Monday 2 March 2020

A lost chance to have a philosopher king as leader of the western world

The Democratic Party in the United States seems to have closed the door on the possibility of giving the western world an exciting new leader.  I am referring to the withdrawal last night from the campaign for Presidential nomination of Pete Buttigieg (or Peter, as he was known before he got involved in politics)         .

I carved out a certain luxury during the course of my life by involving myself in a number of political campaigns where I got to know the candidate very well or, in some cases, I knew people who knew the candidate very well – people I trusted.  I like to think that I played at major role in convincing cerebral people, deep thinkers if you will, such as John English and John Milloy to enter the political arena.

I do not have that luxury when it comes to American politics so all I know is what I gather from the media.From the media I have learned that Peter Buttigieg is, indeed, a very cerebral person.  Might I suggest that until he got involved in politics he might have been known as a nerd.  His parents were both middle-class academics.  He got a chance to study history and literature at both Harvard and as a result of a Rhodes scholarship, Oxford.  He has taken a major interest in international affairs.  I cannot discern to what extent any of the other candidates have done that.  His advocacy has always been what I would call left of centre.  He chose to serve in Afghanistan, apparently to educate himself so as to better understand his own advocacy for world peace.

You may have watched some of the debates, as I have.  When it got down to the last six candidates it was very interesting.  The others seem to have been enjoying badmouthing each other.  While he did a little bit of that himself, it did not seem to come naturally.  In a very noisy atmosphere, he looked calm and, yes, cerebral.  I notice that at one point he said "I am the only one on the stage who is not a millionaire, I think".  Nobody challenged him on it.  Why should they?  Except for Michael Bloomberg, who is obviously a billionaire, the rest of them have spent their whole adult lives in Washington in elective office and, strangely, accumulating fortunes. (That does not happen in Canadian politics).  Clearly, Buttigieg would have been a breath of fresh air to American national politics.

Would it not have been delightful to have something of a philosopher king as the "leader of the free world", a man who relys on his religious convictions when talking about matters such as climate change

If I am not mistaken,Buttigieg would have been the youngest president in the history of United States, a record now held by John F. Kennedy.  By contrast, either Saunders or Biden will be the oldest, a record that, if he is reelected, could become held by Donald Trump.

So what is to become of this young fellow?  Saunders says that he will not choose "an old white guy" (those are his words) as his running mate, and it does not make sense politically for either he or Biden to choose Buttigieg for that role.  The timing of his withdrawal, perhaps based on finances as much is anything else, is clearly a boost for Biden and Biden owes him "big".

 I wonder if he would make a good Secretary of State.  Just a suggestion, Joe.

1 comment:

  1. I thought i’d Already commented on all of your blog posts, David, but apparently not because I hadn’t signed in o an account. I won’t attempt to retrace my steps at this point but please know that your musings are appreciated. Keep tapping away n that keyboard.

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