Voting for Civility. And a Democrat. (Longer Version)

I grew up in Bountiful, Utah — a cozy suburb of Salt Lake City where almost everyone I knew shared a common religion, and a common political party. If I knew any democrats in school, I was unaware of the fact. I, along with most the city, belong to a rather conservative church; I still consider myself a proud conservative, although conservative-leaning centrist might describe me more specifically. And in 2020, I hope to vote for Pete Buttigieg — a Democratic candidate — in the presidential race. This is as surprising to me as it might be to my parents; I’m not sure whether I write this more for them or for myself.

As I began to be aware of Pete’s campaign, there are a few moments that impacted me, and pushed me to pay attention to this guy. The first was at an early democratic debate. Rachel Maddow, one of the moderators that night, asked Mayor Pete why the police force in his city of South Bend, Indiana was only 6% black, when the community was 26% black. Racial tensions had been flaring recently, especially with an officer-involved shooting of a young black man that was still under investigation.

Pete’s solemn answer: “Because I couldn’t get it done.”

Without realizing it, I had expected to hear some deflection, obfuscation, or slick political answer. At the very least I wouldn’t have been surprised had he avoided answering the question directly, skirting the issue by talking instead of all the efforts and progress he had made as mayor (which was considerable). But he began with none of that. He immediately accepted responsibility without blaming anyone else. I sat up and listened a little more intently.

Here’s another moment that shaped my opinion of Mayor Pete. Sitting on the UVX bus as it wound its way around BYU on my way to work one morning, I came across a beautiful exchange on twitter.

Anderson “Andy” Pleasants was born with Goldenhar syndrome — he’s an active member of the deaf community and had tagged Pete in a video wherein he signed his support for the candidate and gave him a sign language name, a significant gesture in the deaf community. The tweet I saw that morning was Pete’s response — he had taken the time to learn how to sign “Hi Andy, I appreciate your support. Thank you!”. That’s all — just a simple message, but the impact of it blew me away. Andy has since described the exchange:

“I remember my chest just freezing up and the tears filling up my eyes within milliseconds. I was so overcome with emotion. I’d never seen a presidential candidate take that initiative to meet me, a deaf individual, as an equal, instead of having that communication divide be the sole burden of the deaf person. It set an example of how our society can be more inclusive and put forth the effort to break down the communication barriers that follow so many deaf lives.”

I think it was in connection with this simple exchange that I learned that Pete speaks about 8 languages (exhibit A: Pete learned Norwegian so that he could read the work of Norwegian novelist Erlend Loe in the original language). My respect for him as an empathetic and incredibly intelligent man continued to grow. At this point, I wasn’t very familiar with his specific policy proposals, but I was learning that Pete was a man of compassion, intelligence, and integrity. The things I was seeing reflected the values I had been taught growing up, and he seemed to be the type of man I wanted to be. It was refreshing to see that in a leader, after so much trudging through mud with the current President.

I recently finished reading Pete’s autobiographical book Shortest Way Home and highly recommend it. In an effort to be brief, here are some of my takeaways:

1. Pete is an incredibly talented writer. The first thing I noticed about the book was the engaging and well-crafted prose.
2. He’s humble enough to admit when he’s wrong, and to learn from others. Much of the book describes his experiences as the young mayor of South Bend, and the chapters would often be framed around a lesson he learned through a mistake made. I loved his frank honesty and humility, while admiring the good ideas and good results he brought to his city.
3. Pete served as a democratic mayor in a conservative state, and was re-elected with 80% of the vote. He writes in his book — and speaks often about — the need to work together with people of all different political parties. This is one of my favorite things about Pete. I consider the further polarization of our politics as one of the greatest threats we face. We need a president who can bring the country together, and I believe Pete is someone who’s up to the task.
4. Pete took a 7 month break from his mayorship to serve in Afghanistan, and I found those chapters in his book to be particularly compelling.

But what about Pete’s policies? He is running for President after all. And if you’re conservative, democratic policy is usually a non-starter. As a moderate, Pete shines here too. Check out his website for a better exploration of his platform, but I’ll mention a few of my favorites here.

(A QUICK NOTE ON ABORTION)

Before we continue, I want to mention a couple of things. I understand that for many people reading this, certain Democratic policies ARE non-starters. Abortion, for example, is often a defining issue for conservatives. I know many good people who could never find it in their conscience to vote for someone who is pro-choice, or for someone who is — like Mayor Pete — gay. I applaud that conviction and understand completely. I was the same until very very recently. Two things changed my mind — one on abortion specifically, and one on policy in general. I recently looked up the statistics on abortion over the last 40 years. I expected to see that abortions increased when Democrats were in charge, and decreased when Republicans took their turn in the White House. This is not the case. I learned that abortions have been in steady decline since they peaked in the 80’s, regardless of whether the President at the time was Pro-Life or Pro-Choice.

Also interesting to me were those two little peaks in the graph, which appeared during two Republican presidencies: Reagan and Bush. Why? The evidence suggests that the largest factor in decreasing the amount of abortions is increased access to affordable birth control and better sex education (charts and graphs here). In fact, the only explanation I’ve been able to find for the bumps in the chart above during Republican presidencies is that when Republicans are in charge, they tend to make birth control less available, which increases the number of unwanted pregnancies, and thus, abortions. The Mexico Policy, for example, restricts foreign health aid to countries that legalize abortion. Doing so, however, seems to increase the number of world-wide abortions (by up to 40% in certain African countries) because we restrict their access to birth control (info here). This kind of learning rocked me. I learned that although Republicans and conservatives speak passionately about reducing abortions, their policies seemed to have the opposite effect. And the Democrats, who I’d been taught were the “pro-abortion” party, were promoting ideas that seemed to DECREASE abortion rates. This made even more sense when I sat down with a good friend who was very Pro-Choice. She told me that her goal was ALSO to reduce the number of abortions — we agreed there completely (that conversation was part of my podcast, and you can listen to it here). Since speaking with her, and others, I don’t believe either party wants MORE abortions to occur. Long story short, I was no longer convinced that if I voted for a Democrat, abortions would increase. For me, abortion was no longer the single issue that defined my vote.

For further reasoning on abortion, I HIGHLY encourage watching Rosie Card’s instagram story where she explores the topic — she’s a Latter-day Saint, and does a fantastic job of explaining some important stats and realities. You can find that here.

The other wrench in my world view came with Donald Trump. I’ve written extensively on Trump and I know people are tired of hearing about it, so I’ll simply say that I felt betrayed when someone of my own party — someone who expressed support for conservative policy — turned out to be a man of so little character.

This, paired with the abortion thing, pushed me to a decision: I would rather vote for a good woman or man with whom I had a few policy disagreements, than for a dishonest and selfish person who claims to share my policy beliefs.

Policy comes and goes, and the Founding Fathers set up a pretty good system for balancing power. Good character is harder to legislate. I also read scripture that warns:

Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.

Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men he should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these comets of evil.

I believe, based on what I’ve seen so far, that Pete Buttigieg is an honest, wise, and good man.

Sorry for the world’s longest parenthetical, but this was all to say that if you can’t support Pete because of his Democratic policies, I understand. But for me, I’ve decided that a persons character and wisdom is more important than any specific policy. That’s a large part of why I’ll be voting democratic for the first time in my life in 2020. Ok — back to Pete!

Health Care

Like I mentioned above, Pete understands that achieving results means compromising and speaking to people across the aisle. His Medicare For All Who Want It plan is a good example of this. He, like most of his Democratic colleagues, believes that a universal health care system would benefit many Americans who find our current model oppressive and untenable. His plan, however, allows for people to keep their paid insurance if they choose, and the best part is the plan is projected to save money overall, instead of adding billions or trillions like some of the more aggressive plans being proposed. As a conservative who believes in a fiscally responsible government, this is an idea I can get behind.

Gun Control

As far as gun control, Pete believes we can cut down on gun violence without sacrificing the 2nd Amendment (he does support banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines). In addressing gun deaths, he also understands the importance of addressing suicide and other causes of gun violence.

Service

One of my favorite programs Pete has proposed is a renewed call to service. Service was a huge part of my upbringing, both in scouting and in church, and I love that Pete is proposing service as a way to heal and unify. He speaks of his time in the military, and the lessons he learned serving alongside other women and men of all political persuasions, religions, and backgrounds. Serving together breaks down the walls that divide, and Pete’s looking to invest in many more opportunities for service, military or otherwise.

Abortion

Pete is Pro-Choice. I address this more in my longer essay (here) and why I’m still supporting him, but I did want to mention it here so it didn’t feel like I was trying to conceal the fact. For many people, this is a make-or-break issue, so I understand if you choose not to support him on this issue alone.

It’s an interesting thing, being a conservative hoping to vote for a Democrat in the next election. And over the last year or so, I’ve lost what I’ve heard described as an “appetite for certainty.” I’m not a political expert, and I don’t write this as an exhaustive defense of Pete or his policies; I may change my mind in the future and ultimately vote for someone else. But I know that many people are starting to hear his name for the first time, and I wanted to share my experience in getting to know him and his campaign, because I think it’s worthy of consideration, and worthy of support. If you’re like me — a conservative who’s frustrated with the current Republican Party — I can only suggest looking into Pete’s life and his campaign. I believe him to be an extremely intelligent, kind, and unifying leader, which is exactly what the country needs right now.