Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg: on Principles & Values
Al Gore:
OpEd: students saw Gore & Bush same as on domestic policy
[In 2000 as Harvard student], I volunteered for Al Gore's campaign that fall, chauffeuring guests around Boston during the run-up to the presidential debate there, but the sense among many students was that Bush and
Gore were barely distinguishable on domestic policy: center-left versus center-right.
The biggest campaign-related excitement was the arrival of riot police on the outskirts of the debate site to contend with Green Party protesters who were marching and chanting, "Let Ralph [Nader] debate."
When Bush ultimately prevailed in the Supreme Court and claimed the presidency, it still felt like little would change from the Clinton era.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 39-40
Feb 12, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
1990s: Nominated as "Socialist" for Profile in Courage award
[In Congress in the 1990s], Bernie Sanders had been reelected for years as a socialist--in a (then) generally Republican state. At a time when vagueness and opportunism in politics seemed to be the order of the day, here was an elected official who
succeeded by being totally transparent and relentless about his values. "Socialist" was the dirtiest word in politics, yet he won because people saw that he came by his values honestly, regardless of whether you agreed politically.
As an obscure Vermont congressman in the 1990s, Sanders often worked across the aisle, collaborating with Republicans when possible, and using his position as the only independent in Congress to drive dialogue on issues like trade. The lesson here,
which Sanders himself would demonstrate some twenty years later when he ran for president, was that bipartisanship and appeal to independents was not the same thing as ideological centrism.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 30-1
Feb 12, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
1990s: Nominated Bernie Sanders for Profile in Courage award
At the urging of my teachers, I had submitted an entry to an essay contest sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library as part of their annual Profile in Courage Award. An obscure Vermont congressman, Bernie Sanders, had been reelected for
years as a socialist--in a (then) generally Republican state. "Socialist" was the dirtiest word in politics, yet he won because people saw that he came by his values honestly. Regardless of whether you agreed politically, it certainly seemed like a
profile in courage to me. Candidates for office can easily develop "an ability to outgrow their convictions in order to win power," and that Sanders was an inspiring exception.
I wrote that Sanders's "real impact has been as a reaction to the
cynical climate which threatens the effectiveness of the democratic system."
I had won first prize, and would be flown to the library in Boston to meet the award committee and accept the scholarship money that went along with it.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 30-1
Feb 12, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
2000: worked for Gore, but Bush was same on domestic policy
[In 2000 as Harvard student], I volunteered for Al Gore's campaign that fall, chauffeuring guests around Boston during the run-up to the presidential debate there, but the sense among many students was that Bush and
Gore were barely distinguishable on domestic policy: center-left versus center-right.
The biggest campaign-related excitement was the arrival of riot police on the outskirts of the debate site to contend with Green Party protesters who were marching and chanting, "Let Ralph [Nader] debate."
When Bush ultimately prevailed in the Supreme Court and claimed the presidency, it still felt like little would change from the Clinton era.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 39-40
Feb 12, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Name recognition is key; his is pronounced "Buddha-judge"
[Buttigieg ran for state treasurer in 2010; he lost]. Campaigning for office is enormously difficult, but in a way, it's not very complicated. You have to persuade voters to vote or you, raise money so you can reach more voters, and get other people to
help you do those two things. Half the battle is name recognition, and my biggest problem was that no one had any idea who I was. My name was unfamiliar and unpronounceable. My campaign manager Jeff Harris and I spent half a day just figuring out how to
render it phonetically, settling on the breakdown "Budda Judge," which was close enough and easier to remember than any other way we could think to write down. Plus I was twenty-seven years old, and baby-faced enough to pass for a college student.
In a campaign office, I would be more likely to be taken for an intern or perhaps a young organizer than an actual candidate. My family had no Indiana political connections, and neither did my employer.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 90-3
Feb 12, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
My success shows that Democrats can win in Flyover Country
To some, the 2016 election was a kind of revenge by "flyover country," long ignored by the coastal elite in general and by the Democratic party in particular. I certainly felt that our region had been ignored and misunderstood,
but to me that did not have to lead to this kind of electoral outcome; our own story in South Bend showed that honest and optimistic politics could resonate just as well in economically challenged communities.
I wasn't the only one who thought this way, and said so, after the 2016 election astonished and traumatized my party. It crossed my mind to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Who better than a millennial, Midwestern mayor to try to guide the party in a better direction?
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p.305-6
Feb 12, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
For DNC chair: "A Letter from Flyover Country"
Running for chair made sense, from a generational, regional, and structural perspective. And because I belonged to no faction, it seemed I would help the party transcend an emerging internal struggle between its establishment wing and its new left.
I wrote an essay on the future of the party, called, "A Letter from Flyover Country," and published it online. Seeking to offer a Midwestern, millennial mayor's perspective on where our party had gone wrong and how we could do better,
the essay suggested a values-oriented approach and a much greater concentration on the stories and lived experience of Americans getting through life in our hometowns.
I also believed that this kind of approach could move us beyond a superficial political strategy based on capturing constituency groups individually, with no unifying theme.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p.306-8
Feb 12, 2019
Page last updated: May 21, 2019