Monster of the Week: Pete Buttigieg
Pete Buttigieg is the physical manifestation of the rainbow Apple logo. A faithful servant of big business and US imperialism masked in a warm gay smile. From his start working for notorious global corporate consultant firm McKinsey, to his time as “Mayor Pete” of South Bend, Indiana, to his eventual rise to national stardom as one of the many “anyone but Bernie” presidential candidates in 2020 that landed him a position in Joe Biden’s Cabinet, Pete Buttigieg has put a “progressive” sheen on the Democratic Party’s assault on workers at home and abroad.
Mayor Pete started his career as a McKinsey consultant and represented major health insurers, Best Buy, one of the largest Canadian supermarket chains, and the Defense Department. So only the ethical companies, really. McKinsey has a long list of crimes, including helping to “turbocharge” the sale of OxyContin that started the opioid epidemic. McKinsey has done more than $20 million worth of contracting for ICE, including advising the agency to cut spending on food and medical care for migrants and on how to speed up deportations.
They consult for most of the major fossil fuel companies. An internal 2021 email reported that, “we are serving a client portfolio that is likely on the 3 to 5 degrees warming trajectory depending on what you believe about the rest of the world’s trajectory – this portfolio contains more than half of the world’s worst polluters.” That same report admitted that McKinsey’s sustainability work was “being used to launder the Firm’s reputation, and wash away the problems posed by our more inconvenient engagements expanding emissions elsewhere.” Pete Buttigieg was a part of laundering their reputation, as some of his clients included the EPA and a few environmental non-profits.
After a successful McKinsey career, Buttigieg became Mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 until 2020, overseeing a wave of evictions, a war on the homeless, and a wave of attacks on low-income Black and Latino homeowners. Between 2012 and 2016, the eviction rate in South Bend doubled to three times the national average. He directed the South Bend Police Department to routinely arrest homeless people and installed surveillance cameras near known encampments. He slapped a slew of fines on owners of run-down homes in mostly low income Black and Latino neighborhoods in order to allow the City to demolish the homes when the owners couldn't pay, replacing them with expensive luxury housing instead.
What skyrocketed Buttigieg to national fame was his 2020 Presidential campaign. While claiming the progressive label, Buttigieg was one of the dozen candidates in the race (the gay one!) whose sole purpose was to do whatever it took to prevent Bernie from winning. “Mayor Pete” (derogatory), funded by over 60 billionaires, posed as a “pragmatic progressive” who didn’t support Medicare for All or any of the working-class demands that rallied millions of people behind Bernie’s campaign. And when the phone call from Obama came, Pete dropped out and fell in line behind Biden.
His fealty to the Democrats earned him multi-million dollar book deals, well-paying speaking tours, and a position in Joe Biden’s Cabinet as Secretary of Transportation. During his time in the Biden administration, he had the exciting opportunity to break a railroad strike! He is a staunch supporter of Israel and defender of the Biden administration’s overseeing of the genocide in Gaza, saying that “Biden wanted to ‘bear hug’ Israel to constrain it via friendship.”
Pete Buttigieg is an enemy of working people. He is an enemy of gay people and the movement for queer liberation. He has made millions of dollars, including buying three multi-million dollar homes, from a career of attacking workers and laundering the reputation of the Democratic Party. He is the poster child for the snake oil of liberal identity politics, which says that if the bombs just have a pride flag on them then that’s progress, right? Any Democrat, gay or straight, trans or cisgender, black or white, is a representative of the ruling class. Plus, he’s just a rat-faced little creep. Don’t let this guy run in 2028.