Opinion | Renee Graham: Mayor Pete's "What, I'm worried" campaign



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Call Pete Buttigieg
a serious White House contender is saying that the Boston Red Sox are not considered World Series because they currently have the worst record in the major category. It's early April. Get a handle, people.

As it's a long way to October, the 2020 campaign is just beginning. We are still two months away from the first democratic debate. That does not mean that Buttigieg (that's BOOT-edge-edgeand you are welcome), the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, does not turn heads and does not garner significant financial support. In January, when he set up his exploration committee, few people outside the small town he had been running since 2011 had heard of him. Today, he has raised $ 7 million in the first quarter of 2019, climbed the polls and garnered the kind of haunting coverage his more well-known rivals are struggling to assemble.

"Could Pete Buttigieg be the first president of the millennium?", Headlined the Washington Post Magazine. "The Conservatives should stop cheering and start fearing Mayor Pete Buttigieg," the Daily Beast warned. Even Vogue could not resist: "Who is Pete Buttigeig, the gay mayor of the millennium that the Democrats did not see coming?"

Yes, Vogue misspelled his last name, but he's probably used to that. His good mood around his difficult name has only strengthened his image. That's the attraction of Buttigieg: a friendly young man from a state closer to the center of the country than those dirty ribs with their radical ideas and elitist contempt for the real Americans who fear God.

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It's a kind of blandness of organized white gentlemen that some find desirable, especially with a more and more unstable president at the White House.


Buttigieg understands that. During a visit to San Francisco last month, he said, "I sometimes have the impression of being an emissary from the center of the country, simply pointing out that the situation is a bit different in rural communities, industrial communities like mine and need to find ways to link this image into one America. "

It is clear who is talking Buttigieg in these rural communities. Buttigieg may call himself a "Progressive Democrat", but he wants to appeal to the white Conservatives of the Red State, exhausted by both Trump and convinced of losing their grip in a world that moves too fast and becomes too brown for their tastes. He watched everyone who was suspicious of the progressives and their attempts to move the party to the left, as it should.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Buttigieg did not fail to revive refuted ideas on the road taken by President Trump to the White House. He "was elected because, in a twisted way, he stressed the enormous problems of our economy and our democracy." He added: "At least he did not say that America was already big, just like Hillary." Clinton Swipe was a bonus for Trump-candidate voters.

"Economic anxiety" has not allowed Trump to be elected and Buttigieg knows it. Trump's racism and wickedness on immigrants and Muslims did. It was a code that raised fears about the dismantling of the white supremacy upon which this nation was founded. But for Buttigieg, this disturbing truth is not a winning message for the voters he is looking for, even though hate-motivated crimes have increased since the Trump campaign and elections.

With Buttigieg, there is something for everyone. At 37, he is the youngest candidate on the field. He is a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar, Christian and Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan. He is a social media expert. He looks like the best cousin of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman magazine and projects a similar temperament: "What, me, worries? Oh, and he's an openly gay man with a teacher husband. Refreshingly, his sexual orientation did not become a problem. Again.

This checks the box for diversity and prevents it from being "just another white candidate", although this sets the bar low. At this point, Buttigieg works more on personality worship than on political propositions. This certainly says about this perilous political moment that a man who runs a city of about 102,000 is called a viable candidate to become one of the most powerful people in the world. Again, it's even more experience than Trump.

Ultimately, Buttigieg will have to do more than just whit the nervous whites. By the time the Red Sox come out of their slump after the World Series, we'll see if Buttigieg is still considered a serious contender after his new candidate smell fades.

You can contact Renee Graham at the following address: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.

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