My post from March 20th (http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2019/3/20/2116/49175) was about the main part of Beto O’Rourke’s C-Span televised public meeting in Keene, NH.
There was more.
Here it is.
Later he had a “Take a picture with Beto” opportunity. This after well more than an hour of impassioned speaking and answering of questions.
It lasted more than half an hour…very well organized. One young Beto worker stood in front of him, took whatever mobile device the Beto fans offered while they stood next to him and snapped three shots.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A couple of friendly words…or more, a few times…and then:
“Next!!!???”
Over and over and over again, with no letup on the easily recognized authenticity of his friendliness.
A few things struck me about this…I watched it for the whole 1/2 or hour or more.
Read on:
#1-O’Rourke’s absolutely unfailing friendliness to each and every person. Towards the end he took a couple of multi-second breaks to gulp down some water, but other than that he was on the case/in the moment with every soul that wanted a pic!!!
#2-His obviously natural, friendly physicality with each person or small group of people. He’s a big man…My guess about 6’4″…and in good shape. Often men of that size tend to diminish their visitors…dominate them. Like Trump. He did not. Instead…with a big, happy (verging-almost-on-goofy) grin…he greeted each person with a handshake, words to the effect of “Hi!!! I’m Beto. Whats your name?” (As If they didn’t know who he was. But it was a charming, humble way to break the ice.) He got their name right and then put his arm around them for the picture. Never once did he seem to tower over or dominate any of these people, no matter how short, slight or young they appeared to be.
I didn’t count, but I’m sure it was over 100 people…maybe even 200…that wanted a pic with him. They ranged in age from late high schoolers right through to people in the ’70s, and in “intelligence” from some really on-the-case people to a few that were obviously confused. He was quick and bright with the smart ones and solicitously gentle with those who weren’t quite…up to speed.
A people-lover. It shines out all over him.
#3-I was delighted to see that the females…I think they outnumbered the males by about 3 to 1 on this photo line and again ranged from late high school age right on through college age and on into their ’70s…were not in the least hostile or defensive about his physicality. They were all grinning, too. Not that rictus grin that people often put on when the camera snaps…the real deal. I now personally restrict my physical contact with female strangers…especially young ones…to a handshake, because several years ago in teaching situations I made the mistake of lightly touching a couple of them on the shoulder from the back in order to make my way through a crowded, noisy rehearsal room, and received really hostile looks from them.
Maybe it’s different in Keene, NH than it is in the NYC area.
Or maybe O’Rourke had simply reached the audience so thoroughly and deeply that they completely trusted him.
He’s the anti-Trump.
Bet on it.
This same crowd? And Trump?
First of all, they wouldn’t be there.
Secondly, they wouldn’t have stood in line for upwards of 1/2 hour+ to get a picture with him.
And…most importantly…Trump wouldn’t have been there, either. Not now that he is president, for sure, and not while he was running for office either. He would have been back in his limo, wolfing down McPoisonBurgers or whatever else he eats that has managed to inflate him to his current almost parade balloon-like girth.
Just sayin’…
People like this guy!!!
That’s about as “anti-Trump” as you can get.
He has been widely compared to Bobby Kennedy in terms of “popularity,” but I was politically and socially quite aware by the time RFK started making presidential waves.
There is no comparison.
RFK was already a public icon…brother of a slain president, raised in a very wealthy and politically powerful family…a family the wealth of which was originally based on mob connections, by the way…that trained each of its sons to aim for high national office.
O’Rourke?
The exact opposite.
He was a guitar player/drummer/roadie in a basically unknown touring rock band and living in a low-rent Brooklyn loft at an age where RFK was dating Radcliffe heiresses and his brother JFK was laying the foundations for an eventual presidential run.
People know this O’Rourke fella.
They were in awe of RFK.
They recognize O’Rourke.
He’s the good guy who used to live next door.
And…if the DNC and corporate-controlled media don’t succeed in somehow managing to demonize him (Their specialities, bet on that as well.)…he’s going to beat Trump (or whomever else the RatPubs find it necessary to run) by an historic margin.
Beat the pants off of him!!! (If that isn’t too ugly an image to express in public. Trump without pants? EWWWwwww…!!!)
Watch.
AG
P.S. He said that he was going to visit every county in New Hampshire and do the same thing that he did in Keene. That’s ten counties and ten public meetings in ten days. How’s that for grassroots work!!!???
Is putting in more grassroots work than Warren. If you weren’t too busy sniffing Betos farts, you’d know this.
The country has never had a woman president.
The democrats should be doing everything in their power to change that fact.
Right now there’s no reason to vote for Beto over any one of the several more qualified women currently running.
That may be true…about the grassroots work. i admire Warren’s work ethic as much as I do her courage and her intelligence. I think that…all things being equal…she would make a great president.
However…I am making my judgements informed at least as much by my own seat-of-the-pants feel for the electorate…especially the part of the electorate that has not been voting…then by anything else.
I believe that…short of a true, supermajority-driven, massive coattails-style landslide…a Dem presidential win will simply serve to shore up the ongoing, less-than-useless, centrist traffic jam in Congress.
Nothing will get done. Not really. It will be Obama redux. More war, more fracturing of the society, more environmental disaster, more internecine DC hustle by bought-and-sold pols.
And I have not yet seen that kind of popular…charisma, for want of a better word…from Elizabeth Warren.
Not yet I haven’t.
I keep hoping…
But I have seen it from Beto O’Rourke.
In spades!!!
Can he maintain it over the long electoral haul?
I think he can.
Is he “trustworthy?”
It depends on your definition, I guess.
Will he hew to the lockstep, so-called “progressive” line? The new-racism/new-sexism approach of “identity politics?” A blame game based on genetics instead of on what individuals have or have not done? What a working majority wants or does not want to see happen?
I sincerely hope not. This approach has failed to produce any lasting positive change in the sociopolitical culture of the U.S. for decades, and I would bet anything that if a true poll of the country’s population was possible, less than 15% of that population would endorse it.
O’Rourke has stated over and over again that he wants to represent “the will of the majority,” and I believe that’s exactly what he will try to do if elected.
The only “identity politics” that I am willing to endorse goes like this:
Identify the “identity” of the majority of U.S. citizens, and then work on what that majority really wants.
The current Democratic and Republican parties are more about identifying relative minorities of that population, pitting them against one another and then trying creating a winning consensus number out of the ensuing chaos.
Thus the huge non-voting population. If you don’t fit into an easily recognizable (and potentially reachable) “identity,” then…as far as the major parties have been concerned, you are a non-person. You are not a factor in the election, and probably not a factor in terms of the actions of the eventual government no matter which party wins.
So…why vote?
Unless of course someone says “I want to hear from everybody!!!” and then goes out and proves it in increments of a few hundred people at a time.
Face to face and flesh to flesh.
24/7, day in and day out.
That’s what O’Rourke is doing.
Bet on it.
Will it work?
We shall see.
Won’t we.
AG
P.S. Once again…I have heard very little identity politics claptrap from Elizabeth Warren as well. She’s too busy fighting the real villains…Big Money.
Good on her!!!
If she can turn that into a truly popular movement?
She’s got a good chance.
Otherwise?
I’d like to see her as Secretary of the Treasury.
What fun that would be!!!
I can see the rats scurrying already!
Arthur, throughout 2015 and 2016 you frequently seeded your posts here with photos from the right wing online swamps which presented Hilary as a grotesque harridan. A couple of those photos even had the vile right wing memes still on them.
You have no, NO credibility when you make anxious denials that sexism biases your analyses.
Your sexism is also expressed through your policy beliefs, such as your frequently defended desire to “BREAK UP THE U.S.!!!” and allow conservative portions of the United States to engage in rampant discrimination based on sexual identity and denial of contraceptive and abortion rights for women.
Big, big bonus points here for your “…new-racism/new-sexism approach to `identity politics'” hogwash. From The Tucker Carlson White Power Hour to your fingertips. Beautiful.
Trump doesn’t engage in “identity politics,” apparently. In this reading, old white male is the cultural default position.
Find another lick.
This one just ain’t working.
AG
. . . of doing that.
Please keep writing. This is working very well.
Tell us more about your opposition to Federal civil rights laws and their enforcements.