The Case for Beto O’Rourke
Obama-like Appeal Makes O’Rourke the Best Presidential Candidate
I have been searching for a candidate that can not only beat Trump, but move the country in a progressive direction for the next eight years. Obviously, it is not enough to simply espouse progressive views or even vote for progressive causes, it requires special leadership talent to energize and turn out young voters and those who have felt left out of the political process, and significant numbers of independents and Republican voters to support a progressive vision of America. After surveying the entire field of potential candidates, I believe Beto O’Rourke is that candidate.
It is not his charisma and rock star persona — I am actually turned off by celebrity — that convinces me he is the best of the 2020 potential candidates, it is his authenticity and ability to restate progressive views in persuasive terms to reach a broader range of voters. O’Rourke went into some of the reddest towns in Texas and actually moved red voters to support him; not by equivocating or triangulating, but by empathizing with ordinary people so they feel that he genuinely cares about them and their concerns. I haven’t studied the data, but it would not surprise me if O’Rourke’s numbers are off the charts in the Likert Scale polling of “he cares about people like me”. The only other candidate with off-the-chart numbers in that category was Barack Obama.
There is definitely a correlation between authenticity, empathy, and reaching a greater percentage of voters with your message, which would include Republicans. Rednecks for Obama, for example, which was a group of working-class white voters in rural areas that voted for Obama in 2008, probably voted for Bush and Ronald Reagan, but connected with Obama on trans-partisan human terms. They could feel Obama genuinely cared about them even if they had voted Republican in the past, and believed he would do his best to make their lives better if he became president.
Beto has the same trans-partisan appeal, and demonstrated this fact by getting red votes in Texas while retaining his progressive vision for America. When you look at the electoral map from 2016, Hillary was not able to get these voters that Obama got in redder counties in PA, MI, and WI, and a large part of it was the perception that she lacked authenticity and genuine empathy for people like them — they felt they were written off.
I actually like Elizabeth Warren, and support nearly every policy proposal she has put forward, but Trump has already anticipated that the lack of authenticity is her Achilles’ Heel with his nickname routine, not the embellishing of her native ancestry per se. Trump knows that his voters will believe someone is fake who tries to claim native heritage when they are white, and that the same voters Hillary lost in PA, MI, and WI that Obama won, will not pull the lever for anyone they think is not authentic.
No one would accuse Joe Biden of being fake, but there is a serious question of whether he has he been in Washington too long and therefore not able to identify as much as he used to with those who feel left out in America. And does anyone believe Joe Biden can energize the youth vote? Probably not many. Is Biden more likely to triangulate rather than enlist more voters across the spectrum in a progressive vision of America. Yes.
When Ending Citizens United endorsed O’Rourke in his US Senate campaign, it was based on the view that “he means what he says” about fighting the corrupting influence of money in politics, in that he walked-the-walk by raising presidential-like money from only small donors. You project that kind of fundraising nationwide, and we may have the first presidential campaign that is entirely funded by small donors, a feat even Obama or Bernie Sanders could not achieve.
The only question mark in my mind is whether O’Rourke can turn out black voters nationwide, even though he did well turning out his voters in Texas, which included the black, Latino and youth vote. On a national scale, especially in states like SC, NC, VA, and GA that have higher black populations, there is always a question of trust and whether one has a history of being active in and supporting the black community. The El Paso House district that Beto represented only has a 3% black population, which does not provide much of an opportunity for the kind of long history of black community relations needed on a national scale.
That said, listening to O’Rourke’s defense of NFL players kneeing for the anthem was inspiring, and demonstrates a depth of knowledge of black history and its connection to the killing of unarmed black men by the police today. Beto truly gets it that fighting for civil and human rights is just as patriotic as fighting wars in American uniform around the world.
In sum, Beto O’Rourke is a transformative candidate, much like Obama, and has the best chance of beating Trump or whomever the Republicans decide to nominate, and thus securing a lengthy period in which to build on the progressive legacy left by President Obama. We need to enlist the greatest possible number of people in a progressive vision for America, and Beto is the only potential candidate with the skill, empathy, authenticity, and fundraising prowess to make it happen.
- Metteyya Brahmana
