Secretary Pete Actually Grasps Public Policy, & This Shouldn’t Be Unusual

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Last Updated on: 30th July 2024, 10:37 am

Recently, I was looking for EV content on Threads (the better version of Twitter) and found an interesting post by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, discussing the importance of competing with China in the EV space. I want to briefly go through what he shared, but then discuss something far more important about this video that we need to keep in mind.

Here’s the post on X/Twitter:

At an event, Secretary Pete is asked whether it might be a good idea to just embrace the cheap EVs that can be available from China. Without going off into any weird tangents or acting like a buffoon, he gives a solid answer and shows his work, explaining the geopolitical context and the challenge America faces.

He starts with a well-organized argument, as if someone had written an essay for him to read. The thesis: No, because it’s not fair competition. He then starts giving supporting details, explaining that it’s not industrial policy as much as China distorting the markets. The Chinese government isn’t doing EVs on this scale because they’re cleantech enthusiasts, but because it’s good national strategy. EVs are the future, and Chinese leaders want to secure the country’s hold on the future. 

He then goes into the downsides for the United States. Not only is the United States at a theoretical disadvantage, but he has personal experience seeing the results of lost industrial capacity that he shares, adding some emotional context that shows connection with workers and not just the U.S. vs China big power game. Then, he takes the personal experience and zooms back out to conclude that the United States needs to control its own EV destiny.

Honestly, while I could write something like that, I don’t see myself being able to basically write an essay in my head on the fly like that. Not only was he ready to answer and walk through his thinking, but he organized his thoughts and didn’t stumble at all while doing all of that.

What this tells me is that when decisions need to be made, our Secretary of Transportation is well-read, knows what’s going on, and would make a coherent decision. I don’t agree with him on everything (and disagree with him vehemently on a couple of things), but I wouldn’t be bothered seeing a guy like this in any political office because he’s very competent and would at least be trying to do the best thing for the people he serves.

Why This Impresses Me So Much

Before I go on, let’s check in on some other “leaders” in society. First, let’s look at something Trump said recently:

When asked about his ridiculous comments about “my beautiful Christians” not needing to vote in the future, he responds with a rambling mess of an answer that doesn’t even answer the question. He talks about how much the audience likes him, and how bad his competition is doing at pleasing his biggest fans, and keeps going off on tangents. He peppers in words like “tremendous” to try to sound smart and grand, but without organizing bigger words like that into a clear, organized argument explaining why his “beautiful” fans won’t need to vote in the future.

It’s kind of like going to a literature class without having read the pages for the day and then trying to convince the professor that you know anything about the book, but with the mannerisms and behavior of a used car salesman mixed in.

To be fair, let’s look at someone on the Democratic Party side who sometimes gets into these weird “word salad” moments:

She sounds more intelligent than Trump, but she’s not saying anything. No point is being made. Nothing is being conveyed to the audience. And, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen her do this. There’s the whole “Ukraine is a country” answer she once gave to try to show she did the readings.

My point with sharing these clips isn’t to bash on anybody. My point is that this is the quality of leadership that the United States has gotten so bad that people like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are seen as normal or even acceptable. I’m sure they have their better moments, but there’s no shortage of amazing moments where Pete Buttigieg delivers a coherent argument and takes disingenuous actors to school. Here’s another one:

Instead of getting dragged into the mud and arguing over the proper role of government, Buttigieg goes straight for the factual underpinnings behind the guy’s argument and systematically takes them down. He came prepared to answer most of the questions, but knew enough to speak beyond the notes to support the dismantling of the argument. He didn’t take any crap off of the guy, but took him down without any name-calling, side tangents, or other attempts to distract the audience.

Compared to the other examples above (and many other moments we’ve seen), Secretary Pete makes them sound like this:

We Should Demand Better

Instead of having leaders who make everyone dumber for listening to them, we should expect competence and a thorough understanding of the subject matter at hand. When that isn’t available, leadership should defer to someone else who has that level of knowledge or say that they’ll get back to the person later with more information (this would shows a desire to want to get it right instead of just trying to sound intelligent).

Not everyone can be an eloquent public speaker who can come up with arguments on the spot and present them well, but these people owe it to us to at least explain what they can and promise to get back to someone later on the things they don’t know instead of just rambling and acting like narcissists. A shred of humility would be needed to do that, and sadly, far too many politicians these days just don’t have any on hand.

Is that really too much to ask?

Featured image: Screenshot from the embedded video