PETE BUTTIGIEG: Manchurian Candidate, Cultural Marxist and NWO Globalist Programmed to Destroy the American Republic<\/a><\/p>\n By Melanie Mason, Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 There\u2019s something about Mayor Pete.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Sean Rayford\/Getty Images North America\/TNS\u00a0Democratic presidential candidate, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg listens to the Sunday service at the Kenneth Moore Transformation Center October 27, 2019 in Rock Hill, South Carolina.<\/p><\/div>\n As the Midwestern political upstart climbs in Democratic presidential primary polls, Pete Buttigieg also has managed to get deep under the skin of progressive activists.<\/p>\n Social media networks now light up with the latest Buttigieg-induced controversy over his policy positions, his turns of phrase, even the swanky locales of his private fundraisers. The Gen Z crowd mocks him as \u201cMayo Pete,\u201d his events have been disrupted by liberal protesters and his fresh-faced newness is seen as a drawback.<\/p>\n The acrimony has spilled over onto the campaign trail with rivals increasingly sniping at Buttigieg by name. On Thursday, six of his opponents will have the chance to level their critiques in person when they share a stage with him at the sixth Democratic debate in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n As a relative unknown, Buttigieg wowed Democrats as an openly gay, multilingual wunderkind with Rust Belt bona fides. But as the novelty of his trajectory \u2014 going from a mayor of South Bend, Ind., a city of 100,000 people, to a top-tier presidential candidate \u2014 has worn off, a sneering tone among the Democratic left has crept in.<\/p>\n \u201cOf the people at the top of the race \u2026 you have three very accomplished people with gravitas,\u201d said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an activist group aligned with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Green was referring to Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Vice President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Sean Rayford\/Getty Images North America\/TNS\u00a0Democratic presidential candidate, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg exits a church pew during Sunday service at the Kenneth Moore Transformation Center October 27, 2019 in Rock Hill, South Carolina.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThat does not extend to a 37-year-old mayor who won his last race with 8,000 votes.\u201d (Buttigieg won 80% of the roughly 10,500 votes cast in his 2015 reelection.)<\/p>\n In a year when Democrats fielded their most diverse slate of candidates ever, some are frustrated by him outperforming women and candidates of color with longer resumes. Compounding that sting is his meager support among black and Latino voters, a core of the Democratic base.<\/p>\n The hype around Buttigieg is \u201cvery hard to stomach,\u201d said Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, a group that promotes women of color in politics.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been given a lot of space,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have other candidates who are carrying the hopes and dreams of millions who haven\u2019t been given that.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca Katz, founder of the progressive consulting firm New Deal Strategies, put it bluntly: \u201cThere is frustration that Pete is the living and breathing embodiment of white male privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n Mainly, progressive complaints about the mayor boil down to a simple refrain: They just don\u2019t trust him.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, people don\u2019t really know who Pete Buttigieg is,\u201d Katz said. \u201cHe\u2019s different at the end of 2019 than he was at the start of 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Katz pointed to the mayor\u2019s past support for \u201cMedicare for All\u201d as an example. Buttigieg now runs on \u201cMedicare for all who want it,\u201d which would create a government-run public option to compete with private insurers, and has branded Medicare for all as too disruptive and politically toxic.<\/p>\n The tussling over health care was the first fissure between Buttigieg and the left. It\u2019s now cracked open into a mile-wide gulf, as the mayor has charted a more moderate course, which he says is necessary to win over the voters needed to beat President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Progressives were enraged when Buttigieg released a commercial that touted his college affordability plan, which would provide tuition-free public higher education for 80% of American families, and panned more sweeping proposals by Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Buttigieg said making college free \u201ceven for the kids of millionaires\u201d amounted to an unrealistic promise. Detractors said Buttigieg was undermining the push for more universal programs, a top progressive priority.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a GOP talking point used to dismantle public systems, & it\u2019s sad to see a Dem candidate adopt it,\u201d tweeted New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders supporter.<\/p>\n Many on the left also got angry when Buttigieg, responding to a voter question in New Hampshire about the federal deficit, said that his party was \u201cnot known for worrying about deficits and the debt too much, but it\u2019s time for us to start getting into that business.\u201d He then went on to slam the GOP for growing the deficit under their watch.<\/p>\n Liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman tweeted his dismay, wondering, \u201cIs Buttigieg just Howard Schultz in disguise?\u201d \u2014 linking Buttigieg to the ex-Starbucks chief who pondered a third-party centrist bid that was derided by Democrats.<\/p>\n Allison said these more moderate tacks are most galling for progressives, who believe the Trump era demands a forceful, sweeping response.<\/p>\n \u201cHis perspective on what the political solution is in this moment is too middle of the road,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Buttigieg has played down the policy rifts, emphasizing his support for hiking taxes on the wealthy, raising the minimum wage and boosting union membership \u2014 all of which have wide-ranging support in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a little strange because I think I broadly share the same values and goals as a lot of these folks. It\u2019s a little hard to have a conversation with them, so I don\u2019t know for sure,\u201d Buttigieg said last week in an interview broadcast by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n Aside from the policy squabbles, Buttigieg opponents have dinged him for his ties to corporate America, pressuring him to release his client list when he was a junior employee at McKinsey, a consulting firm, and the names of elite donors who are raising money for him. The mayor disclosed both sets of information last week.<\/p>\n The friction is especially high between Buttigieg and Warren, whose polling numbers have dipped as the mayor\u2019s have risen. In a speech in New Hampshire last week, her criticism was thinly veiled.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I\u2019m not betting my agenda on the naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity that somehow the wealthy and well-connected will stand down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Buttigeig hit back, alluding to Warren\u2019s history of doing closed-door fundraisers, which she has largely eschewed in this race.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing about these purity tests is the people issuing them can\u2019t even meet them, right?\u201d he said in the Post broadcast. \u201cIf doing traditional fundraisers disqualifies you from running for president, then I guess neither one of us would be here.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of Buttigieg\u2019s supporters, and some top aides, are quarreling with critics on Twitter, but a campaign spokesman was more restrained.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the attacks from our competitors continue to escalate, Pete\u2019s vision for the future of the country is resonating with voters,\u201d Tess Whittlesey said. \u201cHis focus remains on defeating Donald Trump and uniting the country by offering bold solutions to the challenges our country faces.\u201d<\/p>\n The good news for Buttigieg, perhaps, is that he\u2019s been here before. Nanci Flores, a supporter who works at a Latino community center in South Bend, recalled that the mayor\u2019s youth initially led to some skepticism.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he first started as mayor here, people were not really taking him seriously. We really didn\u2019t know him,\u201d Flores said. \u201cBut it only took a year to get to know that this guy was serious and he was effective and he cares.\u201d<\/p>\n Nowadays, there are signs that the anti-Buttigieg rhetoric is distinctly more mellow on the ground in Iowa, even among backers of rival campaigns. Some, like Nate Rivers, who attended a Sanders town hall in Iowa falls, echoed many of the progressive concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the backlash is about him being a guy who was like, \u2018I will support Medicare for All\u2019 to where he is now, basically a debate assassin trying to shoot down progressive talking points,\u201d said Rivers, a 20-year-old student at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.<\/p>\n Others reacted to the Buttigieg furor with more of a shrug. Laura Foley, 37, attending a Sanders canvassing event in Des Moines, said she had no problem with the mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great person,\u201d Foley said, \u201cand I hope the best for him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n (Times staff writer Evan Halper contributed to this report from Iowa.)<\/p>\n \u00a92019 Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n ___ SOTN Editor’s Note: Here’s an exceptional expos\u00e9 on Candidate Pete Buttigieg that ought to be considered before reading the article that’s posted below in its entirety: PETE BUTTIGIEG: Manchurian Candidate, Cultural Marxist and NWO Globalist Programmed to Destroy the American … Continue reading
\nWhy does Pete Buttigieg bug so many on the left?<\/h1>\n
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\nhttps:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/elections-2020\/why-does-pete-buttigieg-bug-so-many-on-the-left\/ar-BBY7TyZ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"