As seen on TV!
Beto O'Rourke excites people.
People see him on TV, and they want to see him in person. TV people want to be where the crowds are.
Beto O'Rourke speaks with passion and animation. Trump quipped that he moves his arms too much. It is true he gestures widely with whatever hand is not holding the microphone. It reads as passionate, not wild.
He speaks with passion, in a loud voice, shouting, as if there is no microphone.
He drew a big crowd in the morning and a bigger one in the afternoon. There were a half dozen TV cameras in each place. He has a defining message: immigration. It made America. The US and Mexico are neighbors, the streets in El Paso run directly into the streets of Juarez, it is one city, joined by a narrow river, not divided by it. It is the safest city in America, he said.
Beto O'Rourke said not one word that addressed the concerns of the people who voted in the Republican primary for the candidate who most strongly articulated fear of immigrants and resistance to immigration. He isn't tacking toward them, not in the least.
O'Rourke voiced condemnation of Trump's implication that Mexicans were criminal, rapists, drug dealers, or even foreign in any significant way. We are intertwined neighbors, and that is good.
I heard objections to Beto at other events. I hear complaints that Beto was from Texas and wasn't hostile enough to fossil fuel companies. Also, that he is actually a centrist, not a true progressive. Also, that he doesn't support immediate Medicare for All, and instead talks about "Medicare if you want it," which is a transition to Medicare for All, but instead wants to allow people who are currently happy with their private insurance circumstance to keep it. Also, that he is still vague on issues. Also, that he is a white male who gets all the attention that should be going to a woman or a person of color and it isn't fair.
He never mentioned the name of any other Democratic candidate, nor Pelosi, nor Schumer, nor Obama.
Beto O'Rourke came down on the side of general Democratic position on all the various national issues: climate, Citizens United, the influence of corporations, Trump's sins against democratic government. However, the most noteworthy matter to my ear was that he spent 60% of his time addressing nationality and citizenship toward the theme that immigration was good, Trump's Wall a waste, and that we are one people, period.
He has his niche within the Democratic scrum. It will be easy for Trump to say Beto doesn't believe in borders--something the other Democratic candidates do.
Here are video clips from that event. Each of these are about two minutes each.
Beto, on El Paso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPD_fB_9ZI
Beto, on Central American asylum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwFYFbeiQko
Beto, on political engagement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_6E8TWdqM
Beto, on climate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUBlTqw-Tr8
Beto, on Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl6JwVVamQI
1 comment:
Flash alert: Pete Buttigieg is the new darling of the center-right Democrats, having usurped Beto, initially favored to pull at progressive heartstrings.
I think of both of these young, white males as the Jay Gatsbys of the Democratic party, potential front-men for the party, similar to Obama in maintaining the status quo. We'll see how they fare against the likes of Sanders, Warren and Gabbard when they are actually forced to provide actual solutions to a bevy of issues now facing our country...if that matters to an electorate enamored by celebrity and hooked on identity politics.
Andy Seles
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