Editors at Issues and Insights ponder the political Left’s attacks on a presidential candidate whose political views stray well left of center.
You just can’t make these things up. The new enemy within for the Democratic Party’s radicalized base, worthy of all the venom it can muster, isn’t House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her caution on giving the green light to impeach President Donald Trump. It isn’t Joe Biden for attacking Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as so far left they’re unelectable. It isn’t even Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who’s announced he will vote against impeaching Trump and will probably switch parties – spurring six of his staff members to quit.
Instead, the populist left’s heavy artillery is now aimed at, of all people, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who, as an unapologetic homosexual with husband in tow on the campaign trail, is, in social terms, the most radical presidential candidate ever.
Does this make any sense? Buttigieg has one of the most far-left agendas ever offered by a presidential candidate. Some of what he proposes would make Barack Obama blush. …
… Since Buttigieg has some lucrative work for the McKinsey consulting firm on his resume, he’s being pegged as a corporate shill. A #NeverPete hashtag has emerged on Twitter, copycatting #NeverTrump in 2016. Recently featuring it was Vox tech writer Teddy Schleifer, who shared “some photos of the Buttigieg fundraiser in Napa – with the famous wine cave and the chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals.” In another, a filmmaker and Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter opines that he and other NeverPeters “take issue with his neoliberal, centrist, pro-corporatist stances that will do next to nothing to help the working and middle class of this country.”
