@Industrialsize
Since I very first became aware of him, Beto has felt like an excellent state politician. I've had confidence he could win the Democratic nomination for president, but I've been uncertain about how he would perform in a general election because his areas of expertise are pretty focused on Texas. I know little of his foreign policy views, I don't know what his plans would be for trying to stabilize or revitalize manufacturing, etc.
But
man, does Beto know the border. Born and raised in El Paso, he's lived in one of the USA's busiest border towns his entire life. Prior to his time in the House of Representatives, he served on the El Paso city council. He's intimately familiar with the border and how our relationship is and can be with our geographic neighbors as well as the issues related to those desperate to come here to the states.
And that circles us back to Donald Trump.
In a normal campaign cycle, immigration and border security might be one of the issues that gets discussed on the campaign trail, but it in my recollection it's never been THE issue. There were other issues like terrorism and the economy that were front and center. But in Trump's race baiting and fear mongering, he's forcing border security to the top of the news cycle. He's shut down the fucking government over it. And in doing so he's set up and continues to strengthen the framework of an ideological battle about the best way to manage the border between himself and Beto O'Rourke.
In the weeks approaching Christmas, Beto has been very active at the border (in the activism sense). I've linked some of the articles above, but there are others if you google them such as this
Beto O'Rourke and other Democrats urge public to keep Tornillo migrant facility in spotlight
The population at the detention center for migrant children has quietly swelled from a few hundred to about 2,800 in about six months.
And it's now at the point where I click on the local morning news and there is a block of programming time carved out to address issues at the border (especially with the second death of a minor in border patrol custody) and when they do the commonplace thing of presenting both sides of the issue, it's become Trump -vs- Beto. There were a couple minutes of Beto and his calls for compassion and charity, followed immediately buy a couple minutes of Trump shutting down the government to get his wall.
The election is still nearly two years away. A lot can change between now and then. But right
now, Trump and his mentally unhinged handling of the border is playing directly to one of Beto's greatest strengths and day by day is building a case that above and beyond being one of the straight up nicest guys on the field right now, Beto O'Rourke is the one who's best positioned at this point in history to take Trump on.
p.s. To the confused national media outlets, it's never been about the skateboarding or the laundry, ffs.
