Pete! My guy! You are the status quo!
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
260 points (96.4% liked)
politics
25002 readers
2420 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The future of the Democratic Party is just the Simpsons Aliens saying "Forward not backward! Upwards not forwards! And twirling, always twirling towards progress!"
Dude is getting his name out there as many times as possible to make you remember he was Mayor in South Bend 20 years ago, back before he was rigging bread prices for McKinsey up in Canada.
don’t forget Andrew ‘Status’ Cuomo, currently running to be mayor of NYC!
Yeah, has Pete given any opinions on Mamdani? Who he supports in that race will clearly show if he believes what he says.
Highly praised him, stopped just short of endorsing saying he needs to know more about his policy proposals. Said there’s room in the party for dem socialists.
Because Mamdani is famous for not answering questions about his policy proposals. /s I refuse to believe Mayo Pete is that dumb.
He said something recently that democrats need to learn from his social media campaigning and remove the "leftist ideology"
Completely missing the point. Mamdani won because of his policies.
no more Status Cuomo, please
So we're going to get Nuremberg trials for Republicans?
Assuming there is an after.
Democrats: "that's ok, we're not going back because we never left and never intend to! Nothing Will Fundamentally Change is our motto!"
“we will win”
load more comments
(11 replies)
I skimmed the article, but it didn't seem like he said anything of any real substance?
That's kinda how he works.
He's a "better politician" than the other much older politicians because he can explain the problems and blame Republicans and old politicians for the problems but ultimately his solutions are the same.
Also he comes straight from private equity and refuses to say anything bad about them. As a matter of fact he's the first politician I have ever heard say "no". Full stop, no weaseling out of it. It was when he was asked about his prior employers and their involvement in a price fixing scandal over Canadian bread prices.
So... yeah I don't like him
Favorite video about Pete is from Some More News back a few years ago just before Pete helped Biden consolidate all the fragmented neoliberal support he needed to suddenly turn the tide right before Super Tuesday that was otherwise resulting in Sanders gaining ground.
Pete is a weasel… a well-spoken one and perhaps once a decent dude… and even an ally in our country’s current dark moments… but Pete is NOT fit to lead when the left has a chance at any sort of power.
He will sell us all out for the rich donors who showed up for his wine cave campaign fundraiser. And trading Main Street voters for Wall Street voters is what REALLY has been what most helped Republicans win… at least since at least Reagan’s era.
Sounds pretty on brand to me
The right thing said by the wrong guy
They… left the status quo?
People need to stop elevating this one-time college town mayor who rat-fucked their way into a cabinet position.
Wut?
I'm so glad you asked. Can I come in?
Pete Buttigieg primary qualification as a "politician" is his Mayoral victory in South Bend Indiana, 2011, where they got elected with 10,991 in a town of almost 100,000. The next time they ran, they got all of ~8k votes in an election where less than 10% of residence voted (2015).
Somehow this warranted Buttigieg to be present on a national stage, where in 2019, they decided to run for president. They were taken extremely seriously by media outlets like NPR and other corporate media outlets, often being touted as a kind of moderate but still progressive alternative to Sanders. Candidates like Buttigieg were used to split the progressive vote during the primaries, divides which still exist today. Buttigieg then went on to strategically depart the race 3 days before Super Tuesday, a primary consisting almost entirely of states that will never vote D and yet somehow considered the litmus for who the Democratic candidate should be, and then going on to endorse Joe Biden, who up until that point, who had no primary wins before that date.
Buttigieg was principal in the rat-fucking of Sanders in 2020 and was given a token position in the cabinet as a result. They are a cypher, a schemer, and the reason why you are seeing anything about them is because they have substantial backers from their time in consulting who would benefit greatly if they were in power. This article wouldn't exist if not for the fact that Buttigieg will 100% be touted out as the "reasonable" candidate in 2028. And as much as the rat-fucking might seem like the principal critisim I have of them, its actually fine. I can respect some rat-fucking (for example, if Warren had dropped out and endorsed Bernie, I'd have her face tattooed on my right ass-cheek). What I can't respect is the national media taking this guy seriously when they've won no elections of any real substance. Buttigieg doesn't get to be considered seriously as a voice in politics until they win a federal election or a Governership. They need to show that people actually want to vote for them before they should be taken seriously.
*(Earlier, I was mistaken to call them a one-time mayor; they did get re-elected)
Between Pete, Warren, Gabbard, and Klobuchar, it's clear that the DNC would absolutely never allow Bernie to become the nominee. They had half a dozen others lined up, like Booker, Ryan, Delaney, and of course Harris, but none of them were charismatic enough to actually win some votes. Vote Centrist, No Matter Who.
Like I said, I can excuse the ratfucking. Its the name of the game. But what I can't excuse is people taking a guy who has never won an election of any material substance seriously. We can't afford to run candidates who don't have a track record of winning federal elections. The number one qualification for a candidate needs to be their ability to win the election.
I actually agree with you otherwise, but I think a candidate could come entirely from outside politics and still be a good candidate. You won’t know them until you see them, but it can happen.
I can't excuse ratfucking. The name of the game is literally democracy.
There's no predicting who can win what election anymore. There's no predictive value in knowing someone won such and such demographics on whatever type of ballot. I don't want Pete to run because I think he's paper thin on almost any meaningful issue. He'll say whatever he thinks will get him the most votes in the moment, and he'll abandon those principles the minute the winds change. He would be better than Trump, because he isn't a felonious child raping grifter, but that's not a reason to support the guy. That's a reason to find someone who is actually a leader, who will stand on their convictions, and fight for actual justice.
I don’t want Pete to run because I think he’s paper thin on almost any meaningful issue.
I 100% agree on not wanting to win, but I make the argument that the flimsiness of their political identity is their liability; and this is because I don't agree with you on your first point, because I do think that we can build up effective analyses that are fairly predictive of elections.
And that difference is critical, because what we're identifying, that Buttigeig is about as deep as a puddle in their political identity, the traditional political consultant class "wisdom" sees that as a feature, not a bug, because they can recast the candidate for whichever donors they plan on trotting them out to. To them, a lack of political depth to a candidate is a good thing. And I'm citing that specifically as a determining factor in both recent and future elections: People will not show up for people who's only reason for being in politics is the pursuit of power.
How may viable Democratic candidates exist that have a track record of winning Federal elections?
"Viable" is a loaded term, which is specifically why I default to an actually testable litmus: Have you won a Federal election? Demonstrating you can win an election is the "proof" of viability. Everything else is hand wringing.
So viable Democratic candidates: Any House or Senate Democrat, or any Democratic governor is viable. All of them are viable under my definition: Buttigieg is not.
Why are you using gender neutral pronouns for it? Is it because it removed its pronouns from its Twitter bio?
Why are you using gender neutral pronouns for it?
Because my criticism is broadly about "candidates", not just Buttigieg, although I have a special ire for them because of the utterly unwarranted amount of un-earned media they received in 2020.
National media sources are constantly used to elevate profiles to the national stage which are utterly unworthy, and its done entirely through pieces like the one linked to in this article, and its done by those who have undue influence over media. These are the billionaires backing Buttigieg, and stories like this one are basically a plant.
Also, in general, I try to default-write in "they"/"them" pronouns when I dont' positively know someones preferred pronouns. Its an easy and relatively modest change I can make to be more inclusive in my writing.
Also, in general, I try to default-write in “they”/“them” pronouns when I don't positively know someones preferred pronouns.
I looked him up to see if he used something other than he/him and found that he removed his pronouns from his bio in January, a not-so-subtle jab at trans people. Add it to your pile of why he's shitty.
They're a cypher. Pete Buttigeig doesn't "believe" anything, per se. A belief for someone like Buttigeig is something that is transacted for via a campaign donation.
Buttigeig wants power and will adopt whatever beliefs they think will get them there. And importantly, this kind of vapid, corporate candidate, panel tested politics is why the Democrats struggle as mightily as they do. A Buttigeig doesn't stand for anything, and so they come across as incredibly disingenuous because they are.
That's not fair. His work for private equity to inflate the price of bread is precisely why he got that cabinet position. The man worked hard screwing over the working class so he could get that cabinet position!
Pete is right. Things must change.
There was one question and answer on the past and future of the Democrats. I don't expect Inskeep to do a hard hitting interview, but this should not have been the title.
From memory, they talked about:
• his beard and how Republicans do like it
- the Epstein files and how the Republicans are reacting
- Pete Buttigieg's knowledge or lack thereof of Biden's mental acuity
- Dems going forward
- is President Trump a good president?
So the one question and answer:
INSKEEP: Let me put a proposition on the table, and we'll see if you agree with it or not. The country has changed. Politics have changed. Republicans figured that out and captured the moment, and Democrats have failed to do so up to now. Do you agree with that?
BUTTIGIEG: I would mostly agree. Yeah. I think that Democrats have been slow to understand the changes in how people get their information, slow to understand some of the cultural changes that have been happening, and maybe most problematic of all, to attach to a status quo that has been failing us for a long time.
Right now, you've got an administration that is burning down so many of the most important institutions that we have in this country, which is wrong. It is also wrong to imagine that we should have just kept everything going along the way it was. And I think that my party needs to do a better job of addressing the fundamental problems that have led people to mistrust everything.
I don't know what his fundamental analysis is, but how can you not lay a mammoth sized amount of blame at the feet of Democrats since Clinton? I'm sure Mayor Pete will find a way to not look backwards, only forwards.
view more: next ›