Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is young, fiery, animated, and enigmatic. The man who most recently lost to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is best known mostly for that. The actual substance of O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is almost a complete mystery. He is as vague as he is passionate.
As far as actual policy ideas and accomplishments are concerned, there is little to go on. While in the House of Representatives, O’Rourke sponsored no major legislation. Even leftist sites such as Slate wonder aloud why he is even running in pieces like “Beto 2020 Has No Reason to Exist.”
The same goes for a recent Reuters report from the campaign trail in Iowa where it mentions O’Rourke’s “policy positions were largely nonspecific.”
Beto, who already has a following, and raised more in the first 24 hours of his campaign than any other Democratic candidate, is great at stirring up enthusiasm over nothing. Like other political predecessors, his unusual but magnetic personality is his best asset. Because of that, it’s tempting to search this candidate’s distant past in an effort to find something detrimental. Recently, the focus turned to his morbid and disturbing writings as a teenager.
On Friday, the brand-new campaign had to apologize for violent fiction he penned in his youthful years. Washington Examiner reporting revealed that O’Rourke wrote a peculiar poem asking a cow to perform some rather intimate cleaning tasks on the speaker. Both artistic endeavors took place when O’Rourke was 15 and 16, respectively. While they provide embarrassing fodder for his opponents in the media and among the electorate alike, they are nothing but juvenile distractions from the present. Beto, the 46-year-old candidate, should be the focus.
In the midst of his ambiguity and likability, O’Rourke is able to appear as more of a moderate compared to fellow candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who clearly take more extreme paths. But given O’Rourke’s recent comments on AR-15s, third-trimester abortions, and climate change, there is no doubt that he stands close to his peers on the left side of the aisle. This is true despite his penchant for generalities when discussing his overall agenda for the nation.
O’Rourke’s substance, or lack thereof, is concerning enough on its own. There is no reason to introduce inane scribblings from his teenaged past. In fact, focusing on those items takes away from the very real problems present in Beto 2020. As his campaign progresses, the popularity of this politician, who has already received glowing reviews from the media, will continue to grow.
In general, it is a waste of time to dig up items from a candidate’s younger years in an attempt to question them in adulthood. High school ramblings or stupid behavior mean nothing in the scheme of things, nor can they be used as a benchmark for adult behavior. This goes for presidential candidates like Beto O’Rourke and judicial nominees like Brett Kavanaugh. The items that are dredged up are not newsworthy, or at least, they shouldn’t be.
Beto O’Rourke is certainly an odd addition to a field of candidates focused on defeating President Trump one year from this November. In spite of his attempts to appear harmless and somewhat neutral, it’s clear that under his leadership, the country would be worse off. But the reasons O’Rourke has no business being president have nothing to do with questionable musings as a minor and everything to do with his murky, but progressive, plan for the country.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
