Mayor Pete channels JFK’s summons

0

I suspect that deep in the mind of South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg rings the sounds of Jan. 20, 1961, and the voice the President John F. Kennedy on a cold and snowy day:

“We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage — and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.”

The torch, in Buttigieg’s mind, is ready for passage once again.

For the past 15 months, Buttigieg has aspired to the national stage. He’s run statewide in Indiana, losing a 2010 race for treasurer against incumbent Republican Richard Mourdock. He has since won races in South Bend, the past two general elections by landslides.

He looks to Indianapolis and, while not ruling out a run for governor, sees a very popular Gov. Eric Holcomb, with no other Democrat taking steps for such a challenge. A second statewide defeat would bruise a stellar resume that includes a Harvard degree, a Rhodes Scholarship and a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer.

In 2017, he waged a campaign for the Democratic National Committee chair about nine months after coming out as the most prominent gay Hoosier politician in history, just three years after Republicans tried to pass a constitutional marriage amendment barring gay nuptials.

While he pulled out of the race on the morning of the vote, he attracted the attention of former governor, DNC chair and presidential candidate Howard Dean, former governor and chair Ed Rendell, and David Axelrod, a key architect in the rise and sustenance of President Barack Obama.

Buttigieg has been turning up in Iowa and Kansas, and now Politico reports that his PAC is active in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Colorado, all states that will matter greatly in 2020. He is preparing for a presidential run.

“Go ahead, dismiss this generation. I dare you,” Buttigieg tweeted Saturday in the South Bend version of the March for Our Lives. “But I do think that people are looking for something new. They’re looking for something fresh and different. And I think that, as a party, we can’t just — first of all, we can’t only trot out people who go to work in Washington every day, as representatives of the party.”

The potential 2020 Democratic field potentially includes old warhorses like former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (though she denies current interest).

There are some new faces like Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris of California. There is talk of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo running as well as former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. There is no slam dunk.

Buttigieg is just 36. He is the newest generation, the first Afghan campaign veteran to run, if he gets in. The first gay, as predicted by New York Times columnist Frank Bruni last year.

He told Politico, “I think it’s maybe a sign of the times. I think it’s telling you that things are kind of wide open in a way that hasn’t been true in a long time. And I think it reflects the fact that we’re really living in a season for cities and for mayors.”

In Politico’s Off Message podcast, he added, “There’s no going back. There’s no ‘again’ to be had. Things are going to be different. There was a liberal era in American politics that lasted 30 or 40 years, followed by a conservative era that lasted 30 or 40 years. And now, we’re on the doorstep of a new era.”

In the television age of politics, Hoosiers who have looked in the mirror and seen a president include Sens. Birch Bayh and Richard Lugar, who actually got to New Hampshire; Sen. Evan Bayh and former veep Dan Quayle, who announced but were quickly clipped by Barack Obama and George W. Bush; and others that included Sen. Vance Hartke (briefly), and Govs. Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence, who either couldn’t get the family imprimatur or were eclipsed by volatile politics and policy.

A mayor of a 100,000-person city faces a daunting leap into national politics. Some may see it as a strategy to make the 2020 ticket. Senators, governors, secretaries of state, veeps and generals have moved to 1600 Pennsylvania, but not a mayor, at least directly. Presidents Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge had previously been mayors.

Some believe that Buttigieg is really positioning for the ticket. Running as a veep nominee, he could find himself going toe to toe with Vice President Mike Pence.

Ringing in the mayor’s mind is JFK’s inaugural oratory, “Now the trumpet summons us again.”

Perhaps Buttigieg heard the cascading trumpets that defined the movie “Patton” as he surveyed the vast Afghan steppes while serving his country. Perhaps he hears them today as America watches a White House in chaos.

Brian Howey is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana at howeypolitics.com. Send comments to [email protected].

No posts to display