Today is a special day. For the first time since the invention of the internet, I’m going to agree with far-left activist Nina Turner, who is usually stumping for minimum wage increases and price controls.
But hey, when someone is right, they’re right, and Turner nailed it regarding Pete Buttigieg. In a social media post, she described him as a “small city mayor” trying to pad his resume that is “failing up.”
Fact-check: True
There are a lot of politicians in Washington, D.C., who don’t deserve the positions they hold. That’s especially true when talking about the bloated bureaucratic system. Yet, Buttigieg manages to rank near the top of the list of worst government officials.
He was appointed as the Secretary of Transportation despite having zero experience in the field. Worse, his prior record as a politician (i.e. the mayor of South Bend, Indiana) is pretty awful. He oversaw a surge in crime, in what was once a fairly safe city, and he was so bad at his job, he couldn’t even keep the potholes filled. One of the reasons Buttigieg enjoyed essentially no black support during the 2020 presidential campaign was that the black residents of his own city couldn’t stand him.
But while Buttigieg didn’t have the record or qualifications for his current position, he was gay, well-spoken, and liked choo-choo trains. He even proposed to his husband in an airport. Or was it a train station? I don’t know, but it was all enough box-checking for Biden, who had never managed much of anything before entering the White House.
Turner is right to use the phrase “failing up.” We are talking about a guy who heavily inflated his military experience (you’d have thought he was an operator, based on his talk during the 2020 campaign), failed as a mayor of a small city, and then bombed as a presidential candidate. Yet, somehow, he was the top choice for one of the top cabinet positions in the Biden administration. What else explains that, except identity politics and favoritism to try to help Buttigieg pad his resume for yet another presidential run?
And what have the results of that decision been? Massive supply chain issues, a possible railroad strike, and an airline industry in chaos. Buttigieg’s response was to take half a year of “paternity” leave and go on cable news to talk about “equity” initiatives. You can’t get the groceries you need, but by golly, the United States is instituting equity or something.
It’s all just so absurd, but that’s modern politics for you. Few people in DC actually deserve to be in their positions of power, and the consequences of that back-slapping and palm-greasing culture end up crushing normal Americans. Buttigieg has his piece of the pie. He has his months and months of paid vacation, his private jet rides, and his expensive DC row house. Why would he care about actually trying to do his job well? There’s no gain in doing the right thing in Washington. It’s all about who you know, who you are, and what you can promise each other.