My conservative cousin formerly from New York (now from California) has closely followed presidential politics since the days of Dwight Eisenhower. He finds in Pete Buttigieg an arrogance he hasn’t come across before, not even from Barack Obama.

Pete Buttigieg may well be the most arrogant candidate ever to run for a major party’s nomination in American History. Start with his record as South Bend, Indiana Mayor. Buttigieg admits to being a failure at managing this small city’s police department. In Mayor Pete’s view the lessons learned from this big fiasco make him the best choice for Commander-In-Chief. What arrogance! Silly me, back in the day when I interviewed candidates for promotions I would look for people who performed well at previous jobs. Instead I should have learned from the Buttigieg school of management that failure is often a better recommendation for promotion than success. What nonsense! What arrogance! Then there’s his sweeping proposal to change the very nature of our Republic. Abolish the Electoral College. Pack the Supreme Court. . .End the Senate filibuster. No consideration is given to the vast unintended consequences that would occur. Hallowed traditions that have generally served our nation well like separation of powers, protection for minority opinion or the clear cut outcomes afforded by the Electoral College are all to be discarded because the failed Mayor of a small city says we’re a democracy not a republic. To top off this Progressive dream list there’s his call for a National Service. Buttigieg would recruit recent high school and college students into joining a National Service Corp. For minimal pay and tuition forgiveness, 750,000 youngsters annually would perform civilian services that Mayor Pete thinks are valuable. Doubtlessly, climate hysteria, identity politics, and all other manner of political correctness would be part of the training menu. More than a century ago the great humorist Will Rogers had this warning about politicians and service. “When I was a boy every morning I would see a steer being led by a farmer down the road. I asked my Father what was going on. He told me the steer was servicing the cows. And that’s how you know every time a politician talks about service “someone’s gonna git a good screwing.”

All of my cousin’s points speak to Buttigieg’s arrogance. But what I find most arrogant, and offensive, about the upstart mayor are his forays into theology in service of the left-wing agenda.

For example, Buttigieg purports to find a religious imperative in the $15 an hour minimum wage. Christians who don’t back increasing the minimum wage to that level are hypocrites, he contends.

By this ridiculous account of Christianity, why isn’t Buttigieg a hypocrite for not supporting a $20 an hour minimum wage? For the same reason that other Christians aren’t hypocrites for opposing $15 an hour. The Bible doesn’t address the minimum wage rate and there are public policy arguments against raising it.

Buttigieg’s latest religious rant is even more absurd and offensive. He purports to find support in scripture for killing babies up until just before they draw their first breath. Alexandra DeSanctis has the details.

Buttigieg’s abortion sophistry was too much for his evangelical brother-in-law, Pastor Ryan Glezman. He told the Washington Examiner:

I feel a sense of responsibility and stewardship of my faith to stand up and say something, to say, ‘No, that’s not true.’ God places a very high value on all human life. Everyone is created fearfully and wonderfully in the image of God with intrinsic value. That doesn’t start at the first breath, it starts when we enter our mother’s womb.

Glezman expressed concern that Buttigieg is making increasingly outlandish claims about the Bible and Christianity, all for political expediency:

What we see is a modern-day Pharisee. Buttigieg is a person who’s making up [his] own rules and regulations and, basically, if we don’t celebrate and endorse [his] interpretation of Scripture, our religion is fallible. And that’s just not true.

If, as some say, Pete Buttigieg is the face of the future Democratic Party, then that Party will be even more insufferable and intolerant than the current incarnation.

JOHN adds: I agree with all that Paul’s cousin says. I would only add that if the farmer in Will Rogers’s story was trying to service his cows with a steer, he must have been a Democrat!