1
The city and especially the capital city (mega cities in the continental sized US) has always drained the "best and the brightest" from the rest of the country and economic and political power followed them.
Should we regret this or encourage it?
In the 19th Century the development of large scale manufacturing industry created new industrial cities across the country which also housed the low skilled industrial workers and supported their families. With automation and globalization deindustrialization America there is no need for these cities.
I live in Atlanta and that city and its suburbs have about 65% of the State population and much of the rest of the State, outside military dominated and university cities is a wreck! Atlanta has its problems but there is an essential dynamism to the place.
For me I would encourage the development of these mega cities and shrink (most of) the rest back to where they were before the industrialization of the 19h Century.
Mr B is a phenom because he was born in South Bend and not say in Chicago but he is hardly a child of the working classes and is decidedly not a tribune of the "people". In many ways he is a cardboard creation of the media.
"What we badly need is something different..."
A name, please.
Everyone has a firm notion about what kind of president the country needs, and they all begin,
"We need someone who..."
"Someone Who" is not running.
Nobody's perfect, (We're all sinners, right Mr. Douthat?) and the older one gets, the more "baggage" one collects, especially if one has had a career in public service.
So to all who criticize and find innumerable flaws in one candidate or another, please, offer an alternative willing to run with a name that isn't Someone Who.
42
How can any one man radically change small-town America when worldwide the system of soulless capitalism has left so many behind and seemingly helpless?
When you meet Buttigieg in person, you realize that what his candidacy offers is real intelligence, sanity, genuine heart, and, yes, soul. You no longer feel helpless.
He is criticized for not articulating particular policies, but that could be seen as true intelligence and foresight. He understands that getting any one policy through Congress is an uphill battle until we adopt a different mindset. It may sound elitist to bring philosophy into a campaign, but unless we talk values, until we make clear the direction we want to head in, we become split into special interest groups and miss the bigger picture. He is a bigger picture candidate with the ability to connect without seeming condescending. Nothing about him seems pointless.
115
@Elizabeth Fuller So not having policies is intelligence? He might have a tough time in the debates.
You're confusing policies with positions. Don't worry about him in the debates; he has plenty of solid positions from which to speak. But it's futile to start publishing policies until one is actually elected, sees what the situation is, and knows what one can do to change things.
Imagine the humility of going into this race knowing that you don't already know everything. Refreshing, right?
8
"American Macron?" Or how about a "French Trump." This latest column by Douthat, in which he also identifies with his "colleague" David Brooks, is unfortunately a deeply flawed analysis by conservative intellectuals who have lost their identity. One word or phrase in particular that both Douthat and Brooks trot out as if it were the answer to their agony is "the meritocracy." Somehow, they posit that "meritocrats" (aka liberals) are not legitimate, as opposed to the forces of "populism." Thus, Pete Buttigieg, a meritocrat by Douthat's calculus, must somehow become a "traitor to his class" of meritocrats and appeal to the American populists (or "gilots jaunes" if were in France) if he is to truly be legitimate. But the truth is that a true leader can be both, i.e., be smart and intellectual based on his knowledge and talents, as well as a president who understands and insists on a fair deal for everyone, such as access to health care, education, decent incomes, solid retirement benefits, etc. I dare say that this kind of leader, today, will be found among virtually all of the 2020 Democratic candidates such as Buttigeig, Biden, O"Rourke, Harris, Sanders, Warren, you name him or her. Among the Republicans, there are also some such leaders, such as Kasich, Weld, Hogan, and others. But certainly not "populists" like Trump or Pence. So, my humble request for today: please drop this cute distinction between "meritocrats" and "populists," and ditch this false dichotomy.
84
@C.L.S. More on "meritocrats." First, I apologize for using the word "cute" to dismiss the argument that Douthat is making. However, it reminded me of a previous Douthat column on WASPs where he lamented that the "WASP elites" were becoming "more meritocratic, diverse and secular." Here's my prior reaction: "Ross, I'll confess to being a born WASP, same generation as George W. but decidedly liberal Democrat politically. Are we indeed "more meritocratic and diverse and secular successors" of our fathers and grandfathers? Meritocratic, definitely yes. Not everyone gets into Yale any more based on WASP family legacies. More diverse? Not sure what that means, but I think you mean leaders like Obama and other "diverse" non-whites educated in Ivy League and other elite universities. This is also definitely correct and good. Where you go too far is with the "secular" descriptor, in that you imply that secular is maybe not a good thing. Yes, we are also definitely more secular these days, thank God (pun)."
10
The McKinsey consultancy, as of late, has been involved in dubious self-dealing using bankruptcy laws, as reported on these pages.
McKinsey also has done a lot of quasi-corporate raider work, in which lots of Americans jobs are lost in the name of efficiency and off-shoring.
Just what did Mayor Pete do for McKinsey? I imagine a reader could tell us.
I could care less that he is gay. I am concerned that he would call himself a man of the people, when he appears to be a neoliberal, Ivy League guy in the palm of management, in the main concerned with the bottom line, and blind to horrific externalities his employer has wrought.
On the face of it, that is why I would prefer a democratic socialist.
6
He became an expert on grocery pricing. Read his book. This informed his outlook on the power of data analysis.
2
I would like a social Democrat in office, too. But I’d prefer a candidate who is not in his twilight years .... Baby-boomers have done quite enough enough thank you.... pass the baton. And Gen X, Y and Z - and you millennials, too - please get involved and grab the baton from the boomers tight grip.
Elite self-segregation? In our NYC neighborhood, people are middle class, most finish college, we have mortgages, student loan debt, car loans, and a smorgasbord of patchwork health insurance. Our grandparents immigrated from abroad, our Dads served in WWII and we were the first generation to go to college. We got our kids through too, but a lot harder to finance since we went for $2000 per year and now it’s 20 times that. Jobs and industries died out elsewhere and more and more of our fellow Americans and immigrants headed towards our city. Elite?
How exactly are we “self-segregating” ourselves? Our families have been here since 1910-1930. Segregated? On my block are Irish, Korean, Chinese, Hispanic, Italian, Jewish, Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, German, Norwegian and Greek neighbors. Elite? Because we stayed in school until we finished and have jobs? Isn’t that normal if we live where the jobs are?
You want someone like Pete Buttigieg to convince us “elite liberals” that we don’t have to “bring every evangelical florist and Catholic Adoption Agency to heel.” I doubt that would be top on his list during this dumpster fire administration. With massive income inequality, a teetering healthcare system, soaring debt, a president who has passed right through corrupt into the realm of evil, and the looming constitutional crisis as Trump defies Congressional oversight, rescuing this country from an authoritarian bully (who may well be a sociopath) might come before wedding cake.
106
@Joanna Stasia
A couple of years ago I took two life long friends on a sailing trip that included a stop at Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. One friend was from Marin County, the other from a nice neighborhood in Seattle.
It's fair to say that Edgartown is elite in pretty much everyone's book. But both of my friends quietly sneered at the food choices commonly offered in restaurants and shops. They noted an overabundance of fried fish and ice cream (fantastic BTW) and a nearly complete absence of simple ethnic foods like falafel and tacos. What's true for food is true for a whole host of issues, including tolerance for things like guns and religion.
Likewise, a "sailing trip to Edgartown" sounds fully elite. And it is. But the elitism isn't economic, it's mental. For the record, my sailboat is 25' long, 30 years old and cost $7,500. Any middle class person who wants a boat like mine to take a trip like that could afford it - but few do.
Douthat's point about elites wasn't in reference to economics, it was in regard to attitudes. And the difference in attitudes is stark.
2
@Joanna Stasia:
Thank you, Ms.Stasia, for a refreshing flash of rational reality. Were I on the board at the NYT, we'd be tracking you down to discuss terms of recruitment.
10
@Mike Marks Your boat cost $7,500, but how much does it cost each year to maintain? When my grandfather passed away in 2005 my mom inherited his house in Sag Harbor and his boat, a 16 foot Boston Whaler, which he'd had since the 80s and probably cost less than your boat.
The boat itself was worth very little, but she ended up having to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year renting the slip, getting it stored out of water for winter, checked over and put back in the water in spring, and a hundred other costs. Eventually she sold it because we simply weren't able to use it enough to justify the expense.
I'm sure most people can afford to physically buy a boat, but that does not mean that they can afford to be the owner of a boat.
10
A mayor from the heartland would be refreshing. so would a candidate like Mayor Pete who has not been captured by a political constituency who expects the same political prescriptions every time he speaks. He has not poll-tested his ideas.His intelligent and insightful responses are like a breath of fresh air in the political world of stale solutions and oft repeated answers.
54
I like mayor Pete but I despise the obsession with him. Liberals take to him even though he is 37 and the mayor of a small city. He is running for president. It is not a job for reality tv show hosts or small time mayors, even smart ones.
8
It probably would have been better if he had moved back to South Bend because he just really wanted to live there, and perhaps start a business there. Rather than moving back to "give something back to the people he came from" and start his political career as Mayor there. But perhaps I'm assuming too much.
4
Yes, it's truly horrifying that somebody from the heartland should feel so strongly about their hometown that they go home to try to save it from economic ruin instead of taking a high-paying job in a coastal city. What was Mayor Pete thinking? Everyone knows that giving back is for chumps. He should probably have consulted with you first.
1
Got it! Someone who likes to chow down on kale and quinoa salad while at the NASCAR races. Someone who brings along a book on derivatives trading translated into ancient Akkadian to study during the intermissions at WWF wrestling events.
18
@JW - this is the best skewering of Mr. Douthat's rubish that I've ever seen!
1
"he [Buttigieg] invented an unreciprocated theological feud with Mike Pence, as if to advertise to liberal donors that he would be fully committed to traditionalism’s rout."
Decoder ring for Mr. Douthat's euphemisms:
"Traditionalism": aggressive bigotry
"Invented': campaigning on issues
"Theological feud": against legal codification of bigotry
"Unreciprocated": Not willing to ignore long track record of bigotry.
I hope that all the democratic candidates make sure to "invent" feuds with those wonderful "traditional" values represented by Trump and Pence.
75
@LT Then Gov Pence was not trying to start a feud when he promoted laws that allowed discrimination against the Buttifiegs. It wasn't personal.
Yeah, right.
@LT So apparently you don’t care that he invented a feud purely for political purposes? “LT”: accepts lying politicians
Toby Johnson said it: "Many non-gay people simply cannot understand homosexuality. That is the problem with being in the majority: YOUR WAY SEEMS LIKE THE ONLY WAY." Consequently, any theocratic argument with the likes of a Mike Pence is an important defense of the American ideals of freedom and justice for all. Some rights supersede other rights and the rights of non-heterosexual persons to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness supersede the denial of these rights by homophobic bigots. "The majority rules" is not the American way.
18
@Cristino Xirau:
My dear wife (RIP) and I were far too occupied with the delights of our own style of affection to be concerned with reported variations in those of others.
What we did tend to notice was the quality of spousal relationships. We most respected those whose bond reinforced and amplified the admirable traits of both partners.
Our only bias was a high regard for the practical benefits of monogamy and respect for its due privacy. Otherwise, we enjoyed the peaceful ease of minding our own business.
3
Are you assuming Mike Pence is not gay? Consider the track record of preachers and politicians who who are anti-gay crusaders who end up eventually outed. Maybe he doesn’t act on his feelings, but we cannot assume what is on his mind as a gay conversion activist.
Mr. Douthat, you start off on an engaging cadence in profiling your subject, leaving the reader to wait for the inevitable 'however'. This is the first lesson you are taught at school in France, when writing an essay on a topic, i.e., for, or against.
Pete Buttigieg is no spring rooster, and not all the readers wish to feel like 'antiquities'. There are plenty of educated persons in the heartland of America, and an emphasis should be placed on the above in plural en masse.
Let us take the case of 'Seymour', an atheist who following the tradition of his family goes to Yale, decides he is not going to drape himself over the ancestral grand piano post graduation and enlists in the Marines for a two-year stint in Parris Island. Now, a contemporary in age of Bernie Sanders, he sensed the possibility of war in the air, and he did not want to join the recruits. He becomes an academic, a realist and moralist.
Both these men are leading 'The Life Planned'. We are in 'Amerique', and Pete Buttigieb is living at home with a diverse community. He is a humanitarian who shows signs of caring about core values and stabilizing our country, inviting those who care to come along with him. He has a healthy ego, but is not given to airs.
There is nothing of the hack in his profile, and he is not going to cut the pensions of the elderly. President Macron shows character and read 'Les Miserables' in adolescence.
Comparisons are always iffy. The last sentence is too Cronut.
9
This is a good one Mr. Douthat, well-reasoned points.
"What we badly need is something different: a meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
Sounds like a description of another FDR.
May we find one in time...
5
@Bruce Actually FDR was notoriously hard to pin down. Which Douthat and the left-wing Mr. Robinson he cites hold against Mayor Pete.
Both in terms of being a supremely skilled politician who knew how to appeal to different constituencies and also in terms of being throughly un-ideological and willing to dump what wasn't working and try something new.
12
Ross, as usual, sets a high and contorted bar for approval. And the suspicion that Buttigieg’s journey is somehow artifice is rather insulting. What makes him so appealing is the contrast to the obscenity of Trump even if a trained monkey would have a similar advantage. Time will tell how far his appeal, talents and positions take him. But for Gods sake, welcome.
26
I have noticed there is usually something amiss in the positions Ross Douthat stakes out in his columns that feature issues of religion. It is disappointing when gifts of intelligence and eloquence lead to sophistry rather than enlightenment as they often do with Douthat, but intellectual beauty does not equal virtue of thought. There is a cynical taint to this opinion piece, beginning with the query of Douthat's subtitle that presumes that Buttigieg--to be true to one economic class--must betray another. As a Christian does Douthat believe that economic justice is a zero-sum game? Douthat goes on to cite critics of Buttigieg's record as a mayor without shedding any light on the merit of those criticisms. He shirks journalistic responsibility, and repeats tales like a gossip . Douthat implies hypocrisy in Buttigieg's search for common ground with religious conservatives without ceding any moral ground of his own. Does Douthat's Catholic faith suppose that justice is ever a matter of splitting the difference with one's oppressors? He even makes an ugly suggestion that Buttigieg calling-out Mike Pence's very public hypocrisy is not about speaking truth to power but merely a fund raising ploy. I think Douthat is not reading Buttigieg very well because he does not understand where Buttigieg is coming from. His advocacy of religious "traditionalism" makes him skeptical of goodness, like a lawyer advocating for a client with a long history of crimes.
32
Buttigieg is everything the current occupant of the Oval Office is not: bright, thoughtful, empathetic, disciplined, spiritual, faithful, and patriotic. No wonder he has a target on his back for conservatives.
70
I am reading along and a little surprised to see the differences between our populations and our cities described fairly evenly.
And then, it can't be helped, I guess, there is is, the word "elite".
A sliming word that has no meaning, except for whatever invective the writer chooses. Maybe the subconscious vehemence in the curse is most rooted in hatred of homosexuals, but it seems to also indicate people of Jewish ancestors and those who are well educated, especially in the classical liberal arts. It refers only to those journalists who abide by journalistic principles, not those who make a travesty of them.
The terms does not refer to the societal faction in America of the uber rich, such as the president, his administration, the Republican congress, or the multi billionaires who have bought their allegiance.
It is an invective, mud, a slur. Meaningless, with no decent use outside of mean spiritedness. It contributes nothing to discourse and automatically identifies the stone faced user as unserious, and as such, a bore.
Just quit using it.
20
The author obviously doesn't care for Pete.
But he does not just come out and say so.
Instead, he plays a cat and mouse game, leading the reader in circles until, dizzy with his sophistry, one simply either mumbles, Whatever or says, OK, Ross, we get that you don't like Pete.
But I love Pete and want him to be my President.
And it seems that I am not alone in this.
The simple fact is that every time he speaks or makes some appearance his numbers rise and his fan base increases.
He is currently polling 3d place in Iowa and NH with Biden and Sanders ahead of him.
That will change in the weeks and months to come as more an more Americans realize that not only is he the real deal but that he is the most intelligent, decent, authentic person running.
He will be our next President.
And clearly that is upsetting to some people.
68
That takedown by Benjamin Studebaker needs to be investigated, very problematical. This is depressing and I have not even read the Current Affairs critique. Mayor Pete, what's going on?
Here's another theory on the rural "brain drain" which is based on neither education or class.
When a nation shifts to a service economy, jobs shift to where the most people - the market for services - live. Urban centers grow because there are jobs, businesses and people to serve. Rural places decline because there are not.
Let's put to rest this garbage about elite urban meritocracy versus the salt of the earth in the desolate hinterlands.
Pete Buttigieg doesn't represent either because the classifications are arbitrary and fictional. Buttigieg does represent a good cross section of people who respect values - a lost cause with Trump- but do not kowtow to the definition of values that Ross Douthat holds close to his heart. There are a lot of us out here who have deep moral convictions which do not include religious conservative's hang ups about sex and sexual orientation or libertarian's convictions that individuals trump - no pun - community.
Personally I like hearing Buttigieg talk. He reeks of common sense. I can only hope the decency is genuine too.
26
@Cathy> Here are some of my thoughts that expand on your theory of why the "brain drain."
The small businesses -- mom and pop grocery stories, diners, bars and bookstores -- were competed into oblivion by policies that were pro competition + pro big business. So the service jobs in the small towns changed from working in Uncle Joe's diner, to cashier at Walmart.
We have an opportunity now to bring some of that back. With millenials losing interest in urban centres and baby boomers looking for quiet places with potential for small business, maybe we can bring these small communities back.
5
@Colleen Adl
Describes my small rural town.
1
It's almost unanimous. Most commenters see Mayor Pete's authenticity and smarts, and the author's posing and manufactured position. I'd love to read a mayoral review of the author.
19
It's fascinating the way that Douthat, Brooks, and Stephens slice and dice every Democratic candidate with such puerile arguments. Why aren't they using their voices to address the outright evil that has taken hold of their own party, which is proving itself every day to be nothing short of traitorous.
42
Mr. Douthat faults Mayor Pete for being clever, ambitious, and, OMG, even opportunistic.
Welcome to politics. The best of that crew, FDR, was all three, in spades.
Anyone who seeks the presidency has a very high opinion of himself, by definition. Buttigieg is worthy of self love, unlike the gangster he hopes to replace.
A gangster, who Mike Pence, abandoning all dignity, grovels to. Pence more than deserves Buttigieg's scorn.
Mayor Pete is almost the antithesis of Donald Trump. He has an astonishing array of talents. The Donald has none that are worth having.
I find it remarkable, and wonderful, that an openly gay man seems to really have a shot at the White House. He even kisses his husband it public. Bravo.
His religious beliefs, alas, seem sincere, but an out atheist would have no chance at all to become president. I hope that changes soon, too.
Ross not mentioning religion in this column is surprising. It must have taken enormous self control. Bravo.
18
Pete has said quite clearly that the old manufacturing based job creation is gone. It is quite refreshing to see a candidate who honestly says the truth: international competition, advances in technology, now AI - all have conspired to destroy manufacturing as we knew it.
Therefore, it is quite silly to reproach Pete that he has not created more manufacturing jobs in South Bend. It is a New World - perhaps painful for many, but nostalgia is not going to solve any problems. Thanks Pete for saying it the way it is.
25
If I were Mr. Buttigieg, I'd wear the wear criticism of elites from both sides as a badge of honor. By serving his community for nearly eight years and being re-elected by an overwhelming majority, he can pretty thoroughly refute these cynical arguments without having to say a word. He has not shied away from the fact of his homosexuality in his private life but has thoroughly embraced it and has made the false arguments about "religious liberty" central to his campaign. He doesn't present himself as either a perfect candidate or a perfect human being so why does he need to respond to criticisms that he is not? Mayor Pete is not likely to be the party's nominee but he has brought a fresh perspective into the race and, for that reason alone, I'm grateful for his participation.
12
People unready to govern and who lack legitimacy? That’s a great description of our current President. The percentage of people in Rural America with college degrees may not match the percentage of people in major metropolitan areas but that does not mean they are stupid or lack the skills to cultivate and support healthy communities. Regarding Trump, frankly, I do not understand WHY so many people in middle America are currently supporting a person who does not value or care about their wellbeing or personal interests. Let’s face facts. If the United States is going to survive as a healthy, surviving democracy, pro choice policies need to be protected and promoted. No American has the right to tell any other American citizen which religious beliefs or church they must align with. No American has the right to tell any woman in this country that they do not have a right to determine when they will become a parent and raise a child. If this nation is going to survive, Bridge Building is a critical and essential skill. Bridge building is nothing to make light of. Uber-meritocratic political -- that’s how you describe Pete. Hmm... Pete embraces humanity, has compassion & honors other Americans from all cultural backgrounds. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers but appears to have the skills to strive to successfully unite this country & open doorways. I'm 60. Pete may be young, but he's a bridge builder. That’s a lot more than we can say about our current President.
427
@Leslie374. How could anyone possibly believe that serving as mayor of the 301st largest city in the US remotely qualifies Mayor Pete to be President of the US?
3
@Leslie374 From the opening sentence, it is clear that Ross just wants to tear down that and whom he can't and is unable to understand from the confines of his narrow societal viewpoint.
17
@Mon Ray....Abraham Lincoln did not have as much as a grade school education. He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives and worked in a law office in Springfield Illinois where his law office partner carried out most of the administrative operations. Past experience is apparently not always the best measure of judging Presidential qualifications.
40
We already have at least two meritocrats willing to work for people outside the top 10%: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
2
@Green Tea Bernie a meritocrat? Interesting definition you must have.
For me, there's an expression that comes to mind whenever I hear this argument.
With that said, just think about something. As one gets away from the center and migrates into the outer reaches, generally one will encounter a reduction in many if not most aspects of what our ever burgeiooning modernity creates by simple attrition.
And it's not rocket science. Does the erxpressiuon 'It takes a village,' come toi mind?
Well, it should. because that's what happens, a general dilution in practically every aspect of society, whether it's Health Care, Automation, or simple, basic allocation of General Services due to the fewer numbers to address things from A to Z. And it's been like this since earliest times. It's the old adage, the notion oif 'strength in numbers'.
Crudely put, "It's the Community stupid". The larger-the better consistently provides more of what is needed at all levels. Congestion?, sure thing. But wrinkles do get ironed out over time. It's how we've evolved and will continue to.
2
Mr Douthat doesn't trust him and doesn't like him, I think we're on to something.
I was a fan of Mayor Pete before, but now?
My faith is unshakable. Mr. Douthat is such that if he denigrates I'm certain that whatever it is, it is exactly for me.
He's not saying it but I'm sure this has something to do with religion. It always does with Mr. Douthat.
14
The bridge to reconstructing the heartland may be redesigning and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure that will be needed to support the coming climate refugees from the coastal areas. Gloat on the superiority of current capital sinks at your peril. The walkable cities of the future may be in the blooming towns and the spring fields. It takes a vision. Heal the land and grow healthy people.
8
Intrigue surrounding the plethora of nascent presidential candidates like Buttigieg can best be explained in its early stages by the novelty factor and superficial signals sent by persona and yet-to-be-developed hints of a governing philosophy.
It is only later in the game, when opposition research, fleshed-out policy positions, and the ability to handle pressure under fire become apparent, that political convictions of candidates and supporters becomes more apparent and true candidate viability becomes meaningful.
Mayor Pete, like (what happened to) Beto O'Rourke are, at present, what is known in the supermarket business as impulse purchases. Whether or not they build actual brand loyalty and a sufficient number of motivated supporters in the long run remains to be seen. Over-analyzing their early appeal offers little in the way of certainty regarding their longer-term viability as candidates.
Do candidates like Buttigieg show promise? Sure. But politicians love to offer promises. It's what they deliver further down the road of candidacy and, perhaps, while in office, that becomes more determinative of their longer term viability as candidates and, perhaps, as leaders.
We are, now, only in the top half of the first inning. It remains to be seen whether members of the farm team, just walking on to the major league field for the first time, have what it takes to make it to the World Series.
7
I have to challenge the initial thought:
"One of the central problems in Western politics is the impasse between a governing class that lacks legitimacy, and populist alternatives that are poorly led and unready to govern."
Didn't the populist Trump lose the popular vote to the arguably more meritocratic Clinton? It seems to me that the populists are governing and that it is they who lack legitimacy, at least if garnering the most votes is what confers legitimacy.
18
Setting up straw men and straw regions just distorts and misleads -- a tactic of the Right.
Of course small town locals will move to cities where there are more and more varied opportunities. But small towns have a push as well. They are often small-minded and built on good-ol-boy networks, of entrenched elites, many bigoted, and selfish. Think of these small-towns' "misfits" -- the mentally and physically ill (including military vets) who are farmed out to the big cities for care. Think of their children sent off to get educated elsewhere. Small towns rely on the big cities for these, and oh yes, for others' taxes for their health care.
And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good people, bright people, hard-working people in the small towns. Just don't romanticize them.
And we can find the negatives and harp on them of any candidate. Instead, take note of the negative, but see what counters them, and what the candidates do in the present and plan for the future. And remember the real comparisons are not someone's past missteps but Trump, McConnell, Cornyn, Graham, etc. -- all of whom are just one misstep after another with no redemption.
17
This article confirms the belief that our government is controlled by a minority of less than average intelligence. Our problem then, as a country, is systemic and unless it is changed, we will just have more of the same dysfunction. Not only is this minority easily duped, as Trump proved, but it also has a mean streak that breeds racism and white supremacy. When you ask these people why they voted for Trump, they will tell you that they did so because he is not a liberal, and they continue to support him for the same reason.
The reigns of their horse and buggy need to be taken out of their hands. We need to step in to the 21st Century, and not remain or feed the hope for a return to the 20th. We should not kid ourselves. There is a lot that is not "great" about our country and the people in it, and we are falling further and further behind in terms of the overall quality of life.
Buttigieg is everything that Trump is not, and the fact that he is perceived as a decent person accounts in large part for his meteoric rise.
23
Unless one has been living on Pluto while others have been following Pence's career public persona, it is abundantly clear that he has more in common with the ideas of Franklin Graham than with the moderate evangelicalism of, say, Michael Gerson. Thus many of us regard him with well-founded suspicion that a theocracy forcing the tenets of his brand of Fundamentalism on the rest of us by law would be just fine to him. A public figure can be just wonderful to his or her family and dog while being extremely dangerous to American democracy. "Just sayin'."
6
Sounds like he's describing Bernie Sanders to a degree who left the big city on the east coast to settle in and live among the farmers and small town folk of Vermont.
Maybe that's why Bernie can go into places like the heartland and places like west Virginia's coal country and connect with people. They may not always agree with every policy he supports, but they seem to like him, respect his honesty, and feel that he may just be the politician that understands what they are going through economically.
4
Douthat seems to want Buttigieg to conform to a theoretical and dogmatically place of purity instead of running for political office. Show me the person who does not reflect her/his background and set of experiences in how they live and think. Perhaps the real question regarding Buttigieg, is how pundits, politicians and voters examine themselves and their ideas in light of Buttigieg's ideas, history and life.
14
I live in a working class Trumpist county only an hours drive from Manhattan. I'm surrounded by natural beauty with protected and unspoiled land partially because it is a water source for Manhattan.
In spite of the natural beauty, my son has flown in the same direction as our water as have most of the creative, academically successful kids in my neighborhood.
The brightest ones leave not just because they are paid to, but because they can develop their skills to the highest level by working with other people of similar interests, skill and ambition.
This trend is global, as humanity becomes increasingly urban, and it isn't only the brightest of our young that prefer an urban environment. The lure isn't just the riches, it is also strongly social.
None of this would have become a crisis in the U.S. if we didn't have a constitution that disproportionately favors rural voters- essentially it isn't the meritocracy of our economic system that is damaging us, it is the anti-meritocratic and anti-democratic nature of our government.
When you leave your rural home, the power of your vote declines as much as your economic opportunity increases.
31
"Meritocracy" is government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability. In politics, such people must offer themselves up to a process that will demean them in all ways possible.
10
The last sentence in the next to last paragraph suggested we need another FDR. Kudos and to the point!
9
Very interesting to see attacks on Pete Buttigieg from the conservative side: a sign that he’s doing something making them scared. Bravo Mayor Pete!
97
What Douthat calls self-segregation is the inevitable move toward places where one can engage one's talents. The problem with rural areas is that there are not many avenues for economic or professional self-development. Furthermore, no politician, right or left, has found a way to provide them. One way is to try to entice some job-producing business which,by the way, Douthat seems to dismiss in Buttigieg's case, or for governments to shift big administrative complexes to these areas, like Sen. Byrd did for West Virginia. The problem is not whether you are an elitist (read well-prepared in your profession) or coastal. The problem is the inevitability of the market and resistance to meaningful government's intervention.
9
I somewhat agree with this interpretation, but I see this moment as more of a Roman Caesarian sequel. The great outsider populist (Julius/Trump) takes over the capital but is quickly deposed by an establishment that fears he will threaten the republic's values. They place their faith in a young man, full of talent and able to please both the populace and the elites. Alas, despite the decay Julius brings, it is Augustus who betrays the republic and creates an empire.
Given the choice between Buttigieg and Trump, I would certainly take the former. Just because Buttigieg shares Augustus's positive qualities doesn't mean he shares the negative. But it does mean that we should study his character throughout the campaign, not just what he does for publicity, but if he deals with power responsibly. He doesn't deserve less scrutiny for his superior talents and charisma. He's just like all the other candidates; we have to make sure that he can be trusted with the world's most powerful institution.
7
What exactly was the mayor of a moribund town do but try to make his city attractive for businesses and ambitious people (i.e. meritocrats)? The tax base had to expand to provide the services the city was expected to deliver.
It really doesn't matter whether he is an outsider or an insider who pretends to be an outsider. Mayor Pete's mayoral record should be judged by whether he has pulled South Bend from its death spiral.
And regarding Macron: signs are that France is becoming ungovernable. By this President or any other. The electorate has unreasonable expectations and a foul temper. Vandalism and violence are committed with impunity.
13
@George
I live in France. As you say, the country is ungovernable and might end up an autocracy. Activists and commentators are osessed by their personal niche agendas and expect elected officials to pass every ideological purity test. The rest of country is exhausted. Sounds familiar?
12
I don't know Buttigieg well enough yet, but I agree that the fact that he moved back to South Bend Indiana doesn't prove anything about his qualifications to be President. Whether he did it as a ploy or had sincere intentions, there is no reason that an effective President or candidate has to pander to any single region of the country if she/he wants to do something good for America.
4
Now that Mayor Pete has made a big splash in the Presidential race and in the media, it seems time for media trolls to tear him down.
A failure of imagination does not pinpoint the main selling point of his candidacy in that he is the polar opposite of Donald Trump. The media should avoid the false equivalency is Hillary likable and but her emails. Neither approached the shortcomings of the Republican candidate.
He may be young and brash, but the gaps in his policy chops will be filled by a candidate who shows the intellectual curiosity to tackle the problems facing this country. Can anyone name the last book that Trump read and showed his understanding of policy?
The candidate's commitment to government, including time in the military, shows he is ready to serve and could attract the brightest minds to government service. Most of Trump's team has already been fired and replaced with even less impressive executive branch members.
27
This column, and the dozens of others in recent weeks, wouldn't exist if its author wasn't deeply concerned that Buttigieg's rise and appeal is genuine and capturing more and more American voters' imaginations by the hour. And by voters I do mean those of all ages and political persuasions. A friend's elderly mother, a Republican from a deeply red state, called her a few weeks ago to make sure she had heard of 'this Pete Buttigieg', going on to praise him, his ideas, his manner, his ability to not only listen but to hear what people are saying and reply thoughtfully. It's voters like that, responding to this bright new light outshining the rest of the field on a daily basis, that have the author of this deeply cynical piece, and the misbegotten misanthrope shacking up in the White House, concerned that there is in fact a candidate with a vision whom voters of all stripes can actually get excited about and restore a sense of much-needed hope about the future of this country.
54
Mayor Pete has every quality to be the best president this country could hope for. He is a genius - he has empathy and wisdom. He has a sense of structure and priority. He analyzes with laser like perspective and navigates solutions. It continues to intrigue me that this country may have the good sense to know what is best but lacks the imagination and self regard to give itself the best. Among many things this extraordinary man has said the most important and dangerous s to the status quo is, "when capitalism and democracy come into conflict, democracy must win." That is presidential. He IS the man for the job.
104
Mayor Pete is my choice, if not for the top spot certainly at least for VP, with Warren or Biden or Harris. Style matters, as its antithesis currently polluting the White House shows. Mayor Pete clearly has substance too, and lacks the oiliness of most of our politcians on both sides in handling uncomfortable questions.
He clearly has the vibe of a JFK or an FDR, without a lot of the bagage of coming from plutocracy; i don't think his stint at McKinsey comes close to being a scion of m,assive inherited wealth. And like JFK, he has a culturally significant difference--he is gay, where JFK was Catholic, and faced alot of prejudice when he was running due to that. I remember it well, as I was Catholic when he was running and was elected.
Now newly Greek Orthodox after 50 years as an atheist, I am about to go to my first midnight Pascha service. I do so secure in the knowledge that in my faith, we place a great emphasis on personal responsibility and choice. Yes, our church condemns homosexuality and abortion. But it also worships a merciful God with whom "all things are possible", and believes in rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
So I can support gay rights in the civil sphere, and freedom of choice there as well, with a clear conscience. It is not my place to force my religious views on others. God intended for each of us to choose, and will judge us on our choices. I am content with that, as I can be both progressive and devoutly Orthodox.
45
Buttigieg has spoken about climate change in the same terms that one would talk about the Depression or WW II. The solution to the problem requires the same degree of mobilization as these prior existential threats.
Firstly, the structure to mount such a national effort must be handled by someone with Buttigieg's intellectual gifts. His competitors don't have nearly the special combination of genius and (oddly enough) experience.
Secondly, once this mobilization is mounted, the natural consequences in general employment will restore the job losses that his critics have rightly complained about in South Bend. Fighting climate change is an infrastructure project that is "shovel ready." It involves the systematic creation of clean energy via an industrial revolution equal to anything we ever saw from the automobile industry, for example.
Bernie Sanders is my hero. I'm his age. I watched enviously from AlbaNY while Vermont got him for Burlington and then D.C. He's Buttigieg's hero too, as exampled by that award-winning essay that landed Buttigieg in Harvard. But Bernie doesn't have much of a clue about climate change. This is a technological problem for a young technocrat. We're quite lucky to have this unexpected option.
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@Tom Ditto
I’m supportive of a progressive candidate and one who emphasizes climate change. But comparing climate change to WWII or the Great Depression is not accurate. Those two world events were winnable, climate change is here now and cannot be “won”. While actions such as renewable energy, conservation, reforestation, etc are necessary, they will only mitigate the damage to our economic/ecological systems. The main activities will be adaptation to all the changes caused by more extreme, intensive weather conditions and its impacts upon cities, agriculture, diseases, migration, etc.
It is not a technological problem that’s solvable by any single technocrat. Climate change will involve much more knowledge than any one individual can process, hence requiring excellent leadership and organizational skills. Having said all this, unlike the current occupant of the WH, several Democrat candidates are focused on this issue, including Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren and Biden to name a few.
6
@Tom Ditto
When Sanders was asked what is our most pressing issue at one of the 2016 Dem debates he replied The Climate.
He definitely gets it.
3
@Tom Ditto
Sanders isn't a climatologist. Neither is Young Buttigieg.
If Climate Change is your #1, Inslee would be the correct candidate for that.
As far as smarts, you also have a Harvard Professor in Warren. Another Rhodes scholar in Booker. Harris is a sitting Senator and was an Attorney General for the worlds 5th largest economy. Sanders smokes him in experience in politics.
No, Pete needs more seasoning.
Being groomed and programed isn't the same as doing.
Sorry Young Buttigieg isn't ready to lead the Free World.
He's also not what America needs at this time.
More of the same isn't going to save us.
Pete is just that; the Dem. establishments perfect little status quo, incremental, moderate.
One that won't scare off the corp. $$$ but is just enough social left leaning to appear progressive.
Time/experience will tell us if this rings true.
What I particularly like about Mayor Pete is that, unlike many Dems, he does not act defensive or allow the right to define the terms of the culture wars.
He takes the fight to Pence and his fellow culture warriors but, importantly, does not concede that they own faith or values like freedom. He is the only Democrat I have heard arguing for health care in terms of how it enhances people's freedom to change jobs without worrying about their coverage, or frees them of the fear of medical bankruptcy.
23:50 EDT, 4/27
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Pete Buttigieg comes across as a genuine and earnest person because he is. As they say, watch what they do, not what they say and Mayor Pete, notwithstanding the possibility of making a fortune in NY, chose to go back home. The latter, a small Midwestern town experiencing the type of economic depression that has become emblematic of the fly-over part of the country that nearly all elites ignore, I.e Nathan Robinson the reviewer of Mayor Pete’s bio alluded in this article.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has also experienced the “otherness” of being gay, which makes him, by necessity, more sensitive to the needs of struggling working families. That’s Mayor Pete’s appeal: his Midwestern value system with a strong dose of humanity.
53
@Ted The"otherness" of being gay does not automatically make a person more sensitive to the needs of struggling working families. Would that it did. It's not even the typical response. Most gay people I know see no connection between their struggles and those of others. In the decades before gay marriage, organized labor was one of the biggest forces pushing for equal benefits (such as health coverage for domestic partners), but it was almost completely a one-way street. In my experience, most gay workers receiving those benefits saw them as their due and never looked further.
5
@tim - We have different friends. Among mine, those who are gay seem to care genuinely for other similarly marginalized groups. They organize, they attract diverse groups to join their “crusades,” from teaching free yoga classes to lonely elderly people, to baking fresh and nutritious bread for our region’s food bank, to acting as Big Brothers/Big Sisters to those most in need. They don’t do these things for money — there is none — or to pad their resumes — they’re past that. They’re here now, helping in their own small ways, which demonstrate the empathy they feel and to do their part in ensuring that marginalized people feel more confident joining in the community — because they know someone cares and has their backs.
So, not surprisingly, gays are just as diverse in their behavior as straights.
11
Pete Buttigieg in his interviews demonstrates not only an intelligence that is rare and an eloquence when he speaks but most importantly an authenticity that is unique among today's politicians.
Every other candidate (several of whom I like) deflect when asked a question they don't like but Buttigieg doesn't. He answers every question directly.
I would strongly recommend listening to his podcast with Ezra Klein where he discusses political philosophy, what are the biggest problems we face, why we have them and what then needs to be done.
And I agree with other commenters here; he does remind one of Lincoln, FDR and JFK.
In a word, inspirational.
119
"His official positions on the 'gay rights versus religious liberty' questions cede zero ground to religious conservatives."
Nor should he. That war will end with only one winner, and those fighting on behalf of gay rights should grant no quarter. If the religious conservatives cannot relent, then let them be driven from the temple.
78
Interesting thought - Buttigieg as an American Macron. We see how that's working out in France. I see our American Macron as having been Obama - whose policies (bailing out Wall Street, not Main Street) helped lead us to Trump. Another centrist who speaks eloquently - many languages, in fact - will not win in 2020.
10
@Ellen Only a centrist can win in 2020. Have you checked the results of 2018 midterms? The Democratic victory was brought about by educated suburban voters supporting centrist candidates. If you think these voters will cast their ballots for AOC-lookalikes, better think again. If the qualifications for a Democratic candidate are populism, ignorance and demagoguery, the party can concede the election right now. I speak four languages and my vote counts for as much as yours.
25
@Ellen
Buttigieg has many of Obama's traits. Intelligence. Great communicator. Appealing identity. It's scintillating just to hear him speak.
But he'll be ineffective just as Obama was. Those traits may scintillate the intellect but they are totally ineffective in dealing with seasoned Congressional warriors. They ate Obama's lunch and then took his milk money.
2
Wow Ross. Linking Nathan Robinson's multi-thousand word diatribe against Buttigieg shows just how desperately the Sanders' world intends to attack the Mayor.
I'm awaiting a similarly-lengthy history of Bernie Sanders. In 2015 and 2016 no one was allowed to get into that for fear of alienating Bernie's supporters. That's not likely to happen now, nor should it.
31
Because Mayor Pete is a practicing Episcopalian I fail to see how he can be averred to be committed to traditionalism’s rout. I believe that his disagreement with Mike Pence reflects what all gay people of faith have come to terms with and that is that God made us and loves us as we are. Mike Pence does not believe that. The opportunity for a substantive debate on that topic between the two men does not exist and it is absurd for Ross to even raise the issue.
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@JohnFred
Depends on your definition of traditionalism. FWIW,I like Episcopal churches.
Douthat grew up Episcopal, then practiced in Pentecostal churches and is now an enthusiastic convert to Catholicism.
Conservative Catholicism is very different from liberal Episcopalianism and from his view would be a rout of “tradition,” see gay marriage and married priests.
6
No one in either party wants to admit it but the days of mass factory employment at a salary and benefits that allowed men to support a family, buy a home and hope to educate their children to have a even more prosperous life with only one income in the household are over and are not coming back.
China avoids civil unrest by operating state run and financed factories and businesses that operate at loss. That is never going to happen here.
What should happen here to alleviate the distress of the left behind is the most important policy question of our next twenty years.
I found the sentences describing how the mayor "bulldozed poor people's houses" and encouraging internet companies to move very overwrought and without a citation or link to prove the claim. Did Douthat actually mean to say the homes were bulldozed TO encourage internet companies to move in but lacked the facts?
Buttigieg is a very bright and articulate man and his resume should be a positive not a negative thing. The primaries will tell of if he has staying power for the long haul.
Buttiegieg simply pointed out that among his many faults Pence is a homophobe. That is the truth and there is nothing wrong with telling the truth.
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@Edward B. Blau
But Pete has said just that: those days of factory jobs are over, coal mining is over. It just this very argument he uses to combat nostalgia and a lost past, the very sentiment Trump outwardly proposes. Pete wants people to look forward and not fear change because as he said in a recent interview' "Change will come with or without us", we do not have much of a choice but to accept it with grace and optimism.
45
@cl
Your statements are correct. However, as sad as it is, some folks cannot and will not change. Outside of a defined, experienced comfort zone, they are unable to adapt to changes.
It’s not a lack of ability, mostly folks have the necessary features to tackle change. It’s fear...of folks who look/sound/believe and act differently or locations that are different in size/complexity/and distant..and fear is incredibly difficult to overcome.
11
@Edward B. Blau This is a telling part of both the Robinson and the Studebaker "take-downs." It's too complex to discuss in one of these comments, but getting rid of abandoned houses is widely recognized as a pre-requisite to stopping the kind of blight that kills cities--and, I might add, small towns.
Both Robinson and Studebaker imply that Buttigieg kicked people out of their houses and tore them down. He has replied, "Not a single occupied dwelling was demolished," and if that's the truth, where's there beef?
25
"I especially recommend a long takedown of the young mayor’s memoir by Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs, and a shorter critique by a scion of the Studebaker family (Studebakers being the cars whose manufacture once built South Bend’s blue-collar prosperity)."
A 37 year old with a memoir? He is no Mozart (who alas died at 35 ). I wish Mayor Pete long life, but his time is still to come.
10
@Joshua Schwartz
The Studebaker Company abandoned South Bend in 1963. My grandfather lost his job and his pension. A scion of the Studebaker family has no perspective on the city they left. The story of South Bend has been one of a slow rebuilding as the city has tried things that have worked (the city built a baseball stadium that is now a magnet for growth) and things that haven't worked (the city built a College Football Hall of Fame that never brought in visitors). Nathan Robinson makes some good points, but misses quite a few, as well. The houses that were torn down were abandoned - purchased by absentee landlords as investments and then left to rot. I can verify that our downtown is busy and viable, finally. New construction is finally happening. There is still a divide between the poor (and not just African-Americans) and the professional classes - as is true across America. The schools are in poor shape, but the mayor doesn't control the schools. Finally, Robinson seems angry that Mayor Pete doesn't have position papers on every issue. He must surely be aware that every recent president's position papers don't translate to kept promises. Mayor Pete talks about a process that involves gathering evidence and perspectives and then following through. Determining values then evidence-based decision making - it might be academic, but it works for me.
68
@Joshua Schwartz
Keep in mind that Mr. Barack Obama published his memoir at age 33/34. I remember reading it wondering how he ever got it published, although at least it is a solid book with an unusual story.
@Joshua Schwartz
It's almost as though he's been groomed for this, not unlike how Obama was. What kind of person allows his actions to be dictated by a presidential run? A politician's. Buttigieg is a masterful politician.
It's pretty disappointing that Ross writes this piece without noting one alternative who seems to be genuinely following his strategy of "treason against her class": Elizabeth Warren.
Yes, she does maintain progressive stances on social issues. But she's relentlessly attacking the wealth inequality generated by many of those coastal elites. Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, has also taken Amazon to task for its treatment of workers. Democrats will only win in 2020 if they give the heartland a reason to vote for them. What better way to snub the elites than to double down on economic populism?
24
Meritocracy is an ideology that confuses class position with actual ability or merit. It takes a wealth of resources as an abundance of character and intelligence.
13
@Chris Martin That may be how Republicans define meritocracy. It's not how liberals and any good dictionary define it.
1
Mayor Pete is not going to win on a no-policy, pro-corporate stance. He is all surface appeal and no substance, tossed into the ring by the elements of the Democratic party that fear Bernie. It doesn't take much investigation to get beyond the superficiality of his candidacy.
8
@Daniel Castelaz
If you believe he has no policies, you haven't listened carefully to what he's been saying. There's plenty of policy there.
83
@Daniel Castelaz
Nope.
No policy information in print or how they might be accomplished.
“We’re trying to run a non-traditional campaign,” Pete said, adding “Even though this is going to be highly substantive and specific campaign, we’re not going to inundate people with minutiae of policy before they understand exactly what the big ideas are, the values that motivate our policies and the impacts they are going to have on the ground.”
And the appropriate demographic (marks) eat up the propaganda nodding as they gaze in awe.
3
@Dobbys sock
"...values..."
Bingo, this is such a useless word that can be twisted to mean whatever one wants it to mean in any moment. Are you old enough to remember Dan Quayle's "family values"? I have yet to hear a definition of what that actually means.
Mayor Pete is the antithesis of Donald Trump period. Say what you like about his readiness for office but I find his intellect, maturity and civility very refreshing. I also respect that he has served in combat. I am encouraged that the young generation is ready to take us forward if not now very soon.
171
@Gary
Nicely put. This 64 year old is ready for some generational change too. Can't do much worse than mine I'm ashamed to say.
16
Benjamin Studebaker’s article, referenced in this commentary, represents a point of view that can be disputed. Studebaker’s labor problems didn’t start late in the Company’s history. South Bend suffered from the same automotive manufacturing woes as other cities in Indiana, such as Muncie and Anderson, only South Bend was ahead of the curve. Read Thomas Bobsall’s More Than They Promised. Studebaker produced a product of oft-questionable quality, lead by management that conceded too quickly to questionable labor contracts. Reviving South Bend is occurring, but it will take decades.
16
I happen to agree with the Buttigieg skeptics. He's certainly a smart cookie, and he has shown a nuanced understanding of the conditions that gave us Trump.
Problem is, nothing he proposes would do away with the economic conditions that have been partly responsible for the rise of Trump and right-wing populism. The more I hear him speak the more obvious it becomes that he's a proponent of the sort of tepid liberalism that lost Clinton the 2016 election. Uninspired, technocratic policies that rarely move the needle - not what we need in a time when middle and working class families increasingly struggle, and when wealth is increasingly concentrated among the few. His embrace of lobbyists and their money - at a time when Democratic candidates are staying away - is quite a sign. He's positioning himself as the carrier of neoliberalism's mantle at a time when liberalism has become exhausted.
18
@Vin
In case you haven't heard, he has renounced those practices and returned the money.
3
@Vin
His campaign has suspended and is returning any lobbyist-connected money.
3
@Vin
He's announced that he's returning the lobbyist money that he once accepted, and that he will no longer accept it.
1
Mr. Douthat, I sense rather bitter feelings that the Democrats may really be able to offer some candidates that even Republicans,aghast at your present President. recognize. as virtues and intelligence.
97
White and blue collar have been more or less at each other’s throats for hundreds of years. They grow up different, and grow up to be suspicious of each other’s values. Both largely feel a mixture of contempt and unacknowledged envy toward each other.
For a little while there, as American prosperity was pretty widely shared, and as millions of men who went to war mixed with and formed lifelong bonds with people from every corner of the country, things got a bit better. Shared mass media helped, too. When there’s enough to go around, the resentment dies down.
As people become more and more siloed into their information bubbles and economic equilibrium shifts back to historical norms, white and blue collar, elite and working person don’t talk to and don’t trust each other. Pete Buttigieg is making a sincere and candid effort to explain a vision both can share. One that makes sense. Something practical but aspirational. Something bold but also something that makes sense in day to day life.
Shame, I think, on Mr. Douthat for not recognizing what Buttigieg is. He’s not Macron; the comparison is facile and just obviously weak. I think his own elitism makes him blind to new things. He’s got his hypothesis of how the world is already laid out, and he’s trying to make Buttigieg fit into it. In this article, he failed.
154
You know, the speed and contorted logic with which pundits I've never respected have taken to trying to knock this guy down leads me to think that someone feels pretty threatened.
And while I'm on my soap box, I'd also like to mention that I was born and reared in Kansas City, have lived all over the U.S., am presently living in Connecticut, and strangely I've never heard anyone except people in the Midwest refer to it as "Flyover Country." Are "Coastal Elites" really that elitist or is that just what Fox News has trained people in the Midwest to believe?
144
@KC Yankee
I have heard plenty of people on the coasts call it flyover country. Yes, the vast majority do not but it’s not a good term to use if you “Fox News trained people in the Midwest” to “vote in their best interests” - read Democrat.
1
@KC Yankee. Good point. Thinking about it, I do not think I have ever heard the term either. LOL, however somebody once posted to me that Philly was in “...Flyover country...”.
3
Traitor to his class? You just described FDR. So that’s great if you want another FDR and this time, whoever he or she is should expand the Supreme Court. Macron is work in progress. Mayor Pete could be a blend of FDR and JFK particularly if first he does four years as VP with Biden who will clean out the stables. Sadly we have no similar talents in the UK.
38
@Chris
As a Brit, your acute knowledge of American history and current politics is most impressive!
I completely agree that FDR was a traitor to his class. Perhaps in part because of that, he also became one of America's greatest presidents. I'm astounded at the number of people who, now in their 60's and are collecting a Social Security check which FDR gave them and which keeps most of them out of poverty, are nonetheless reluctant to give any credit at all to FDR! They seem utterly unaware of the plight of most older Americans prior to the existence of Social Security -- poverty, lack of health care and high suicide rates due to extreme poverty in old age.
Trump and Republicans want to destroy everything FDR gave us, including Social Security itself!
Those who wallow in capitalist extremism (most older White Americans do; all Trump supporters do and that means virtually all Republicans do), NEVER express any gratitude for what a great liberal president has done for them and their parents! They seem clueless as to the viciousness of unbridled capitalism, which the Great Depression made obvious to previous generations and which allowed a great man like FDR to win the presidency 4 times as he rescued American workers! The ingratitude and/or ignorance of history by so many Americans amazes me... but I can see that in London you have more knowledge of American history than many Americans do. Thank you!
5
@Chris
Biden, you really just said-- Biden--!. as someone who will clean out the stables. And why do you believe someone as old-hat and corporate-enabled as Biden would clean house? I may have once liked the man- sort of, cause at the time we had nothing better--but the last characterization I can imagine now, is of as Biden as sweeper-upper of our current corporate winner-take-all crisis.
Buttigieg isn't the man for the job? He would be much better than Trump. Buttigieg isn't the man for the job? Any Democrat standing against Trump, even Buttigieg would be much better than Trump. Buttigieg isn't the man for the job? When he's standing there on the debate stage confronting Trump with his own failures, he'll be the man for the job.
177
@Richard Mclaughlin
There is a clip of Pete at a town hall where he was taunted by two or three gay bashers, who were ultimately removed.
This poised young man did not flinch, did not blush, did not hesitate. He remained calm and composed. He did not make any insults or sarcastic remarks afterwards He resumed the conversation in a quiet lighthearted manner.
Grace under pressure. Where did he learn it? Driving a military vehicle in Afghanistan hoping he would not be hit with a roadside bomb. Another Macron indeed!
Mr. and Mrs. Buttigieg: you raised a great son.
82
Do our current and last presidents really represent a cry for help from the electorate. Before his election Obama had little experience and his appeal rested on polished rhetoric. He beat a heavyweight and experienced candidate in Clinton. Eight years later the electors went for loud, boorish and inexperienced, anti-Obama in style if not experience. Surely more than anything these choices represents a cry for something different. Before Obama we had a VP and four governors. Buttigieg's challenge is to make different enticing for the third time in a row.
13
"He has the same maximalist pro-choice views as every other Democrat..." Most people have those views. And what ground would you have him concede on gay rights to religious conservatives? Let them discriminate here and there? Again, Buttigieg resides with the majority in his views. It's only the Electoral College, gerrymandering and the equal number of senators from each state which make people like Douthat think that Republican viewpoints represent the views of the majority of Americans.
207
@Evelyn Thank you. I was going to try to write something similar. Why should religious conservatives get any special privileges to discriminate?
18
@Evelyn
Well said Evelyn.
11
How easy it is to be a critic, how difficult to be the one critiqued. Guess which one thinks he knows it all, guess which one knows he doesn't yet is willing to learn. One will always write about others, while the other will always be the one written about. This essay brings into focus those who are spectators with those who are in the arena.
Both are necessary while one is essential.
43
@Guido Malsh
Dodger manager Tommy LaSorda said back in the '90's "There are those who make things happen, there are those who watch what happens, and there are those who wondered what happened." Which one are you, Mr. Douthat?
1
Mayor Pete decided that the fast track to the big time was by being the most impressive person in a small town, in big cities, Ivy League degrees are de riguer, and a smattering of Rhodes scholars can be found, so it makes sense for a climber to try and take an easier oath to the big time
4
@stan The other path is apparently make a billion (maybe, maybe not) dollars in high-end real estate development, sue people, have an ego trip on reality TV, bankrupt a casino, kowtow to Russians and convince working class Americans that you feel their pain. I'll take the Buttegieg path to the Oval Office, thanks.
262
@stan,,,,The small town to which you refer is the fourth largest city in Indiana. Now I know that is hard to grasp for someone who has never left the safety and comfort of the East Coast, but as someone who grew up in a for real small town in the rural Midwest, South Bend is a serious metropolitan area with a major university.
28
This whole anti-meritocratic sentiment frequently displayed by Douthat (and his 'conservative' Times brother, Brooks) is so tiring. And illogical. How did Douthat make the leap from his rural upbringing (?) to the big-city elite punditocracy? Merit, or connections? Do the educated and talented 'self-segregate" in urban areas because they want nothing to do with rural ignorance, or because the challenge and opportunities they seek exist primarily in cities? I dare say if real career and social cultural opportunities existed in less populated areas maybe we'd keep some folks down on the farm, assuming rural areas are otherwise so superior to urban areas. People are people; their work ethic or societal contribution is not a function of their home town's population and/or their commitment to their 'tribe'. It's what they do with their lives that counts. To question Buttigieg's sincerity is the rankest form of elitism. The thing I love about Mayor Pete is that everything he says seems honest AND makes sense because it's thought through. That is one of the ways I define meritocracy. Columnists should try that.
242
@mick domenick
Write on mick!
4
There's a link in this story to a "critique by a scion of the Studebaker family." In that critique, Benjamin Studebaker states: "Most importantly, we offered the best wages and pensions in the industry." My father, and several great uncles, were working for Studebaker when it shut down. Their pensions were gone, plundered by executives trying to keep the company going. (I assume among other things, like not leaving with empty pockets themselves.) That pension bust was the impetus for ERISA, the federal law that protects pensions and employee benefits. Interesting that Mr. Studebaker doesn't mention that. I read his critique, and the article that linked it, with that in mind.
178
@Outdoors Guy Exactly, as a native of South Bend, the Studebaker family are the last people I'd ever ask for their opinion on the city's recovery. They are the ones who drove it into the ground.
16
@Outdoors Guy Also note that Ben Studebaker (now a PhD grad studentin politics at the University of Cambridge) is also a contributor to Current Affairs, the source of the other hit piece Douthat "recommends"--by Current Affiars founder/editor, Nathan Robinson, who makes it clear therein that he is in the Bernie-and-ONLY-Bernie-can-save-us camp.
13
@Outdoors Guy Yes! And they left their massive decaying rot of a building planted on the edge of South Bend, a gigantic eyesore reminder of their great concern for community values. They should go pound sand and keep their yaps shut instead of critiquing those tasked with cleaning up their mess.
14
"small, de-industrialized Midwestern city".....I grew up in the rural Midwest. I have to laugh. People from the coast like Douthat think they know something about fly-over country. South Bend, that small Midwestern city, happens to be the fourth largest city in Indiana. For those of us from the real rural Midwest, South Bend is a serious metropolitan area, and home to a major University. It is time for the East Coast pundits to leave the comfort and safety of the city life they know, and explore the kind of places where most of the residents in fly-over country really live.
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@W.A. Spitzer,
This is an interesting point. The trouble is the relativity of large versus small cities. I would peg South Bend as a small city or large town but if you grew up in a town with a few hundred or thousand people it willl be relatively large.
The larger question when talking about the “Midwest” is where does it begin and end? Is it 30 miles west of Philadelphia all the way to Fargo? Are all of these states partial extensions of Yankeedom. Or different? One view is that the cultural geography of Indiana makes it different from other Midwest and upper Midwest states - namely it has far less Yankee settlement influence than these other states. I’m not sure it’s helpful to talk about the Midwest as a monolith.
You could also make the case that South Bend is basically and exurb of Chicago - the third largest US city.
9
@W.A. Spitzer
South Bend is small compared to any number cities in the NY/NJ/Ct tri-state area, any number of which are much larger than South Bend, but which, nonetheless, you have probably never heard of.
@GM...."I would peg South Bend as a small city or large town but if you grew up in a town with a few hundred or thousand people it willl be relatively large."....Which makes my point. I grew up in rural Illinois which has a population of about 13 million. Half of the people live in the Chicago suburban area, but half of them don't. For all those that don't (6 million plus), a city the size of South Bend is a major metropolitan area. If you want to understand fly-over country you avoid the larger cities, even if in your vernacular they only qualify as a large town.
1
Ok, so let me get this straight. He joins the military, risks his life in Afghanistan, moves back to his small hometown in a red state that he would otherwise have no possible interest in, because he deviously foresees that one day he will need to campaign on bridging the divide of a historically polarized nation and all of this back story will uniquely serve to vault him into the presidency.
722
@Jennifer -- Douthat's plot, deftly summarized. Thank you, Jennifer from Waterloo!
42
@Jennifer Let's not get carried away, he was an intelligence analyst so he hardly risked his life.
2
@Steve
I did a quick search of "intelligence analysts killed in aghanistan or iraq." Some dubious-looking things turned up, but there are certainly reports on the deaths of analysts. But the deaths of intelligence personnel are generally less publicized than those of troops, for obvious reasons.
26
Pete Buttigieg knows how to communicate with people. This is both a gift and an ability. You either have it or you don't. One can imagine him giving today's version of a weekly "fireside chat" - speaking respectfully to the people of this country, clearly laying out his thoughts and reasons for his agenda.
Think of other bright examples who led and reassured their country with their skills as an orator. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Barack Obama. It isn't far fetched to compare Buttigieg's talent and skill to them.
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@John H
Don't forget Trump. In our current media world, he is also an powerful orator. The bar is lowered now and maybe forever.
3
@John H
You left out Bill Clinton. Whatever else you may think of him, credit where it's due. Cory Booker is no slouch either.
12
@John H
As much as I liked Barack Obama he was not a gifted orator. He had trouble understanding the ordinary man and struggled with his towering intellect when it came to communicating.
It was probably his greatest flaw.
3
If Buttigieg does succeed at being a traitor "to his class" as Douthat describes his resume, he will not do better than to follow the blueprint provided by FDR.
Roosevelt was an ivy-league patrician from a family whose ancestors arrived before the Pilgrims. During the height of the depression he wowed America with a faux British accent, wrapped in an opera cape puffing on a cigarette holder by promising America a New Deal.
Americans are desperate for a second New Deal that will reinvigorate a working and middle class in steep decline. If Buttigieg can convince a majority of Americans he is that guy, gay becomes a non issue for 75% of the country (the other 25% was never voting Democrat anyway so why worry about them)?
American isn't looking for anything new: it's looking for an FDR.
The candidate most likely to win will be most like him and stick it to elites who deserve to be taken down far more than just a peg.
Class warfare? Sign me up!
202
@Laurence Bachmann: My favorite quote from FDR is (said with a smile on his face), "I welcome their hatred".
43
@sophia
Wonderful quote. A badge of honor really.
25
@Laurence Bachmann
It wasn't an opera cape. It was a boatcloak.
https://fdrlibrary.wordpress.com/tag/cloak/
Easier to move in than an overcoat would have been.
5
With my puny, non meritocratic vocabulary, I'll try to address the central problem with Douthat's thesis. It appears that Mr. Douthat seeks a candidate that can address the economic ills of small town America by abandoning that which has propelled Mr. Buttagieg into the natonal spotlight. Well, buddy, there is no there, there. What is desired cannot be accomplished. It's a meritocratic pathway or bust.
The world is rapidly changing. The types of occupations that once supported these disenfranchised areas no longer exist and they will never return. One of Buttagieg's chief talking points is that we cannot pursue a path that takes us "back again". There is no again place. He is correct.
This social and economic geographical realignment that is the target of Trump's politics, is the result of functioning markets. What? Yep! It's capitalism at work. Capitalism always seeks out the lowest cost of production. It seeks to maximize efficiencies of profit. It applies investment capital into things that generate the greatest profits.
That's not small town America. That's not flyover country. It is the large metropolises. These are places where there are high numbers of knowledge based human capital and the infrastructure to develop them. The economy of the future is knowledge based, creativity based, high tech based.
This is the reality, the truth of our modern world. At least Mayor Pete is being honest about it, gay wedding cakes and all.
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For clarity, is America’s third largest city in flyover country? You know the one that produced the previous president?
Or does it get an exception as a metropolis?
This is only a partial truth of capital flight. Except for the professions in large metros that shift numbers on screens the process is quite different than described. Capital for industrialization moved from the Yankee North to the West and American South to the Global South with the exception of some luxury vehicles made in Germany.
6
For clarity, is America’s third largest city in flyover country? You know the one that produced the previous president?
Or does it get an exception as a metropolis?
This is only a partial truth of capital flight. Except for the professions in large metros that shift numbers on screens the process is quite different than described. Capital for industrialization moved from the Yankee North to the West and American South to the Global South with the exception of some luxury vehicles made in Germany.
There is also no reason to assume many of those jobs in cities can’t be automated or outsourced - my old firm in ny called it “labor arbitrage.” Why pay my local broker at Merrill when a robot can do almost as good. Or if I want a financial advisor, why not pay someone at a reputable firm in Bangalore to do it? Why pay a lawyer to do discovery when ai can do it faster?
You don’t have to be sympathetic to folks in “flyover” but know the future may come for your American city jobs as well.
3
For clarity, is America’s third largest city in flyover country? You know the one that produced the previous president?
Or does it get an exception as a metropolis?
The fundamental problem, for Pete Buttigieg and every other ambitious leader, is the economy is more and more rewarding to fewer and fewer people. Technology is leaving millions of people who formerly worked with their hands behind and offering them nothing to do.
The insistence that private enterprise can replace government as a job source seldom includes recognition that private enterprise's default position is to reduce labor costs. Robots, automation, and artificial intelligence offer far fewer costs and problems than people. There are jobs that really need doing, beginning with such obvious tasks as cleaning up the ocean, the air, and our polluted waterways, but capitalists see no money in such endeavors and government sees itself as a servant to capitalists.
Mayor Pete is clearly gifted, but he has yet to make a convincing argument in favor of addressing the pressing problems of the day, beginning with climate change. What we need is someone with the vision to see we need a transformation of government and ideology and we need it now. That same person must be able to inspire a mass following. So far, the two people closest to showing the capabilities we need are Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, and therein lies what could be the tragic irony of a failed republic.
15
@Eric Caine: Pete is the only one of the Dem candidates that I've heard who has talked about AI and how it's going to dramatically change our workplaces.
23
@Eric Caine
Maybe Trump,and Sanders have inspired the big mouths, but they clearly haven’t addressed in any substantic way (I mean Bernie here, for Trump has not addressed these at all) the pressing issues of our times. We need to ask for of the electorate than solely being superficially inspired.
@sophia
You haven't been paying attention: Andrew Yang has been talking about this the whole time.
Whether Buttigieg is the Democratic nomination for president or not, I do hope he's around long enough to publicly challenge the morality of religious liberty advocates and their opposition to LGBT equality. That Fox News has accused Buttigieg of attacking Pence's religious freedom instead of Pence's support for the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, is not surprising. I would bet that Buttigieg wouldn't characterize discrimination against gays as a "theological feud" either.
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@Mary York-Since you mention it, wouldn't it be great if Buttigieg did an interview on Fox (Un) News? I sense he'd wipe the floor with the talking heads.
7
Mayor Pete may or may not be the right man for the job, as Ross says, but it is a pleasure contemplating any other human being in that job other than the current one.
For me, Pete is a bit young and a bit inexperienced. Bernie is too progressive, Elizabeth Warren too intense. Each, by turn, may fall out of the contest by the time a choice must be made.
Nevertheless, the historical accident of this presidency and this president must not be repeated. When the time comes, whoever is on the Democratic party line will be my choice. My dog, if he gets past Iowa.
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@LKF
"...Elizabeth Warren too intense."
I get that people seem to think this the case and is a problem, i still don't get why.
29
@rtj A lot of her policies seem like "me too" and trying to one up the others without really thinking through the consequences.
For instance, Bernie proposes making college tuition free. Sounds radical, but really is the same thing other countries do normally. To best him, she proposes paying off student loans, including private loans, ignoring the optics and the cost of this will be a massive subsidy to the already well off.
Bernie proposes increasing income taxes on the wealthy. Not radical at all. Tax rates used to be up to around 90%, and the majority of the country are behind raising taxes at least somewhat. Again trying to one up him, she proposes a wealth tax, which is likely unconstitutional.
8
@Jason Joyner
Great! You're criticizing her policy proposals, and they should be discussed and dissected and criticized. How to pay for them, as well as Bernie's policies too, should most certainly be parsed and reviewed, numbers crunched. But she's got them out there, which is more than most candidates have. And is certainly more than Mayor Pete has. He seems to be able to diagnose problems, but i'm not seeing him come up with any solutions. Oh, sure, some positions. But positions aren't plans. And to say well, it doesn't really matter, all Dems believe roughly the same things anyway, is lazy in the extreme, not they don't. Because they have some very different ways of getting there, and it matters how they do.
I have some problems with Warren, but intensity isn't one of them. I would agree that she tries too hard to jump on too many bandwagons and outdo the field, it's distracting and annoying. But still, she is rolling out policies and a comprehensive vision for a future. When any of the other candidates besides Bernie) do, i'll take them as seriously.
8
An early takedown worthy of holding near to discover which candidates fail to address national needs with respectful solutions. Mayor Pete may or may not gain the top of the mountain of candidates to become number one. He does offer structural changes other candidates ought to consider.
What makes this contest interesting is how much space Bill Weld takes up in the other primary.
12
I think Mayor Pete, whose sole and very modest governmental experience is serving as mayor of tiny South Bend, Indiana, the 301st largest city in the US, is quite a stretch as far as qualifying for Presidential candidate is concerned.
Also, while his being gay is a non-issue as far as so many of us urban and Democratic voters are concerned, it may be a significant negative among non-urban and non-Democratic voters. (Not to mention the inevitable and unending media chatter over whether Mayor Pete's husband should be called "First Husband" or "First Spouse.")
The NYT's earlier opinion piece on whether Pete is "gay enough" was too subtle a point for many; that he is gay at all, complete with husband, may be too much for many voters in fly-over land.
If Mayor Pete can successfully run for House or Senate or governor of his state, that will bolster his credentials and make him a plausible candidate in a later run for President.
I am a life-long Democrat and I sincerely hope the grown-ups in the party can take charge and find an electable candidate who will appeal to the great majority of American voters, especially those who felt their needs were ignored in 2016. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to four more years of Trump.
16
The so-called grown-ups in the party foisted Hillary Clinton on us, which ultimately yielded Trump. Who are these grown-ups? Who can know with any degree of certainty which candidate will capture the public imagination?
It's interesting to me that after all of these take-downs and cautionary tales regarding Mayor Pete (even in this newspaper!) only a few names repeatedly come up in the predictable avalanche of letters that follows: Bernie, Biden, Elizabeth, Kamala, Amy, Cory and Kirsten. Perhaps we should whittle down the Democrats under consideration to these few names and spend more time assessing each of them more carefully. Some of the 2020 Democratic candidates are frankly delusional.
19
@Mon Ray
Mayor Pete is much more highly qualified to lead the country than its current occupant.
70
@Capt. Obvious
You only have to look up to see what the DCCC is doing right now to consider completely ignoring the "grown-ups". They have now fostered a rebellion, and well they deserve it.
They have designated themselves the high-handed task of anointing who is deserving. Their parent organization was too out of touch that they did not sit it fit to allow Pete to be their next head. Instead, he might end up being the leader of the Party and the nation, god willing,
5
One of the craftier pieces written by Mr. Douthat. Giving faint praise to Mayor Pete while ultimately attacking his character, his “maximalist” pro choice views, and bizarrely, his position on gay rights. He asks Mayor Pete to “commit real treasons against his class” and to cede “ground to religious conservatives” on the issue of gay rights.
The question Mr. Douthat does not explore is why Mayor Pete or any Democratic candidate should be a bridge builder or cede any ground to conservatives. The demographics of our country are trending younger, more liberal on social issues, and more secular. Ross and his religious conservatives will increasingly find themselves in the minority. True democracy means the majority rule; even on the social issues conservatives hold most dear. Perhaps this is what Ross is afraid of; this may explain his call for “compromise”.
Since Ross is so interested in bridge building, I wait with great anticipation for his piece on the need for conservatives to modify their maximalist pro life views or conservative Christians willing to cede their views on religious liberty to gay rights. Or perhaps the advocacy of a conservative who will be willing to commit “treasons against his class”, maybe in the areas of real tax reform or health care.
I will wait, like Godot.
815
@Comet
In calling out Douthat’s one-sided call for “compromise,” you nailed it!
I encourage Douthat to write a column where he reflects about the impact of his conservative (one might say reactionary) social and religious views, were they to become the basis of public policy under, let’s say, a President Pence. Then we’ll see how far he would step away from the more extreme elements of his own movement. Compromise? Nah, that’s a righteous move only for liberals!
58
@Comet You have achieved what sometimes happens at the New York Times: your comment surpasses and therefore, in a sense, supplants the article itself. You are the person at the edge of the crowd who patiently tries to explain to everyone else how the street hustle works. When is the rest of the country finally going to see through it?
In the last few decades, conservatives have used immense economic and political power to repeatedly push this country to the edge of the abyss. And yet, as Douthat illustrates here, they still manage to feel that they are the true, justifiably aggrieved victims in our society — which is the trick, of course. As long as so-called conservatives manage to believe their own lives, we will have great difficulty solving the awful problems that face us.
50
@Comet Well said, except for the end: Godot is the waitee, not the waiter.
13
We have nothing to fear from an intelligent President. Pete Buttigieg is not ingenuous in his being smart. It is part of who he is. Who would not want a smart President? His intelligence is just a part of what makes him electable. It is not "internetty." It is his values and connecting with people to real world problems that makes him appealing. He speaks with reason and calmness. He is not flashy. It's not about "him." It's about our future, our governance, and, someone who believes our future is as at stake, in so many ways...Climate change, equals rights, holding adverse governments in contempt. I think, Pete Buttigieg has what it takes to make us Great Again by listening to intelligence, making good decisions, (foreign and domestically,), and leading the USA to what we used to be: respected on the world stage.
443
@Molly
You could be right. An unprecedented event of global peril calls for forthright action, smart decision making. It would help greatly if the decider had a background similar to Mr. Buttigieg. As to experience, he shows a sharp mind with an ability to learn, talents that will be sorely tested in the coming decade.
93
@Molly
"Who would not want a smart president?" Well, I guess, an admitted great many of Americans who voted the current occupant into White House. Let's keep harder at why this happened----it's a fascinating, impenetrable problem and remains a conundrum to logic....and yet if we can't figure this out, and convince at least some of those voters otherwise, current occupant stays four more years.
....Buttigieg needs to be more than "smart" to compete. The qualifications you cite sound only typical for any democratic candidate worth her salt.
23
Buttigieg's objection to Pence is the anti-gay law that Pence signed, which became a national disgrace, and other concrete anti-gay policies and statements.
That's not a critique of Pence's private religious views. It's a critique of his policies, governance, and bigotry. The conservative sleight-of-hand on that is to hope we have total amnesia on Pence's positions and actions, and to pretend this is just a smear against his personal views.
Buttigieg has also invariably noted that Pence is personally a nice guy who is pleasant to talk to. Maybe George Wallace was that way, too.
534
@Fairfax Voter
Mike Pence, the Angie's List guy. I will never forget.
1
I find this column condescending at best and just plain insulting at least. We have to have a President who can bridge the divide while keeping the idea of the importance of personal freedom alive with tolerance for others and their idea that do not harm others as well.
This born and bred Catholic thew in the towel recently after an Italian immigrant pastor, here in Sarasota, praised "our wonderful pro life president" in the weekly bulletin while ignoring the cost in human suffering and, yes, lives at our border by the separating of families and so much more caused by that president and his cabinet.
If you're homophobic, like Franklin Graham, and hide behind evangelicalism, you do not deserve the respect of the rest of us. In addition, while I have grave reservations of abortion anytime, anywhere, I do not have the right to try to close down clinics that may provide them per the statute that permits them.
In short, Mr. Douthat, stop blowing smoke and come down of your high horse.
921
@JWMathews
Thank you for this nuanced and respectful statement regarding abortion. And homophobia.
40
Not just condescending but hypocritical. What Mr. Douthat calls resume-building is actually how people gain valuable life experiences that help them understand how others in the US and elsewhere really live.
Pundits complain about the DC echo chamber, but when somebody has the temerity to break out of that chamber and the straight-and-narrow political escalator (the REAL resume builder), they get shot down as elitist. Or lumped with a genuine elitist like Macron.
I’ll take Mayor Pete’s empathy and compassion over Trump’s insular pathologies any day.
66
@JWMathews
Good for you. Seriously.
13
Buttigieg is a political Zelig-like figure, which makes him hard to take seriously.
He's a classic Clinton-Blair-Macron-style politician - astounding levels of self-belief, but no organising dogma or political doctrine - all of whom end their careers telling anyone who'll listen that they don't how it came to this and that they meant no harm.
For what it's worth, I don't why Elizabeth Warren isn't killing it ... a brilliant politician-engineer, without Bernie's downsides.
24
Any woman is easy to dismiss. And she’s not Bernie, so maybe she’s Hillary.
11
@BjG2017 We love Elizabeth too. She's devoted her political career to helping average citizens. We are very disappointed the country is not embracing her.
30
@BjG2017. Neither Elzabeth—nor my other favorite, Amy Klobuchar—are “killing it” because the media are slobbering all over the shiny new things like Pete and Beto. They are so cool, so charismatic, so young and clever, we just have to talk about them first and then second and third. No one knows what they would do if they got into the office they are quite unprepared for, but we need a change so let’s find the non-Trumpiest candidate out there. Policy positions? Experience outside of some midsizes town? Not to worry, at least they won’t be Trump.
2
Very cogent response. What I find hilarious is how it would be impossible to write this eloquently or nuanced about any of the other candidates. With most, strike that, with all of the other candidates it's much more WYSIWYG. Was it planned to go back to his humble roots and to serve in the Naval Reserve? So what if it was. I applaud the foresight.
24
@dvw
Humble roots? Both his parents taught at Notre Dame--would you say that about the child of two Marquette professors?
@dvw
Yeah. That's is why he left a letter behind before he went, to be opened only in case of his death. What a callous thing to do.
"What we badly need is something different: a meritocrat who can commit real treasons against his class, and discover economic and cultural alternatives that the elite ignores and the populists lack the capacity to implement."
Oh, come on, Ross, that's not what you're seeking. This piece on Buttigieg seems over the top and contrived, trying to convince us you actually see a need for "meritocrats" who can boldly disavow their roots.
Actually, your critique made me think of Corey Booker, a "youngish" meritocrat who studied at Stanford before returning to Newark to run for mayor and do such mundane things as help his constituents by shoveling snow for them in blizzards.
Of course, Booker and Buttigieg have only one thing in common--each is running for president. But I don't think the latter is as cunning and calculated as you imply in such phrases as "humble" showing off.
Of course, you won't be voting Democratic anyway, which makes your points moot.
As I see it, picking on Mayor Pete is an attempt to offer "constructive criticisms" that belie any genuine interest in the man himself.
560
@ChristineMcM
"Booker and Buttigieg have only one thing in common-each is running for president."
Bit more than that. Booker is a Rhodes scholar too, who then got his law degree at Yale. And a smart, smart dude who is no slouch as an orator, and who also is unafraid to wear his faith on his sleeve. Buttigieg took on Pence, Booker took on Jeff Sessions. His record as mayor is mixed as well.
I don't know why is being relatively ignored in this race. He's not as new and shiny as Pete or Kamala. He has some unusual proposals and a different perspective on many of the issues than the other contenders. He's quite rightly been criticized as a big money corporate Dem. There's a new interview in NY Mag where he offers even a defense of that. He should be heard from more.
35
@ChristineMcM You are spot on with this comment: "This piece on Buttigieg seems over the top and contrived..." Thanks!
35
@ChristineMcM Actually Booker and Buttigieg have at least TWO things in common, then: both have been Rhodes Scholars.
21
"...his official positions on the 'gay rights vs. religious liberty' questions cede zero ground to religious conservatives..."
I can understand the importance of compromise when it's a question of balancing, say, the economic interests of workers in one state vs. another. But "gay rights versus religious liberty?"
Let's say that the "Christian right," instead of spreading lies about gay people (& demanding that schools do the same), claiming the "right" to refuse economic activity with them, and so forth, were doing the same things toward Catholics. You know, calling all Catholics "pederasts," demanding they be kicked out of schools & organizations, claiming a right to exclude them from the marketplace, etc. What sort of ground would Mr. Douthat propose ceding to those positions?
275
@Martin Exactly. I'm amazed that people who think like Ross don't realize that their same "I should be allowed to discriminate against *those* people based on my Christian beliefs" demand was the exact same thing that Christians said about African-Americans not that long ago.
9
America needs to give Mayor Pete at least a few months of campaigning time to get to know his views on a number of issues.
He’s made a good first impression and to that end, I’m sending a few dollars his way and that goes for other democratic candidates as we have a wealth of talent for primary season.
I don’t have a clue about voting for Buttigieg by the time of the Florida primary. I do know that priority one is to defeat Trump in November 2020 and my single criterion in our democratic primaries will be, “ Who is best able to defeat Trump in the general election”?
If Mayor Pete can do that with reasonable certainty, he’ll get my vote.
180
@JT FLORIDA
If Trump can be beaten and I say this because I have very grave concerns about the legitimacy of our elections, any of the candidates can beat him.
Please stop with this. We need someone who can do the job and do it well once they have beaten him. Whenever I see someone say this I think, this is exactly how we get a man like Trump in office.
Because believe you me, more than half of these candidates will make an extremely poor president and we'll be in even worse trouble than we are now.
It's always interesting to see Mr. Douthat attack the meritocracy. It appears to have something to do with his religious views, given that the meritocracy tends to be secular. And having a gripe against Mike Pence's theological views, given his evolution-denying theology and his children-of-the-corn persona, is hardly unexpected.
I'm finding it difficult to evaluate the Democratic candidates along any lines, much less meritocratic ones, because none of them seem unqualified, especially compared to the man who currently sits in the Oval Office. Frankly, we're looking at qualifications in the rear view mirror.
293
“Children-of-the-corn persona.” Outstanding!
9
@gemli ~
"... because none of them seem unqualified, especially compared to the man who currently sits in the Oval Office. Frankly, we're looking at qualifications in the rear view mirror."
Your conclusion nailed it!!
14
@gemli Finally! We’ve been looking for you and have missed reading your always illuminating, (and funny!) comments. Hope all is well with you!
17
Every single time I hear the man speak, I'm more impressed.
Having said that, the majority of the Democrat candidates (so far) offer roughly the same thing. (in slightly different methodology and timeline to achieve)
If you make more money, then you should be paying more taxes Progressively upwards - not less. If you are at the lower part of society, and need more help upwards, then you get Progressively more help.
These are simple concepts, and NO ONE is wanting to do away with meritocracy or capitalism or anything else. No one is coming to take away anything from you, but if you make more money (or even have millions more of it) then you are going to be asked to pay small percentages more.
The priorities are going to change from everything being vacuumed up to the top, and equal rights are going to be demanded of by all. (not just all of one kind)
Keep writing though...
104
@FunkyIrishman
I agree with your observation the candidates have much in common--their progressivism merely a matter of degree. It is though a bit of a stretch to consider Buttigieg's rise a product of "meritocracy". Male, white, born to two uni professors isn't exactly Honest Abe splitting rails while in law school. Even Pete's coming out gets put off until the career path trajectory is firmly in place.
That said you nailed Buttigieg's appeal in your first sentence: every time he speaks he's impressive and I think undoubtedly sincere. He may be ambitious and even calculating. Fine by me. As long as he stays loyal to the interests of poor, working and middle class people.
Our own little Taoiseach.
19
@FunkyIrishman-I like your summation with this exception: "If you make more money, then you should be paying more taxes...." I would rewrite it to say "the people and corporations with higher incomes--due to unfair advantages written into the tax code--need to pay their fair share." It's criminal, for instance, that 60 + corporations, including Amazon, paid "0" taxes or a negative tax in 2018 essentially requiring that American taxpayers foot their bills and underwrite their profits.
https://publicintegrity.org/business/taxes/trumps-tax-cuts/you-paid-taxes-these-corporations-didnt/
21
@Laurence Bachmann
Mayor Pete's coming out happened during a reelection campaign. It was considered brave at the time.
15
Mayor Pete's talent is in relating progressive policy to traditional values. He's been doing this very thoughtfully since at least 2004. Hand-wringing about meritocracy is besides the point in politics - if Buttigieg can mobilize and harness political power to achieve real progressive outcomes, he's got my vote.
391
@Alex-Excellent assessment. I've been trying to put my finger on why Buttigieg is so appealing, and I think it's because he always highlights what's most important the values the majority of us share in his answers--before getting into policy. This puts the conversation on higher ground and opens hearts and minds to his proposals. (Other than his one extremely short-sided and dreadful comment about ex-prisoners not being allowed to vote, Buttigieg gets most things right.)
28
@Ann I would like to also note that Buttigieg has been pretty open about what he views as the flaws in the way the Democrats have traditionally approached campaigning, and he is living out the precise prescription he has espoused. Why is that never mentioned when people complain about his lack of specific policy proposals?
19
@Ann - Perhaps I'm not quite understanding your parenthetical comment about "ex-prisoners not being allowed to vote". What Buttigieg actually said was that he didn't think prisoners should be able to vote, but that once they were out of prison they should be able to vote.
20