A ray of light amidst the jarring fascist takeover of the nation last year? Consistent, weekly protests at the 1000 Van Ness St Tesla in San Francisco (and at Teslas everywhere). While the horrors of DOGE are at least less in our face or the news at the moment, the horrors of the current anti-democratic regime persist.
This Saturday, my endorphins spiked yet again from the honking cars whizzing by. And I finally realized just why protesting alongside a busy street is so energizing: it invites literal passersby who, for whatever reason — time constraints, lack of awareness, etc. — to easily engage in the protest as well.
After the past two+ years of chaos and horror, witnessing the dramatic regression of our governance, social fabric and heck global climate, in real-time, Pete Buttigieg was a breath of fresh air: an oxygen of intellectual, reasoned, unflappable calm after months of I think it’s safe to say, the polar opposite.
Obviously I was in for a Friday night at only $25. So I get there, and look around, and realize, well….
…and what I shared what I saw with my friend, he (chat) replied, “Ofc. He is an urban elite dream.”
And off we went. Already-iconicChasten (Buttigieg’s husband) opened with smoothly-delivered endearing, self-aware stories. Which proved a natural segue to Buttigieg himself. He got off to a less-than-perfect start when, perhaps forgetting he was no longer in Indiana, he crescendo-ed up to “no, no…neither party has a claim on …. GOD.” This of course, was not met with thunderous applause, but rather, an enormously pregnant silence. San Franciscans, godless people we are, dgaf about God.
He soon recovered, eloquently laying out a calm, reasoned approach on social issues like marriage, immigration but at a level that didn’t leave much to disagree with (certainly, among this crowd). Perhaps I was among the few if any among the crowd that was still in shopping vs. buying mode, but I was left wanting to hear what the tangible platform was, beyond a Constitutional Amendment addressing political campaign funding (not a new idea, but at least, concrete).
And I was left frustrated at his own responses to “why him” beyond the fact that he is young (which has its pros and cons, can we admit?), gay, and a vet. I did find his midwestern provenance as a differentiator almost compelling but account part of that to the fact that I hail from there myself (Motown forever).
Don’t get me wrong. I stand by what I shared with my family: “For as brilliant as he is, he’s not compelling as a candidate. At all. He himself has substance, but he doesn’t have deep experience or a well-thought-out platform.” He’s certainly thought deeply through social issues (this is one of his big draws). Just not the presidential-level ones.
