Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, officially announced his 2020 presidential campaign last week — and he could be a worthy candidate of the Democratic nomination. Some of his policy proposals include creating government-backed health service options, fighting climate change, expanding the Supreme Court to 15 sitting justices and abolishing the electoral college.

Buttigieg is trending high in several Democratic polls, and he has raised more than $7 million since the beginning of 2019. His plans — including uprooting the electoral college — promote much-needed unity between both sides of the aisle.

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Shana Kushner Gadarian, an associate political science professor at Syracuse University, believes that party alliances have contributed to this divide.

“We’ve seen over time that the Democratic and Republican parties are more aligned on ideologies than they were in the past and are more consistent in voting together,” Gadarian said.

With political polarization, the party in the majority is often able to act according to their interests. For example, the electoral college has led to more predictable elections based on which party is in power.

Buttigieg’s solution — abolishing the electoral college — prioritizes the voices of everyday citizens, increases representation of more groups and makes elections more fair.

Other aspects of Buttigieg’s campaign promises prove to be compromises between both parties, in terms of policy making. His Midwest background is an opportunity to represent the concerns of a group sometimes ignored in modern politics. And his mention of establishing a clear path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants could spark bipartisan discussion of immigration.

Buttigieg could show great promise in both the upcoming presidential race and the American political sphere as a whole, and a large part of that can be attributed to his desire to unite both the red and blue.

Lauren Spiezia is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at lespiezi@syr.edu

Published on April 24, 2019 at 11:18 pm