(C) Daily Montanan
This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Buttigieg highlights family, LGBTQ+ equality and military service in DNC speech • Daily Montanan [1]
['Jon King', 'Keila Szpaller', 'Darrell Ehrlick', 'Blair Miller', 'More From Author', '- August', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline']
Date: 2024-08-22
He’s been a Michigan resident for two years, but on Wednesday night U.S.Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg declared himself a Michigander to the world, touting his family as just one example of the diverse America that would continue to thrive under a Kamala Harris administration.
Speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago between surprise guest Oprah Winfrey and vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Buttigieg compared the vision for the future being offered by Vice President Harris versus that of former President Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio.
“Right now, the other side is appealing to what is smallest within you,” said Buttigieg. “They’re telling you that greatness comes from going back to the past. They’re telling you that anyone different from you is a threat.”
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., moved to Traverse City in July 2022 with his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, who grew up there. Together, they have two young children.
“I’m thinking of dinner time at our house in Michigan,” he told the audience of Democratic faithful. “When the dog is barking and the air fryer is beeping and the mac and cheese is boiling over, and it feels like all the political negotiating experience in the world is not enough for me to get our 3-year-old son and our 3-year-old daughter to just wash their hands and sit at the table.”
Buttigieg said that while politics seemed the least important thing at that time of the day with his family, he knew it was only made a reality by the hard work of advancing civil rights for all, no matter what they believed or who they loved.
“And yet the makeup of our kitchen table, the existence of my family, is just one example of something that was literally impossible as recently as 25 years ago, when an anxious teenager growing up in Indiana wondered if he would ever find belonging in this world,” he said. “This kind of life went from impossible to possible, from possible to real, from real to almost ordinary in less than half a lifetime.”
Buttigieg pivoted during his speech from moments of inspiration to reminding the delegates, and the wider audience watching the convention, the choice for America’s future that voters will make in November.
“The choice could not be clearer. Donald Trump rants about law and order as if he wasn’t a convicted criminal running against a prosecutor. As if we were going to forget the crime was higher on his watch,” said Buttigieg. “And don’t even get me started on his new running mate. At least (former Vice President) Mike Pence was polite. J.D. Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life that he has in mind for you, then you don’t count. Someone who said that if you don’t have kids, you have ‘no physical commitment to the future of this country.’”
Buttigieg, who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2014 while mayor of South Bend, said Vance’s rhetoric wholly dismissed the service that he and many others have made to the nation.
“You know, Senator, when I deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids then. Many of the men and women who went outside the wire with me didn’t have kids either. But let me tell you, our commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical. Choosing a guy like J.D. Vance to be America’s next vice president sends a message. And the message is that they are doubling down on negativity and grievance,” said Buttigieg.
In contrast, Buttigieg ended his speech with an optimistic call to voters to make sure which vision would win out.
“This November, we get to choose. We get to choose our president. We get to choose our policies. But most of all, we will choose a better politics, a politics that calls us to our better selves and offers us a better every day. That is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represents. That is what Democrats represent,” said Buttigieg. “That is what awaits us. When America decides to end Trump’s politics of darkness once and for all. That is what we choose when we embrace the leaders who are out there building bridges and reject the ones who are out there banning books. This is what we will work for every day to November and beyond. So let’s go win this.”
Motown legend Stevie Wonder, another native Michigander, also performed Wednesday night.
Both U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), who is battling former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, are slated to speak Thursday night in the lead up to Harris formally accepting the Democratic nomination.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://dailymontanan.com/2024/08/22/buttigieg-highlights-family-lgbtq-equality-and-military-service-in-dnc-speech/
Published and (C) by Daily Montanan
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/
