Pete Buttigieg is maligned fairly regularly on Kos. Age and experience aside, he is accused of shilling for insurance companies because rather than supporting Medicare for All, which would require 167 million Americans to give up their private (awful) insurance, he supports Medicare for All Who Want It, which he sees as a more realistic and achievable gradient. He is accused of being self serving and arrogant and of attacking Elizabeth Warren in the second debate. Among other complaints, most recently he has been accused of being a ‘traitor’, a friend to Mark Zuckerberg and the recipient of ‘dark money’.
If Buttigieg were to win both Iowa and New Hampshire it is possible that people of color would pay attention to him and take a look at his
Douglass Plan. If that doesn’t happen then his campaign is history.
What is so curious to me is why so many people here, at Kos, the progressive left, find his success so infuriating. I had no intention of writing a diary
but wanted a way to share the profile that Michelle R. Smith wrote today for the AP. It gives insight into his upbringing and motivation and his
ambition. I think it is worth reading and possibly taking another look at Pete Buttigieg and why he is resonating with people in Iowa and New Hampshire.