Buttigieg on electability

[crazytown]

From The Advocate podcast
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2019/4/22/we-sat-down-pete-buttigieg-talk-about-gay-stuff

JM: 2016, shined a mirror up to our country and it was impossible to ignore how racist and sexist many parts of our country are. Knowing that, do you think that our country is capable of voting for a gay man for president?

PB: Well, there's definitely a lot of ugliness out there. We've seen it, as you said, especially brought to a head by 2016, but these things need to be tested, because the only way we make progress is to have America rise to one of these tests. And so there's a certain amount of personal risk in being part of the test, but the honest answer to your question is that there's only one way to find out.

JM: Is now the appropriate time to test it, when we're trying to remove this person currently in the office?

PB: It's got to be. If not now, when? We need to put forward something that is completely different, the opposite of what we've got right now, and we can't be afraid of what we are, who we are, or what we believe in.

Politics, at it's best, is being who you are in the cause of what you believe, and every time we've tried to do something else, we've regretted it. Every time we've psyched ourselves out by trying to focus on electability rather than what we thought was right for the country, we wound up getting neither.

Let's have a conversation about where America needs to go, not just in this election, but in the next era. That I think is largely going to be decided based on this election. And let's put forward real human beings, and challenge voters and challenge our neighbors to judge us based on what we have to offer them, not based on some complex of prejudices that, not only we, but also they would be better off without.

[mr_lebowski]

1. Dude always seems to know what to say, man ...

No getting around it, he's good!

[beachbum bob]

2. can he convince the black church leaders? The latino catholics? Both are anti-gay and

no way to win 2020 with out their huge support

[crazytown]

4. Not in the primaries.

In the GE, POC will crawl over broken glass to vote out Trump.

[spicysista]

7. This is not true. There are many alliances throughout the black community.

This statement would seem, to me, outside of the traditions of Coretta Scott King, Rev/Dr. William Barber, and even my pastor . The black church is exactly where the public is, at large, on gay rights..... coming along just fine. I'm not going to pretend that it's always been this way. However, it is not true that Christian blacks are against gay rights. (Check out the sermon below, it's very typical in my church.)

Furthermore, older Christian blacks vote like nobody's business for the democratic candidate, no matter who is selected. You see, they have never expected to vote for a candidate who aligned with them 100%.....ever. Being pragmatic and voting for the candidate with the best (not perfect) views has always been the experience. Souls to the polls, community voter registration drives, and "robo-call"/get out the vote call parties are all usual happenings. It's the reason why every politician running on the democratic ticket (locally and statewide) always make a stop by my historically black church.

Mayor Pete may have issues in the black community. However, it isn't clear it's because he's gay. It may have something to do with a distrust/uncertainty of him, in general. Criminal justice? Racial justice? Reproductive freedom? Are these seen as just "identity" politics? We need to know.


Receipts:

Coretta Scott King
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coretta-scott-king_b_2592049
http://gay.americablog.com/2012/01/remember-the-words-of-coretta-scott-king-speaking-of-gay-civil-rights.html

Rev./Dr. William Barber
The LGBT Movement Is A Moral Movement
http://rebelpundit.com/naacps-william-barber-in-madison-lgbt-movement-is-a-moral-movement/

Rev. E. Dewey Smith

Black Evangelicals Support Democrats (from fivethirtyeight.com)

[marylandblue]

8. Some stories say he doesn't have good relations with the black community of South Bend

due to bad feelings over past incidents. I don't know how true that is, but he'll have to address it somehow. He sounds like Reverend Barber to me sometimes, if he could get an endorsement like that, it could give him a big lift.

[spicysista]

9. I have heard this, too.

He'll have to reach out to folks like Rev. Barber, pretty soon, before a negative narrative sticks. There is still time to get ahead of all this (if that's his strategy). He's still pretty unknown.

[crazytown]

3. Nobody will get Pete on a gotcha question.

That’s one positive to his candidacy.

[PatrickforO]

5. Geez. How can you not really, really like PB?

I put that Politics, at its best, quote in my signature line, because it's that good.

We have to stand FOR something, not just AGAINST Trump. Our platform of kitchen table issues IS our electability.

Wow. This guy just blows me away.

[crazytown]

6. I've joined you.

Sometimes his words sing.