NASHUA – “Mayor Pete,” isn’t mayor anymore – his official duties ended in December. But ramped-up by nearly 1,100 enthusi-astic members of the audience, the former chief executive of South Bend, Indiana, and Democratic presidential hopeful, Buttigieg delivered a powerful speech at a town hall rally Saturday afternoon at Nashua Community College.

“This is the time. This is the year,” he said in his opening remarks. “This is the year when we get to decide whether to give into the cynicism and the sense of helplessness and hopelessness and ex-haustion that is being created day by day in Washington and do something about it.”

Buttigieg is currently ranked fourth in the national polls, trailing former vice president Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, though he raised nearly $25 million in the last quarter, behind Sanders’ $34.5 million.

Buttigieg did stir the crowd in Nashua, speaking about when Trump is out of office, and Americans no longer have to wake up to one of his insipid tweets.

“This isn’t just about the nominee who will beat Donald Trump,” Buttigieg added. “We’re going to need a president who is capable of unifying the American people. Issues, crisis, problems, waiting on the desk of the next president – things that are not going to get better on their own. Issues that are not taking a vacation during the impeachment process or the election.”

Buttigieg continued to express concern that after November’s election, the next president will face a country invar-iably divided because of the chaos and corruption that Trump has ushered in during his presidency.

“The sun will be coming up in a climate that is this close to the point of no re-turn,” he said. “So, it will be coming up over an economy where one job is no longer enough to live on for far too many Americans and where kids are going to school and learning active shooter drills before they are old enough to learn how to read. That is what our country is up against.”

The 37-year-old candidate said the next president will have to move on big ideas and get those ideas through, while trying to “galvanize not polarize the American majority that wants to see action on those issues.”

Buttigieg, a former military intelligence officer on the ground in Afghanistan, asked the meaning of patriotism by re-al standards, with values like national security and an empathy for all citizens.

“What does it mean to come together as a country around values like national security?” he said. “Patriotism is not starting an endless war. Patriotism is not militarism – the chest pumping of a president who throws himself a parade. Patriotism is not telling someone to go back to where they came from, when we need to be building more of a sense of belonging in this country.”

On that subject, Buttigieg explained that citizens cannot fully love their country if they hate half of its people.

“Love of country means keeping it safe, for sure,” he stated. “That’s part of what motivated the people that I served with, when that flag was on our shoulders in the war zone. If you’re serious about protecting our country, that means you ask tough questions. For example, you ask about the consequence of an action on foreign soil before you go ahead it and hit it. You get Congress involved, because congress needs to be involved in matters of war and peace as a way for the American people to be involved in matters of war and peace.”

He also discussed how the world views the United States and its conduct over-seas, ensuring that the nation is per-ceived as “a credible actor; that an ally would never have reason to question whether it’s a good idea to bet your life on the credibility of the United States.”

“When I’m your commander-in-chief, allies and adversaries will know that the United States is a country that keeps its word,” he added.

Buttigieg said that protecting the coun-try must begin at home, by protecting citizens who protect one another.

“That’s why it’s so important, impera-tive in the name of security, that we act now so that the Second Amendment can never be twisted into an excuse to do nothing at all when it comes to keeping ourselves safe from gun violence,” he stated.

Buttigieg briefly segued to climate change, saying it is “the global security threat of our time,” before turning his attention once again, to the country’s divisiveness.

“The very same values that they’re using to divide us could be something that unites us,” he said. “Look at faith – that’s being used to tell some people now that they don’t belong. I don’t think that’s what faith is about. When I’m president, you won’t have a president enlisting God, shrinking God down to the size, that God could belong to a political party.”

He went on to say that this country and its government belongs to people of every religion, and of no religion equally.

“These are the values we could be fol-lowing to a better place,” he said.

Buttigieg stressed the importance of voter’s rights, not voter suppression.

“We can never again suppress the na-tive vote in North Dakota, the black vote in Georgia,or the student vote right here in New Hampshire,” he said.

In addition to a 21st century voting rights act, he talked of a constitutional amendment that would affect the role of money in politics.

“I’ve gone so far to argue that in a democracy, in the future, it might be appropriate to pick our president by counting up all the votes and giving it to the one who got the most votes,” he said. “That’s democracy and these are our values.”

He shared his thoughts on the value “encoded in the idea of freedom,” and like most democratic candidates, Buttigieg believes powerful companies should pay their equal, fractional share of taxes.

“When I say freedom, it’s going to take more than just cutting every regulation and tax you’ve ever seen,” he said “I’m not interested in preserving Amazon’s freedom or Chevron’s freedom to not have to pay any federal income taxes at all next year. They’ll pay their fair share, and they’ll be fine. We need resources to deliver freedom.”

Buttigieg also said racial inequality must be a thing of the past.

“This is a country that has been brought to its knees at moments in our history by the effects of white supremacy and racial terrorism,” he proclaimed. “We can’t wait to take steps to make this a country where your race has no bearing on your health or your wealth or your life expectancy or your relationship to law enforcement. Send a message that everybody belongs and that hate has no home here in the United States.”

“If we take these steps, we can build something such better on the other side,” he said. “There are times when you’ve got to fight – that’s part of politics. But I’m never going to let us get so caught up in the fighting, that it gets to where fighting is all we’ve got.”

“The point is what’s on the other side, and what’s on the other side is an American experience, characterized not by exclusion but by belonging,” he continued. “To use the powers of the pres-idency to answer the crisis of belonging in this country. I’m asking for your vote because the presidency has a purpose – and that the purpose is not to glorify the president, it is to unify and to empower the American people.”

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