by WorldTribune Staff, March 15, 2019
Progressive? Centrist?
Beto O’Rourke, who is enjoying favorable coverage by the corporate media, announced on March 14 that he is running for president in 2020. Vanity Fair described O’Rourke as “down to earth” and “charismatic” – “he has an aura.”
The Texas Democrat has a campaign website up and running. It includes features to donate to the campaign, apply for a job on the campaign, and purchase campaign merchandise.
What the website doesn’t have – a section describing O’Rourke’s policy positions.
The political ideology of O’Rourke, who became a hero for many in the MSM and celebrity class during his losing Senate race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz last year, has been described by some as “far-left,” while others insist he’s a “centrist.”
Liberal journalist David Siorta, writing for The Guardian, noted that, during his six-year tenure as a Texas congressman, O’Rourke voted 167 times against the majority of House Democrats. Sirota described a number of these votes as “reinforc[ing] Republicans’ anti-tax ideology.”
Other votes, according to Democrats who spoke to Sirota, “chipped away at the Affordable Care Act, weakened Wall Street regulations, boosted the fossil fuel industry and bolstered Donald Trump’s immigration policy.”
“O’Rourke’s message covers rhetorical territory familiar from the Obama era: positive and innocuous, but noncommittal,” wrote Dan Derozier, chairman of the Houston Democratic Socialists of America’s electoral committee, in a December Houston Chronicle op-ed.
O’Rourke has also come under fire from some liberals in the months since his Senate race ended for appearing to break a pledge not to accept money from fossil fuel companies.
Progressives have also slammed O’Rourke for his raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from hedge funds despite speaking out against corporate money in politics.
But O’Rourke also espouses leftist beliefs, such as strong gun control measures including a so-called “assault weapon” ban and magazine restrictions.
He has called for the border wall in El Paso, Texas to be torn down.
O’Rourke has also embraced socialist Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
At a campaign event in Keokuk, Iowa on the morning he officially announced his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke strongly endorsed the Green New Deal, saying: “Not to be dramatic, but literally, the future of the world depends on us right now here where we are.”
“This is the final chance,” O’Rourke said. “The scientists are unanimous on this. We have no more than 12 years to take incredibly bold action on this crisis.”
And, there’s this:
O’Rourke said building up broadband and connectivity in rural communities is important.
“They can’t get on Tinder to find a date tonight,” O’Rourke said of rural Iowans without Internet access.
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