It’s no secret that I see Pete Buttigieg as a future president. As a short film producer, I spend hours studying politicians on both sides of the aisle. I cut up and dissect their speeches and interviews. I study their writing and often read books about them and by them.
Based on my pragmatic assessment of the political players, it helps shape my thinking of how they play a role in politics for today and the future. Democrats are quite literally lost right now. With the exception of a few voices, it appears the majority of them, despite being elected representatives, seem to be doing anything but represent, and that deeply saddens me.
I can assure you, self pity while residing in the political wilderness is not a good look. Great political leaders shine in a hostile environment and right now, Democrats are hardly generating enough light to illuminate a basement.
I’ve said many times, Dems have a deep bench of talent, yet they are wandering around the political landscape like a shell shocked soldier on Anzio beach. They are in desperate need of effective leadership. These are times that demand an unambiguous vision. Beyond that, they need someone who can communicate and articulate a proposition for a better tomorrow. For an America in which no family gets left behind.
Now before you tell me a gay man would never be elected president. I would point you to think back to 2008 and ask if you believed a black man could achieve the same? Right now, Democrats have handed the House, the Senate, the White House and the popular vote to a convicted criminal and adjudicated rapist. So how did traditional thinking go in November? This is a time to be bold and forward thinking. It’s a sad reality that democratic values are now perceived to be toxic to a demographic that has abandoned the Democratic Party.
I would simply suggest, no leader can command an army in the modern political battle-space, without being an outstanding communicator and Pete is that man. I hear many of my detractors often say no, but never do they put forward an alternative proposition and candidate.
Because so few are stepping up, it’s very difficult to suggest a first team. Until they show us who they are, how can we as activists get behind them? What are we selling? At the moment, the Dem activist space is not about a vision, it’s about attacking fascism. However cathartic that might be, it doesn’t win elections. Right now, the only person who can beat Trump is Trump. There really is no other proposition on the table.
On the upside, I do believe the Trump train will leave the tracks. His deeply damaging approach to economic and foreign policy, will definitely not end well. Tariffs are a self inflicted gaping wound. If no tourniquet is applied, it will cause his Administration to bleed out. The bond markets are already firing warning shots which he is ignoring.
His narcissism outwardly appears to not allow him to believe that foreign governments do not pay a cent of the tariffs. When you invent an agency for ‘External Taxation’ as a front for a consumer tax on the very people who voted you into power, it demonstrates either a breathtaking level of incompetence, or an act of cynical premeditated deception.
Trump’s one hour 40 minutes comedy special last night, was a rambling self congratulatory litany of lies and deceit. Were it not so terrifyingly dangerous, he would receive a comedy award. On the second day of the markets screaming ‘Stop hurting us’, he appears in denial of the potential economic tsunami soon to hit every middle and low income family in America.
My friends, we have what seems like an insurmountable task ahead of us. It would be easy to just give up and say ‘I’ll just take care of myself and others are not my problem. But that would mirror exactly who this monster is. I know we are much better than that. This is why people like Pete Buttigieg are important in our fight to liberate America from this stage four cancer that is Donald Trump.