There’s no denying that Beto O’Rourke is the poster boy for white privilege. I mean, what else explains him
- losing a celebrated bid to win a Senate seat in Texas;
- opting for a road trip to contemplate his navel and decide his next move (most people would’ve had to get back to work); and then
- learning, no doubt to the astonishment of his “heiress wife” and kids, that Vanity Fairhas anointed him as the one born to run for president of the United States.
Incidentally, he made a viral spectacle of himself by sharing every mile of his solo journey of reflection with millions on social media — complete with LOL commentary. This included such selfie indulgences as livestreaming his dental cleaning.
The backlash was as inevitable as it was unsparing:
Former congressman Beto O’Rourke on Tuesday acknowledged that the Vanity Fair cover declaring his candidacy was a misstep, telling hosts of The View that it was ‘the perception of privilege.’
O’Rourke, in the middle of a media blitz this week, hasn’t been able to shake off questions about the magazine cover published in March – ‘Beto’s CHOICE: I want to be in it. Man I’m just born to be in it’ — and has been forced to acknowledge being what he called, ‘a white man who’s had a privilege in my life (sic).’
(CNN, May 14, 2019)
Unsurprisingly, with the appetite of scavenging hyenas, the media are eating him up. This, pursuant to their ritual of exalting people only to tear them down.
More to the point, Vanity Fair is leading the feeding frenzy:
You know your press hasn’t been great when the best piece written about your campaign in some time was bylined by your ex-girlfriend. But that’s what happened to Beto O’Rourke last week. …
Since announcing his campaign for president in mid-March, just two months ago, O’Rourke has gone from the media darling who almost beat Ted Cruz in Texas to the designated punching bag of the pundit class.
(May 15, 2019)
This venal and craven kind of journalism provoked me to write commentaries like “Journalism Is ‘Having a Very, Very Pathetic Moment,’” November 13, 2013, and “Special Counsel Should’ve Indicted US Media along with Russian Hackers,” July 16, 2018.
In any event, this piling on must be giving O’Rourke whiplash. It clearly has him desperately seeking the relevance he (and most in the media) presumed he was entitled to not so long ago.
Except that the poor guy now seems completely disoriented. Based on excerpts from his interview on The View, his mind seems in a tug of war between apologizing for every politically incorrect thing he’s ever said and apologizing for being white and privileged all his life.
I like Beto; not least because his looks and politics remind me so much of RFK, the most impressive of all the celebrated Kennedys. I even noted in “Biden-Harris 2020,” January 14, 2019, that, if misguided progressives torpedo the far more electable ticket of Biden-Harris, O’Rourke would make a great vice-presidential choice for someone like Kamala Harris.
But he should stop apologizing. Because, far from endearing himself, his don’t-hate-me-because-I’m-white schtick is only turning off those who made him a cause celebre in the first place. Again, RFK proved that you can be to the manor born and still serve as a champion for the poor, the young, the afflicted, and the disenfranchised. And let’s face it, Barack Obama is the only “man” who did not rely on white privilege to make it to the White House.
On the other hand, instead of parroting political propaganda, media critics should be channeling this backlash towards Vanity Fair.
After all, it chose to celebrate O’Rourke’s white privilege. But any fair-minded consideration would have compelled it to feature Stacey Abrams’s far more compelling and heroic political life. This, notwithstanding that she lost her own celebrated bid to become the first black governor of Georgia.
Related commentaries:
journalism…
special counsel media…
Biden-Harris…
Stacey Abrams…
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