Opinion: Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s case for community
By E.J. Dionne Jr. E.J. Dionne Jr. Columnist covering national politics Email Bio Follow Columnist March 24 at 6:09 PM Pete Buttigieg has broken through the noise of a cacophonous Democratic presidential field by raising issues that usually fall by the wayside in an era when politics feels prepackaged and defined by short-term obsessions.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last week, the 37-year-old from South Bend, Ind., made a modest plea: “I do think it’s important for candidates to at least have the option to talk about our faith,” he said. He specifically targeted the idea that “the only way a religious person could enter politics is through the prism of the religious right.”
Buttigieg’s assertiveness about religion’s role ought to draw attention to other Democratic hopefuls who are openly faithful. “I don’t know how many speeches of mine you can listen to and not have me bring up faith,” Sen. Cory Booker said last year. Like Buttigieg, Booker suggested that works count for more than words. “Before you tell me about your religion,” Booker said, “first show it to me in how you treat other people.
Conservatives have tended to talk about community breakdown more than liberals have — see, for example, Timothy P. Carney’s new book, “Alienated America.” Carney doesn’t discount economics, but he sees the collapse of social capital as leaving “a scar far deeper than an unemployment rate.”
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