President Pete Buttigieg.

There are Democrats—smart, capable Democrats who smell blood in the water. Pritzker, Whitmer, Newsom. Buttigieg. As they should. If history is our guide, there will be a backlash to the backlash to the backlash that will deliver Democrats victory in the midterm elections, thereby setting the stage to retake the White House in 2028. I’m not here to handicap the race this early. We can’t even be sure Trump will willingly vacate the office. Presidential politics is so overbaked as to be the most annoying topic in the world right now. It seems like we’re always in a race. Everyone’s running all the time.

No. I’m here to kill something in the crib. Because if I was a betting man, my money right now would be on Mayor Pete Buttigieg emerging as an early frontrunner.And here’s the thing. No just, no.

The reason I think many Democrats/normies/establishment/Ezra Klein/PodSave types won’t like this take is that Pete Buttigieg is fucking awesome in so many ways.

1. Democrats love firsts. The first openly gay presidential candidate.

Boom. We love that.

2. Military service.

Take that you Cheeto-faced draft dodging puke.

3. He’s willing to go into the lion’s den like Fox News and performs really well.

Pete don’t give a shit. He’s the honey badger of polemicists. My man can debate anybody, anywhere, anytime.

He’s had executive experience, albeit on a super small level as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He showed that he can run an effective national campaign and arouse significant support among predominantly white voting blocs. He held a cabinet level position, to mixed reviews, but the experience was real. In fairness, he took a lot of fire and came out pretty well on the other side. He’s a policy wonk. Knows how to read a room. Can fight off the front foot and the back foot. All around it’s hard to argue with his profile and he should in no way be underestimated.

These days he’s dabbling. A brief fellowship at the UChicago Institute of Politics, making the rounds on the lecture circuit and adopting the role of Democratic Party statesman. But mostly, he’s building a case for a presidential run in 2028. What I respect is that he’s being pretty open about it. And seriously, I respect that. Because if he was pulling the usual, “I’m for the best candidate possible to take back the country” nonsense that we normally hear then it would be weird that he’s making all these public appearances despite not having a job right now. A few months ago he did the Jubilee Roundtable to appeal to GenZ. He recently appeared on the Flagrant Podcast to talk to the manosphere. The Late Show with Colbert to talk to the centrist dems. Jon Stewart’s podcast to dip his toe in left waters again.

And most notably, he just hosted a massive town hall in Iowa of all places, which is where he first stunned the establishment by technically winning the Iowa Caucus in 2020. I say technically because you might recall there were ballot issues. And even though Bernie won the popular vote, Pete was declared the victor. Then he went on to split New Hampshire with Bernie before Bernie blew away the field in Nevada and looked like he might run away with the whole shebang.

I’ll come back to that moment in history in a minute.

When Pete moved his family to Michigan there was speculation that he might take a run at either the Senate or the Governor’s mansion. He entertained the speculation for a bit but ultimately demurred stating that he was contemplating a presidential bid and would focus his attention there instead; now, in 2025. The Senate seat opens up in 2026. Governor Whitmer is termed out in 2026. One might think that Mayor to Governor or Senator is a pretty substantial promotion as it is but that’s not enough for Pete. No, Pete thinks he’s destined for more than one of 50 or one of a 100 of the most powerful people in the country. He wants to be the top banana.

Listen, naked ambition is fine with me. Honestly. You have to be a bit touched to run for President and believe that you have what it takes to run this place. But when your resume is small city mayor then Transportation Secretary and now unemployed, ambition might not be the right word to describe the pair of stones on this guy. To be fair, he still has more practical experience than Donald John did in 2016 and look what a great job that guy’s done. Amirite?

Then again, Joe Biden first took office in 1832 so maybe experience isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

That’s what’s so strange about presidential politics in the Trump era. In the past when true outsiders like Trump ran for President they were considered novelties. Like Ross Perot. (20% of the population was into Ross Perot by the way, so I’m not suggesting that outsiders have always been fringe candidates.) But until Trump we were conditioned to expect either substantial legislative experience from Congress or executive experience from a governor’s seat. The only outliers prior to Trump were celebrated military Generals Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight Eisenhower.

The closest approximation to Buttegieg would actually be Herbert Hoover. We can have a Hoover discussion another day but the bottom line is that Pete would quite literally be one of the most inexperienced people to vie for the office. Again.

But since Trump broke the mold along with our brains, the economy and our national spirit, it’s certainly fair to ask the question. Perhaps even presume that Pete could leapfrog all that pesky experience to assume the presidency. Couldn’t do any worse, right?

And that’s the problem right there.

Assume for a moment that Donald Trump actually vacates the office at the conclusion of this catastrophe. The idea that the Republicans will put up a normal candidate after this is a stretch. Also, as I’ve said many times, they are going to destroy this economy and rip apart so many agencies that it will be a long time before the GOP has a shot at returning to the Oval Office. So the assumption after the midterms will be that it’s the Democrats’ race to lose and the DNC will look to find the most conventional, unoffensive, middle of the road candidate possible. If we game this out in an “all things being equal” scenario, the ticket probably looks something like Buttigieg and insert-POC-female-congressperson/governor here.

So it begs the question, what is a Buttigieg?

He has a moral center. He’s patriotic. Smart. Capable. A fine steward of democratic principles. But what does he stand for? In 2020 his platform didn’t exactly light the world on fire. He supported the invasion of Afghanistan, abolishing the death penalty, phasing out of the electoral college, DC statehood, abortion rights, light language around climate resilience and protecting unions and the ridiculous “Medicare for All…who wants it” nonsense. Overall it was a forgettable campaign on the issues. What made him a standout was his composure. Well beyond his years. Unflappable on the debate stage. Overall, just a very comforting and reassuring presence.

Today his campaign website (peteforamerica.com) redirects to his PAC called Win the Era. And it’s a digital testament to the forgettable middle of the road unoffensive avatar of establishment democratic politics that is Pete Buttigieg.

It says the path forward to tackle climate change is through innovation. “We will rise to the challenge and do it in the American way–by building and innovating.” New Democrat speak that sounds great and does nothing.

There’s the typical lip service to worker rights, “It’s time to double unionization, restore workers’ rights that have been eroded by decades of anti-worker policies, enshrine the right to multi-employer bargaining, and expand protections for the gig economy, farm, and domestic workers.” Is that through strengthening the NLRB? Executive actions? Legislatively? Again, sounds great but some meat on the bone would be nice.

He is more specific on voting access by specifically supporting the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Great. He wants to eliminate the electoral college, give DC statehood and offer a real referendum in Puerto Rico to choose either statehood or independence. All good, or at least reasonable if not far fetched as a platform. But okay. Historically he’s been really good on mental health issues but here again the site is good on the diagnosis but a tad light on the prescription. “It’s time to empower communities to leverage their own innovation and expertise to improve mental health and prevent addiction.” Again, this is the kind of soft, non-committal language we’ve come to expect from the DNC talking points. But I think his history here deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Now, here’s the strange capstone to the values on the Win the Era site. A real head scratcher. Universal Service. Ready? “Military service, Peace Corps service, and domestic service-year opportunities through efforts like AmeriCorps should be expanded until service becomes a universal expectation for every American youth.”

• No Medicare for All.
• Nothing about disruptions to the job market due to unregulated AI.
• Immigration reform.
• War in Gaza.
• Closing scores if not hundreds of our military installations across the globe.
• Progressive taxation.
• Closing corporate tax loopholes like carried interest.
• Restoring IRS funding.
• Ending homelessness.
• Student debt forgiveness and overhauling the federal loan programs.
• Free college tuition for state and community colleges.
• Blowing the cap on Social Security deductions.

Nada. Nathan. Nuthin’. Zip. Zilch.

Now, you might say that it’s a little early to create a platform. He’s on a listening tour. Trying to rehabilitate the image of the party.

Well, here’s the thing. If you want to be the President of the United States…If you want to restore the image of the Democratic Party…If you want the top job then you better have a plan. You have to be the plan. Remember how Hillary Clinton was against things before she was for them. Or how Kamala Harris started out her presidential journey in 2020 backing Medicare for All then ran in 2024 without mentioning it, instead saying she carried a Glock and wanted to police the border more heavily but with joy? You cannot just blow with the wind and expect it to deliver you in the Oval Office because you were the least worst option anymore. The Democratic Party brand is too far gone for this bullshit.

I’ve made the case several times already that the only way Democrats have been able to take the presidency in the modern era is on the heels of a recessionary crisis. And that’s a fact. Democrats get elected after Republicans fuck up the economy. Bill Clinton. H.W. Bush’s Gulf War recession. Barack Obama. W. Bush’s Global Financial Crisis recession. Joe Biden. Trump’s COVID recession and overall chaos. So that’s what they’re banking on in a guy like Buttigieg and why he’s got free rein to barnstorm the country right now without a job. My man has no job!

Listen, there have been times in our history that called for a steady hand. A capable manager. A calming force. But if you think this is one of those periods, you’re reading the wrong goddamn tea leaves. The Fourth Turning. Neofeudalism. Corporate Colonialism. Whatever you want to call the post-neoliberal period we’re entering, a few cold hard facts remain.

• Faith in our institutions is the lowest it’s ever been.
• Home ownership is out of reach for a staggering number of today’s youth.
• Inequality has surpassed the extremes we experienced just prior to the Great Depression.
• Catastrophic weather events have become the norm and are expected to worsen in the coming decades.
• Tens of millions of Americans are uninsured and millions more are underinsured.
• According to Goldman Sachs, the hyper adoption of AI tools will displace some 30 million workers in the U.S. alone over the next decade.
• The vast majority of Americans are one unplanned financial “event” from bankruptcy. And the top 1% of the population now possesses more wealth than 90% of American households.

We’re way past “steady hand”. This is the time for revolutionary politics. If your platform is more wait and see and less this is what I believe, then this isn’t the job for you. Not now. Not ever.

And that brings me back to 2020. When Bernie started running the table and effectively killed Pete’s meteoric rise. Permit me to quote a passage about Bernie that I found inspiring.

“Sanders’ courage is evident in the first word he uses to describe himself: ‘Socialist’. In a country where Communism is still the dirtiest of ideological dirty words, in a climate where even liberalism is considered radical, and Socialism is immediately and perhaps willfully confused with Communism, a politician dares to call himself a socialist? He does indeed. Here is someone who has ‘looked into his own soul’ and expressed an ideology, the endorsement of which, in today’s political atmosphere, is analogous to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Even though he has lived through a time in which an admitted socialist could not act in a film, let alone hold a Congressional seat, Sanders is not afraid to be candid about his political persuasion.”

The author of these words was a young Pete Buttigieg. In fact, he won a national essay contest in 2000 with these words. As Pete says, “I was into Bernie before it was cool.”

But when Bernie won the popular vote in Iowa. Took New Hampshire and gutted the field in Nevada, Pete did more than just fall in with the establishment and turn his back on his political hero. When Jim Clyburn threw his support behind Biden to help beat back Sanders in South Carolina—even though Bernie was the only other candidate to pull delegates—Pete joined most of the other Democrats in pulling out before Super Tuesday. You see, what most people forget (except us Bernie supporters) is that even after South Carolina, Bernie was polling ahead in most Super Tuesday states. Pete and the others dropped out in a coordinated effort to promote Biden as the candidate over Bernie. Only Elizabeth Warren stayed in of the main contenders because the DNC knew she would pull more from Bernie than Biden. But Pete didn’t just back out and tow the party line. He went into attack mode to take his political hero down with him. Because he’s the best at it. He’s gifted.

Now, look. Is this sour grapes? You betcha. Also, that’s politics. The establishment won and we all lost as a result. And the DNC went on sniffing its own farts thinking they pulled off a miracle by beating Trump. But the reality is that whoever wound up atop the Democratic ticket would have beaten Trump because we were in the grip of the pandemic, the economy was a disaster, people were dying and Trump was pure chaos. And the Dems did what they always do. They installed a capable manager. Only it’s getting harder and harder to hold onto power these days as just a steward. Because what’s required to stave off our descent into neofeudalism or oligarchy is a revolutionary politics that the democratic establishment is allergic to.

So, no Pete. It’s not just that we won’t forgive and forget. It’s that you’re not what we need. Despite what fossils like James Carville say, it’s not just about winning elections. Because if that was the game, then we can sit back and win a few here and there as Republicans destroy the country brick by brick.

Or…

We can choose a revolutionary politics that centers the working class and the planet and puts the oligarchs where they belong: Russia. So you can take your billionaire donors. Your great looking beard and your centrist “wait and see” talking points and channel them into a campaign for an office that requires a capable manager and a steady hand. Because the oval office ain’t it.

Here endeth the lesson.

Image Source

• United States Department of Transportation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.