"Pete Buttigieg is a liberal who makes people think he’s a moderate. Amid the 'Mayo Pete' and 'Pete is CIA' jeers of his left-wing critics, it can be easy to forget..."

"... what Buttigieg’s actual policy agenda is. That agenda would easily be the most progressive by any candidate for the general election in decades.... ... [H]e’s endorsed and promoted: A $15-an-hour minimum wage/A universal child allowance of at least $2,000 per child, and quadrupling of the earned income tax credit for single adults/'Affordable, universal full-day child care and pre-K for all children from infancy to age 5'/A path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants/A Medicare buy-in open to all meant to 'create a natural glide-path to Medicare for All'/A cap on all student loan payments as a share of income, forgiven in full after 20 years/... DC/Puerto Rico statehood, banning gerrymandering, ending the Electoral College, and ending the filibuster/Expanding and reforming the Supreme Court to curb partisan rulings/Sectoral union bargaining where agreements apply to whole industries, not just individual companies/A carbon tax rebated to taxpayers in cash, plus a quadrupling of research and development funding for clean energy...  Sanders and Warren have performed a valuable service by making the objectively quite ambitious agenda of Buttigieg appear, by comparison, incredibly mild, a centrist approach to expanding the safety net. A perception of relative moderation will most likely help, not hurt, the eventual nominee.... Sanders would terrify and turn out Trump’s base, whereas Buttigieg likely would not."

From "Pete Buttigieg is more electable than Bernie Sanders — and more progressive than you think/The fourth in a Vox series making the best case for each of the top Democratic contenders" (Vox).