| 摘要 | Joe Biden is running against President Trump. Kamala Harris is running against Joe Biden. Pete Buttigieg is running against Christian conservatives.
Disdain for the Religious Right is central to Buttigieg’s primary campaign. It’s not merely political icons such as Vice President Mike Pence that he’s targeting. His campaign is also attacking ordinary people who believe in God, go to church, and adhere to traditional moral teachings in their own affairs.
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is trying to distinguish himself in a crowded Democratic field. His early success at raising cash and winning media and elite adulation has faded. Now he’s firmly in the second tier, competing with Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar for space in the primary’s “not-a-socialist” lane.
How does he energize the party base when he’ll never be able to outbid Sens. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, or Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, on economic populism or pandering to labor unions? Through a strategic culture-war offensive.
I say “strategic” because Buttigieg isn’t trying to out-woke or out-identity-politics his rivals. He’s not racing to the most extreme outposts of the sexual revolution — for instance, asserting that only a bigot would refuse to date a transgendered person. Instead, he’s trying to rack up points for scoring the most hits against conservative Christians.
Before an Austin crowd recently, for instance, Buttigieg lamented the state of the world today, in which “so-called religious freedom is used to harm people,” as Buttigieg put it. Then he added his punchline, decrying that current law makes “it lawful to harm people so long as you remember to use your religion as an excuse.”
Laughter and applause rained down from the balconies.
There’s a debate to be had over religious liberty and the law. Not every potential claim of “religious liberty” can be accommodated, and anti-discrimination laws play a very important role in America’s recent history. But Buttigieg doesn’t critique religious-liberty policies: He dismisses the entire idea of religious freedom as a lie designed to cover for bigotry.
Religious liberty, to Buttigieg, is “so-called religious liberty.” Those who invoke it are simply coming up with “an excuse.” Their real intention, Mayor Pete tells us, is “to harm people.”
So in Buttigieg’s world, Baronelle Stutzman, the Washington State florist who declined to participate in the same-sex wedding of two regular customers, wasn’t motivated by a sincere belief that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman. To Buttigieg, she simply wanted to harm her customers. Her conscientious objections were lies to cover her hatred.
Many liberals think that way, of course. Those are the liberals who hate religious conservatives and want them to go away — not a healthy stance for someone who wants to be president.
This mindset of complete intolerance for those who don’t share the same definition of tolerance is an authoritarian mindset in the presidency. Christian conservatives are lying bigots, Buttigieg seems to believe, and they deserve the full punishment of the law.
When not calling the generic Christian conservative a lying bigot, Buttigieg finds himself picking a gratuitous and juvenile fight with the man who, in the eyes of many on the Left, is the totem of Christian conservatives: Mike Pence.
Part of Buttigieg’s early strategy in the spring was sparking a “feud” with Pence, who was governor of Indiana when Buttigieg was first elected. The “feud,” of course, was a farce. It was all Buttigieg attacking Pence out of nowhere, on the false premise that Pence has scolded Buttigieg for being gay or being married to a man. Some in the press even called Buttigieg out on it, pointing out that he and Pence had an excellent relationship in Indiana …. until Buttigieg suddenly found value in attacking him. But even when his dishonesty was laid bare, Buttigieg didn’t stop. To this day, his lip-snarling invocations of Pence serve as a great signaling device that, Yes, Buttigieg hates the religious Right.
The most charitable interpretation is that Buttigieg doesn’t actually reciprocate this hatred. It’s possible this is a cynical act to win voters on the left-end of the Democrats’ primary electorate. In that case, he’s stirring up hatred against one part of the country for his own political gain.
Boy, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? |
