The fresh-faced first major millennial candidate and his deep-pocketed campaign have recently gotten a big bump in the polls. But there’s one hang-up: Mayor Pete has an easier time charming people twice his 37 years of age than half of it. Gen Z has even started calling him Mayo Pete, and no one — no one — wants to be mayonnaise. …
Buttigieg’s campaign has had its hiccups in recent weeks, though many have been cause more for eye-rolling than for outrage — such as the photo posted on Instagram by husband Chasten of the mayor posing at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, captioned, “This guy.” Worth more attention was the list his team promoted as an endorsement of his Frederick Douglass “agenda for black America” by more than 400 South Carolinians.
The Intercept reported that more than 40 percent of these South Carolinians were, well, white. And some signees who actually are black didn’t support Buttigieg, or even his plan, after all. The email seeking endorsements was “opt out,” not opt in. To cap it off, a photo accompanying the plan on Buttigieg’s website pictured not an African American woman and her son, but an African woman and her son. It was a stock picture taken in Kenya, cropped to remove the dirt ground. The campaign said it was the fault of a contractor. …
Buttigieg is a smart guy who has amassed a series of genuinely impressive accolades. But he radiates leadership and qualification beyond his years because he has picked up all the right badges, according to the badge-awarding powers that be. And when your appeal rests, in part, on having garnered the highest honors from the most venerable institutions of tradition, it’s hard to argue that you’re an agent of transformation. Buttigieg claims he will deliver something different, but he got the country’s ear in the first place through devotion to the same old, same old.
It simply may be that the younger generations, having observed the antics of the older politicos in their search for dominance in the political arena, have decided that a candidate that doesn’t engage in those antics will be a better leader. Someone who uses detested tactics may also have detested goals in mind.
But when it comes to leadership, there must be a way for voters to decide if someone is a good leader or not. Roberts suggests that Buttigieg has climbed the same old ladder towards power, and while that has its downside, the upside is also there: academic achievement, if truly earned, suggests a perceptive mind; political posts at least give the hope of experience.
Of course, the former mayor must also be judged on performance, and those points will be tossed around in the coming weeks by friend and foe like.
But Buttigieg has already had a few missteps with regard to political tactics, and I didn’t quote all of them from the article. He may still end up the nominee on the strength of an older generation who still believes in public and military service, and votes in enough numbers to make that belief count. But in 2024 and beyond, the performance of candidates in the race, whether they fight fair or fight foul, may become as important as positions themselves. The era of Roger Stone and his nasty bag of tricks may be coming to a reluctant end as the Boomers lose their dominance of the political scene.
