A sophomoric clown by the name of Matteo Bautista, whose sign-off motto is "The most heroic word in all languages is 'Revolution'" — just ask Cambodians — has debuted, for Medium, perhaps the most naive, multi-ringed circus of a progressive op-ed ever penned: "Pete Buttigieg Is Real-Life Frank Underwood."
No one could embarrass Mr. Bautista as grotesquely albeit amusingly as he does himself, hence I shall swiftly turn the floor over to this mastermind of anti-"neoliberal," pragmatism-hating gibberish, with, perhaps, an intervening comment or two from moi:
"According to revelations from a longtime classmate, Mayor Pete harbored blunt and calculated ambitions for the Presidency since his elementary school days." !!!!
"[At Harvard] he scoffed at the leftist loonies of the day in favor of a more practical, politically solvent centrism. While his progressive classmates would chase their dreams, Pete would craft his own reality." ????
"Pete … [has] a naked ambition for glory cloaked in the ideological wrappings of neoliberalism, 'pragmatism', and elitist lecturing masquerading as rural rabblerousing."
I happen to like intellectually elitist lectures, since I generally learn something from them. I have yet to learn, however, what "neoliberalism" is. Oh, strike that, maybe it's this:
"Like a Frank Underwood-style Tidewater soliloquy, Pete sows fanciful stories of empty factories and desolate streets that only his brand of practical policy concoctions can cure, ignoring how active he is in promoting those problems; he crusades for free trade agreements that empty factories and anti-homelessness policies that empty the streets" [are they not meant to?].
Never mind that, according to Trade Partnership Worldwide (and many other analysts), "in 2016, trade with Canada supported, on net, 6.5 million [U.S.] jobs; Mexico, 4.5 million jobs; European Union, 5.2 million jobs; China, 6.9 million jobs; Japan, 1.3 million jobs; and Korea, nearly 1 million jobs" (my emphasis) — and never mind, as well, that you can read for yourself, in the South Bend Tribune, Buttigieg's mayoral activism on homelessness.
"His flagship policy is Medicare 'for all who want it', assuming Americans who don’t have insurance should choose between between free or expensive healthcare. Pete’s proposal [means] ... choosing between a private plan or a Medicare plan rightfully keeps big insurance companies alive to extort people for basic health needs, while steering the seemingly undeserving masses away from the taxpayer-paid, less funded Medicare option they so dearly need."
And if you understand that paragraph, please explain it in the comment section.
Bautista's occasionally incoherent rant seems to be mostly frustration. Not once does he explain, for instance, how a $30-trillion+, Medicare-for-All budget is serviceable; he just derides Buttigieg for acknowledging that some progressive proposals are a wee-bit problematic, both fiscally and electorally. We are not to concede such animadversions, you see.