Pete Buttigieg's Arrogant Condescension: Compares Americans' Gas Vehicles to Landline Phones

It's bad enough that the federal government confiscates an ever-increasing portion of our incomes to support an administration that is the biggest collection of dullards, mendicants, con artists, nitwits, and nincompoops ever assembled in the nation's capital; it's bad enough that they waste our hard-earned on every nonsensical "woke" issue du jour, as though the Constitution somehow allows that. But when an appointed, Cabinet-level official makes an implication of amazing arrogance, of such overweening condescension, it staggers belief.

And yet Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has once again done just that.

Buttigieg was speaking on Fox News Tuesday afternoon when he was asked about a downturn in sales of Teslas and electric vehicles despite Biden's administration pushing them.
He said: 'Let's be clear, the automotive sector is moving toward EVs and we can't pretend otherwise. Sometimes, when these debates happen, I feel like it's the early 2000s and I'm talking to some people who think that we can just have landline phones forever.'

See for yourselves:

🚨 Pete Buttigieg disparages Americans who don't want to be forced into electric vehicles:

"I feel like it's the early 2000s and I'm talking to some people who think that we can just have landline phones forever." pic.twitter.com/fnHXMOGdlu
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 2, 2024

There are so many things wrong with Pete Buttigieg's statement here that it is difficult to know where to begin, but I'll try to power through it.

First: There is absolutely no comparison between a $1,000 cellular telephone and a $60-80,000 electric vehicle. A cellular phone, in my experience, may last three years, if you're lucky, and can be paid for if not in cash, then with a credit card. For most folks, a vehicle purchase is a much more considered transaction, requiring taking out financing and finding a suitable vehicle that will last a decade or more.

Second: Many people, in fact, right now, probably most people, don't live where electric vehicle chargers are readily available. The Biden administration has devoted $7.5 billion of taxpayer dollars--your money and mine, taken from us by the threat of force (if you doubt that, stop paying your taxes and see how long it takes for the government to send men with guns out looking for you)--in building EV charging stations. How many have been built to date? Seven.

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Third: Even allowing for the charging problem, there are plenty of places where electric vehicles just aren't practical. If it gets cold, your EV suffers a significant decrease in range. That really impacts people living in the upper tier of U.S. states, from Washington to Maine, and I can tell you, in Alaska, it would make a big difference. But don't feel better if you live in Alabama or Arizona; hot weather affects them as well.

Fourth: When cellular phones started to enter the market, the government didn't have to subsidize them (heavily) to get people to buy them. People looked at the comparative advantages of cellular phones over landlines, mostly portability and then, with the advent of smartphones, versatility. People did not have to be coerced to buy them. The market, as markets usually do when left alone, worked: Cellular phones were a success because people wanted them.

Pete Buttigieg is an example of the very worst kind of "public servant." He pushes policies that most Americans oppose, and he does so for the worst reason - "for our own good" - and he is effectively insulated from the worst effects of those policies. He is in no way fit to hold any such office.

In his book "God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics" author C.S. Lewis wrote:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.

Lewis was not, of course, writing about Pete Buttigieg, or the Biden administration. But he may well have been. He certainly foresaw them.