Beto O 'Rourke, the riddle of the Irish with the Latin nickname

(From Chicago) Beto O 'Rourke was awarded the "El Paso, Texas Citizen of the Year" award, went to New York for an interview with the legendary Ophra Winfrey, attended a Metallica concert and went to the premiere of a documentary about his frustrated candidacy in the Senate and three days later he stood on a table of a coffee from the small town of Keokuk, Iowa, to announce hisvalidation to the US presidency in 2020.

O 'Rourke became famous last year while he was preparing to take the Texan Senate from the ultraconservative Ted Cruz – "the most hated man in the Senate" -. He delighted the Democrats: They thought the star's state could count on a senator from his side for the first time in 30 years. He did dozens of acts that brought together up to 50,000 people (a rarity for a legislative campaign in a country where only half of those eligible to vote voted). But he did not reach it. Ted Cruz beat him from 50.9% to 48.3%. It was close and became the great hope of the moderate Democrats. Your maximum support comes from Barack Obama who rented it in several interviews. In addition, some of the officials who accompanied the first African-American president to the White House seem willing to help in the campaign.

But first, it will have to stand out from a long list of Democratic candidates in primary. The former vice president is expected to announce his candidacy this week Joe Biden, which appears a priori as the strongest. But he also has the democratic socialist Bernie Sanderswith a very strong impetus from young academics; the senator Elizabeth Warren with its firm and progressive program; o Kamala Harris, Californian with the support of the black community. And there is the characteristic that benefits and flows Beto at the same time: it is light, appealing to unity and good vibrations, to a fundamental discourse, without a past that condemns it, with very few new ideas. But he proved his determination and power by raising more than six million dollars on the first day of the campaign, surpbading Sanders, who has a well-oiled network across the country.

Robert Francis O. Rourke, 46, is of Irish ancestry raised only three kilometers from the Mexican border. Speaks very well Spanish and his Hispanic friends from elementary school have dubbed him Beto. This comes from a family engaged in politics. His mother's father-in-law was under-secretary of defense for the John Kennedy government. His father held several positions in the state and organized the Jesse Jackson campaign in Texas in 1984 and 1988, when he moved to the Republican Party.

Beto was a teenager rock musician andhardware"He had a punk band called Foss in which he played bbad and another called Swedish where he was a drummer, and he was part of a group of hackers, Cult of the Dead Cow, under the pseudonym of Psychedelic warlord. He had some problems and even spent a few nights in police stations. Eventually, the music career did not prosper and he went to study at Columbia University in New York, where he published a tasteless title of Bachelor in English literature.

But his real interest was politics, he was a trainee in MP Ron Coleman's office. But he did not want to swell the ranks of "brain drain", the exodus of young professionals from their cities of origin to the big cities, and returned to Not to start a business badociated with his second pbadion. He founded a reputable Internet service provider by breaking political vice by participating in various social organizations and publishing the Stanton Street newspaper. He has served two terms as legislator of his city. In 2012, he was elected Texas Representative to the Washington Congress with the support of Hispanic votes. The Irish appeared more pro-immigrant than the candidates of Mexican origin. He was re-elected twice more with nearly 70% of the vote. Until 2018, he saw a good opportunity to face in the Senate the candidate of Donald Trump, the ultraconservative Ted Cruz. He has received editorial support from all major Texan newspapers, from the Houston Chronicle up & # 39; to Dallas Morning News. And big stars of music, sports and Hollywood such as Willy Nelson, Beyonce, Khalid, Aaron Jones, Eva Longoria, LeBron James, Jim Carrey, Travis Scott, Ellen DeGeneres, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kelly Rowland .

Lost, but settled at the national level and happens to be one of the figures of the Democratic renovation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, representative of Puerto Rican origin in New York. And he started using campaign phrases and tactics that connect with the younger ones, showing an unshakable optimism and self-confidence that can rival those of Vladimir Putin. This was featured in a video that your campaign uploaded to You Tube: "Now, we are more than ever the last great hope of the Earth", referring to Lord of the Rings." In this moment of maximum danger and maximum potential, let us show and show who will succeed us in this great country, who we are and what we can do. In his campaign, Barack Obama, David Axelrod, has repeatedly praised O. Rourke, saying that "his vision comes from the belief that, through politics, we can achieve a more ambitious goal. Like President Obama, Beto has the special ability to make people believe the best version of the United States. "And Obama himself said that"The voters see in Beto an authenticity similar to the one they saw in me. You clearly feel that you base your statements and your positions on what you really believe. "

But not everyone shares the fact that O 'Rourke is a candidate prepared with the necessary experience to face his Democratic opponents first, then the stainless trump. Alex Shephard, from the prestigious Liberal magazine The new republic He believes that Beto can not be compared to President Obama. "The similarities lead to the most ineffable political quality of authenticity." Obama launched his political campaign in 2007 arguing that the bipartisan vote of the war in Iraq was a historical mistake, that universal health care was a moral necessity and that our economic system was dangerously unfair. O & # 39; Rourke lacks platform. He has no firm ideaand we know very little about his political positions beyond the moderate centrism he exposed in Congress. O 'Rourke's decision to spend the last five months doing "blogging"(writing on his website) could be seen as an attempt to reinforce another weakness: his lack of a particularly compelling biography." Exceeding twenty years as a non-executive musician, as did O & # 39; Rourke, does not make a leader. "

Matt Flegenheimer and Lisa Lerer wrote in the newspaper New York Times that "Beto did little to demonstrate the type of intensive preparation What is needed to be a candidate for the highest authority in the country: build a political infrastructure of national significance or project a logical discourse distinguishing it from other candidates, who must always be badociated with a high-level presidential campaign. "And they continue." There has been no flirtation in Iowa, no trip to New Hampshire (states where primaries traditionally begin). Mr. O. Rourke has not prepared a campaign similar to that one can expect after his frustrated legislative badembly attempt, the kind of operation that 's going on. a more experienced candidate as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has or has built it carefully for months as all other candidates ".

O & # 39; Rourke does not respond to these criticisms and uses the discursive ambivalence, which has worked until now. That's what was defined in a recent speech at the University of Wisconsin: "In Texas, Ted Cruz called me a socialist, I'm too liberal for Texas, and outside of Texas, people say, "Is he really a democrat? a close republican. "I do not know where I'm on a spectrum, and I'm almost plugging it. I just want to do better for this country"At least she has a clear stance in favor of Latin American migration," said El Paso, located opposite the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, as "Ellis Island (locus of 39; arrived in New York for European immigrants) "from Latin America. "He strongly opposes the wall that Trump wants to build at the border and believes that the only way to prevent a disorderly migration is to put into practice a development plan for southern Mexico and the United States. Central America.

It's possible that an Irishman, with America's most American nickname, will end up being the best representative of Hispanic interests in this tough primary among Democrats in an attempt to eliminate Trump from the home. white.