Trust: America’s Best Chance

Talk about a timely subject! My former Mayor Pete Buttigigeg examines \”trust,\” the erosion of which is so costly that progress is diminished. If you\’ve read Pete\’s first book, \”Shortest Way Home,\” you know that his writing style is immediately ingratiating; larger themes are served by personal stories that build his argument. And for me, who volunteered for his campaign and spent wonderful days in Iowa and South Bend, hearing his take on what was an unprecedented campaign is a thrill. But, regardless of your politics, Pete Buttigieg is here making an argument for a best path forward out of the divisions and paralysis we find ourselves in now. My favorite passage is this: \”The vote, after all, is the ultimate expression of trust in the judgment of the people. If the Constitution places trust in the people in theory, the election is how this happens in practice. [snip] The legitimacy of our entire system depends on the trustworthiness of the process.\” Like I said, timely!

The man is genuine and intelligent. He has SO much to offer. Very honest and every American owes himself/her to read this book right now.

Incredible book. Very honest and exactly what American needs to hear right now.

I\’ll start with the positive. This is a brief and highly readable book. Mayor Pete has shot into the high levels of American politics over the past two years, competing with Biden and Sanders in a field of about 30 candidates. But now he\’s like many of our generation, and has to get a job lol. Maybe he\’s aiming for the Biden cabinet. The frequently repetitious theme is the word trust, applied to a lot of different situations, including climate change. Buttigieg is a technocrat and looks at the establishment expertise of doctors, Fauci etc. on the Covid-19 crisis, and criticizes the government, including the Trump administration. Ross Douthat\’s columns show how it\’s not so simple. Trump\’s instincts toward China and \”germophobia\” would have been good if he acted on them, but the globalist establishment would not have done so. Pete\’s emphasis is less on China and more on being hawkish toward Russia, regarding election interference etc. Why is Pete concerned about mistrust toward the establishment? In 2015-2020 for five years we have had both right-wing and left-wing populism in America and around the world, reflected here in the personae of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Why did Pete and Amy Klobuchar endorse Biden so early? Klobuchar is a moderate, but learned a lot of politics from Sen. Paul Wellstone. Pete is what David Horowitz would call a Radical Son. This is like my high school friend Sam, who grew up with a picture of the bearded Karl over the fireplace. Or think of Dr. Copeland\’s kids in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Joe Buttigieg, who died at the beginning of the campaign, was an actual Marxist, who then went into critical theory with Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault. In college (or something) Pete wrote an essay about how Bernie Sanders was an interesting figure on the left, as Pat Buchanan was on the right. But to be President? That would be too much like Joe Buttigieg. As for Elizabeth Warren, as a Harvard prof she probably triggers transference as well. Kamala Harris is also the daughter of radical parents. So where does Pete go from here? The fairly moderate Biden won, but the future of the Democratic Party is on the left. Buttigieg avoids economic Marxism, but goes with the Marcuse-Foucault cultural variety. This is manifest in today\’s identity politics and intersectionality. The eccentric but insightful E. Michael Jones, from the neighborhood in South Bend, explores this in Home Alone. Buttigieg is gay, but he\’s still a white guy. Biden is Catholic and Sanders is Jewish, but in today\’s climate they\’re still seen as old white guys. Pete is a young guy and is very smart and multilingual, quoting Homer and James Joyce at ease. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were all quite smart, with Clinton finding a way not to seem intellectual. Biden is more instinctual, resembling Clinton on empathy, but with a more northern industrial feel. Anyway, Buttigieg knows that the future is to the left. He discusses this summer with Black Lives Matter and Me Too. He offers an extensive critique of Reagan, finally discussing the eloquent Challenger speech. Reagan\’s imperfect response to Iran-Contra is compared favorably to Trump\’s \”I don\’t take responsibility at all\”. The book is pro-Obama, noting America\’s positive standing in the world (mostly Europe and the Middle East) compared to Bush\’s second term and even more the Trump days. Pete also discusses the Founding Fathers, but criticizes Nino Scalia\’s hermeneutical approach to the author of the text. Regarding media criticism, Buttigieg discusses the late 90s when Fox News Channel and MSNBC joined CNN. CNN\’s Crossfire is criticized for dramatizing political discourse. But to Pete, it\’s like the conservative view should go away. (Although he walks his dog with a political science prof of the right, perhaps Pat Deneen). The trust in Walter Cronkite\’s \”That\’s the way it was\” is seen as the good old days. But in today\’s left, can anything be the good old days?

Great Read! With the situation we currently find ourselves in, this is a must read for both sides of the aisle.

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