Friday, March 29, 2019

Buttigieg criticism




Not having heard the interview, I wonder if Buttigieg may have been clearer than these tweets make it seem.  But, if they're accurate and there's nothing to mitigate or clarify the statements, then yes, he should have been much more precise (which is why I have some doubts that this is really accurate - he seems careful and thoughtful). 

"Coastal elitism" is a catchall stereotype as much as "Trump supporter".  There are an awful lot of Trump supporters in California as well as New York.  Most of California, I would say, is as conservative as any state in the middle of the country.  But when we talk about the coasts, we tend to imagine New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, maybe DC.  Weird that we do that.

As I've said before, Buttigieg is going to start getting a lot of criticism as his popularity grows.  He'll need to be very watchful of what he says. 

Of course, the interview was in San Francisco, so he could have been referring specifically to people in that community, and "coastal elitism" might not even been something he uttered.

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