Have you ever considered
there is a remarkable person vying for your vote?
This 37-year-old man won a
first prize in the JFK Profiles in Courage essay contest awarded by
the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.
He was …
A valedictorian of his
high school class,
A graduate of Harvard
University (Where he was president of the Harvard Institute of
Politics Student Advisory and magna cum laude),
A winner of a Rhodes
Scholarship to study at Oxford, Pembroke College, where he served as
an editor of the Oxford International Review and graduated with
first-class honors in philosophy, politics and economics,
An intelligence officer
(Lieutenant) in the U.S. Navy Reserve (2009 to 2017) who speaks
fluent Arabic,
A veteran of Afghanistan
in 2014.
He worked on the 2004
presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. John Kerry and later for the
international consulting firm McKinsey & Co., before winning the
mayor’s office of South Bend, Indiana at age 29 in 2011. He was
reelected to that office in 2015. And, oh, by the way, he speaks
eight languages: English, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Maltese,
Arabic, Dari and French.
This, to date, is the
incredible resume of Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg. Pete Buttigieg
is running for President of the United States as a Democratic
candidate. He doesn't take donations from corporate political action
committees, and he has pledged not to take money from the fossil fuel
industry. Would you like to know more about this young man?
Buttigieg is a candidate
who …
Supports reducing income
inequality,
Supports moving to a
single-payer healthcare system in the long run, but has proposed
implementing a public option on the Obamacare marketplace first –
he calls it "Medicare for all who want it,”
Supports the right to an
abortion, but has not said whether or not be believes a ban on
abortion after 20 weeks is constitutional,
Supports debt-free public
college for students from lower-income families and tuition-free
public college for middle-income students.
Supports the Federal
Equality Act, which would extend nondiscrimination protections to
LGBTQ+ people,
Supports reforms that
would end gerrymandering,
Supports withdrawing US
troops from Afghanistan and opposes an "open-ended commitment"
in Syria.
Buttigieg's platform
includes the following:
Pro-environmental policies
– he wants 3 million new clean energy jobs and U.S. to be carbon
neutral by 2050,
Cooperation between the
Democratic Party and organized labor,
Universal background
checks for firearms purchases, and
Preserving the DACA
program for children of illegal immigrants.
Buttigieg speaks openly
and easily about his Christian faith. He is an Episcopalian who says
…
“I
think it’s unfortunate [the Democratic Party] has lost touch with a
religious tradition that I think can help explain and relate our
values. At least in my interpretation, it helps to root [in religion]
a lot of what it is we do believe in, when it comes to protecting the
sick and the stranger and the poor, as well as skepticism of the
wealthy and the powerful and the established.”
Pete Buttigieg is an
extraordinary candidate. Before his reelection as mayor, he publicly
came out as gay. He has talked about the fact that he was
uncomfortable with being gay early in his life and told an audience
at an LGBTQ event (May 2019) that "if you had shown me exactly
what it was that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife."
He added later: "Thank
God there was no pill. Thank God there was no knife."
Will Buttigieg get the
Democratic nomination? He is certainly qualified by so many
standards. President Buttigieg could certainly lead with dignity and
grace – two qualities missing in the Trump years. Consider what the
president said about his competition while on the campaign trail …
“We got some real
beauties. We got a choice between Sleepy Joe and Crazy Bernie. I’ll
take any of them, let’s just pick somebody please and let’s start
this thing,” Trump said.
“Pick somebody!” he
said. “We have a young man, Butt-ig-ieg, boot-edge-edge, they say
edge–edge.”
“He’s got a great
chance doesn’t he?” Trump said.
“He’ll be great. He’ll
be great. Representing us against President Xi of China,” said of
Buttigieg, a Naval Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan.
“I want to be in that
room, I want to watch that one,” Trump said failing to expound on
what about Buttigieg, who speaks several languages, would be
interesting to watch when dealing with world leaders.
I think we all know what
Trump meant with his sarcastic, demeaning remarks. Antigay sentiment
is still a powerful force, especially in the Republican party.
Buttigieg, whether you agree with him or not, states his views with
sober clarity.
“It's tough for me to
know. I just am what I am, and, you know, there’s going to be a lot
of that. That’s why I – I can’t even read the LGBT media
anymore, because it’s all, ‘too gay, not gay enough, wrong kind
of gay,'” Buttigieg stated. “All I know is that life became a lot
easier when I just started allowing myself to be myself and I’ll
let other people write up whether I’m ‘too this’ or ‘too
that.'”
Reread Mayor Pete's resume
and tell me honestly which leader – Trump or Buttigieg – you
believe would excel at “dealing with world leaders” … and, for
that matter, in dealing with presidential duties of any kind.
Buttigieg is speaking to
the politically disenfranchised. “We’ve got to fix our democracy
before it’s too late. Get that right (and) climate, immigration,
taxes, and every other issue gets better.” It is a plea we should
not ignore. By electing Trump, the nation has endured a narcissistic
leader with mindless policies of division and emotional instability.
It's time to switch to a pragmatic, intelligent president in tune
with the times. I know Pete Buttigieg is qualified and ready to
employ his skills to "Win The Era" with his message of
generational change.
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