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“Mayor Pete” charms and alarms at a Baltimore fundraiser
- Thread starter Deleted member 3812
- Start date
Won't challenge you on that. I agree that it's a huge problem that he hasn't addressed your concerns to your satisfaction.
We could quibble over definitions, but it really doesn't matter, because it's the job of a presidential candidate to handle this shit better.
He did try. There was his "Douglass Plan" addressing systemic racism that was put together by an outside consulting firm. But he flopped the release badly. Used stock photos of people from Kenya. Claimed endorsements from a wide swathe of African American leaders from South Carolina that he actually did not have. Falsely (mistakenly?) listed many of them as endorsers of his plan. He defended this error by saying that they'd emailed all these folks an "opt out" note, and that they hadn't responded, and from that, they extracted consent. He didn't even affirmatively request their endorsement in most of these mistaken cases. You can't argue consent was implied when falsely signing folks' names to your campaign's plans. Also, it turned out over 60% of the names on this African American endorsement list were of white people.
It demonstrates an utter lack of genuine, authentic care re: the problems of racism in our society. He didn't even respect the will and public names of the "endorsers" he was trying to exploit to show he'd evolved from his days as hapless protector of corrupt racist cops on the South Bend police force. And it also showed he wasn't capable of competently carrying through the task equivalent of putting together a wedding RSVP list.
So, he's "smart" in certain ways. His Rhodes scholarship and ability to ace a McKinsey interview attest to that. He'd probably be the best presenter at a multilevel marketing scheme. But he's weighed down by inexperience, incompetence, and hubris that makes him think he's ready to be leader of the free world after being the mediocre mayor of a 100k population town.
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I don't mean to state this glibly or briefly in response to your well-reasoned post: I agree with all of it, and it smacks of a carelessness in staffing that shocks me. You're not wrong with saying he fucked up worse than most normal folks do with putting together wedding invites.
I said this in other posts, and I think of the universe of potential political appointees in a hypothetical Warren administration, I'd welcome Pete as Secretary of Veterans Affairs (but I'm biased: I think that should always be a veteran, and I realize my blinders there) or a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. Better him than a big donor in a hypothetical Biden administration.
I also agree that the hubris is weird.
I don't see any weakness in telling black folks that you're ignorant, then asking them what they need. For someone who served in Afghanistan doing humanitarian reconstruction -- as Pete did -- we should both understand that outsiders telling folks what they need is a worthless endeavor and a fucking waste of time. They already know what they need.
Not to start a fight with you over this as you seem to get it on some level but I'm not saying Pete believes in his heart that Black people are subhuman entities. Personally, I find that definition of racist and racism useless. When I say Pete's a racist I'm saying his policies, positions, and practices all happen to widen racial inequality.
Tracking on that. It makes sense. And a response to you is something that any Democratic candidate for any office should be able to articulate clearly.
Also, I appreciate your perspective. I'm ignorant to your experience. Best I can do is try to understand.
I don't take your response as glib or brief at all. Thanks for replying.
For me, his hire of Lis Smith as his senior adviser has turned me off near-permanently. White supremacy is a malignancy weaving itself more intricately and deeply into the world, and there are agents like Trump and his ambassador to Germany and his pal Steve Bannon catalyzing its spread. Lis Smith consorts with these neo-nazis and promotes them.
If people see what Lis Smith is about and don't have an immediate, visceral allergic reaction to her boosting unabashed fascists and racists, that raises immediate suspicions. On some level, she embraces White Supremacy. Since Pete hired her to steer his campaign, that means Pete has a tolerance, a comfort - on some level - for White Supremacy also. Because when I see tweets like hers, I feel intense revulsion and want nothing to do with the person. But it seems Pete is ok with all that, and that signals something really really wrong to me. Pete would have do some phenomenal things in the upcoming decades for me to change my mind about him.
This is a great breakdown of Mayor Pete...... especially Hubris..... there is a sense of it and entitlement in damn near everything he does.
No, racism is not a pretty strong accusation. It just is what it is and it's up to those that suffer from racism and experience it daily to define it. It is not a binary thing, racism is a spectrum. The fact that it is a strong accusation within the White community is just widespread manipulative behavior on the part of White society.
Does Mayor Pete want to lynch me and have a white ethnostate? No. At minimum he lacks respect for Black people and actively contributed to institutional racism as mayor with several incidents with the South Bend community. Apparently, he's one of those White folks that can be friends with everybody (TM) and has a Nazi sympathizer in his staff lol.
Trust me. If every white person were on Mayor's Pete level regarding Black folks , White America would still be a menace for Black quality of life. Y'all really really aren't there yet.
He really really really wants to be President. That's the overriding thesis of his campaign.
Thank you for sharing these views. Again, I don't mean this to be dismissive or glib. I appreciate the nuance, not that you were in any way required to offer it up, re: contributing to institutional racism and defining it as a spectrum. I think plenty of white folks immediately jump to "I'm not racist" while not acknowledging their own biases.
(My folks told me never to bring home a black girl. They also happily voted for Obama. I am not in *any way* defending how fucked up and weird that mindset is; I'm submitting it because I realize that I've got to check whatever my first reactions are and take a second look to make sure that I'm not relying on subconscious bullshit.)
So, this is hard shit. I say that because I'd like to give Pete some benefit of the doubt that he'd immediately reject the "white ethnostate" construct. But I also understand that he's coming up short in a ton of ways and has done nothing to earn your benefit of the doubt, let alone your support.
I also understand that "hey, we won't actively make your life worse" doesn't amount to fucking much these days and it's so far beneath the bare minimum that even discussing it seriously is a joke.
Umm. Sorry to say but you're parents are racist.
And yes, it's a strong accusation.
No argument there. It should be a strong accusation. They've backed off on that since then.
You shouldnt quibble over definitions though, because what you, as a white person, think defines racism against black people does not matter.
that's one huge difference between Lefties+Liberals compared to the Right Wing.
On the left, there is rarely lock-step consensus on any candidate. In the GOP, there is some squabbling but ultimately everyone falls in line behind Trump. It's maddening that one of our greatest strengths (diversity, big tent, ect) can be such a stumbling block to progress because we cant agree on any standard bearer. That doesn't mean I like Mayor Pete btw
It bothers me that most of the people defending Pete or either well-to-do middle class or upper middle class white Americans. Most of them don't have a clue about why African Americans don't like Pete, and it is imperative that they should listen, for once.
From what I have seen, Pete is a mediocre mayor of a small, insignificant city. it is telling that he decided to run for president, but can't even unite the citizens of his own city, and wouldn't even win a race for governor or senator of Indiana. He live a relatively privileged life, and now thinks he understands the experiences of people far removed from his background. Everything about and has revealed him to be an abysmal, corporatist, establishment supporting individual.
From what I have seen, Pete is a mediocre mayor of a small, insignificant city. it is telling that he decided to run for president, but can't even unite the citizens of his own city, and wouldn't even win a race for governor or senator of Indiana. He live a relatively privileged life, and now thinks he understands the experiences of people far removed from his background. Everything about and has revealed him to be an abysmal, corporatist, establishment supporting individual.
They like him because he is a status quo candidate and as you wrote a corporatist who the DNC would gladly see become the nominee.
But democratic political operatives as far as I know are concerned what will happen if he gets the nomination, because the scrutiny and his way of refusing to answer question is not gonna fly if he is the nominee.
And all of the things he has avoided to answer questions on will come back to haunt him.
And I didn't? In fact, I agreed with you? I feel like you didn't even read my exchange with the other posters.