Beto O'Rourke Isn't Progressive

By James Devine

Beto O’Rourke’s father in law is a billionaire, so if the former congressman who waged an incredible campaign for US Senate in Texas is worthy of excitement, it’s important to understand that everyone looks good in comparison against Ted Cruz.

By other standards, Democrats have an opportunity to reverse Reaganomics — the policies that gave us vast income inequality and a $25 trillion national debt — so there’s probably someone better than Beto among the dozens of presidential contenders.

My first choice is Bernie Sanders, who was bold and brave enough to make smart progressive policies popular among Americans.

Beto O’Rourke has a record that’s more in the middle of the road.

In a race that includes Sanders, plus Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard, it’s hard to see what Beto offers progressive Democrats.

He opposed both John Conyers’ Medicare for All legislation and the version proposed by Sanders, although he claims to support universal health care.

Ostensibly, Beto thinks everybody should pay for health services, but many of us wonder if the emergency room is the right place for a means test.

Beto was a member of the New Democrat Coalition in Congress, and FiveThirtyEight says he voted in line with President Donald Trump 30.1 percent of the time.

Berniecrat Sema Hernandez ran against Beto in the Democratic primary election. She got 24 percent of the vote.

Beto O’Rourke was unable to secure the AFL-CIO endorsement in his campaign against Cruz because his support for bad trade policies turned off the unions.

He’s also gone wrong on banking regulation, chipping away at Dodd-Frank, softening the Volker Rule and exempting some financial entities from stress tests. He even voted to triple the size of banks subject to stricter debt limits.

Lastly, Beto O’Rourke was kicked off the list after taking a ‘no fossil fuel money’ pledge because he violated the terms by accepting campaign contributions from executives of companies engaged in the oil, gas or coal industries.

I’m sure Beto O’Rourke has a lot of fine qualities and means well, but since a class war has been raging against America’s middle class for 40 years now, we must fight to elect one of us in the 99 percent.

If his father in law was not William Sanders (no relation to Bernie), maybe it would be worth a look, but for all intents and purposes, as attractive as he might be, Beto O’Rourke is not progressive.