48 United States The Economist November 20th 2021
PeteButtigieg’simpossiblejob
T
his week’ssigning of a trilliondollar bipartisan infrastruc
ture bill brought a glimpse of the politics Joe Biden promised
to restore. Leaders from both parties gathered on the White Hous
e’s south lawn to praise the bulging spending package for roads
and bridges. “I ran for president because the only way to move this
country forward, in my view, was through compromise and con
sensus,” said Mr Biden. Conservative talkingheads were mean
while rowing with his secretary of transportation over whether
the concrete structures earmarked for attention were racist.
Pete Buttigieg suggested last week that some were. “If a high
way was built for the purpose of dividing a white and a black
neighbourhood, or if an underpass was constructed [too low to al
low a] bus carrying mostly black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach
...that obviously reflects racism.” Tucker Carlson—who claimed
the infrastructure bill was not about infrastructure but is a “weird
climate scheme/power grab/racebased redistribution plan”—
called Mr Buttigieg one of “the dumbest people in the world”.
The 39yearold, who used the mayoralty of Indiana’s fourth
biggest city to launch an improbable and impressive presidential
run, is cerebral. An alumnus of Harvard and Oxford, he was inter
viewed on the trail in half a dozen languages (including Norwe
gian, which he learned to read a favourite novelist in the original).
He is also right about infrastructural racism. Nonwhite commu
nities were often bulldozed to make way for the national highway
system. It is one of the reasons a typical white family is eight times
wealthier than a typical black one—a staggering disparity.
The disdain on the right reflected not only unconcern about ra
cial injustice, but how much the Biden administration has riding
on the spending bill. Even if the Democrats pass a $1.85trn com
panion bill, covering social and climate policy, the infrastructure
package will represent much of the legislative record Mr Biden
will take into the midterms. Mr Buttigieg’s appointment to the
Department of Transportation, whose budget has just been in
creased by over half, was made with that prospect in mind. A large
but unglamorous agency, known inside the beltway for geekish ef
ficiency and outside it hardly at all, the department has never be
fore been run by such a rising star. And the similarly geekish Indi
anan’s task of selling the infrastructure splurge as a presidencydefiningtriumphhasbecomeeven more important as Mr Biden’s
ratings have slumped. Rarely has the workaday business of fixing
bridges and potholes been invested with such desperate hopes.
Alas for the Democrats, even the sexiest lawmaking does not
predict midterm success. Voters responded to the arrival of Medi
care in 1965, the Reagan tax cuts of 1981 and Obamacare in 2010 by
punishing the president’s party. And they will feel the benefit of
better roads far more slowly than they enjoyed those measures.
Yet it should be acknowledged that generating wild enthusiasm
for humdrum ideas and governing is Mr Buttigieg’s speciality.
A new film about his campaign, “Mayor Pete”, highlights the in
congruity between his ordinariness and the passions he stirred. It
shows his supporters joyously celebrating as he appeared—
dressed like a dapper science teacher, in crisp shirt and tie, no
jacket—and thronging to him. He won Iowa, came second in New
Hampshire and stirred more excitement than any other candidate
except Bernie Sanders. Some of the enthusiasm concerned the his
toric nature of his candidacy, as an openly gay man. But it was also
testament to his ability to spin his thin résumé, as South Bend’s
chief rubbishcollector, and unremarkable centrism into a com
pelling message of moral force and generational change.
Mr Biden, whose own campaign was less memorable, has his
best talker where he needs him most. Mr Buttigieg has already vis
ited a dozen states to cheerlead for the impending spending. This
has sparked gossip about his future. Vicepresident Kamala Har
ris, whose presidential campaign was even less inspiring than Mr
Biden’s, is looking like an increasingly outside bet to succeed him.
Some Democrats want to sideline her, whenever Mr Biden bows
out, for the more talented Mr Buttigieg. It is crushing for the
Democrats that such talk is afoot. (Less than a year into Mr Biden’s
first term, they seem less sure of the identity of their next presi
dential nominee than the Republicans are.) It is also premature;
not least because Mr Buttigieg’s increased exposure carries risks.
One concerns the management of the impending splurge. He
understands that policy and messaging are only loosely related
(with characteristic precocity, he corresponded with the linguist
George Lakoff on the subject while still at Harvard). But few mes
sages can survive a failed policy, and his department’s limited
control over its resources makes embarrassments inevitable when
so much money is sloshing around. Its main responsibilities are
to pass safety regulations and funnel cash—mostly under tight
congressional guidelines—to state and city governments. How
well they spend it will be largely out of Mr Buttigieg’s hands. At the
same time, a massive increase in the amount of discretionary
spending he will have at his disposal—it will amount to roughly
$42bn next year—will both consume him and make him appear
more responsible for the entire spending package than he is. Mr
Buttigieg used to argue that managing South Bend’s little budget
was ideal training for federal leadership. He’d better hope it was.A bridge to nowhere
Another vulnerability is the administration’s determination to
justify all it does in terms of racial justice—as Mr Buttigieg’s recent
remarks illustrated. However wellintended, they raised a ques
tion of redress for racist planning that he has no answer to. The
bulldozed communities cannot be reassembled. He is not plan
ning to favour poor minorities in his spending. Righting historic
wrongs does not seem to be part of his remit; so it would be better
if he did not raise expectations on the left and blood pressureon
the right by suggesting it is. He already has enough on his plate.nLexington
The secretary of transportation is a star. But fixing the roads won’t make Joe Biden popular