Pete Buttigieg came to Denver last week and left me cold.
Don’t misunderstand, I like the guy, and he seems like he would be a great neighbor. He talked about the importance of listening to one another and building a sense of belonging in communities. He talked about his kids and his husband, about not being wedded to the status quo of the past but seeking a better future for everyone.
It was very nice, and the crowd loved it.
He said the obliteration of USAID was “criminally wrong” and that as bad as things are nine months into the Trump administration, we must “not give in to the temptation to check out. … It’s not a reason for paralysis.”
Who could argue with that? It’s what we say to each other at No Kings rallies and over drinks.
And that’s the problem. I need more.
In fact, if this conversation was all I needed, I would have saved the money I spent for a ticket to the event and simply read Mayor Pete’s interview with David Leonhardt in the New York Times. The comments he made during his presentation at Bellco Theater on Tuesday were lifted almost verbatim from those published in the Times.
I’ll admit, his well-rehearsed, already published talking points made it easier for me to take notes. But I’m so tired of politicians who sound like droids repeating their focus group-tested stump speeches and triangulating responses to questions that need to be answered with the fire of passionate conviction.
My eyes glazed over the minute I heard the phrases “kitchen-table issues” and “focusing on the fundamentals.” Those are the kinds of things you’d expect to hear from a geriatric politician from Peoria or a middle-school football coach.
But here we are with the country spiraling into authoritarianism and our president spoiling for war by bombing apparently random ships in the Caribbean, and one of the opposition party’s most prominent potential leaders is desperately trying to sound measured, to avoid sounding too freaked out.
No wonder everybody says the flaccid Democratic Party’s brand is toxic.
We don’t need calm introspection; we need a leader who’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
Outrage is the only appropriate response to mass layoffs of federal employees, gleeful exploitation of the Department of Justice to punish critics and those who dared to perform their jobs by enforcing the rule of law, deployment of masked goons to arrest people for the color of their skin, and on and on.
OK, to be fair, Buttigieg had a few good points.
He said polls show resounding support for positions the Democratic Party has championed for decades.
Among them are that the wealthy are not paying their fair share in taxes, that you should be able to live as who you are and love who you want, that women should have bodily autonomy and be free to make decisions on their health care, that background checks should be the minimum requirement for purchasing firearms, and that everyone should be entitled to paid family leave.
“The people are with us on these things,” he said.
How nice.
But he failed to mention the barely contained bipartisan anger about the economy, what’s happening to democracy, and Trump’s reckless disregard for laws that protect civil rights and equal justice.
When asked about the politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court, Buttigieg called it “regrettable.”
Regrettable? I call it terrifying.
Meanwhile, on an optimistic note, the president’s approval ratings are plummeting. Fifty-four percent of Americans disapprove of his performance.
And still the opposition cowers behind bland platitudes.
What are Democratic leaders like Buttigieg so afraid of? Why don’t they all just let ’er rip?
Like JB Pritzker.
In a speech in New Hampshire last April that practically screamed “I’m running for president,” the Illinois governor said for too long “do-nothing” Democrats have been “timid” and lacked “guts and gumption.”
His audience exploded with cheers and applause.
When Trump earlier this month said Pritzker “should be in jail” for failing to enable ruthless ICE officers in Chicago, the governor said ICE agents were out to create “mayhem” in the streets by demanding proof of citizenship from anyone who is “brown or Black.” He called Trump a “coward.”
“Come and get me,” he said.
Pritzker is breaking ranks with Democrats simply by speaking out.
You can’t help but pump your fist in the air when you hear him.
Buttigieg, meanwhile, said Democrats have failed to get out of their comfort zone to interact with rural folks, young people and Republicans. It’s why he goes on Fox News and why he thinks relying on the legacy media alone to amplify a political message is a losing proposition.
He makes an excellent point. His tactics and strategies are admirable.
But he and most of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls and congressional candidates are failing to connect — not just because they don’t eat corndogs at county fairs or frequent Joe Rogan’s podcast — but because they are feckless and spectacularly boring.
They need to wake up and smell the tear gas in Chicago, L.A. and Portland and channel the fury in the streets.
They need to put their political careers on the line for the sake of the future of the country, the planet.
Come and get me, indeed.
Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.
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