Is Pete Buttigieg The Most Incompetent Transportation Secretary In History?

Things just keep getting worse for Pete Buttigieg. After Southwest Airlines ruined many Americans’ holiday plans with mass cancelations, now a “glitch” is causing hundreds of flights to be canceled again.

Fortunately, a massive snowstorm meant that I wasn’t going anywhere over the holidays, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t grind my gears that for the umpteenth time the guy whose job it is to do something isn’t doing anything. Much like the establishment GOP tends to do when confronted with its failings, Pete fell back on a strongly worded Twitter statement.

He followed that up with a not-so-strongly worded letter to the airlines asking them to treat passengers like people and threatening to use the department’s enforcement power. Seriously, $221,000 a year to write strongly worded letters? Get this guy into Congress because he and Sen. Lindsey Graham are going to be the Beltway’s new bipartisan force.

It looks like the department is belatedly doing something and we shall see just how effective the response is. But Pete’s job is to make sure this doesn’t happen — not enforce gender-neutral language for airmen.

For those paying attention, absolutely none of this should be surprising. Remember when the port of Los Angeles got so backed up that suddenly basic goods we all take for granted started disappearing from the shelves?

Pete was off on paternity leave. I don’t have any problem with people taking paternity leave. But since Pete occupies such an (allegedly) important government office, couldn’t Chasten have taken care of the kids? Gay or straight, there is still that second parent to help out. People have been doing it for millennia. He can do it too.

I would have slightly more respect for Pete if he could at least lie well about the crisis. But instead he blamed Joe Biden’s economic “success.”

Middle Americans aren’t stupid, Pete. You should know that being from my neck of the woods near South Bend and all. I can do math and tell when my grocery bill has doubled. And going on MSDNC or whatever other network may have worked with people in the past, but it isn’t going to cut it anymore. Not even with seniors – they’re too busy working at the local Home Depot because Biden’s greatest economy ever is murdering their retirements.

The LA Times blamed the shortage on workers refusing to take the jobs at such low wages (for California, anyway). As for Pete, he could have at least blamed COVID, as Democrats tend to do when the race card exhausts itself. But then he would have had to also blame COVID shutdowns, vaccine mandates and California’s insanely high cost of living – which would have indicted Gov. Hairgel … I mean Gov. Newsom. And we can’t have criticism of America’s favorite governor before he’s anointed as the DNC nominee for 2024 now, can we?

Instead, Pete has been trying to demolish one “racist” highway in Detroit. Look, I hate these highways that divided neighborhoods in the 50s and 60s. They’re ugly and some of them were actually built for racist reasons. But, let me tell you something Pete: your party has run Detroit for over 60 years. Your party built those highways, not only in Detroit, but New York and Chicago too. Detroit was America’s wealthiest city and is now a shithole. One highway is not the problem – it’s you guys.

Seriously, why the hell is this guy in charge? Ask yourself why Joe Biden is president and you have your answer. Neither of them have any clue what they’re doing (in Joe’s case, he doesn’t have a clue, period). They both take time off while the country burns.

Let’s face it. Pete’s a young, good-looking white guy in a Democratic administration. You either have some intersectional points or need to be really good at your job – like Merrick Garland rounding up dissidents or Janet Yellen shilling for CBDCs to turn us all into financial slaves of the Federal Reserve.

Before now, I rarely, if ever, heard the transportation secretary pop up on TV or elsewhere. I can’t name the previous transportation secretaries from any other administration except Trump, mostly because he’s been attacking her lately. So if Pete has to be doing media hits and go on Twitter to defend his department’s flubs before an angry America, it means he’s not doing a very good job.

As punishment, Pete should be forced to fly coach on his own dime. No more private jets. And he doesn’t get to deduct it from his taxes, either. Reps. Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz: if you guys are reading this, pass a bill to that effect and restore the IRS expansion but with the sole job of making sure Pete can’t avoid this punishment. Then, shut down the Transportation Department. We did fine without it before 1966.

MICHELE GAMA SOSA

Michele Gama Sosa is an opinion editor for the Daily Caller and a historian by training.

RELATED ARTICLE: More Transportation Nightmares On Mayor Pete’s Watch

RELATED TWEET:

Last year, we had historic supply chain disruptions, while the Sec of Transportation was on paternity leave.

Then, nearly a rail strike.

Now, the first airline halt since 9/11.

Seriously, in your lifetime, can you think of a Sec of Transportation who’s screwed things up worse?

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 12, 2023

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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