Pete Buttigieg shares what he would change about Democratic policies from 2020
Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg offered multiple ways he would change the Democratic Party platform if he could time travel back to 2020.
In the wake of the party’s decisive defeat in 2024, several prominent Democrats have spoken about how they need to change on America’s most pressing issues. Many Democrats have argued that the party needs to moderate not only its tone, but its policies. Buttigieg, who has spoken out before on how the party needs to stop alienating voters, is no exception.
Tim Miller, a political strategist for The Bulwark, released a new episode of the outlet’s podcast on Tuesday where he interviewed Buttigieg. Miller referenced the time-traveling DeLorean from “Back to the Future,” and asked Buttigieg what advice he would give his past self and then-nominee Joe Biden to prevent the state of the U.S. today.
Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg shared multiple ideas about how the Democrats could have better played their hand, knowing what he knows now. (The Bulwark YouTube channel)
BUTTIGIEG ADMITS THERE WON’T BE A ‘ROGAN OF THE LEFT,’ SAYS DEMS NEED THEIR OWN WAY TO REACH COMMON AMERICANS
“What do you think y’all should have done differently?” Miller asked.
“One, for the love of God, figure out a way to get the schools open sooner,” Buttigieg said. “We got very knee-jerk about this and the costs were — not just politically — but in a profound way I think, for a generation, the costs were profound, and I think anybody who’s involved, who was, by the way obviously doing their best to deal with a crisis that killed a million Americans, but I think most people involved would like to be able to have found a way to safely get more schools open more quickly.”
The former transportation secretary followed up with another key issue that has grown prominent in recent years.
“Obviously, pay more attention to the border,” he said, noting another piece of advice for 2020 Democrats. “That’s real, and that’s going to be something that you can’t just, like, take your time to deal with. These are all things, by the way, that’s super, you know, policy-wise and politically, we have the benefit of hindsight to reflect upon this.”
Pete Buttigieg previously served as former President Biden’s secretary of transportation. Photographer: Tim Rue/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Tim Rue)
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The third piece of advice he offered, particularly to himself, was about the nature of how the economy is perceived.
“Three, even though you spent your entire political lifetime believing that ‘the economy and jobs are the same thing, and if you have lots of jobs, it’s a good economy, and if you have a problem with jobs, it’s a bad economy.’ Remember that prices is just as big a part of the economy, it just hasn’t come up much in the last 40 years,” he said.
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Buttigieg argued that no country was able to save its economy from the pandemic without taking on some inflation, “but I do think there were a lot of moments where people kind of waved it away in the first year or two, even just like the conversation about it.”