The infrastructure bill and the Democratic bench
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg had an opportunity to be a strong contender on the Democratic bench.
He is at home on paternity leave. It signals the wrong thing for him--and for Democrats.
What does anyone know about the infrastructure bill? We know it's a lot of money. We hear about price but not about the benefits--the bridges, tunnels, highway bypasses, and broadband coming our way. Democrats are making the number one classic mistake in sales: Letting the focus be all about price, not benefits.
Why aren't people barnstorming the country, selling infrastructure? Their not doing so sends a message of Democratic dysfunction.
Pete Buttigieg's biggest political branding problem isn't his homosexuality. It is that he is the exemplar of the White liberal upscale meritocracy wing that is pushing working people of all races away from Democrats. He could use this opportunity to re-focus his brand, and that of Democrats. Infrastructure is built by working people. It is hands-on and physical. Workers get dirty. These are the people Democrats are losing. Buttigieg could be doing a “50 states in 50 days” tour, selling the infrastructure bill in each of the 50 states. Someone needs to do it, and who better than the Secretary of Transportation?
Americans accept the idea that "it takes a thief to catch a thief." Trump said he could drain the swamp because he knew the swamp. FDR was a supposed "traitor to his class." A Harvard Rhodes Scholar can be the meritocracy "insider” who understands all too well the insularity of the professional classes, the impossibility of everyone going to graduate school, and the failure of trickle down. He could run against privilege, legacy admissions, good old boy networks, and tax-free inherited wealth.
In a “50 states in 50 days” tour Buttigieg could be praising Biden's steady leadership. Biden needs somebody to do that, and the infrastructure package gives Buttigieg an example of "Scranton Joe" Biden's practical empathy for working people. Buttigieg makes himself look good by making Biden look good, because Buttigieg has the rhetorical ability to tie things together in an overarching message of progress--something beyond Biden's skillset. Biden isn’t out selling. Harris isn’t doing it, either. Schumer and Pelosi are busy doing legislative sausage-making. Buttigieg would be the visible articulate Democrat on a national stage telling the Democratic story. That makes him Biden's heir.
I like maternal and paternal leave. It is compassionate. It is necessary in many cases. Buttigieg should praise it--and then not have taken much of it. Two months of paternity leave is not a requirement. It's an option. His country called. He has a mission of national importance on hold.
His paternity leave sends an indelible message. He could have spent these two months getting to a different state four days a week. Sure, be home weekends and hold your babies. But then go back out on the road to tell the nation what it is getting from its trillion-dollar investment. People in our armed forces sacrifice family time, away for a year at a time. Truck drivers go on the road. Construction workers go away on jobs. Front-line people in "essential" jobs had to scramble with day care and children at home during this COVID era. Juggling work and family is what working people do.
Instead, Buttigieg demonstrates the life that prosperous, privileged elites get to live. He has a prestigious job that pays well that he can do by phone and video from home, where he knows the boss personally, and the boss says "ok, sure.” Having an indulgent boss is a privilege. Working remotely is privilege. To the working people drifting from the Democratic Party, two months paternity leave is unmistakable body language of elite privilege. That marks him as "other."
I love how Buttigieg handles himself on Fox News. He is an extraordinary talent. But he had a job to do being a national spokesperson for the most popular thing Democrats are doing, and he isn't out there--a big lost opportunity for him.
Neither is anyone else--a big lost opportunity for America.