Yesterday, Joe Biden released an attack ad targeting Pete Buttigieg. Throughout the ad, Biden, who creepily refers to himself as “Vice President Joe Biden”, as if he is the current vice president, attempts to compare his legislative accomplishments to the mayoral accomplishments of Pete, who the ad refers to as “former Mayor Pete Buttigieg.” Biden is portrayed as a person that pushes through vast pieces of world-changing legislation while Pete only fixes sidewalks and installs lights.

Putting aside the fact that Biden is grasping at straws to claim he led on all of this legislation, and the fact that Biden pushed several crime bills through congress that he would rather we forget about, the ad belittles the kinds of work local governments do. This led to a swift push back. About a dozen democratic mayors from small to medium-sized cities went to twitter to respond (Ithaca, NY; Salsbury, MD; Parkland, FL; Cincinnati, OH; Dayton, OH; Nashua, NH; etc).

Democrats Need to be Better on This

Sadly, Biden’s point isn’t a new one in Democratic politics. I was once at a party in DC where a democratic campaign staffer claimed that everything between the coasts, except for Chicago, was flyover country and didn’t matter. This attitude has consequences. Bad ones. Currently, Republicans control 60% of state legislative chambers. Also, Donald Trump won the presidency because two states in this “flyover country” decided to go for him over Clinton.

Further, short of starting up the draft, the work that state, county, and municipal governments do has more impact on your life than what goes on in Washington, DC. In addition, most changes that Neoliberals want to make to our system either come from or require buy-in from state and local officials.

Some of the Most Important Issues are Local Issues

Zoning decisions, that raise rents and cause gentrification, are made at the city level or lower. The minimum wage has been increased by states, counties, and municipalities throughout the country instead of by the Federal Government. Reform to occupational licensing is made by state officials. Further, while transportation funding often comes from the federal government, decisions about how that money is spent and where it is spent is made at the State House or by local officials. Further still, the majority of prosecutions happen at the local level. Criminal justice reform needs to come from the state and local level. By belittling this work, it shows just how much Biden and his campaign care about the lives of the people outside of the beltway.

Yes, Pete needs to answer for his firings of the Police Chief and the Fire Chief in South Bend, IN. That is the only part of the ad that is correct. But, that is because the buck stops with him on issues in his town. Pete can’t selectively edit his accomplishments like a senator or vice president can. I would much rather have a president that has managed a staff before and knows the burden of taking responsibility for government decisions, than someone who lies about their Iraq vote and tries to get us to forget about the crime bills he wrote.