Pete Buttigieg presents himself as a moderate fake

Pete Buttigieg is articulate, intelligent and, at least on the surface, looking to go across the hall.

During his campaign, he traveled the country claiming that "freedom does not belong to a single political party" and that "security is not a problem left or right. He described as a moderate Democrat, a fresh but relatively safe alternative to the radicalism offered by candidates such as Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

It's a shame that this story is a sham. Thursday, Buttigieg has finally updated its campaign website with a political platform. The page of his number reads like a socialist Christmas list, betraying his so-called moderate image.

In health, for example, Buttigieg is no less radical than other Democratic candidates. It approves almost all of Sanders' "Medicare for All" plan, which would require more than double federal tax and corporate tax revenues to be affordable and remove all private health insurance. Yet, in his usual moderation style, Buttigieg masks his support for socialized health care by calling for Medicare membership, a public option that would be, in his words, only a "road to insurance." -disease for all ».

Buttigieg also uses a federal minimum wage of $ 15, even calling it "security." This means that, like many other Democratic candidates, he wants the federal government to double the minimum wage, without worrying about the negative consequences for small businesses, layoffs and automation. This is not exactly economic moderation.

Despite everything, Buttigieg 's supporters hang on to his supposed moderation, that is, unlike many other 2020 candidates, he rejected the idea of ​​"free university for all." ". , Mayor deploys on his website, he's not so moderate after all.

He calls for "a massive government investment in higher education to make public tuition affordable for all and totally free for the lowest incomes," claiming that even middle-income families should pay zero for fees of schooling. Are we supposed to believe that asking most people to pay nothing for a degree that increases their lifetime earnings by a million dollars is a moderate position?

Buttigieg's radicalism extends to the realm of social issues. Most people will agree with him that the wealth gap between whites and African Americans is worrisome. Yet only one in four Americans agrees with the idea of ​​race-based reparations, and his platform calls for a "commission to propose remedial policies."

Buttigieg flirts with the absolute idea that Americans today should pay for crimes committed centuries ago. Because of his adherence to this radical race-based policy, it is fair to say that Buttigieg is just as addicted to the politics of identity as the rest of the leftists of the Democratic Party.

In fact, Buttigieg has much in common with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., The far-left rookie who has become the new hero of the millennial left. Ocasio-Cortez's signature proposal is the so-called Green New Deal, which would cost up to $ 93 trillion and lead to the largest increase in government spending in almost 100 years. Yet, despite all his supposed moderation, Buttigieg subscribes to this fantasy of the far left, at least conceptually. He promises in his platform to "implement a Green New Deal" and "build a 100% clean energy company".

As if his political radicalism was not enough, Buttigieg also wants to radically change the American political system. He called for the Supreme Court to have more judges and even a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college.

Add to that his support for abortion for the third time and Buttigieg's radicalism is laid bare. Let's hope that, starting in 2020, voters will be able to look beyond media narration and consider Buttigieg as the far-left candidate that he really is.

Brad Polumbo (@ Brad_Polumbo) is a publisher at Young Voices.