South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the best Democratic presidential candidate and draws the biggest contrast to Donald Trump.

Pete is a public servant who served in Afghanistan, where Trump avoided Vietnam with bone spurs. Pete is young and looks at the world with hope instead of fear and grievance. Through his life, Pete has shown focus and determination, placing results over righteous anger and needless confrontation. I deeply admire Pete’s humbling experience in struggling to accept his identity as a gay man.

Pete’s policies address difficult issues like climate change, but they’re more attainable than Bernie Sanders’. Trump has brought trust in government to an all-time low, and we need politicians who keep their promises.

A good example of how thoughtful Pete’s ideas are is his carbon tax. A tax on emissions is easy for the government to enforce without an army of bureaucrats and also hard for companies to bend such a straightforward rule. A carbon tax motivates everyone to pollute less. Cleverly, the money raised would be returned to all U.S. citizens in direct payments. This would help cover higher costs of gasoline or heating houses, while leaving the choice of what to spend the money on up to individuals. Those payments help address the criticism that climate change costs fall disproportionately on working class people who have fewer resources.

Mayor Pete is an inspiring figure who has real accomplishments and sacrifices to hold up against Donald Trump. His quiet and thoughtful work ethic are a good fit for Maine.

Ned Swain

Portland

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