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In this special edition of It’s Just Politics, hosts Zoe Clark and Rick Pluta are joined by Pete Buttigieg, former South Bend, Indiana mayor and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation who now lives just outside Traverse City.
The former Democratic presidential candidate took the stage with Clark and Pluta for a special Michigan Public and Michigan Association of Broadcasters Issues & Ale in Traverse City last week for a wide-ranging discussion including his thoughts on the deep divisions in American society, the future of the Democratic Party, and the enormous — and not necessarily comprehensible — impact of artificial intelligence.
In a conversation about his future, Buttigieg confirmed that he had considered running for Michigan office earlier this year but ultimately decided the timing wasn’t. While not making any new announcements, Buttigieg left the door open to a future run, saying higher office should only be pursued if “ it needs to be you, and it needs to be now.”
Other highlights
On AI: “One of the most interesting things about the issue of AI is it doesn't yet have an obvious partisan valence. It would be hard to say ‘Here's the Democrat view or the Republican view on AI’... It's one thing to say, ‘Here's this technology that's going to change a lot of things for you.’ It's another to say that whole categories of professions are going to be either wiped out or profoundly changed, not in 100 years, but in like five.”
On rebuilding American institutions: “I think the deepest, truest answers have to do with structural reform. And if it takes 30 years to get some of these things done, we should start right now. I'm talking about a more proportional system for how our elections work, fairer methods of voting, a popular vote instead of an Electoral College. Constitutional amendments, if necessary, to get money out of our politics so that there is just a better level of responsiveness between those institutions and the people. I think part of how they've lost legitimacy is that they seem less and less responsive. And even though, in my opinion, it won't surprise you to hear, I think, that the current president is anything but responsive to what people actually need, certainly the kind of burn the house down mentality that I think helped him to win is the result of people finding that their institutions are letting them down. I think generationally, anybody my age or younger has experienced a lot of policy failure related to that reason.”
"...certainly the kind of burn the house down mentality that I think helped (President Trump) to win is the result of people finding that their institutions are letting them down. I think generationally, anybody my age or younger has experienced a lot of policy failure related to that reason.”PETE BUTTIGIEG | former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Buttigieg on the current push and pull between the centrist and progressive wings of the Democratic Party: “I think it's healthy for us to have a broad and large coalition. I think it will be important, though, for our party to do a better job of remembering that that coalition is for the same general direction of travel. Look, it's true that… we've never been a command and control kind of party. We are chaotic, and we might as well acknowledge that. But let's be clear about just how chaotic to the point of incoherence the other party is right now.”
On the Democrat’s messaging problem: “...for the most part, two thirds of Americans believe that we should be taxing the wealthy more and not less. Two thirds of Americans, at least, are against the cuts to Medicaid that are going on. Two thirds of Americans acknowledge that climate change is a reality. Two thirds of Americans believe in a woman's right to choose. Two thirds of Americans believe in marriage equality for a family like mine. Way more than two thirds of Americans believe that we should at least have background checks on the purchases of guns. I could go on and on down the list, but it is very clear that my party has failed to bring our message to people who don't already agree with it. And that was hard enough five years ago when I was getting beat up for going on Fox News as much as I did. It's that much harder now. When we were trying to reach out to a generation of people, including young voters, some of whom I talked to, who cast their very first vote ever for Joe Biden and their second presidential vote ever for Donald Trump. ”
On his political future: “Of course you think about it. And you read polls and you talk to friends and people stop you on the street, and you think about it. But, you know, I thought really hard about running here in Michigan twice earlier this year. And, you know, thinking about it is different from deciding you're going to do it… I'm also old enough to know that running for office is not something you do unless you're really sure that it needs to be you, and it needs to be now.”
