Mayor Pete reminds moderate Democratic candidates why pandering to conservatives is for losers

Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a shining moment in the first half of the first hour of the Democratic primary debate tonight. The discourse during tonight’s (and likely tomorrow’s) debate is about how progressive the democratic Party’s platform should be in order to win a national election. Whether or not this is what you want those on the stage to discuss, it is clearly the only angle of conflict CNN is interested in pursuing. The more progressive candidates on television tonight continue to point out that so many of the criticisms coming from the more moderate or center-leaning Democratic candidates are the same ones made by conservative members of the political party in power.

Mayor Buttigieg took that point one step further, reminding everyone on the dais that Democratic candidates trying to appeal to the more conservative members of our electorate have never ended up receiving the appreciation they pander for.

This has been the fact of the matter for the last few decades. The biggest criticism and failing of the Obama administration was the continued insistence that reaching across the isle would lead to better compromises for Americans. It did. In fact it has led to a completely undemocratic gerrymandering of states and a judicial branch hijacked by Mitch McConnell. Buttigieg also reminded the country that there is nothing particularly “Christian” about republican policies.