Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke might be a fresh face with plenty of charisma, but does the skate-boarding, punk rocking, angsty blog-keeping Texas Democrat have what it takes to lead the country?
Despite all the hype, Beto is an inexperienced statesman with no vision, and it shows in the superficial way he speaks about politics, according to critics.
Beto-mania is puddle deep
The left went crazy for Beto because he’s a decent looking, positive-minded guy whose DIY-style road campaign seemed “authentic.” But what does he have to say?
Speaking at a rally in his home town of El Paso on Monday — an apparent attempt to elevate his national profile by staging one next door to President Donald Trump, who mocked Beto’s crowd size — the Texas Democrat sought to “make a stand” against Trump and his “lies.” O’Rourke’s followers saw him as being there to “fact check,” which apparently means correcting uncomfortable facts with soothing platitudes. El Paso is safe, O’Rourke said, not because it has walls, but in spite of having them, opining that “walls do not save lives. Walls end lives.”
This kind of banal rhetoric is O’Rourke’s trademark. It’s clear that he doesn’t like Trump or borders, but beyond the feel-good talk, he hasn’t offered much in the way of policy. In an interview with the Washington Post, O’Rourke offered few specifics for solving the immigration crisis despite his pointed commentary on that issue, and avoided making any commitments on his vision for America’s future or involvement in Syria.
On the Syria crisis, Beto suggested, “A debate, a discussion, a national conversation about why we’re there, why we fight, why we sacrifice the lives of American service members, why we’re willing to take the lives of others.” Likewise, when asked about illegal immigrants over-staying their visas, Beto said, “I don’t know.”
Rather than offering fleshed out vision, Beto leans heavily on “starting conversations,” the Post noted, and buzzwords about unity. He trusts the American people to do the right thing when given the “facts and the story and the information and the opportunity,” but doesn’t have many ideas about what the right thing to do entails.
Honeymoon’s over
Generally, people look to leaders for a vision — not the other way around. But Beto seems safe at home dishing out garbled pseudo-philosophy. Speaking on Oprah after returning from a post-election sojourn in the desert, a freshly-shaved O’Rourke was just as unclear as always.
“Can I be part of bringing people together in a deeply divided country around things we agree are common—can we have a common conception on what it is to be American?”
Beto’s return to the public spotlight followed an existential crisis that included a road-trip documented in terse Medium posts that read like something out of a college writer’s workshop. At the tender age of 46, Beto was “in a funk,” struggling to find himself after losing his Senate race to Ted Cruz. “Maybe if I get moving, on the road, meet people, learn about what’s going on where they live, have some adventure, go where I don’t know and I’m not known, it’ll clear my head, reset, I’ll think new thoughts, break out of the loops I’ve been stuck in.”
Beto attracted a lot of hype with no small help from the media when he ran for Ted Cruz’s Senate seat. The Beto buzz earned him comparisons to Obama, but Obama is articulate — Beto is not. Beto needs the media — Obama never did. Plus, Beto benefited from running against one of the most unlikable politicians in the country; Trump, while divisive, has a loyal following.
Trump himself described Beto as “a young man who’s got very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name.” Harsh but true.
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