Pete Buttigieg On Morning Joe: Yes We Said Yes We Will Yes

Portrait of the mayor as a young man.

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg went on the "Morning Joe" show this morning -- it's now prominently sponsored by America's Coffee Achievers -- and for nearly a half hour talked about Christian liberalism, fixing our stupid politics, war and peace, and why it's OK to be a youngling running for president. Danged if he didn't just impress the hell out of everyone with his easy command of facts and willingness to go beyond easy talking points. Let's discuss!

Here is the interview, in two parts, and it is actually kind of long and in depth! Is that even allowed on TV?

Pete Buttigieg: The Kind Of Person To Take WH Next Is What's Important | Morning Joe | MSNBC    www.youtube.com 

Buttigieg, at Joe Scarborough's prompting, started off with a little Jesus talk of the sort we sure wish we heard more of from political types. Not a word about oppressed Christians being forced to make penis cakes for gays, but instead an emphasis on the ol' Catholic school notion of the "Imitation of Christ," although Buttigieg noted he's an Episcopalian now.

"The time has come for more of a Religious Left to emerge in our country that lets people know they are not alone w… https: //t.co/8J9QhhbyYE

— Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons (@Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons) 1553092605.0 

When God comes among us, you see service, you see humbling, you see foot-washing. Feet are gross. [...] And what could be more different than what we're being shown in Washington right now? Often with some people who view themselves as religious, on the right, cheering it on.

Pretty sure it's the children in cages thing. Gee, and Buttigieg didn't even mention Bible Scholars Jeff Sessions and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who know Jesus approves of doing whatever we want to ILLEGALS, because it's THE LAW.

Buttigieg also said he really would like to hear a lot more from the "religious left," and somewhere on a bus some liberal nuns fist-bumped each other and exclaimed "Damn straight!" Faith, said Buttigieg, is about protecting the most vulnerable,

the immigrant, the prisoner, and frankly, the sex worker. Literally, Jesus spends his time with sex workers. [...] and here we have this totally warped idea of what Christianity should be like when it comes into the public sphere, and it's mostly about exclusion...

The interview finally moved on to secular matters, and Buttigieg said capitalism has its good points, but maybe it would be nice to divorce money and political power, or at least not have businesses writing all the goddamned rules (why yes, we summarize here).

As to the inevitable question about whether the mayor of a small city is ready to lead an entire nation (and also the Free World -- gotta lead the Free World, too!), Buttigieg said nobody's ever been "ready" to take the presidential oath:

There is something audacious to the point of being obscene about anybody looking at the Oval Office and thinking they can walk in there and do the job.

And yet, as he points out, we've had 45 mere mortals who have done it, and by golly, their résumés weren't necessarily the deciding factor in what they did as president. The main thing is being someone who knows how to take advice and do executive stuff -- something that even a US senator may have very little experience with, but a mayor does alla time. How about having a Washington that's run like a really well-run city, not the other way round? Maybe we could stop accepting some of the absurdities of national government, like the notion that someone who loses the popular vote becomes president anyway. MMM-HMMMM!

Then there was MORE! With that make-you-cry video of the little kid being surprised by his back-from-deployment dad, and questions about military and foreign policy:

Pete Buttigieg: We Need Generational Change In Politics | Morning Joe | MSNBC    www.youtube.com 

Summary: Let's end the Forever Wars, but not all willy-nilly, and for heaven's sake let's not keep relying on a congressional authorization from the weeks after 9/11. Above all, you have to have a policy, not a series of tweets. In North Korea, he said, we have an "opportunity for peace, but the president has no strategy."

Then one of the panelists wanted to talk about Jebus again, or about how Jebus loved all races, and why hasn't Buttigieg talked about that, huh? Yeesh. Buttigieg for fuckssake  has   made diversity a priority, but rolled with the question more politely than he really had to, because he is a professional. The problem he sees is a president who wants to divide Americans by racial resentments, like even worse than Obama did by being black (again, we're paraphrasing).

Buttigieg also likes the idea of a year of national service to help build community, adding that his time in the military really helped him appreciate America's rich pageant. "You shouldn't have to go to war to get that kind of experience." Alienation bad, community good!

So what makes Buttigieg different from the other Dems? Hey, it's that he's a young fella!

“We need generational change... we need more voices stepping up from a generation that has so much at stake. I’ll b… https: //t.co/2UsjexoWry

— Justin Kanew (@Justin Kanew) 1553085098.0 

The reality is: When you take one look at me, my face is my message. [...] A lot of this is simply the idea that we need generational change, that we need more voices stepping up from a generation that has so much at stake in the decisions that are being made right now.

Noting that he'll won't reach Donald Trump's age until 2054, Buttigieg said that's a pretty important perspective for how he'd govern:

That's why I often talk about how the world is going to look in 2054, when I get to the current age of the current president. It's to remind us that this isn't just about one election. This is about an era. The decisions that are being made in our politics right now will decide how the next 20, 30 or 40 years will go.

But no, he doesn't want generational war, so that's nice. Hey, Buttigieg added, we also need to talk about matters of substance, not just that I'm so young and pretty and vigorous, OK? (Yeah, paraphrasing again.) The big thing will be "mastering change," not being run over by it. Then it was time for a lightning round:

Expanding the Supreme Court: Yes, but only if it can be done in a way that helps depoliticize the institution. Eliminating the Electoral College? Hells yes. Medicare for All? Yes, and he's been over that before -- let's start with a public option and people will love it. Reparations for Slavery? Let's damn well figure that out, yeah, though he hasn't seen a plan yet. Stricter requirements for gun purchases, you bet.

The segment ends with Trump's stupid tweetslur on George Conway, and Buttigieg just shook his head when JoeScar asked him if he'll tweet that way when he's president. Also, he could fix South Bend's entire sewer system with the budget for one pro sportsballer's new contract, the end.

Oh, we should also add that in another interview this week, this time with Esquire, Buttigieg explained why running for president is more like Ulysses than like Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or Finnegans Wake. A candidate who can talk about that? Yes we said yes we will Yes.

[ MSNBC on YouTube / Same but different ]

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