From the desk of Pete Buttigieg (corrected)

Corporate Media Are Focusing on Race -- and Dodging Class

Published by Salon

By Norman Solomon

Being a careful proofreader, I provided some volunteer assistance to Mayor Pete:

———- Forwarded message ———From: Pete Buttigieg <[email protected]>Date: Wed, Dec 16, 2020Subject: Thank you

From the desk of PETE BUTTIGIEG

Hi there,

Earlier today I stood on stage with President-elect Biden, where I was humbled to be paid off by being nominated to serve our nation as Secretary of Transportation.

Of course, as I look forward to taking on this new challenge and serving some of my most devoted paymasters on Wall Street, I can’t help but reflect for a moment on the road we’ve traveled together to block the big, bad socialist, Bernie Sanders — and to feel a deep sense of gratitude for this community of supporters and especially for the corporate elites who made my presidential campaign so strong.

Whether you joined back when we were four people working out of a tiny office in downtown South Bend or signed up last week — to everyone who has been a part of this effort, talking to your family and friends, posting on social media, or chipping in when you could — I want to say thank you for ignoring my corkscrew double talk about health care and my overall misuse of my prodigious intellect to pander in highly circuitous ways.

Through it all, we’ve stuck to our Rules of the Road, well aware that the path to Pennsylvania Avenue power requires sucking up to corporate power — and Chasten and I are so grateful for the kindness you’ve shown to us at each step. You’ve proven that a politics built around who we can call to our side, where everyone can find belonging, isn’t just possible — it’s here. My solidarity with Amy and Beto to support Joe at the crucial moment is paying huge dividends.

Below are my remarks from today’s event. And I wanted you to know I’m looking forward to when our paths will cross again when I try once again to bamboozle the public into believing I’m highly principled as I seek higher office and to seeing all the ways I know you will stay involved to help win the era to come — and to generate ever more creative propaganda from the “center” that has gotten us into calamitous situations that now afflict so many people in our nation.

Best,

Pete

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Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” and “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State.”