MBR_ISSUE 49_MARCH_lowres

Malta Business Review
POLITICS: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
fix up or demolish many of our decaying
structures in that time frame. We did it,
and in a way that has really strengthened
low-income neighborhoods. Beyond that,
we have reimagined what cities are even for
— promoting the idea of human exchange.
We have restructured our streets and
downtown to make for a more vibrant city
life. We couldn’t raise taxes if we wanted
to – property taxes are capped in Indiana.
Partly because of that, we have done a
lot to make government more efficient,
which is not just about technology, like the
sophisticated 3-1-1 [constituent-service
system] we created. Low-tech methods are
equally important. Every month or two, I
take a card table and go to a local school
and stay till I run out of people who want to
see me. We get so many ideas from that.
That’s the smart way for me to answer
your question. But there’s also an honest
answer: Our city believes in itself again.
All through the years I was growing up,
success was cast as having to do with
getting out of the city, leaving South Bend.
Now young people are moving in and back,
creating podcasts, launching startups and
maker spaces. We had to paint a picture
of the future that did not translate into
nostalgia. The word “again” was not part
of our vision; we never used that word.
The message from the start was, “The
Studebaker plant isn’t coming back, but
we are, and here’s how.” And when people
heard that message, they did not need to
be young for it to resonate with them.
I think this is important, at a moment when
we have been offered a national vision that
greatness means turning back the clock.
Resentment is not the only formula for
getting people to believe again. This is way
harder to quantify, of course. But if you
come to South Bend, especially if you were
there ten years ago, you can just tell. It’s a
different place.
BM: As you have suggested, there’s
a clear connection in all of that to
national politics in 2018, no?
PB: Americans need to believe in each
other again. Believing in other people
who are different from you doesn’t come
from talking about “let’s set aside our
differences,” or mealy-mouthed pledges to
bring us all together. It stems from coming
together and working on something hard.
This is something you pick up in the military.
I learned to trust my life with people who
have radically different politics, and viceversa.
We are in the same fucking truck, and
we are going into hostile ground, you are
not thinking about how the people with you
are different.
As a country, we have to do the same:
Come together around some pretty big
changes. Climate change. Economic change.
How are we going to end two decades of
war? What is your career path going to look
like if automation makes it necessary to
keep changing jobs all through your working
life? These challenges are frightening, but
also exciting.
"there is a failure
on our side if we
allow conservatives
to monopolize the
idea of freedom —
especially now that
they have produced
an authoritarian
president
BM: One of the reasons people point
to you as a presidential contender is
that, as mayor of a city like South Bend,
you must know how to speak to the
white working-class folks who rejected
Clinton and got fired up about Trump.
PB: The reason this is legitimately
important for Democrats is that we did not
used to struggle in communities like mine.
When Secretary Clinton came to town
and I helped arrange for her to speak to a
UAW [United Auto Workers] group — well,
you could tell the enthusiasm was not
what you would expect from a Democratic
presidential candidate in a setting like that.
But we have to be thinking in terms of black
working people as well as white working
people. Along the way Democrats fell into
this pattern of thinking we should have a
message for each constituency. But the
reality is that people care about issues
that are not “their” issues, quote unquote.
Elderly residents care about education.
Buttigieg at the Progress Iowa holiday party in December. His appearance
there signaled his intentions to political observers.
Women care about racial justice.
Freedom and fairness and family: When you
talk about those principles, what they really
mean in people’s lives, it will make sense
across identity groups. And it will make just
as much sense in a post-Trump world as it
will today.
BM: Which leads to the inevitable
question: Are you going to run to
succeed Trump in 2020?
PB: I have got a lot of decisions to make by
the end of this calendar year. I am focusing
now on doing everything I can this fall to
help build up state parties. But I do think
that we’re understating the generational
dynamics that are going on in politics. You
see it especially in the quality candidates
who are stepping up for unglamorous races,
like school board. It is more immediate
and personal, the younger you are. You
are going to be on the business end of
climate change, of tax cuts. You are going
to be touched more by our post-9/11 wars.
We have seen it reflected for sure in the
generational energy that’s changing how we
look at gun violence.
In trying to understand those dynamics, has
there been too much focus on democratic
socialists like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez —
and too much hoo-ha about how young
people overwhelmingly say they prefer
socialism to capitalism?
It’s a bit of a stretch to boil everything
down that way. But then again, look at
history. If I think about my grandparents’
generation, they lived at a time when the
great conflict was socialism or communism
versus capitalism. There was just an
assumption that democracy and capitalism
were inextricably tied together, one and
the same. But now we are beginning to
see some tension between democracy and
capitalism that is reflected in our politics. If
you ask younger voters, they are interested
in democracy first and capitalism second.
We may be the first generation for whom
that’s true. MBR
Creditline: Rolling Stone; Photos by Joshua
Lott/Dudley M. Brooks
22