Pete Buttigieg is not the Democratic Party’s savior

Karen+Larionova+looks+smug+in+front+of+an+American+flag.

Bella Beck

Karen Larionova looks smug in front of an American flag.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is running for president in 2020, is a fad candidate. He’s only popular because he’s a nice-looking white guy. Oh, and he gets minority points because he’s gay. Strangely enough though, he doesn’t stand for many of the liberal policies that the Democratic Party is moving towards, and he doesn’t have enough experience to compare to the other giants running for president.

Buttigieg has been mayor for about seven years, but he’s the only candidate polling above one percent who has never held a federal office. While he’s made many positive changes as a mayor, he has no experience dealing with national issues.

Most recently, Buttigieg said during a town hall that he would not be in favor of people in prison voting in elections. His opinion contrasts Senator Bernie Sanders, which will likely split the party or cause one side of the spectrum to ultimately fail. The lack of agreement within the party portrays a dark and argumentative image of Democrats.

There’s also his past. Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, which is more than a third black and Latino, according to Trip Gabriel and Alexander Burns of the New York Times. In 2012, South Bend’s first black police chief was caught in a scandal about taping phone calls of white officers using racist language towards him. Although the result of the lawsuit is unknown, and the tapes were never released, Buttigieg decided to dismiss the police chief.

The situation is complicated, but Buttigieg’s poor handling of the mess didn’t sit well with the citizens of South Bend and many Democrats nationwide, according to Gabriel and Burns. Worst of all is that Buttigieg responded to this incident by saying “all lives matter” in a speech.

Moving forward, Buttigieg has a long way to go with liberals. His economic policies are moderate, and he’s too vague on other subjects. He’s conservative on some topics, like his strong support for Israel, but he’s liberal on things like marijuana and the Electoral College.

If Buttigieg wants to be a serious candidate in 2020, he must acknowledge that his moderate ideas will split the Democratic Party and likely make his chances of winning go down. He might get some swing votes, but it’s just because he’s a charismatic white guy with no clear plans for the country.