Pete Buttigieg and real Christians

[Buzz cook]

I have seen a couple memes and articles that make the claim that Pete Buttigieg says trump supporters aren't real Christians. There are other articles that imply the same thing without saying it directly.

A search doesn't show that Buttigieg ever using those words or that sentiment. He does however make some remarks about people such as Mike Pence specifically and evangelical Trumpers in general that the right wing can use to make that claim.

I for one don't think we can make a claim about another person's Christian beliefs. There are so many flavors of Christianity that pointing to one or another as the true faith is silly. We can't see into another persons mind and its even difficult to judge by action.
The "No true Scotsman fallacy" applies to anyone making a claim about another's faith

Where am I going with this.

A main tactic of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and their ilk is to isolate the strong point of their opponent and make it a weak spot.
Al Gore had a sterling reputation as an honest and honorable man. He was chosen to be VP in large part because of that reputation. Eight years and many lies later, Gore is a habitual liar.
John Kerry was a decorated war hero with an unblemished record. By the end of 2004 many people believed he was a fake that barely was scratched.

In each case, with the media's help, a strength was turned into a weakness.

I suspect this is what we can expect for Buttigieg if he gets the nomination. The ground work is already being laid for these attacks.
Buttigieg's faith will be questioned, he will be called intolerant, and judgmental. And I suspect a large part of the media will help feed this false narrative just as they did against Gore, Kerry and others.
Just the media's obsession with "balance" will help feed the lie.

While Buttigieg and his team can't stop the right wing media from shopping this narrative around, he can keep it out of or reduce its currency in the mainstream media.
His surrogates need to be trained to spot this and push back hard when they see it in the MSM. Buttigieg himself needs to make a statement of faith that is universalist in nature, making clear what I indicated above. He needs to grind it down to a short talking point.

Both Gore and Kerry were mostly passive when this happened to them. I believe that this led the media to pile on even more, when they were never called on for their bullshit.

So anyway, "that is my theory, it is my theory and it is a theory that is mine".

[Butterflylady]

1. Yep, you're right on

Lee Atwater trained them good. He was such a sleeze bag. Roger Stone was also one of admirers. On his death bed he claimed he was sorry for what he did to Dukakis, but I don't believe for one minute.

[Joinfortmill]

2. Buttigieg smart. I think he'll be able to stop them in their tracks

[Karadeniz]

3. Jesus spotted hypocrites, those claiming spiritual excellence based on religiosity. Not the same!