"Pete Buttigieg, Donald Trump, and the privilege of inexperience"

[StarfishSaver]

At the Novemeber 20th Democratic debate, Pete Buttigieg touted his “outsider” status as the secret weapon that would help the Democratic Party defeat Donald Trump. He argued that although he doesn’t have the “Washington experience” of his opponents, he has other experience that qualifies him to be president.

The fact that Mayor Pete can stand up on Oprah Winfery’s Sound Stage at Tyler Perry’s studio and say that he doesn’t meet or even need what many people would consider to be the basic qualifications for holding the highest office in the land ain’t nothing but white privilege.

Society appreciates white men who are “outsiders” to a system coming in to “shake things up” but balks at the idea of black women and other people of color doing the same. White men are allowed to be “innovative” and “creative” while everyone else must color inside the lines, lest we be told that we don’t know how to do our jobs. People are okay with new ideas and a new ways of thinking as long as it is a white man pushing it. Everybody else is patted on the head and sent away until a white man comes around saying the very same thing.

What kills me super dead is that white folks–especially white men–get the privilege of showing up wherever they want with little experience and lots of loud opinions and people will make time to listen for them. I cannot tell you how many times in my career that I have had to convince people that I know what I’m talking about concerning somthing that I was being paid to know or had dedicated years of study to be able to have an informed opinion about only to be over talked by a white man who was loud and wrong. Not to mention all the times that I have had to fight to be given a title or perks concominant with the level of work that I was doing because people questioned my level of knowledge or experience.

https://thearmchaircommentary.com/2019/11/21/pete-buttigieg-donald-trump-and-the-privilege-of-inexperience/

[DavidDvorkin]

1. I'm old and I like him

Not because of his inexperience but despite it.

[StarfishSaver]

4. I like him a lot

But this piece raises some important points.

[thesquanderer]

18. He misses that Cain & Carson got much further than Pete has so far, on even less qualifications.

In October of 2011--roughly the same point in the 2012 election as we are now--Herman Cain polled in first place in a Fox news polls with 24%, beating Romney's 20%.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-gop-primary-voters-propel-cain-to-top-of-pack

Similarly, multiple polls in October/November of 2015 had Ben Carson in first place in the Republican primary, ahead of Trump, hitting a high of over 24%.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_republican_presidential_nomination-3823.html

Buttigieg has not come remotely close to those national numbers/standings.

The article has interesting things to say, but he based the piece on a false foundation.

[stopbush]

2. Inexperienced and pushing his belief in make believe as qualifications for President.

No thanks.

[BootinUp]

3. Boooooo. Pete is much more knowledgeable and engaged

in solving problems with well thought out solutions than your average outsider. Big thumbs down on this article. Of course there is white privilege, but it’s not going to be solved by attacking someone just because he is white and not working in DC.

Full disclosure: I’m white, but that shouldn’t matter, right?

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Right.

[Celerity]

6. this article paints Buttigieg like he just fell off the banana lorry and decided to run for POTUS

He has already packed a tremendous amount of both experience and accomplishment into his soon to be 38 years on the planet. He has had an extraordinary education on two continents including an ultra rare 'Oxford First' in his Rhodes Scholar degree in Oxford's Pembroke College's very rigorous Philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) Programme which is one of the best university programmes to prepare a person for a career in politics. Whilst there he also was an editor of the Oxford International Review. That all was after he graduated (and was the President of the Student Advisory Council) magna cum laude with a dual major from The Harvard Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.

He has worked on multiple federal, statewide and national political campaigns, including John Kerry's in 2004. He speak 8 languages, and has traveld the globe extensively, both in a professional private sector placements (including working a a consultant for the former Sec. of Defence under Bill Clinton, William Cohen) and in his duties as a Naval Intelligence officer in a tour of duty in Afghanistan war zone.

In between all that, he also ran, at the age of 28, for statewide office (Indiana State Treasurer) in 2010, and although he lost badly, he also lost by the lowest percentage of any Democratic statewide candidate that year. He also has 8 years now of full on executive level (and South Bend has a strong mayor system) political experience, and whilst it is only a smaller city, he has overseen a staff, a group of employees, and a budget that dwarfs those of any US Representative or Senator.

He has had to continuously interface with all possible levels of government in the US was well, from small local wards all the way up to a myriad number of the Federal Government's multiplicity of departments.

Buttigieg is not where he is at in the race by accident of birth or sheer luck. Look at where he came from. He is a 37 year old gay mayor of a Midwest city who almost no one had heard of before (other than his attempt to run for the chairmanship of the DNC) with no powerful financial or family connections. Also for all the downplay and stick he has been getting, he did win reelection with 80% of the vote, in an almost majority-minority city, including the majority of support from the PoC who voted and that was AFTER he came out as gay and AFTER the Boykins demotion, which occurred when he had been in office SIX DAYS and was then approached by the FBI about the chief, who he had just rehired on for his mayoral term 2 days before.

He has risen up in the campaign because of who he is, on his talents, on his own merits, as an intellect, as a hyper-skilled communicator, and simply as a person with a shedload of charisma and a sense of purpose, place, and destination. I find the tenor and tone of some of the article to be condescendingly dismissive and over the top, and her attempt to join Buttigieg at the hip with the odious monster that is Rump to be extremely problematic at best.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Atta girl, my dear Celerity!

Your post makes Pete's case superbly. You're a brilliant writer and I commend you!

[Celerity]

9. thanks so much my dear Peggy

[Tipperary]

16. Perfectly put.

I cannot believe that article put Buttigieg in the same sentence as rump. Smh.

[BootinUp]

20. Nice post there.

Thumbs up

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. I strongly recommend that everyone read Celerity's post #6. It is excellent. n/t

[not_the_one]

10. Garbage.

Equating Mayor Pete and the turd removes all credibility of the writer.

The article is nothing more than a bigoted hit piece, all dressed up as anti-racist indignation. A lot of people face all sorts of "isms" ever day. But apparently there is only one "ism" that is actually legit.

I am not buying what the author is selling.

[Tipperary]

17. This.

Invalidates the rest of the article imo.

[Blue Owl]

11. How dare they put Patriot Pete in the same sentence with Dishonest Donald

[StarfishSaver]

12. I think you missed the entire point of the piece. Which kind of makes the point of the piece

[The Valley Below]

13. This sort of racially based BS is untrue and bad for the party.

I remember a young black Democrat who wasn't that well known and didn't have that much experience, who blew us all ways with the quality of his mind and his character.

Made a damn fine president.

Armchair "commentator" seems like a troll.

[msongs]

14. gee Ive met ppl of many races/ethnicities over the years who were loud and wrong nt

[Meub]

15. Trump wasn't a Mayor

So no.

[Renew Deal]

19. Wasn't Obama attacked for being "inexperienced" in 2008?

So maybe it’s gender instead of race? Or maybe it’s message. It’s all so easy when you have an agenda and a word count.