Why it’s highly problematic to call Beto O’Rourke the white Obama

Beto O’Rourke, born Robert Francis O’Rourke, just raised $6.1 million in 24 hours after announcing his candidacy for president. And this was after people started calling him “Barack Obama, but white.”

The group of Democratic candidates that have added their names to the list is more diverse than ever and here comes a white guy with no political platform except “If you have all the answers why show up?”

What does he stand for? What does he believe in? In an interview with WaPo Beto was asked about his political views and plans. His answers contained a whole lot of nothing.

He’s supposedly energizing the Democratic base but who is being energized?

So far all we know is that he’s well liked in Iowa, because he’s the “nice guy candidate.” Chuck Todd from Meet The Press, described Obama as also the “nice guy” candidate which is what made him likable in Iowa during his campaign back in 2008.

Besides the “nice guy” claim and his youth, Beto and Obama do not have any other similarities.

During his campaign, President Obama talked about health care reform, energy consumption, protecting the environment, and increasing taxes on the wealthy.

These were just some of his campaign promises and although campaign promises can be vague they should not be flip-floppy. Beto has already gone back on his support of the Affordable Care Act calling it “just one of the ways that we get to ensure high-quality health care.”

Calling Beto the white Obama is disrespectful. It does a disservice to the actual campaign that President Obama ran as well as Barack’s accomplishments before running for president.

As Senator, Barack Obama sponsored bills that would go after lobby corruption and reduce greenhouse gases. He was also a champion for children’s access to healthcare.

Beto got his political start in the spotlight when he lost the Texas Senatorial race to incumbent Ted Cruz with a slim margin. Texas is usually a red state which is why this narrow loss is considered such an achievement.

A Vanity Fair cover of O’Rourke with the quote “I want to be in it. Man, I’m just born to be in it” says it all.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu-MWBiAKfD/

 

Beto is running in part because he feels it’s his birthright, and so far the only thing that he stands for is the fact that he is a privileged white male candidate.

Obama was our first Black president, Beto would be our first white male president to acknowledge his privilege.

Regardless, Beto is just another white guy that does the bare minimum and is celebrated for being halfway decent.

So how is he like President Obama again?