Ponies For Everyone

There is no perfect candidate.  There is no one who will not cross some line you feel is important.  I remember telling some starry-eyed students back in 2009: "Obama will disappoint you."  That was because so much of Obama's ascent to the presidency seemed impossible that everything now seemed possible.  "Hope and change" was such a load of vacancy that anyone could step into that "vision."  Why, yes!  I do like hope!  AND change!"

The 2020 primary is already exhausting online.  This example was especially interesting.  It's a comprehensive takedown of Pete Buttigieg based on the fact that Pete Buttigieg has worked hard and succeeded.  The very fact that Buttigieg went to Harvard and joined the military is what the author - ironically or not a Harvard grad student - finds so troubling.  Buttigieg is one of those "naive liberals" who believe the best in America.  The author routinely derides Buttigieg's fascination with Graham Greene's depiction of American power and the idea that more often than not, America makes bad choices for the right reasons.  If we make foolish and destructive decisions, it comes from a place - usually - of well-meaning ideals.

That's a reasonable criticism for a Harvard grad student in Sociology to make.  It is an appalling position for an aspiring politician to make.  I cannot imagine ANY successful run for national or statewide office that is predicated on America being an immoral place.  The author admits his bias:

I don’t trust former McKinsey consultants. I don’t trust military intelligence officers. And I don’t trust the type of people likely to appear on “40 under 40” lists, the valedictorian-to-Harvard-to-Rhodes-Scholarship types who populate the American elite. I don’t trust people who get flattering reams of newspaper profiles and are pitched as the Next Big Thing That You Must Pay Attention To, and I don’t trust wunderkinds who become successful too early. Why? Because I am somewhat cynical about the United States meritocracy. Few people amass these kind of  résumés if they are the type to openly challenge authority. Noam Chomsky says that the factors predicting success in our “meritocracy” are a “combination of greed, cynicism, obsequiousness and subordination, lack of curiosity and independence of mind, [and] self-serving disregard for others.” So when journalists see “Harvard” and think “impressive,” I see it and think “uh-oh.”

And, again, that's fine as far as an academic criticism of meritocracy goes. 

My worry is that the Extremely Online Progressive Left has replaced pragmatism with ideals.  Republicans have failed to successfully govern the country because they are more wedded to their ideology than they are to facts on the ground.  The next Democratic president will be as progressive as the Senate allows her or him to be.  That's it.  The policy differences between Harris, Warren, Hickenlooper, O'Rourke and Sanders are really no more than HOW to do certain things that WHETHER to do certain things.

I think Buttigieg is too young and too inexperienced.  But the fact that he is ferociously intelligent, genuinely empathetic and has achieved a lot in his young life is not to me a disqualifying set of conditions.