When I got the link to that article about Tucker Carlson in The Atlantic, I stuck around to see what other gems of insight this publication has to offer. I found this one.
Okay, I can hardly be considered a young progressive, but I'll take a whack at it.
Let's start with the incredible ammount of arrogance, the nerve, the utter chutzpah of a mediocre mayor of a small college town deciding that he should be President of the United States like how hard could it be? And then the major media, instead of ignoring him like a John Delaney or a Micheal Bennet, or rolling their eyes at him like a Marianne Williamson or a Joe Walsh, decides to not only take him seriously, but to shove him down our throats at every opportunity.
Why Is the Young Left Out to Get Buttigieg?
Here Are Four Theories.
The candidate represents a new age of Democrats without representing its politics.
Okay, you just answered your own question. He "represents a new age of Democrats without representing its politics." So, in other words, he represents nothing. He stands for nothing, he believes nothing. That's why he was able to switch from trying to position himself as the young Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren candidate to casting himself as the young Kamala Harris/Joe Biden centrist with such ease. Because he doesn't actually believe in anything, he can cast around trying to find an unoccupied lane into which he can fit himself.
Young progressives on the internet don’t seem to like Pete Buttigieg very much. They’ve called him “the most obnoxious type of Millennial” and “a Boomer wrapped up in a Millennial’s clothing”; a “Build-a-Bear for middling Democrats” and “a candidate seemingly dreamed up by some Democratic National Committee algorithm”; a “baggie full of uncut special interest talking points” and a “grab bag of gifted-and-talented party tricks.”
Okay, so they're telling you why they don't like him. How are you pretending that there's some mystery around their dislike of this man?
What’s more, Buttigieg receives the sort of scrutiny one might expect from a front-runner despite being way behind in national polls. Joe Biden represents the far greater threat to the young left’s favored candidate, Bernie Sanders. But Biden seems to avoid much of the highly personal animosity heaped on his co-runner in the competitive lane of B-Surnamed Moderates.
Well, for a start, Joe Biden is, how you say. . .QUALIFIED to run for President.
He's a long-time senator and spent 8 years as President Obama's right-hand man. I don't like his politics, but I have no quibble with his resume'. Whereas "Mayor Pete" has about as much qualification to be POTUS as I do. (And I have exactly zero.)
What’s going on here? Let’s begin with the most straightforward explanation.
1. Don’t overthink it: They hate him because he’s not a socialist—and his early-state poll numbers are rising.
Yeahhh, I don't think so. There are lots of candidates who aren't socialists. Even Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a "Democratic Socialist" isn't really a socialist. He's not calling for the nationalization of industries or resources. He's not talking about seizing the means of production. He's honestly more of a New Deal/Great Society Democrat than a socialist. But anyway, if not being a socialist was reason enough for the "young left" to hate a candidate, seems like they would hate Biden, Beto, Booker and de Blasio just as much as Buttiegieg.
This is the obvious answer and, frankly, it might be the only answer. In the past two months, no candidate has gained more than Buttigieg in the early states. If he wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, he could block Bernie Sanders’s path to the nomination.
Okay, but he's not going to win Iowa or New Hampshire.and - oh geez. I just googled the latest polls and he actually could win both! I don't think he will, but he could. Especially not Iowa. Iowa is a caucus state where voters lobby each other to join their candidates' side and make their cases to the crowds. And I gotta think that when it comes time for the Buttigieg crowd to make their case for why people should vote for their guy, they're not going to be able to come up with much of a reason to support this unqualified empty suit.
And this deeply concerns young progressive activists, who rightly see the Democratic primary as a zero-sum competition to lead the party in a winnable election that has the potential to redefine the Democratic platform for a decade or longer. Buttigieg, far more than Biden, has the youth and vigor to command the party for the next generation. And this makes him the graver threat to those arguing for a socialist revolution.
Youth and vigor? Youth and vigor? No one gives a shit about youth and vigor.
You know who has a lot of youth and vigor? Justin Bieber.
Rob Gronkowski
Tom Cruise
Is any of these guys someone you'd want to lead the party for the next decade?
I mean,Gronk could probably lead a party for the next decade
just not a political party.
2. Keep not overthinking it:
They also hate him because they think he’s a liar.
Well. . . yeah. They "think" he's a liar.
He initially seemed to support Medicare For All, and now he openly criticizes the effect it would have on private-insurance employment. He initially proposed radical government reforms such as packing the Supreme Court and removing the filibuster, but now he’s recast himself as a moderate unifier.
So. . . either he's a liar or he's just incredibly indecisive.
And we all know how well that plays in a general election!
3. Overthink it a little bit: Young people hate him because he’s a traitor to his generation.
Generational identity is arguably the most important dividing line in the Democratic Party—more than class, race, or education
Do you think that just because young progressives sometimes use "Okay, Boomer" as a mild insult that means that generational identity is actually super important to them?
As I’ve written, the young left has become a kind of third party awkwardly domiciled within the Democratic Party.
Not really. I spent a fair ammount of time volunteering for the Sanders campaign in 2016. I'm 52. I was about the average age of the volunteers in our group. Yes, there were fiery young lefties, there were also aging hippies and middle-aged people like me still clinging to our idealism.
There are lefties in every age group, just as there are young and old righties. and young and old centrists. The only real generational factors are that the young folks a) aren't afraid to publicly identify as "leftists" or "socialists." My generation came of age in a time when "liberal" was a dirty word (sometimes referred to in media as the 'L-word). We grew up with a Democratic Party eager to convince the voters that they weren't really left of center, certainly not "liberals" or "leftists." This generation embraces those labels. And b) The younger generation has seen the utter failure of the politics of compromise and they know that they are going to have to live with the brunt of the consequences.
Buttigieg, however, is a traitor to his generation; he is a 30-something Millennial who appeals mostly to middle-aged and older white voters. In this way, his candidacy violates a certain unwritten law of U.S. electoral politics. American voters have historically appreciated candidates who, from a socioeconomic perspective, identify “down”: Franklin D. Roosevelt was a traitor to the upper class
FDR was a traitor to his class. They hated him because he sided with ordinary people against the wealthy elites. Lefties don't hate Buttigieg because he sides with older white people, they don't like him siding with tepid centrist incrementalists against progressives.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a traitor to the upper class; Trump is the real-estate billionaire who speaks for coal miners;
Oh my God! No he fucking is not. Trump speaks for Trump. Yes, he speaks TO coal miners. Yes, he condescendingly lies to them about bringing back the beautiful clean coal jobs or whatever. But you're seriously going to sit there and say that this narcissistic solipsist is speaking for them? And if you ever, EVER use that name in the same sentence with FDR again, I will - well, I probably won't do anything, I don't even know where to find you, but I will be ever so cross!
Bernie Sanders is the septuagenarian senator who rallies the young left.
So, again, it's not a generational thing. I know this is hard for a member of the mainstream media to grasp, but . . . It's. About. Policy!
But there’s not a deep history of successful candidates who appeared to identify “up,” like a young, nonmillionaire, small-town mayor who aligns himself with cosmopolitan capital.
Well, yeah. Why would there be?
No one likes Waylon Smithers. Mr Burns is more likable than Smithers. At least you understand Mr. Burns. Everyone hates the co-worker who sides with the boss. Are you still conmfused about why people don't like Buttigeig?
4. Overthink it more: Young people project an extreme hostility toward Buttigieg on the internet in part to exorcise their own anxieties about success and increase their in-group status.
Wait, are you still writing? You've answered your own question a dozen times by now. People hate Buttiegig because he's perfectly hatable. I don't know what kind of gibberish psychobabble this last "point" is, but you don't actually need to have four theories. You could just scroll back up and change the "four theories" headline to "three" or "two" or maybe "zero."
This week, I tweeted that the stark age gap of Buttigieg’s support suggests that he performs a specific archetype in this race: “your polite, hyper-achieving high school friend, who delighted the parents at that Christmas party with his piano rendition of Silent Night, which made your friends roll their eyes so hard their retinas detached.”
Okay, seriously, you need to stop citing yourself. It just gives you even less credibility that you would otherwise have.
Also, the "guy who delights parents at Christmas. . ." is not an archetype. I doubt that person exists. Now, there definitely is the "polite, hyper-acheiving high-school" person. That guy exists. But he's not your friend. Everyone hates that guy. The guy that everyone's parents like has no friends. Unless he's Eddie Haskell and he's just conning the parents.
side note: I recently saw part of an episode of Leave It To Beaver in the breakroom at work and is it just me or was Eddie Haskell trying to bang Mrs Cleaver? As a kid, I always just thought he was ingratiating himself so that she wouldn't forbid Wally from hanging out with this bad influence, but I'm pretty sure he was hot for her. (Can't blame him.)
Although, truth be told, I'm pretty sure he wanted to bang Wally too.
Still can't blame him!
Well now I've lost my train of thought entirely. So. . . The End?
