Keynote Democratic Convention speaker Peter Buttigieg pushed back against those who suggest his party doesn’t have a message.
“We have a message, we’re the party for protecting and supporting people in their everyday lives,” he said.
In his remarks about the party’s message, which mirrored those given earlier by Congresswoman Gwen Moore, he urged Dems to not be afraid of their values.
He said the Democratic Party is the party that is calling for giving families raises and paid leave, and railed against the Republican Party for having a monopoly on the word “freedom.”
“I say you’re not free if you’re afraid of losing your health care coverage. You’re not free if you wonder whether your son or daughter is going to be safe coming home from school,” he said.
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana who is also openly gay, credited his party for backing the effort that will allow him to marry his fiance in coming weeks.
The South Bend mayor is also optimistic of a Democratic resurgence that will begin in forgotten places like Wisconsin that will parallel the economic resurgence he’s seen in South Bend.
And he also cautioned Dems against treating the presidency like it’s the only office that matters. He said he acknowledges Trump is unraveling the country, but said Dems must take some “tough medicine” to understand that they’ll need to focus their message on voters’ needs rather than what voters already know — that racism and denigrating women is wrong.
“Long before Trump was in white house, you call saw what happens when the people in charge don’t care about lifting people up,” he said.
He urged Dems to get out the vote for Caleb Frostman in the 1st SD and Ann Groves Lloyd in the 42nd AD.
Like other Dems before him at convention, he finished by calling for a united Democratic front.
When everybody stands and up and unites we cannot lose.
“We’re standing up for a better way. Let them divide and conquer. For us, united we stand and united we’re going to win.”
